Chapter VIII: The Key-Note

For a minute or two it looked as though Van Emmon had raised an unanswerable question. There was no immediate reply. Even Estra looked around, as though in wonder at the silence, and seemed on the point of answering of his own accord when a voice came from a man far up on the left. He said:

“A little explanation may be wise. To begin with, you will agree that black is black because white is white; but it doesn’t follow that blue is blue because green is green, or red is red. Blue is blue because it is neither green nor red nor any other color. It is blue, not because it contrasts with these other colors, but because it merely differs from them.

“Now, we on Venus do not need poverty, in order to appreciate wealth. Instead, each of us is blessed with his own particular choice of wealth. Each is blessed in a different way; some with children, some with intellect, some with other matters; and the question of mere quantity never enters.”

“We do not need pain or misery,” spoke up someone else, “any more than you people on the earth require an additional color, in order to appreciate the variety you already have.” And then, from a Venusian with an especially strong voice:

“That we are really content, we know absolutely. For each of us, in his own distinctive way, is wholly and peculiarly satisfied.”

And it only added to the geologist’s irritation to have these striking statements made in a good-humored, impersonal fashion which totally disarmed all opposition. That the Venusians were perfectly sure of their ground, was undeniable; but they had such a cheerful way of looking at it, as though they didn’t care a rap whether Van Emmon agreed or not, that--If they’d only have shown some spirit! Van Emmon would have liked it infinitely better if one of them had only become hot about it.

At this point Estra rose in his chair. “I think you had best approach us from a fresh viewpoint,” said he in his unfailingly agreeable manner. The doctor nodded vigorously, and again Estra closed his eyes in that odd, hesitating way. Immediately every one in the place, with the exception of a single person in the lowest row, took flight in his or her little glass pew. In a moment the great vault overhead was fairly swarming with people; and in less than a minute the last of them had floated out through one of the arches in the walls.

Estra opened a panel in the central cage, and admitted the Venusian who had stayed behind. She--for it appeared to be a young woman--walked with about the same facility as Estra; but as soon as she had entered the space, took the seat Estra had vacated, and waited.

The action rather disappointed the doctor. He removed the interpreting telephone from his head, and asked:

“I rather thought we were going to meet one of your officials, Estra. We’d hate to go back home without having met your president, or whatever you call your chief executive.”

The two Venusians exchanged smiles, and to the surprise of the explorers the woman gave the reply, in language as good as Estra’s, but an even sweeter expression: “There is no such thing as a chief executive on Venus, friends.”

“I meant,” explained the doctor, rattled, “the chairman of your cabinet, or council, or whatever it is that regulates your affairs. Perhaps,” with an inspiration, “I should have said, the speaker of your congress.”

The Venusian shook her head, still smiling. She hesitated while selecting the best words; and the four noted that, while her features were quite as delicate as Estra’s, her face was proportionately larger, and her whole figure better filled out. No one would have said that she was pretty, much less beautiful; but none would deny that she was very good-looking, in a wholesome, intelligent, capable sort of a way. Her name, Estra told them later, was Myrin; and he explained that he and she were associated solely because of their mutual interest in the same planet--the Earth.

Said Myrin: “You are accustomed to the idea of government. We, however, have outgrown it.

“If you stop to think, you will agree that the purpose of government is to maintain peace, on the one hand, and to wage war, on the other. Now, as to war--we haven’t even separate nations, any more. So we have no wars. And as for internal conflict--why should we ever quarrel, when each of us is assured all that he can possibly want?”

“So you have abolished government?”