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In which the author conveniently summarizes everything for us, and reveals to us his true attitude towards it all. How handy. As to some of the ideas expressed herein, bear in mind this was published in 1871. Some of it might well sound like it could come right out of Nazi propaganda (the Great Aryan family or violent opposition to race mixing), but this was 50 years before the Nazis ever came along. All the ideas that would coalesce into Nazism after WWI had been floating around for at least several decades prior, most of it being rooted in various formally stated 19th century propositions, often with much deeper roots than that. As awful as it was, Nazism didn't just spring out of nowhere fully formed in 1920, it was a culmination of many things that had been percolating about western and central Europe for a very long time. And here in this story, we see a couple hints of such things coming from a British author. Washington: George Washington, first president of the USA. Jackson: there are several notable people of the name "Jackson" in US history, but I am going to assume here he means president Andrew Jackson. Although most people today don't view him so favorably, but perhaps 150 years ago he might have enjoyed a better reputation. Sheridan: this one is a lot less obvious, and I can only go with Philip Sheridan, a US army general, a close associate of Grant, and an important general of the Union army during the Civil War. Not nearly as well known today, but I'm sure people in the 1860s were plenty familiar with him. Webster: Noah Webster, of dictionary fame, but also a big advocate for creating a unique US identify separate from the British. Hence his dictionaries included a lot of alternate spellings, dropping the 'u' from colour and honour and the like, and changing 's' to 'z' in various words, etc. Don't like how US and British spellings vary so subtlety as they do? Blame Webster :-P Sumner: I really don't know who this is a reference to, not even given the context of the other names listed along with it. Perhaps Charles Sumner, an important abolitionist prior to the Civil War? Wendell Holmes: Another one hard to pin down. It is unlikely to be the famous Supreme Court Justice as in 1871 he was only just a few years into his law practice and wouldn't be appointed to any judge-ship until 1882. So, we have to go with his father, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., a notable poet and physician. Butler: Given how extremely common this family name is, I can't even begin to guess which Butler he had in mind here. If you have a thought on which early to mid-18th century American of this name might fit the bill, leave a comment below. Interesting that Abraham Lincoln doesn't make any of his lists of important Americans of the 19th century... The picture used is a portrait of Robert Owen (1834) by William Henry Brooke. We saw the name Robert Owen used in the previous chapter, he was a utopian socialist. To follow along: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1951/1951-h/1951-h.htm#link2HCH0026 As far as the author wanting to critique utopian socialists, the story is now effectively over. There are, however, still a couple of short chapters left to complete the narrator's story arc.

5'10" = 178 cm - the text is actually missing the word 'five', it just says 'feet 10 inches", but 4'10" would be entirely too shorter, shorter than most women, and 6'10" would be a giant, probably larger than even most gy, so that can't be right either, given he is so impressed with the size of the gy. Only 5'10" makes sense, so I went ahead and made the correction in my recording. Regarding Aph-Lin's "law" about questioning our narrator, the author gives us this footnote: Literally "has said, In this house be it requested." Words synonymous with law, as implying forcible obligation, are avoided by this singular people. Even had it been decreed by the Tur that his College of Sages should dissect me, the decree would have ran blandly thus,—"Be it requested that, for the good of the community, the carnivorous Tish be requested to submit himself to dissection." Robert Owen: a Welsh textile manufacturer, philanthropist and social reformer, and a founder of utopian socialism and the co-operative movement. The picture used is A Banquet in Nero's palace, illustration from 'Quo Vadis', c.1910, by Ulpiano Checa y Sanz. I use it here because it shows what appears to be the series of smaller tables for guests rather than one giant table. Obviously the Vril would not carry on in the manner of these Romans, but the setting might perhaps be similar. To follow along: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1951/1951-h/1951-h.htm#link2HCH0025

patera: a broad, shallow dish (used in ancient Rome for pouring libations) The picture used is of a crematory To follow along: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1951/1951-h/1951-h.htm#link2HCH0024

