above the peak a great illuminated sphere, like a chariot of
light, miraculously came floating down; and the blaze was such that I
could hardly bear to look at it. And exclamations of wonder and joy came
from the people's throats; and I too cried out in joy and wonder as the
radiant globe descended, and as it alighted on the plain before us,
casting a sunlike aura over everything in sight. Then through the sides
of the enormous ball--I would not say, through the door, for nothing of
the kind was visible--a glorious being emerged, followed by several of
his kind. He was shaped like a man, and was no taller than a man, and
yet there was that about him which said that he was greater than a man,
for light seemed to pour from every cell of his body, and a golden halo
was about his head, and his eyes shot forth golden beams so intense and
so magnetic that, once having observed them, I could hardly take my gaze
away.

With slow steps he advanced, motioning the people to him; and they drew
near, and flung themselves before him on the ground, and cried out in
adoration. And I too threw myself to earth, in worship of this
superhuman creature; and I heard the words he spoke, and with some
deeper sense I translated them, though they were not uttered in any
language I knew:

"Out of the stars we come, O men! and back to the stars we shall go,
that the best of your race may be transplanted there, and survive
through means known to us, and again be populous and great. Through the
immense evil within the breasts of your kind, you have been purged and
all but annihilated; but the good within your race has also been mighty,
and can never be expunged; and that good has called through you
surviving few to us your guardians, that we may take you to another
planet, and replenish you there, and teach you that lore of love and
truth and beauty which the blind members of your species have neglected
here while they unfitted the earth for human habitation."

So speaking, the radiant one motioned to the people, who arose, and
followed him inside the great sphere of light; and when they had all
entered, it slowly began to ascend, and slowly dwindled and disappeared
against the morning skies. And now, I knew, there was no longer a man
left anywhere on earth; yet as I gazed at the deserted shore, the empty
beach and the bare mountainside, a sense of supreme satisfaction came
over me, as though I knew that in the end, after fire and agony and
degr