rning, very ancient and very new, and
with some Encyclopedia-garnered facts or deductions of what had happened
between.

Moreover, he took to astronomical research, for more than once we saw
him standing on the rock at night studying the heavens. On one of these
occasions, when he had the two metal plates, of which I have spoken, in
his hands, I ventured to approach and ask what he did. He replied that
he was checking his calculations that he found to be quite correct,
an exact period of two hundred and fifty thousand years having gone
by since he laid himself down to sleep. Then, by aid of the plates,
he pointed out to me certain alterations that had happened during that
period in the positions of some of the stars.

For instance, he showed me one which, by help of my glasses, I
recognised as Sirius, and remarked that two hundred and fifty thousand
years ago it was further away and much smaller. Now it was precisely in
the place and of the size which he had predicted, and he pointed to it
on his prophetic map. Again he indicated a star that the night-glass
told me was Capella, which, I suppose, is one of the most brilliant
stars in the sky, and showed me that on the map he had made two hundred
and fifty thousand years ago, it did not exist, as then it was too far
north to appear thereon. Still, he observed, the passage of this vast
period of time had produced but little effect upon the face of the
heavens. To the human eye the majority of the stars had not moved so
very far.

"And yet they travel fast, O Humphrey," he said. "Consider then how
great is their journey between the time they gather and that day when,
worn-out, once more they melt to vaporous gas. You think me long-lived
who compared to them exist but a tiny fraction of a second, nearly all
of which I have been doomed to pass in sleep. And, Humphrey, I desire
to live--I, who have great plans and would shake the world. But my
day draws in; a few brief centuries and I shall be gone, and--whither,
whither?"

"If you lived as long as those stars, the end would be the same, Oro."

"Yes, but the life of the stars is very long, millions of millions
of years; also, after death, they reform, as other stars. But shall I
reform as another Oro? With all my wisdom, I do not know. It is known
to Fate only--Fate-the master of worlds and men and the gods they
worship--Fate, whom it may please to spill my gathered knowledge, to be
lost in the sands of Time."

"It see