One reason for this was clearly the very great interest taken by Homi in the ‘Voyages of Gulliver,’ a copy of which was presented to him by the doctor. In particular, the accounts of the philosophers in Lagado, and of the rational animals in the outward shape of horses, encountered on his fourth expedition, were listened to by the sage with eager attention. The chief does not seem to have even in the slightest degree doubted the veracity of Gulliver; but he certainly expressed the most intense contempt for the Lagado professors, laying much stress on the profundity of their stupidity in not having amended the deplorable condition of the Struldbrugs in Luggnagg, of whose existence the professors were, doubtless, aware. ‘Even when immortal life was given them to work upon, they were incompetent to ward off the effects of senile decay! Why, the merest tiro in our schools would be ashamed to allow the poor old Struldbrug to get into such a state,’ said he, with scornful indignation. But, though he showed much sympathy with Dr. Van Varken’s longing to be transmuted out of the species he so much abhorred, Mr. Homi did not hold out any hopes of success in so laudable an endeavour. ‘No,’ said he, ‘many years of arduous preparation, to say nothing of rare natural gifts, are indispensable qualifications for such transformation; few even of the adepts are capable of it. But the power of instantaneous passage from one terrestrial point to another is far more easily arrived at.’ And it appears that, after a few months’ probation, the secret of this process was actually communicated to the doctor; but under such rigid obligations to silence that no traces of its nature are to be found committed to writing. All that can be ascertained about it is this—that an instantaneous disintegration, and equally rapid reintegration of the ultimate molecules of the bodies to be moved is effected; that the transit is accomplished through the medium of the undulations of the ethereal vehicle which pervades all space; and that the rate of transmission is identical with that of the transmission of light, namely, about 186,000 miles in a second. Once more the notes become continuous.] I was greatly pleased at gaining this new and wonderful faculty of moving myself; but, after making a few successful essays, it seemed to me that, after all, I should not be much the better for its possession. Yahoos being everywhere spread over the face of the earth, wherever I moved I should still assuredly And them; and perhaps this was the reason why, as I was walking by myself one evening and chanced to see the planet Venus, or Hesperos, shining in the sky, the thought came into my mind that, inasmuch as the ether fills all the space between the planets, it might be just possible that the power of movement by disintegration of molecules, which, as yet, had only been essayed between places on the earth’s surface, might extend as far as the planets themselves.