Why does he compare corn to wheat? Because corn is a much older word than 1492. Historically, before the Europeans discovered the New World, 'corn' was a word for any type of cereal grass crop, such as wheat. Hence you find translations of the Bible using the word 'corn', not to describe New World maize, but various old world grains. esculent: fit to be eaten; edible The picture used is of an old underground mushroom cellar, where common mushrooms are cultivated in beds. By Édouard Bergé, used here under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en). It's really hard to find pictures of underground/cavern farms or livestock herding, it just isn't done. For pretty obvious reasons. I mean, there are a tiny handful of examples using various artificial lighting, but the pictures of it look more like labs than caves or even farms, so not very suitable for our purpose here. To follow along: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1951/1951-h/1951-h.htm#link2HCH0023

graminivorous: feeding on grass or the seeds of grass On the matter of observing the Vril-ya's teeth, we get this footnote from the author/narrator: "I never had observed it; and, if I had, am not physiologist enough to have distinguished the difference." The picture used is "Sail Ship" by Teezec, used here under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/). To follow along: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1951/1951-h/1951-h.htm#link2HCH0022

To follow along: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1951/1951-h/1951-h.htm#link2HCH0021

The picture used is "De val van Icarus" by Peter Paul Rubens and Jacob Peter Gowy, circa 1636. To follow along: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1951/1951-h/1951-h.htm#link2HCH0020

A chapter about taxation. Yeehaw! Lysander Spooner is quite the character. Among his accomplishments was to create a private postal service, which was successful enough to force the government to reduce its own price of postage stamps to compete. Which, unsurprisingly, enraged the government so much that it lawfared his business into bankruptcy. That was in the 1840s. This tactic of lawfare is hardly new... To follow along: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1951/1951-h/1951-h.htm#link2HCH0019

copse: a small group of trees The picture used is "Spinosaurus 2020" by FredtheDinosaurman, used here under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/). I assume the krek-a must be dinosaurs, if they are giant reptiles that pre-date humans. And it is a common trope for dinosaurs to still exist in lost lands like this. While it is a matter of some debate, the Spinosaur is thought by many to be a good swimmer, and it is definitely a carnivore, so there you go. To follow along: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1951/1951-h/1951-h.htm#link2HCH0018

Regarding the matter of time described in the first paragraph, the author gives us the following footnote: "For the sake of convenience, I adopt the word hours, days, years, &c., in any general reference to subdivisions of time among the Vril-ya; those terms but loosely corresponding, however, with such subdivisions." equable: not varying or fluctuating greatly complaisance: disposition to please or comply; affability Shakespeare was writing in the late 16th and very early 17th century. Louis XV was King of France from 1715 to 1774. Charles II was King of England, Scotland, and Ireland from 1660 until 1685. On the matter of water-based instruments, we get this footnote from the author: "This may remind the student of Nero's invention of a musical machine, by which water was made to perform the part of an orchestra, and on which he was employed when the conspiracy against him broke out." temerarious: marked by temerity; reckless; rash The picture used is a scene from a Beijing Opera based on the Generals of the Yang Family legends. Photo by smartneddy, used here under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en). To follow along: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1951/1951-h/1951-h.htm#link2HCH0017

Montgolfier: actually brothers, Joseph-Michel Montgolfier and Jacques-Étienne Montgolfier, notable balloonists of the 18th century, among other things. 1000 miles = 1600 kilometers. Well, 1609 km, to be specific. Stupid extra 9 km... Why it gotta be off by such a slight amount? Just redefine a km so that 1 mile = 1.6 km exactly :-P I mean, they've redefined kilometers before as it is, so just redefine it again!! sententious: given to moralizing in a pompous or affected manner The picture used is an artist's impression of a Loveland frog at the side of the road, by Tim Bertelink. Used here under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en). To follow along: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1951/1951-h/1951-h.htm#link2HCH0016

Phrenology!! WHEEE!!! *cough* Regarding the "bath charged with Vril", we get this footnote from the author: I once tried the effect of the vril bath. It was very similar in its invigorating powers to that of the baths at Gastein, the virtues of which are ascribed by many physicians to electricity; but though similar, the effect of the vril bath was more lasting. Lyell's "Elements of Geology": a real book, published in 1838, by Charles Lyell, a Scottish geologist and associate of Charles Darwin. amativeness: the arousal of feelings of sexual desire philoprogenitiveness: of, relating to, or characterized by love of offspring vituperation: bitter and abusive language The picture used is a chart showing the basic elements of phrenology, physiognomy and palmistry, with diagrams of heads and hands, and portraits of historical figures. Lithograph, late 19th century. This file comes from Wellcome Images, a website operated by Wellcome Trust, a global charitable foundation based in the United Kingdom. Library reference: ICV No 9771; Photo number: V0009525 Used here under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.en). To follow along: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1951/1951-h/1951-h.htm#link2HCH0015

