“We shall return often, though the daily records are available to us at home. However, instead of visiting personally the different plants, which would be fatiguing, we can see everything we wish from a television hall.” We entered a cabinet, similar to the one in which I had lunched with Dianne at Acquilla’s house and installed ourselves. But at the first interior of a great cupola with its cyclopian telescopic eye, I cried: “But there is a man!” “Of course. There are hundreds of them employed in the higher mathematics and problems of intricate research.” “A man!” I repeated sadly. What I saw before me was a creature with a magnificent head it is true, but the body of a frail child of eight or nine. “I see what surprises you,” said Acquilla quickly. “But you must not judge by appearances. Really, though it has taken us generations, we have at last bred the true mathematical type. They have none of those physical appetites or deviations, that afflict us, Bogardus. They are intellectual Buddhas, the ascetic-saints of science. They live in their visions, in a world of their own.” “I prefer the slaves of the Neptunian insects,” I exclaimed indignantly, “at least they could roam in the outer air. But these deformed dwarfs are nothing but inhuman calculating machines.” “Wait and see them in their monasteries,” said Acquilla, changing the view. I saw then hundreds of gnomes in a long, low building--a monastery in fact; moving about the great esplanade gesticulating in animated conversation, smoking pipes, playing chess or pitching quoits with all the appearance, I must confess, of complete satisfaction. “Do they look as though they were abused? Now honestly.” “No--but I should like to assure myself of that by talking to them.” “Quite impossible,” said Acquilla formally. “I should not dream of intruding myself. As for you--you would bring nothing but disorder in their well regulated existence.” “They are indeed slaves,” I repeated bitterly. “So am I, in a sense,” said Acquilla. “Are you going back to the sentimentalities of the Declaration of Independence? Freedom? Nonsense! We have bred them scientifically to accomplish intricate and necessary things and skillfully atrophied the unnecessary glands, so that they find their happiness in their work. To receive the work you are best fitted for and to find your happiness in your work--if that is not Paradise, what is, Bogardus?” I shrugged my shoulders. “I dislike arguing with a woman,” I said. “And I with you, Bogardus dear, if it makes you cross,” she said, changing her tone immediately. “Now we must return, if we are to be in time for the Promenade of the Young Males.” I looked at her suspiciously. “I perceive the devilish ingenuity of the contrast you are planning to offer me.” “Well, what of it--if it convinces you!”