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106 some thousands of years. It is not only probable, but certain, that long before your coal seams are exhausted, some discovery will be made which will enable you to do without coal altogether. When you have filled all the warm seas, depend on it the secret of living comfortably in the colder will assuredly be found."

"At all events," said I, "you will grant that by living entirely under the water, you are almost altogether deprived of the charm of the human voice."

"Stop!" he interrupted, "charm, do you call it? You know very well that for one human voice it is pleasant to listen to there are fifty one would rather not hear, on account of their harshness, their want of modulation, their deficiency in musical timbre or other defects. Besides, we may hear our friends' voices as often as we please, without coming to the surface, by merely putting our heads into the air-reservoir at the top of every room. I consider the absence of disagreeable voices one of the chief charms of subaqueous existence."

"Well," I observed, "it may be owing to the prejudices of my education; but I confess to a great love of the human voice, and would rather hear what you call harsh and unmelodious voices than none at all."

"Tastes differ," he replied; "perhaps the extreme length to which our musical education is carried makes us fastidious and intolerant of all unmusical sounds. But to come to another point; look at your system of marriage and compare it with ours. You rightly say marriage is a lottery, for you know not what kind of person you are marrying, as you have never seen her for her clothes; and these clothes are employed to hide the defects and deformities they have themselves