Page:A thousand years hence. Being personal experiences (IA thousandyearshen00gree).djvu/339

 companies, with their mail packets and other great liners, as we have them to-day, did not spring at once into being. We found the Marsians to be good common-sense people, notwithstanding the peculiarity of many of their institutions. They had, indeed, curiously mixed characteristics; for while they were a progressive people, ever disposed to learn, and to profit by what they learnt, they at the same time cherished and vigorously clung to many odd old customs and prejudices.

There were, in that respect, two great opposing political parties in the planet: the one, called the Old Party, whose instincts were mainly with the traditional conditions, and who very grudgingly allowed of the disturbance of change; the other, called the New Party, whose views and instincts lay entirely the other way, and who welcomed all new and progressive ideas, and very often, to the great scandal of their opponents, treated a good many odd but venerable old institutions of the planet with but scant ceremony. This latter party welcomed us with open arms; and for that very reason, if for no other, there was always something of a grudging and suspicious feeling towards us from the other side. But unquestionably, as both sides admitted, a grand era had opened to the planet by this personal communication with his great neighbour and brother, the Earth.

Let me offer here still a few more words on Marsian characteristics, preparatory to the personal visit which I and my young friend are now on our way to pay to