ubdivided.

"Not exactly," he said, "because they multiply, of course, every year as
the surplus of each community is drafted off. But I heard my father say
that, according to the last report, there were a million and a half of
communities speaking our language, and adopting our institutions and
forms of life and government; but, I believe, with some differences,
about which you had better ask Zee. She knows more than most of the Ana
do. An An cares less for things that do not concern him than a Gy does;
the Gy-ei are inquisitive creatures."

"Does each community restrict itself to the same number of families or
amount of population that you do?"

"No; some have much smaller populations, some have larger--varying
according to the extent of the country they appropriate, or to the
degree of excellence to which they have brought their machinery. Each
community sets its own limit according to circumstances, taking care
always that there shall never arise any class of poor by the pressure of
population upon the productive powers of the domain; and that no
state shall be too large for a government resembling that of a
single well-ordered family. I imagine that no vril community exceeds
thirty-thousand households. But, as a general rule, the smaller
the community, provided there be hands enough to do justice to the
capacities of the territory it occupies, the richer each individual is,
and the larger the sum contributed to the general treasury,--above all,
the happier and the more tranquil is the whole political body, and the
more perfect the products of its industry. The state which all tribes of
the Vril-ya acknowledge to be the highest in civilisation, and which
has brought the vril force to its fullest development, is perhaps the
smallest. It limits itself to four thousand families; but every inch of
its territory is cultivated to the utmost perfection of garden ground;
its machinery excels that of every other tribe, and there is no
product of its industry in any department which is not sought for, at
extraordinary prices, by each community of our race. All our tribes make
this state their model, considering that we should reach the highest
state of civilisation allowed to mortals if we could unite the greatest
degree of happiness with the highest degree of intellectual achievement;
and it is clear that the smaller the society the less difficult that
will be. Ours is too large for it."

This reply set me thinking. I re