_Many millions of years ago I lived with my people on a large planet that revolved about a large star in a galaxy that is very distant now._ _I am not of this galaxy, Mr. Simms._ _I was the wisest among my people. They called me the Purple Sage. I was versed in all wisdom and I knew all answers. The people came to me for knowledge and revered me as the wisest of all beings._ _Several million years ago our galaxy approached your galaxy. Your galaxy was very different then; I watched it change, these millions of years. Our galaxy approached and I perceived that the two galaxies would pass through each other._ _This is a rare phenomenon, Mr. Simms, but it was undoubtedly known to your astronomers many years ago. Galaxies are nothing more than enormous vacuums, and in any one passage of two galaxies through one another, there are likely to be not more than two or three stellar collisions._ _I determined that my planet was quite safe. As your galaxy approached, I determined to conduct an interesting experiment. I constructed a large space ship and planned to fly it to one of the planets of your galaxy. Then I would return to my own planet. I hoped to determine whether your galaxy was similar to mine._ _My people wept at my departure and asked me what would become of them if I did not return. I told them that the officials would care for them. I thought then that I was little more than an ornament and their grief more rhetorical than sincere._ _A bright star was due to pass close to our sun; I entered my space ship and steered toward it. I landed on this planet._ _This is a curious planet, Mr. Simms. You have noticed the phenomenon of the sunset. The surface of the planet expands and contracts all at once, rather than doing so by slow degrees. As a result, the sun rises and sets instantly. When I arrived in my space ship, the phenomenon was much more exaggerated. I emerged from my ship and walked about the planet. I did not expect the contraction which came at sunset. It was terrible: I was thrown against a jagged pinnacle of rock and severely injured. For many centuries I could not move. Slowly I recovered. I returned to my ship. In the course of many such sunsets, it had been shattered to atoms. The delicate instruments had been ruined. I worked many years on the ship, but I could do nothing to repair it. At last I abandoned the task._ _Nothing is left of it now. Millions of years have passed and its dust is mingled with the dust of this planet._ _I watched my people recede from me. When I lay next to the jagged pinnacle that had wounded me, I could still see my planet in the sky. By the time that I was well, I could discern my sun from the other stars only with difficulty._