ut the old, old tale of might against
right, and the tragedy of a trusting, kindly people, blindly thinking
others as just as themselves.

"For thousands of years, since the master life-giver had come from one
of the stars to populate the world, the Oroid nation had dwelt in peace
and security. These people cared nothing for adventure. No restless
thirst for knowledge led them to explore deeply the limitless land
surrounding them. Even from the earliest times no struggle for
existence, no doctrine of the survival of the fittest, hung over them as
with us. No wild animals harassed them; no savages menaced them. A
fertile boundless land, a perfect climate, nurtured them tenderly.

"Under such conditions they developed only the softer, gentler qualities
of nature. Many laws among them were unnecessary, for life was so
simple, so pleasant to live, and the attainment of all the commonly
accepted standards of wealth so easy, that the incentive to wrongdoing
was almost non-existent.

"Strangely enough, and fortunately, too, no individuals rose among them
with the desire for power. Those in command were respected and loved as
true workers for the people, and they accepted their authority in the
same spirit with which it was given. Indolence, in its highest sense the
wonderful art of doing nothing gracefully, played the greatest part in
their life.

"Then, after centuries of ease and peaceful security, came the
awakening. Almost without warning another nation had come out of the
unknown to attack them.

"With the hurt feeling that comes to a child unjustly treated, they all
but succumbed to this first onslaught. The abduction of numbers of their
women, for such seemed the principal purpose of the invaders, aroused
them sufficiently to repel this first crude attack. Their manhood
challenged, their anger as a nation awakened for the first time, they
sprang as one man into the horror we call war.

"With the defeat of the Malites came another period of ease and
security. They had learned no lesson, but went their indolent way,
playing through life like the kindly children they were. During this
last period some intercourse between them and the Malites took place.
The latter people, whose origin was probably nearly opposite them on the
inner surface, had by degrees pushed their frontiers closer and closer
to the Oroids. Trade between the two was carried on to some extent, but
the character of the Malites, their instinctive des