I do not propose to add anything to what has already been written concerning the loss of the "Lady Vain."

No. I cannot expect you to believe it. Take it as a lie--or a prophecy. Say I dreamed it in the workshop. Consider I have been speculating upon the destinies of our race until I have hatched this fiction. Treat my assertion of its truth as a mere stroke of art to enhance its interest. And taking it as a story, what do you think of it?

Losing your way on a journey is unfortunate. But, losing your reason for the journey is a fate more cruel.

We will peck them to death to-morrow, my dear.

Fools make researches and wise men exploit them.

Very simple was my explanation, and plausible enough---as most wrong theories are!

Rest enough for the individual man, too much and too soon, and we call it death. But for man, no rest and no ending. He must go on, conquest beyond conquest. First this little planet and all its winds and ways, and then all the laws of mind and matter that restrain him. Then the planets about him, and, at last, out across immensities to the stars. And when he has conquered all the deep space, and all the mysteries of time, still he will be beginning.