The Centaurians
the soul-inspiring passion for the One Woman—a grand affair of a few days, chiefly experienced in this metallic period by very young girls, very old men and, occasionally for relaxation, a staid family man indulges!!! I could talk for months upon this theme; it could never be exhausted; but you, Centauri, I worship! love as no man ever loved! I will be patient, wait years, if in the end I can teach you to truthfully say: 'Virgillius, I love you.'" She gazed at me wonderingly.
"To experience this marvelous sensation, to master the art of love I would study years; for all things I must know. Strange," she continued, "this absorbing science should have become obsolete."
Suddenly she leaned closer, her great eyes blazed, her face paled with intensity. "Of your journey across the Pole," she whispered, "you must tell me minutely; the atmospheric influences, the state of the land, the great fiery geyser shooting up from the bowels of the earth. In the privacy of my rooms you will describe everything. I, Alpha, noted for her wisdom, would remedy, overpower the evils of nature. The benighted pivot regions shall become habitable. I will control the atmosphere. The laws of creation are desecrated by that monstrous icy waste. Earth is the vast estate of humanity, and the mystery, richness of that world of frigid savageness was destined for progression to conquer. I shall realize the stupendous ambition of civilization. The reward? Immortality, ah, immortality!"
She arose, erect in her superb pride and the flow
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