It looked like an old friend, and I lost no time in resuming the habits I had adopted during my previous stay. I looked up some of my old acquaintances, and we spent days in endless talk about everything under the sun. What a delight it was to read the newspapers, no matter how silly they were! How delightful to hear the latest gossip about the latest political crisis, the latest dramatic success, the latest social scandal, the latest literary quarrel! In a week or two I had almost forgotten the existence of Meccania. I had seen nothing to remind me of it. I began to understand why the people in Francaria and Luniland were so ignorant of that country. Why should they bother their heads about it? It seemed to me now like a bad dream, a nightmare. They were quite right to ignore it, to forget it. And yet, suppose Meccania should startle Europe again? And with a chemical war this time! Would they be able to escape? Or would the Super-Insects finally conquer the human race? I confess I felt some doubt. It seemed not impossible that the nightmare I had escaped from was a doom impending over the whole world. And it is because I could not dismiss this doubt that I have written a faithful account of what I saw and heard in Meccania, the Super-State. Transcriber's note Text in italics was surrounded by _underscores_, and text in all capitals changed to all capitals. The following corrections have been made, on page xvii "n" changed to "in" (in the manner of a mere spectator) 17 "chocolate- coloured" changed to "chocolate-coloured" (with chocolate-coloured buttons) 40 "t at" changed to "that" (but that the Organising Inspectors) 48 "death sand" changed to "deaths and" (births, deaths and marriages) 161 , added (unmeaning to a Meccanian, the Meccanians must have lost) 212 " removed (and much more besides.) 221 "pr fessions" changed to "professions" (all the functions of the independent professions) 221 "he told" changed to "the old" (That is the old argument) 270 "be" changed to "he" (Clearly he belonged to another generation.) 278 "this" changed to "these" (these two years opened my eyes). Otherwise the original was preserved, including inconsistent spelling and hyphenation. End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Meccania, by Owen Gregory