find the character of the author. Problem."

"I shall proceed cautiously in the affair. Before I commit myself, I
must be satisfied by inspection and trial that there is neither trickery
nor self-delusion on his part. We can make some trial trips, and gain
experience before we attempt to leave the world."

"If you take my advice you will keep to the earth altogether."

"Surely, if we can ascend into the higher regions of the atmosphere, we
can traverse empty space. You would have me stop within sight of the
goal. The end of travel is to reach the other planets."

"Why not say the fixed stars when you are about it?"

"That's impossible."

"On the contrary, with a vessel large enough to contain the necessaries
of life, a select party of ladies and gentlemen might start for the
Milky Way, and if all went right, their descendants would arrive there
in the course of a few million years."

"Rather a long journey, I'm afraid."

"What would you have? A million years quotha! nay, not so much. It
depends on the speed and the direction taken. If they were able to
cover, say, the distance from Liverpool to New York in a tenth of a
second, they would get to Alpha in the constellation Centaur, perhaps
the nearest of the fixed stars, in twenty or thirty years--a mere
bagatelle. But why should we stop there?" went on Gazen. "Why should we