metempsychosis: the supposed transmigration at death of the soul of a human being or animal into a new body of the same or a different species crotchet: a perverse or unfounded belief or notion Louis Agassiz: Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz, 19th century Swiss biologist and geologist. Let's see, French name, born in Switzerland, Ph.D. in Germany (well, there wasn't a unified country of Germany at the time, but you know what I mean), worked with Cuvier and von Humboldt in Paris, professor in Switzerland, then finally moving to the USA to become a professor at Harvard. Very busy man! Also, notable that before coming to the US, he was of a mind that all humans where of the same origin and gradually evolved into different "races", but after coming to the US, boy oh boy did he have a huge change of attitude on the matter of race! And not for the better... To follow along: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1951/1951-h/1951-h.htm#link2HCH0014 The chapter has several rather long, rambly, run-on sentences that don't feel like they express a complete and proper thought. Like the author himself forgot where he was going with it, but realized he had to close out the sentence somehow or another, and didn't take much care to address the grammatical and linguistic mess left behind. Makes for tough reading, and tough narrating.

It's hard finding theology memes that aren't explicitly Christian in nature... To follow along: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1951/1951-h/1951-h.htm#link2HCH0013

A grammar lesson in my sci-fi novel? *boggle* preterite: a simple past tense or form A nice little linguistics meme for your enjoyment to go with this language lesson of a chapter. I had no idea what else to do. I mean, I really wanted to use a grammar nazi meme, but there are certain countries (well, one in particular...) where that maybe could cause some trouble, so I had to stay away from the obvious fun. For those of you NOT in Germany, try looking up the Cyanide & Happiness cartoon about the grammar nazi! ;-) To follow along: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1951/1951-h/1951-h.htm#link2HCH0012

By "philosophers", the author here means natural philosophers. It's strange he would use this term - today we call such people scientists, as the use of the term natural philosopher predates the advent of modern science, but by the 1870s the use of the term 'scientist' was already widespread, its introduction dating back to 1833. Curious. Dr. Lewins: Robert Lewins, a 19th century British army surgeon and philosopher. Also: atheist, materialist, and humanist. I can't find any reference to "ethereal oxygen", other than it was indeed an idea proposed by Dr. Lewins. How odd. It must be elaborated on in some 150 year old book somewhere that just hasn't yet been digitized. What a shame. People always say the entirety of all human knowledge is available at your finger tips with the internet, but clearly that is not the case. A vast amount of human knowledge, yes, but hardly all of it. In fact, given how many obscure remote locales there are with their own local lore and traditions that probably haven't made it into any online format as yet, we're probably not even half way to all human knowledge being on the Internet. Sure, all the current and popular ideas and theories are out there, a lot of what isn't yet online is likely going to obsolete, antiquated, and just wrong, but there's a huge amount that just isn't online at this time. People saying all human knowledge is already online are making quite a value judgment there! The picture used is "Son Doong Cave, Vietnam" by vtoanstar, used here under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/). To follow along: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1951/1951-h/1951-h.htm#link2HCH0011 Given how short the chapter was, I feel like my reading of it was quite hurried. No idea why. Oops.

dissimulation: concealment of one's thoughts, feelings, or character; pretense linnet: a mainly brown and gray finch with a reddish breast and forehead The picture used is "Praying Mantis Sexual Cannibalism closeup of Female eating Male" by Oliver Koemmerling, used here under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en). Nom nom!! To follow along: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1951/1951-h/1951-h.htm#link2HCH0010

