""But how do you keep even such wisdom as you have?" he asked; and I explained to him the way we helped our limited"
[A word omitted here, probably "brains."]
"with libraries of books. I explained to him how our science was growing by the united labours of innumerable little men, and on that he made no comment save that it was evident we had mastered much in spite of our social savagery, or we could not have come to the moon. Yet the contrast was very marked. With knowledge the Selenites grew and changed; mankind stored their knowledge about them and remained brutes?equipped. He said this?"
[Here there is a short piece of the record indistinct.]
"He then caused me to describe how we went about this earth of ours, and I described to him our railways and ships. For a time he could not understand that we had had the use of steam only one hundred years, but when he did he was clearly amazed. (I may mention as a singular thing, that the Selenites use years to count by, just as we do on earth, though I can make nothing of their numeral system. That, however, does not matter, because Phi?oo understands ours.) From that I went on to tell him that mankind had dwelt in cities only for nine or ten thousand years, and that we were still not united in one brotherhood, but under many different forms of government. This astonished the Grand Lunar very much, when it was made clear to him. At first he thought we referred merely to administrative areas."
""Our States and Empires are still the rawest sketches of what order will some day be," I said, and so I came to tell him?"
[At this point a length of record that probably represents thirty or forty words is totally illegible.]
"The Grand Lunar was greatly impressed by the folly of men in clinging to the inconvenience of diverse tongues. "They want to communicate, and yet not to communicate," he said, and then for a long time he questioned me closely concerning war."
"He was at first perplexed and incredulous. "You mean to say," he asked, seeking confirmation, "that you run about over the surface of your world?this world, whose riches you have scarcely begun to scrape?killing one another for beasts to eat?""
"I told him that was perfectly correct."
"He asked for particulars to assist his imagination."
""But do not ships and your poor little cities get injured?" he asked, and I found the waste of property and conveniences seemed to impress him almost as much as the killing. "Tell me more," said the Grand Lunar; "make me see pictures. I cannot conceive these things.""
"And so, for a space, though something loath, I told him the story of earthly War."
"I told him of the first orders and ceremonies of war, of warnings and ultimatums, and the marshalling and marching of troops. I gave him an idea of manoeuvres and positions and battle joined. I told him of sieges and assaults, of starvation and hardship in trenches, and of sentinels freezing in the snow. I told him of routs and surprises, and desperate last stands and faint hopes, and the pitiless pursuit of fugitives and the dead upon the field. I told, too, of the past, of invasions and massacres, of the Huns and Tartars, and the wars of Mahomet and the Caliphs, and of the Crusades. And as I went on, and Phi?oo translated, and the Selenites cooed and murmured in a steadily intensified emotion."
"I told them an ironclad could fire a shot of a ton twelve miles, and go through 20 feet of iron?and how we could steer torpedoes under water. I went on to describe a Maxim gun in action, and what I could imagine of the Battle of Colenso. The Grand Lunar was so incredulous that he interrupted the translation of what I had said in order to have my verification of my account. They particularly doubted my description of the men cheering and rejoicing as they went into battle."
""But surely they do not like it!" translated Phi?oo."
"I assured them men of my race considered battle the most glorious experience of life, at which the whole assembly was stricken with amazement."
""But what good is this war?" asked the Grand Lunar, sticking to his theme."
""Oh! as for good!" said I; "it thins the population!""
""But why should there be a need??""
