6. The soil of your planet is dead, hard, stony and not capable of bringing forth anything without the light of the sun. The sun's soil on the other hand is soft and gentle, and not stony or sandy, as the softness of human flesh, or for still greater comprehension, it is as elastic as human flesh, or for still greater comprehension, it is elastic nearly throughout; so that none who happen to fall on the ground would suffer painful injury, the impact being as upon an air-cushion. It is not however of a tough elastic composure like your so-called rubber, but completely loose and not only elastic as a whole but in all its particles, which in themselves are globules filled with true life-ether.

7. Such is indeed also the case with the soil of your planet, but the globules are brittle and so do not yield to a blow or fall, but rather compress further. And, if lying undisturbed alongside one another for many consecutive years, they grip together so stubbornly as to turn to stone, then offering still more stubborn resistance in the natural state than they did in their separate units, for which reason a planet's vegetation must needs be more meager than upon the perfect sun-planet.