substitute for coal, better than coal in many ways, and before
this German shall have been dead many years some other will find
a further substitute far better and cheaper than his.

There is endless heat power in the action of the tides, in the
rush of Niagara, in the winds, and in endless chemical
combinations. Heat is motion, and the Universe is motion. Men
will soon cease lighting tiny bonfires to obtain crude heat in a
crude way. Electricity or the sun's own rays, concentrated for
heating purposes, will do the work without any digging in mines
by men, or delving in ashes and clinkers by women.

The story of antiquity, more or less fictitious, of the burning
of a fleet with the aid of a glass and the sunbeams, will be
matter-of-fact reality long before the coal shall have been
exhausted.



HOW THE OTHER PLANETS WILL TALK TO US

We talk of civilization as though it necessarily implied
improvement.

Civilization means the school and the library, but it also means
the prison and the poorhouse.

Two short stories illustrate different views of what we call
civilization: