strengths. Understanding flowed between these two: here was no need for inferior gestures such as exchanging glances, or meaningful nods.
In front of us the avenue of trees curved away and slightly down to a cluster of tall white buildings.
âIt will be better if we arrange a gathering of a Ten,â said one and forthwith he departed, with strides so long that he was at the end of the avenue in a moment, his immense figure in scale with the buildings he approached, seeming to hold them in proportion.
âMy name is Jarsum,â said my companion, and we walked forward. He dawdled and stopped and lingered, while I walked my fastest, but there was no strain here, and I saw that Giants and Natives were in the habit of walking together and had adapted themselves to this form of companionship.
When I was near the arrangement of the Giantsâ buildings, they were certainly tall, but not oppressive; but inside the one we entered, I did feel strained and stretched, for the cylinder seemed to reach up forever above my head, and the seats and chairs were almost my height. Jarsum saw this and he sent instruction through an instrument that a Native-sized chair, table, and bed should be fetched and placed inside a special room that was smaller than the others. Even so, when I came to inhabit it, I found these articles of furniture comical enough, in a Giant-sized room.
This room, or hall, was used as a meeting place. In a short time, ten Giants had arrived. They sat on the floor, ignoring their usual seating arrangements, and put me on a pile of folded rugs, adjusted so that our faces were at the same level. They sat waiting for me to begin. They looked troubled, but not more than that. I was looking around at these kingly, magnificent beings, and thought that there can be no one so armed against shock that it is not felt, when it comes. And Iwould have to go slowly stage by stage, even with such beings as these.
I had to tell them that their history was over. That their purpose here was over. That the long evolution they had so brilliantly conducted and which they had believed was only just beginning â was over. As individuals they had a future, for they would be taken off to other planets. But they would no longer have an existence and a function as they had been taught to see themselves.
An individual may be told she, he, is to die, and will accept it. For the species will go on. Her or his children will die, and even absurdly and arbitrarily â but the species will go on. But that a whole species, or race, will cease, or drastically change â no, that cannot be taken in, accepted, not without a total revolution of the deepest self.
To identify with ourselves as individuals â this is the very essence of the Degenerative Disease, and every one of us in the Canopean Empire is taught to value ourselves only insofar as we are in harmony with the plan, the phases of our evolution. What I had to say would strike at everything we all valued most, for it could be no comfort here to be told: You will survive as individuals.
As for the Natives, there was no message of hope for them, unless the news that there would be a remission in the long-distant future could be called that. Evolution would begin again â after long ages.
The Giantsâ reason for being, their function, their
use,
was the development of the Natives, who were their other halves, their own substances. But the Natives had nothing ahead of them but degeneration ⦠The Giants were in the position of the healthy, or healthier, twin who will be saved in an operation in which the other one must die.
I had to say all this.
I said it.
And waited, for this much to be taken in.
I can remember how I sat there, ridiculously perched on that heap of rugs, feeling myself a pygmy, watching their faces, and Jarsumâs in particular. Now I was on a level withhim, I saw that he stood out among the others. This was a man with an
In front of us the avenue of trees curved away and slightly down to a cluster of tall white buildings.
âIt will be better if we arrange a gathering of a Ten,â said one and forthwith he departed, with strides so long that he was at the end of the avenue in a moment, his immense figure in scale with the buildings he approached, seeming to hold them in proportion.
âMy name is Jarsum,â said my companion, and we walked forward. He dawdled and stopped and lingered, while I walked my fastest, but there was no strain here, and I saw that Giants and Natives were in the habit of walking together and had adapted themselves to this form of companionship.
When I was near the arrangement of the Giantsâ buildings, they were certainly tall, but not oppressive; but inside the one we entered, I did feel strained and stretched, for the cylinder seemed to reach up forever above my head, and the seats and chairs were almost my height. Jarsum saw this and he sent instruction through an instrument that a Native-sized chair, table, and bed should be fetched and placed inside a special room that was smaller than the others. Even so, when I came to inhabit it, I found these articles of furniture comical enough, in a Giant-sized room.
This room, or hall, was used as a meeting place. In a short time, ten Giants had arrived. They sat on the floor, ignoring their usual seating arrangements, and put me on a pile of folded rugs, adjusted so that our faces were at the same level. They sat waiting for me to begin. They looked troubled, but not more than that. I was looking around at these kingly, magnificent beings, and thought that there can be no one so armed against shock that it is not felt, when it comes. And Iwould have to go slowly stage by stage, even with such beings as these.
I had to tell them that their history was over. That their purpose here was over. That the long evolution they had so brilliantly conducted and which they had believed was only just beginning â was over. As individuals they had a future, for they would be taken off to other planets. But they would no longer have an existence and a function as they had been taught to see themselves.
An individual may be told she, he, is to die, and will accept it. For the species will go on. Her or his children will die, and even absurdly and arbitrarily â but the species will go on. But that a whole species, or race, will cease, or drastically change â no, that cannot be taken in, accepted, not without a total revolution of the deepest self.
To identify with ourselves as individuals â this is the very essence of the Degenerative Disease, and every one of us in the Canopean Empire is taught to value ourselves only insofar as we are in harmony with the plan, the phases of our evolution. What I had to say would strike at everything we all valued most, for it could be no comfort here to be told: You will survive as individuals.
As for the Natives, there was no message of hope for them, unless the news that there would be a remission in the long-distant future could be called that. Evolution would begin again â after long ages.
The Giantsâ reason for being, their function, their
use,
was the development of the Natives, who were their other halves, their own substances. But the Natives had nothing ahead of them but degeneration ⦠The Giants were in the position of the healthy, or healthier, twin who will be saved in an operation in which the other one must die.
I had to say all this.
I said it.
And waited, for this much to be taken in.
I can remember how I sat there, ridiculously perched on that heap of rugs, feeling myself a pygmy, watching their faces, and Jarsumâs in particular. Now I was on a level withhim, I saw that he stood out among the others. This was a man with an
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