Argument

Foreseeing the criticism of dryness that may be levelled at this first part, I have already warned that it is designed for scholarly readers, not for the frivolous. Those who have heard stories about the pleasures of the combined order may have expected to find them depicted here, to see the progressive Series in action and read nothing but seductive details about their domestic lives, the appetising composition of their feasts, the variety of their loves, festivals, entertainments, adventures, travels, etc., and about the voluptuous refinements the new order will introduce into the most insipid tasks.

Some people who have trembled with impatience at the description of these pleasures, unknown within Civilisation, might have liked to insist on having a complete picture, but a balanced approach requires that before I get down to the fine detail I first explain the General Destinies of the planet.

Consequently I shall deal with a period of 80,000 years, encompassing the entire vegetal life of the globe. I shall speak about the various creations which will follow on from that whose fruits we now see, the next one of which will begin in four centuries. I shall explain the physical changes this globe will undergo during the eighty thousand years of vegetation, seventy thousand of which will see the North Pole under full cultivation because of the shining ring of light, or northern crown, which will appear after two centuries of combined order.