“Why,” demanded he, “do we see no signs of contention?  If you are familiar with conditions on the earth, you surely know that rivalry, in one form or another, is the accepted basis of life.  But all of you, here, appear to be perfectly happy, and at the same time entirely sure of yourselves.

“We have just come from a planet where we have seen the principle of combat, of competition, carried so far that it seems to have wrecked the race; so you will pardon my curiosity, I am sure.  From your faces, one would conclude that you had abolished self-interest altogether.  Just why are you so—­well, extraordinarily self-complacent?” And he thrust out his aggressive jaw as though to make up for the lack of chins about him.

“Because there is nothing for us to combat, save within ourselves.”  This from a wide-faced chap in a bluish-white suit.

“But surely you have rivalry of some sort?”

“No.”  Another voice added:  “Rivalry is the outgrowth of getting a livelihood; on earth it is inevitable, because men do the work.  Here, everything is done by machines.”  Still another put in:  “Discontent is the mother of ambition, but we are all content, because each possesses all he desires.”

But the geologist was far from satisfied.  “Then,” said he vigorously, “if you have eliminated all contention, you have nullified the great law of contrasts.  You say you are all rich.  How do you know, if you have no poverty to contrast it with?

“On earth, we appreciate warmth because we have experienced cold; pleasure, because we know pain; happiness, because we have always had misery with us.  If we have not had the one, we cannot value the other.

“If you have never been discontented, how do you know that you are content?”

VIII

THE KEY-NOTE

For a minute or two it looked as though Van Emmon had raised an unanswerable question.  There was no immediate reply.  Even Estra looked around, as though in wonder at the silence, and seemed on the point of answering of his own accord when a voice came from a man far up on the left.  He said: 

“A little explanation may be wise.  To begin with, you will agree that black is black because white is white; but it doesn’t follow that blue is blue because green is green, or red is red.  Blue is blue because it is neither green nor red nor any other color.  It is blue, not because it contrasts with these other colors, but because it merely differs from them.

“Now, we on Venus do not need poverty, in order to appreciate wealth.  Instead, each of us is blessed with his own particular choice of wealth.  Each is blessed in a different way; some with children, some with intellect, some with other matters; and the question of mere quantity never enters.”

“We do not need pain or misery,” spoke up someone else, “any more than you people on the earth require an additional color, in order to appreciate the variety you already have.”  And then, from a Venusian with an especially strong voice: