_Dosch._ “As you perceive, they hold the same relative proportion with regard to size as the females of your own race. But if they were larger, perhaps the men would feel less comfortable. You know from experience that women wield a strong influence upon whichever side they lend their weight.” _Padre._ “Do you cook your food or eat it raw?” _Dosch._ “We are, like your own race, omnivorous, but select and adapt our food to the healthy requirements of our bodies, using fire for its preparation.” _Padre._ “But how can you make such small fires?” _Dosch._ “We hold ourselves in advance of your race in that respect, as we are not dependent upon material combustion for our fires. You are, of course, laboring under the impression that our small size must embarrass the organic functions. But in the intensity of the spark you will find an apt illustration of the vital energy that we have been enabled to preserve in the purity of its brightness. Although you may esteem it a spark of egoism, we can, with truth, assert that we feel free from the vagaries of appetite and lust, and an infinitesimal concentration of vitality that imparts purity to our impressions. This exemption from the ills to which you are subject in the flesh, we have obtained by the consistent cultivation of our perceptive endowments bestowed by the Creator as an heirloom independent of the body’s material tenement. For your enlightenment with reference to the physical coöperation of our educated perceptions with the body, I will say that we possess, from transmitted cultivation, a nervous and muscular energy, with a sensitive perception, that enables us to detect and guard against dangers while yet distant. In sudden emergency, by our agile presence of mind, we can, without extraordinary effort, avoid impending danger, that would inevitably prove fatal to your slower faculties of apprehension. That you may appreciate, in a measure, the quickness of our movements, Corycæus, the padre’s familiar, will pass from the platform to his ear.” _Corycæus._ “Yes, and he may catch me if he can.”