people wholly unfamiliarized to a spectacle so indecorous. That care
for one's personal safety which is the first duty of thoughtful man
compels me therefore to reconcile the appearance of 'la Verite' to the
'bienseances' of the polished society in which 'la Liberte' admits no
opinion not dressed after the last fashion.

Attired as fiction, Truth may be peacefully received; and, despite the
necessity thus imposed by prudence, I indulge the modest hope that I do
not in these pages unfaithfully represent certain prominent types of the
brilliant population which has invented so many varieties of Koom-Posh;

[Koom-Posh, Glek-Nas. For the derivation of these terms and their
metaphorical signification, I must refer the reader to the "Coming
Race," chapter xii., on the language of the Vril-ya. To those who
have not read or have forgotten that historical composition, it may
be convenient to state briefly that Koom-Posh with the Vril-ya is
the name for the government of the many, or the ascendency of the
most ignorant or hollow, and may be loosely rendered Hollow-Bosh.
When Koom-Posh degenerates from popular ignorance into the popular
ferocity which precedes its decease, the name for that state of
things is Glek-Nas; namely, the universal strife-rot.]

and even when it appears hopelessly lost in the slough of a Glek-Nas,
re-emerges fresh and lively as if from an invigorating plunge into the
Fountain of Youth. O Paris, 'foyer des idees, et oeil du monde!'--
animated contrast to the serene tranquillity of the Vril-ya, which,
nevertheless, thy noisiest philosophers ever pretend to make the goal
of their desires: of all communities on which shines the sun and descend
the rains of heaven, fertilizing alike wisdom and folly, virtue and vice;
in every city men have yet built on this earth,--mayest thou, O Paris, be