necessitates our taking a continued
interest in the affairs of any of our poorer countrymen, so that we may
anticipate their wants and see that none fall into poverty. There is
an old proverb amongst us which says, 'The poor man's need is the rich
man's shame---'"

"Pardon me, if I interrupt you for a moment. You allow that some, even
of the Vril-ya, know want, and need relief."

"If by want you mean the destitution that prevails in a Koom-Posh, THAT
is impossible with us, unless an An has, by some extraordinary process,
got rid of all his means, cannot or will not emigrate, and has either
tired out the affectionate aid of this relations or personal friends, or
refuses to accept it."

"Well, then, does he not supply the place of an infant or automaton, and
become a labourer--a servant?"

"No; then we regard him as an unfortunate person of unsound reason,
and place him, at the expense of the State, in a public building, where
every comfort and every luxury that can mitigate his affliction are
lavished upon him. But an An does not like to be considered out of his
mind, and therefore such cases occur so seldom that the public building
I speak of is now a deserted ruin, and the last inmate of it was an An
whom I recollect to have seen in my childhood. He did not seem conscious
of loss of reason, and wrote glaubs (poetry). When I spoke of wants, I
meant such wants as an An with desires larger than his means sometimes
entertains--for expensive singing-birds, or bigger houses, or
country-gardens; and the obvious way to satisfy such wants is to buy of
him something that he sells. Hence Ana like myself, who are very rich,
are obliged to buy a great many things they do not require, and live on
a very large scale where they might prefer to live on a small one. For
instance, the great size of my house in the town is a source of much
trouble to my wife, and even to myself; but I am compelled to have it
thus incommodiously large, because, as the richest An of the community,
I am appointed to entertain the strangers from the other communities
when they visit us, which they do in great crowds twice-a-year, when
certain periodical entertainments are held, and when relations scattered
throughout all the realms of the Vril-ya joyfully reunite for a time.
This hospitality, on a scale so extensive, is not to my taste, and
therefore I should have been happier had I been less rich. But we must
all bear the lot assigned to us in this shor