So the Vril are vegan anarchists. Hmmm... Regarding Zee's thesis on the parasites of a tiger's paw, the author gives us this footnote: The animal here referred to has many points of difference from the tiger of the upper world. It is larger, and with a broader paw, and still more receding frontal. It haunts the side of lakes and pools, and feeds principally on fishes, though it does not object to any terrestrial animal of inferior strength that comes in its way. It is becoming very scarce even in the wild districts, where it is devoured by gigantic reptiles. I apprehended that it clearly belongs to the tiger species, since the parasite animalcule found in its paw, like that in the Asiatic tiger, is a miniature image of itself. I wonder why they consider any animals at all to be any significant threat, given that even a mere child could destroy an entire army. Are certain types of animals resistant to, or even immune to, vril attacks? Or is this just an oversight by the author for the sake of drama? Perhaps we will find out, there are after all many chapters to go, just have to wait and see. The author tells us, in the next chapter when it's too late to do us any good here (i.e. I had to go back and re-record a bunch of passages to fix this in edit), what is the intended pronunciation of 'ana' and 'gy'. With the nice detail that when it comes to 'gy-ei', the plural form of 'gy', he tells us to soften the 'g' sound, BUT he doesn't tell us what to do with that 'ei'!! An 'ei' in English can be a long 'a' sound, a long 'e' sound, or a long 'i' sound. WTF dude? If you are going to give us any pronunciation help at all, give us *ALL* the pronunciation help, not just half of it!! ARGH!! Finding words that end in 'ei'... good luck! Resorting to the Scrabble dictionary, going with purely English words that you probably know, I got one single word to work with: nuclei. The other words either aren't English, like 'lei' which is Hawaiian, or are Japanese like 'sensei', or Latin, or else are just infinitely obscure. So, I got one word to work with. But when you consider the singular 'nucleus', the 'e' is clearly phonetically tied to the 'l', so the 'ei' here for plural form isn't properly an 'ei' diphthong that can guide us. At least, given that 'gy' to 'gy-ei' doesn't have the same pattern of an 'e' in the singular to latch on to the preceding consonant. So we are left with absolutely no idea whatsoever what to do here for pronunciation. Thanks, Ed. The picture used is of Theodore Roosevelt, John Milton Hay, and Joseph Gurney Cannon, by Charles Davis Mitchell from about 1905. I wanted something to reflect the political science lesson being put forward in this chapter, and you can never go wrong with TR! John Milton Hay was TR's secretary of state. Joseph Gurney Cannon was the Speaker of the House during TR's presidency, and despite also being a Republican, he was strongly opposed to TR's progressive policies. Yes, there was a time when it was the Republicans, under TR, who were the progressives. The Bullmoose Progressives! But not all Republicans were progressives, hence the split in the party in the 1912 election that enabled Woodrow Wilson to win the presidency. TR + Taft got 7.5 million votes against Wilson's 6.3 million, but it doesn't matter that TR and Taft were both Republicans, the counting doesn't work that way, and even though the population wanted a Republican, we got a Democrat. And Wilson proved to be an awful, awful president at that. Bleh. It's hard to know who to blame, TR or Taft, but TR did get more votes than Taft (4.1 million to 3.4), so make of that what you will. It's fun to talk about TR and his era, but that's a couple decades out of scope of this story with its 1871 publication date. Should be talking about Grant, which is also quite fascinating, if you like case studies in political corruption. Oh, and the narrator mentions he is from New York City, so it is worth nothing that Boss Tweed is still running Tammany Hall, and the city, in 1870 and 71. It's his final years, his political demise is imminent, but his corruption is beyond astronomical! The most extreme political corruption was the order of the day at all levels, in all places, at least in the USA. So it seems the author is being *extremely* sarcastic when he puts forth the American model as the pinnacle of political evolution :-P To follow along: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1951/1951-h/1951-h.htm#link2HCH0009

Will you look at that - the author put a pronunciation guide in the text for the name Taee!! Hallelujah! Also: the author is really going back and forth now between longer and shorter chapters. Expect that trend to continue at least for a while still. The picture used is "The Body of Christ Anointed by Two Angels" by Alessandro Allori. I mean, it's a dude on a bed with two winged beings about him. So our narrator, Taee, and Zee. Amirite? I'm not doing very well coming up with images for these chapters :-/ To follow along: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1951/1951-h/1951-h.htm#link2HCH0008

