"The walls of this beautiful room rose to an arched ceiling which was
inlaid with this wonderful blue metal, seen in the globes, designed in
scrolls and waving ribbons, and just descending upon the walls
themselves in attenuated twigs and strings. The walls were bare and
shining.
"My friend led me to one of the great windows and placed me in a chair.
Drawing another beside me, placing his hand on mine, and leaning outward
toward the burning splendor below us, above which in the still, clear
heavens shone those stellar hosts you and I have so often watched with
wonder, he said:
"'Ten Martian years ago I came to this world as you have come. As a
spirit I entered the chambers on the Hill of the Phosphori. I sat in the
Chorus Hall. I entered the City and slowly changed, as you are changing,
into one of the Martian white people. I found my work, as you will, in
this Patenta, for by that name in Mars is called this home of astronomy
and physical philosophy. Here, amid telescopes and apparatus of
experiment and investigation, I have spent the years, mapping with many
others the skies, and above all beating the earth we left, as have many,
many, whom you will meet, with magnetic waves, hoping against hope, that
some response might be gained, some hint of that connection through
space which the physicists of this planet expect, ere long, may make all
the beings of the universe one great sidereal society.'
"He stopped and leaned away from me, perusing my face with interest.
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