And here in this place will I set down how that the Peoples of the
Pyramid were greater to the chest, methinks, than we of this age; but
yet do I have no oversurety in the matter; for well it may be that the
Reason of _this_ age doth blind within me somewhat the Knowledge that I
have concerning _that_; for, in verity, is it not but a natural thing to
believe those Peoples to be great of the chest, so that they should make
a proper dealing with the thin air of that place and that time? And yet,
as I do strive to make plain unto you, because that this thing should
be, by the making of my Reason, I do the more distrust that Reason
shall make foolish my Knowledge; for even a fool should suppose that
which I have told; and the truth may be even otherwise. Yet that the Peoples of the _Upper_ Cities had great chests, I do well
know; for this was a common knowledge; even as we of this age do
acknowledge the Peoples of Africa to be of blackness, or those of
Patagonia to be of great stature. And by this one thing should any know
a man of the Upper Cities, from a man of the Lower Cities. And because
that there grew this difference among the Peoples, there had been once,
as any could learn from the Histories, a plan whereby the Peoples should
be moved upward and downward through the great height of the Mighty
Pyramid, from this city unto that. Yet had it met with great disfavour;
and was put out of force; and this is easy to be seen as the natural way
of the human heart. And here it doth occur unto me that it was like enough to be a plan for
health, beside of training of the mind, that each youth and maid was put
to travel through all the cities of the Mighty Pyramid; the which did
take three years and two hundred and twenty-five days, as I have told
before this. For by this plan, were they made to breathe the air of
every height, and this, mayhaps, unto the good of their developing. And
they also to discover that air which was best to their need. And concerning the air of the Night Land, you shall know that there was
in all that Land no flying thing, because that the air was grown very
thin; yet, as the Records did show, there had once been monstrous
flying-brutes, that went over the Land in mighty bounds; but this was in
a long gone age; and we could but suppose that the Records gave truth. And here you shall know that, when the Monstruwacans did learn that I
would journey through the Night Land, in search of Naani, there had been
some foolish and well-intended talk among them that I take a small
flying-ship, that was in the Great Museum beside the models of the Great
Ships. For, truly, this machine was yet sound to go; for it was made of
the grey metal of the Mighty Pyramid, that did seem to have no power to
cease. Yet, in verity, I had no skill to manage this, neither had it
flown, through an hundred thousand years; so that none did know the
mastership of that art, which did be learned but by a constant practice,
and oft made uneasy by fallings that did wreck the machine, as I did
know from the Book of Flying. And, moreover, as I have told, the air of
the Night Land was grown over-weak to uphold such a thing; which, I
doubt not, had made the Peoples of the Pyramid to cease from flyings,
quite so much as that they did fear the Forces of Evil in the night. And if that there had been air and skill sufficient unto this purpose of
flying, yet had I been wicked with foolishness that I should work to be
hung upward in the night, for all the Evil of the Night Land to behold. And though I had gone up some great way, yet the machine had surely made
a great noise in the quietness of the eternal night, as you shall
suppose. Now indeed am I gone weary that I should need to tell so much concerning
the air of that Time and Place; for surely I do seem to make this my
story as that I did make a lecturing upon matters of chemistry; and so
do I cast about, that I may not bother to tell more upon this matter. Yet, in truth, a little more of my thinkings and observings had I better
set down here, and so be done with it. But you shall have patience with
me, and know that had this, my story, been no more than an idle tale, I
had been free to make no labour with such matters. Now there doth a wonder come to me why that the Road Makers, who were of
that far-off Age which was before the Age of the Mighty Pyramid, did not
_fly_ downward from the upper world into the deep of the monstrous
valley; but did instead build a road. Yet it may be that the air of the upper world had grown thin a great
age, so that they had truly forgot that once man did have power to fly. But even if that they did have proper machines to this purpose, surely
it were a wondrous and fearful thing to fly downward an hundred great
miles; for they surely to have a dread that they never to rise again
through so huge a deep. And, moreover, the downward world that was the bottom of the Great
Valley, was full of monsters, as was told in the little metal book. And
the monsters were very strange and unknown; and foreign to the whole
world, that had never come unto the deep of the Valley. And the Valley
had come, as you shall mind, when the earth did split; and this thing
was, in truth, like to be thought that same Ending of the World, which
all Nations have been taught to believe shall come. For in verity, when
the world did split and burst, and the oceans rushed downward into the
earth, and there was fire, and storms, and a mighty chaos, surely it was
proper to think that the End had come. Yet was it, in truth, but the
beginning of hope of a new Eternity of Life; so that out of the End came
the Beginning, and Life out of Death, and Good out of that which did
seem a dire matter. And so is it always. Yet doth this go past my first wonder, which did concern the wherefore
that they made not to descend in Things of Flight. Yet, maybe, shall my
reasons stand to show why this was not. And again, mayhap it did chance that some were wild adventurers, and did
leap over the edge of the upper world, having to ease their flight
certain contrivings, like to parachutes. And these you shall picture, as
that you watched them to leap; and so shall you see them go downward
into the gloom; and you shall see them for maybe ten miles, and maybe
for twenty miles; and afterward shall they be lost utterly in that Great
Deep, and seen no more of any man for ever. But when the Nations became Road-Makers, and came downward slowly to the
monstrous Deep of the Mighty Valley that did split the World, then were
they come there by millions, and with power sufficient to fight against
the Beasts; and afterward to grow back again to an ancient Civilizing;
and so to the building of the great airships that were yet shown in the
Great Museum of the Pyramid. And here shall I cease from these my
thinkings on this matter; for indeed, who shall say what did be truly a
Reason for those peoples and what was their Need? And so do I come to no
surety by my wonderings.