“It seemed to me,” said Georges, “that my fall from the balloon knocked me senseless.  When I came to, I was lying in the darkness with the ripple of lake-water breaking on my ear.  What amazed me was a strange sense of lightness that made me feel I could rise up and float away if I wanted to.  Thinking this was a disorder of the mind, I did not attempt to move, but watched with wondering eyes the sky above me.  It was lighted by two strange moons.  When the day broke, and showed around me a world of unimaginable splendour, I knew the meaning of the two moons and of my strange feeling of lightness.  I was a disembodied spirit that had been transported to Mars.

“Do you know, Camille, that the soul is able to choose its mortal covering?  This is, at least, the case on Mars.  For some time I wandered about in an invisible form, studying the conditions of life there.  Animal strength, I found, counted for nothing.  The Martians are an aerial race, with exquisite senses, which respond in a way unknown on earth to spiritual influences.  Do you remember I read your thoughts when we first met, and answered them before you spoke?  That is one of the Martians’ gifts.  Finding that these wonderful faculties were better developed in the women of Mars than in the men, I chose the feminine form for my reincarnation.”

“And Iclea?” I said.

“Iclea,” said Spero, “was re-born in a masculine shape.  It was partly because of the mystic attraction that I felt for her that I chose the other form.  Neither of us remembered our earthly existence, but a vague yet deep sentiment of our spiritual relationship made me seek her out and unite myself to her.  It was your beloved muse Uriana,” he added, “who revealed the ties that bound us in our former lives.

“Owing to their superior faculties, the Martians have carried every science to a perfection undreamt of on this earth.  In astronomical observations, for instance, they employ a system of telephotography.  For thousands of years their instruments have been photographing, on an unending roll of paper, the wild spectacle of terrestrial life.

“One day, as Iclea and I were examining recent photographs, we saw a picture of Paris during the Great Exhibition.  Seizing a microscope, we looked at the figures, and recognised ourselves among them.  Strange memories stirred within us, and we stared at each other in silent amazement.  Suddenly I remembered the sacred words I learnt at my mother’s knee.  Yes, there were many mansions in our Father’s house!  The blood-stained planet from which we had escaped was neither the cradle nor the grave of His children.

“Then we wept as we thought of the cruelty, ignorance, misery, and grossness of existence on earth.  It was, dear Camille, with no joy that I recollected the promise I had made to you.  But, you see, I have carried it out.  I wish to convince you, and, through you, all the rest of mankind, that the soul is immortal, and that the earth is only a temporary stage of existence in a spiritual progress in which the whole universe is included.”