A Dweller on Two Planets: The Dividing of the Way

"Why not?" I asked myself, pausing amidst the snow on the mountain, there so far above the sea that the Storm King was ever supreme, even while summer reigned below. "Am I not an Atlan, a Poseid, and is not that name synonymous with freedom, honor, power? Is not this, my native land, the most glorious beneath the sun? Beneath Incal?" Again I queried:--"Why not, aye, why not strive to become one amongst the foremost in my proud country?"

"Poseid is the Queen of the Sea, yea, and of the world also, since all nations pay tribute of praise and commerce to us--all emulate us. To rule in Poseid, then, is not that virtually to rule over all the earth? Therefore will I strive to grasp the prize, and I will do it, too! And thou, O pale, cold moon, bear witness of my resolve"--I cried aloud, raising my hands to heaven--"And ye also, ye glittering diamonds of the sky."

If resolute effort could insure success, I usually achieved whatever end I determined to attain. So there I made my vows at a great height above the ocean, and above the plain which stretched away westward two thousand miles to Caiphul, the Royal City. So high was it, that all about and below me lay peaks and mountain ranges, vast in themselves, but dwarfed beside the apex whereon I stood.

All around me lay the eternal snows; but what cared I? So filled with the new resolve was my mind--the resolve to become a power in the land of my nativity--that I heeded not the cold. Indeed, I scarce knew that the air about me was cold, was chill as that of the Arctic fields of the remote north.

Many obstacles would have to be surmounted in the accomplishment of this design--for truly, what was I at that moment?

Only a mountaineer's son, poor, fatherless; but, the Fates be praised! not motherless! At thought of her, my mother, miles away, down where the perennial forests waved, where snow seldom fell; while I stood on the storm-kissed summit, alone with the night and my thoughts--at the thought of my mother my eyes grew moist, for I was only a boy, and often a sad enough one, when the hardships which she endured arose to mind. Such reflections were but added incentives to my ambition to do and to be.

Once more my thoughts dwelt on the difficulties I must encounter in my struggle for success, fame and power.

Atlantis, or Poseid, was an empire whose subjects enjoyed the freedom allowed by the most limited monarchical rule, The general law of official succession presented to every male subject a chance for preferment to office. Even the emperor held an elective position, as also did his ministers, the Council of Ninety, or Princes of the Realm--offices analagous to those of the Secretarial Portfolios of the American Republic--its veritable successor. If death claimed the occupant of the throne, or any of the councillors, the elective franchise came into activity, but not otherwise, barring dismissal for malfeasance in office, a penalty which, if incurred by him, not even the emperor was exempt from suffering.