"
"Favorable or unfavorable?" I asked.
"Unfavorable, for this reason. If these people could be made to
understand that we are visitors from another world, and not inhabitants
of the other side of their own planet, they might treat us with greater
consideration, and even with a certain superstitious deference. The
imagination is doubtless as active with them as with terrestrial beings,
and if you can once touch the imagination, even of the most intelligent
and instructed persons, you can do almost anything you choose with them.
But how am I to convey to them any idea of this kind? Seeing neither sun,
nor moon, nor stars, they can have no conception of such a thing as
another world than their own."
"Couldn't you persuade them," said Jack, "that we come from the upper
side of the cloud dome? You could pretend that it's very fine living up
there--plenty of sunshine and good air."
Edmund laughed.
"I'm afraid, Jack, that they are too intelligent to believe that a person
of your avoirdupois could walk on the clouds. You're not quite angelic
enough for that. I'm sure that they know perfectly well what the dome
consists of.
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