Friendship for one's neighbor was transmuted into
love for one's brother. The pursuit of personal gain was replaced by a
desire to work for the good of all, and now a keen individual sense of
right and duty actuates the entire population, and is paramount in all
things. Duties are performed without other compensation than that which
the fulfillment of something well done brings.
"It was soon found that the remarkable regenerating properties of these
rays perpetuated life and youth. Not only did they prevent sickness of
any kind, but they rebuilt the tissues of the body as fast as they wore
out, thus making the aging of the body impossible. A child therefore
grows up to full manhood or womanhood and remains in that state of the
body's highest excellence. While the child is developing the rays
stimulate his progress; anything beyond that would be decaying, a
condition the rays prevent."
Accustomed though I had become to a long recital of the most marvelous
accounts without interrupting, I could not suppress an exclamation of
astonishment at the information that Martians enjoy everlasting life.
Almos received my evident amazement with the quiet smile I had grown
accustomed to observe upon such occasions, and, with a view of
illustrating the point further, said:
"Although one's actual age becomes a very unimportant matter when,
instead of being limited to sixty or seventy years, it extends over
hundreds of years, I can readily ascertain my age, from the fact that I
was twenty years old at the time these wonderful rays were discovered.
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