238 BOOK OF THE DAMNED 



of Exclusionism in China and Japan and in the United States has 

 astonished History. The science of astronomy is going downward 

 so that, though Pickering, for instance, did speculate upon a Trans- 

 Neptunian planet, and Lowell did try to have accepted heretical 

 ideas as to marks on Mars, attention is now minutely focussed upon 

 such technicalities as variations in shades of Jupiter's fourth satel- 

 lite. I think that, in general acceptance, over-refinement indicates 

 decadence. 



I think that the stronghold of Inclusionism is in aeronautics. I 

 think that the stronghold of the Old Dominant, when it was new, 

 was in the invention of the telescope. Or that, coincidentally with 

 the breakdown of Exclusionism appears the means of finding out 

 whether there are vast aerial fields of ice and floating lakes full of 

 frogs and fishes or not where carved stones and black substances 

 and great quantities of vegetable matter and flesh, which may be 

 dragons' flesh, come from whether there are inter-planetary trade 

 routes and vast areas devastated by Super-Tamerlanes whether 

 sometimes there are visitors to this earth who might be pursued 

 and captured and questioned. 



