“Yes, that was just the trouble,” pursued Aelios, the trace of a frown darkening her lovely cheeks and eyes. “There are some opportunities that no men should have. What would be the gain in giving a wasp the power of a bull? It was not a mere coincidence, for example, that the decline of art was simultaneous with the rise of science. After thousands of years in which the pursuit of the beautiful had been one of the objects of life, men began to be bewildered by the idea of their conquest over matter; they came to apply themselves to the construction of huge and intricate machines, of towering but unsightly piles of masonry, of swift means of locomotion and of unique and elaborate systems of amusement. And at the same time they devoted themselves extensively to destruction. Not to the destruction of their own monstrous contrivances, alas! but to the undermining of human happiness and human life. In our isolated position, we had had comparatively little intercourse for centuries with other lands; but now that we possessed lightning means of travel and lightning weapons of aggression, our citizens began to swoop down occasionally upon a foreign cast, picking a quarrel with the people and finding some excuse for smiting thousands dead. At first, of course, our enemies had no means of retaliation, but it was certain that in the end they would have imitated our methods and singed us with our own fire.” “And is that what actually happened?” I asked, fancying I saw a trace of light at last. “Is that why you had to submerge your land?” “No, that is not what happened,” said Aelios, smiling at my naïveté, while a half-suppressed yawn from Stranahan gave her but little encouragement to continue. “Not all our people were savages, and not all approved of our policy of international murder; nor were all content to see art and beauty trodden down by the twin hoofs of mechanism and multiple production. Of course, the protestants were at first mere voices wailing against the waves, and more than one was jeered as a maniac; but the protest continued and grew through many decades; and though there were thousands that continued to appraise the cities by their size and scientific accomplishment by its deadliness, the time came when the party of rebellion was almost as numerous as the conservatives or ‘Respectables,’ and when the limitation of mechanical power became an issue that threatened the very life of the State. “I will not trouble you with the details of that struggle, or with the powerful cause made out by the enemies of Super-Science--for of this you shall hear more later. For the present it is sufficient to state that the climax arrived in the year 56 B. S.----” “What does B. S. mean?” I interrupted. “Before the Submergence, of course!” explained Aelios, with a slight frown that instantly made way for a broad and glowing smile.