pellucid: translucently clear expatiate: speak or write at length or in detail $20,000 in 1871 is going to be anywhere between $490K and $66 million. Presumably not the high end, but even half-a-mil is quite the generous campaign contribution! Grant was president in 1871, a time in American politics notorious for its *extreme* corruption... The comment about Faraday equating mass and energy is fascinating - this story being published in 1871, and Einstein not coming up with E=mc^2 until 1905. Yet, the idea that mass and energy were somehow interrelated goes at least as far back as Newton in 1717, so it was a long time in development and the notion of such a possible link would not have been unknown to those with an interest in physics there in the second half of the 19th century. Odic force is the name given in 1845 to a hypothetical vital energy or life force by Baron Carl von Reichenbach. This story was first published in 1871. So when talks about the decay of Europe and the Manifest Destiny attitude of Americans and the Monroe Doctrine (which dates to 1823), do bear in mind the circumstances of the time of the writing. The picture used is of Michael Faraday performing an electrolysis experiment. To follow along: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1951/1951-h/1951-h.htm#link2HCH0007

An exceptionally short chapter. The next one will be more substantive. The picture used is "Tobias curing the blindness of Tobit" from the Wellcome Images collection, used here under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.en). There are many depictions of this particular scene from the Book of Tobbit (an apocryphal book of the Old Testament), but somehow this one doesn't have a listed painter, artist is indicated as unknown. Pity. We know now the Vril's wings are detachable, and we know they are capable of great feats of healing, so a winged being over-seeing the healing of a mundane human fits thematically, more or less, with what happened here in this chapter, or at least what is implied. To follow along: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1951/1951-h/1951-h.htm#link2HCH0006

So this completely unknown race that is not even human and doesn't have any ability to comprehend the English language (or presumably any human language), apparently knows to shake their head for no, and presumably nod for yes? Verbal communication incompatible, but non-verbal communication fully compatible? Fascinating... No matter how many times I encounter the word divan, I never have any idea how to pronounce. This is what we get for importing so many French words into English... :-P lancinating: characterized by piercing or stabbing sensations Louis Cranach: a.k.a. Lucas Cranach der Ältere, a German Renaissance painter and printmaker, being court painter to the Electors of Saxony, and friend of Martin Luther, and thus unsurprisingly would embrace the Protestant Reformation. There's also his son, Lucas Cranach der Jüngere, also a painter. So it is I suppose entirely possible the author could be referencing either of these two, but given the Elder seems a bit more notable in the histories than the Younger, I'm guessing he means the Elder. "a soft sibilant monosyllable - S.Si" I have absolutely no idea in the slightest what sound Bulwer-Lytton had in mind here. Ugh. I can't even begin to guess. But I had to record something, so there you go. duodecimo: A book having pages of a duodecimo size. What size, you ask? A size of paper, so called because it is originally made by folding and cutting a single sheet from a printing press into 12 leaves; 7 inches high (~18 cm), by approximately 4.5 inches wide (~11.5 cm). Peri: from Persian mythology, a mythical superhuman being, originally represented as evil but subsequently as a good or graceful genie or fairy The picture used is "Botticelli, Mystic Nativity, detail 2", photo taken by Frans Vandewalle, used here under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/). Ok, so the wings of the Vril should be much larger (yes, we will learn soon enough the name of these beings our narrator is dealing with are the Vril-ya, that shouldn't exactly come as a spoiler), and should have a mix of males and females, but it's hard enough to find a large group of dancing, winged, human-like beings at all, and this was the best I could come up with. To follow along: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1951/1951-h/1951-h.htm#link2HCH0005

The next chapter is more substantial! But despite its briefness, this chapter is a nice build up, the next chapter should be very interesting indeed... The picture used is of the Philae temple at night in Aswan, by Moh hakem, used here the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en). To follow along: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1951/1951-h/1951-h.htm#link2HCH0004

Sorry some of these chapters are extremely short, I really should post two a day when they are of this duration, but I really do need the extra time to work on that obscenely long Arthur Machen story. The picture used is "325 - Magic Mushrooms" by SomeAnna, used here under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/). To follow along: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1951/1951-h/1951-h.htm#link2HCH0003 I feel like voice is going to hell, and I don't really know why. Perhaps just the change of season - from hot to cold to warm to cold, vast temperature swings in the space of a day or two, back and forth and back and forth. It's always hell.

Bulwer-Lytton isn't going to give us much of a build up, he's taking us right to the main event in a big hurry! The picture used is of a caver on rope at Stephens Gap, in Stephens Gap Cave, Limrock, Alabama, by wrcochran, used here under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/). To follow along: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1951/1951-h/1951-h.htm#link2HCH0002