{"collection":"philosophy-ethics","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_43835/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_43835","id":"gutenberg_43835","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/43835","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Novels","Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Human-alien encounters -- Fiction","Science fiction","Space and time -- Fiction"],"text":"LUMEN\n\n    _The One Hundred and Forty-first of the Minor Planets,\n    situated between Mars and Jupiter, which was discovered\n    at the Paris Observatory by M. Paul Henry, on the 13th\n    of January 1875, received the name of LUMEN in honour\n    of the Author of this Work._\n\n\n\n\nLUMEN\n\n    BY\n    CAMILLE FLAMMARION\n\n    AUTHORISED TRANSLATION FROM THE FRENCH\n\n    BY\n    A. A. M. AND R. M.\n\n    _With portions of the last chapter written specially\n    for the English Edition_\n\n\n    NEW YORK\n    DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY\n    1897\n\n\n\n\n    _Copyright, 1897,_\n    BY DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY.\n\n    _Fifty-two thousand copies of the French original\n    of this volume have been sold_\n\n    University Press:\n    JOHN WILSON AND SON, CAMBRIDGE, U.S.A.\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n\n    FIRST CONVERSATION\n\n                                             PAGE\n    RESURRECTIO PR\u00c6TERITI                    1-63\n\n    Death--The soul--The hour of death--Separation of the\n    soul--Sight of the soul in Heaven--The Solar System in\n    the heavens--The Earth as seen from the heavens--The\n    star Capella--Velocity of light--The terrestrial planet\n    seen from afar--The worlds seen from afar--Lumen--Lumen\n    sees again his own life.\n\n\n    SECOND CONVERSATION\n\n    REFLUUM TEMPORIS                       64-105\n\n    Journey on a ray of light--Events\n    retraced--Re-ascending the Ages--Psychical\n    optics--Light and sound--Man organised from the\n    planet--The soul and destiny.\n\n\n    THIRD CONVERSATION\n\n    HOMO HOMUNCULUS                       106-128\n\n    The sphere of human observation--Time and space--Events\n    in space--Time, space, and eternity.\n\n    FOURTH CONVERSATION\n\n    ANTERIORES VIT\u00c6                       129-196\n\n    Space and light--The star Gamma in Virgo--The system\n    of Gamma in Virgo--Former existence--The plurality\n    of existences--The unknown--The constellations--The\n    elements--Life on the earth--The process of\n    alimentation--Nutritive atmospheres--Poetry on the\n    Earth--A humanity--The organisation of beings--The\n    development of life--The genealogical tree of life--The\n    men-plants--Souls and atoms--Other senses--Atoms and\n    monads.\n\n\n    FIFTH CONVERSATION\n\n    INGENIUM AUDAX: NATURA AUDACIOR       197-224\n\n    A world in Orion--Analysis of the nervous system--The\n    Commune--Animated molecules--Various forms of\n    life--Infinite diversity on Sirius--Phosphorescent\n    passions--Lives too long--Infinite diversity--The\n    magnifying power of time--A chrono-telescope--Light.\n\n\n\n\nLUMEN\n\n\n\n\nFIRST CONVERSATION\n\nRESURRECTIO PR\u00c6TERITI\n\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. You promised, dear Lumen, to describe to me that supremest of\nmoments which immediately succeeds death, and to relate to me how, by\na natural law, singular though it may seem, you lived again your past\nlife, and penetrated a hitherto-unrevealed mystery.\n\nLUMEN. Yes, my old friend, I will now keep my word; and I trust that,\nthanks to the life-long communion of our souls, you will be able to\nunderstand the phenomenon you deem so strange.\n\n[Sidenote: Life and death.]\n\nThere are many conceptions which a mortal mind finds difficult to\ngrasp. Death, which has delivered me from the weak and easily-tired\nsenses of the body, has not yet touched you with its liberating hand;\nyou still belong to the living world, and in spite of your isolation\nin this retreat of yours amid the royal towers of the Faubourg St.\nJaques, you still belong to the life of Earth, and are occupied with\nits petty distinctions. You must not, therefore, be surprised if,\nwhilst I am explaining to you this mystery, I beg of you to isolate\nyourself still further from outer things, and to give me the most\n_fixed attention_ of which your mind is capable.\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. My one desire is to listen to your revelations; speak,\ntherefore, without fear and to the point, and deign to acquaint me with\nthose impressions, as yet to me unknown, which are experienced upon the\ncessation of life.\n\nLUMEN. From what point do you wish me to begin my recital?\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. If you can recall it, I shall be pleased if you will begin at\nthe moment when my trembling hands closed your eyes.\n\n[Sidenote: Death.]\n\nLUMEN. The separation of the thinking principle from the nervous system\nleaves no remembrance. It is as though the impressions made upon the\nbrain which constitute memory were entirely effaced, to be renewed\nafterwards in another form. The first sensation of identity felt\nafter death resembles that which is felt during life on awakening in\nthe morning, when still confused with the visions of the night, the\nmind, wavering between the past and the future, endeavours to recover\nitself, and at the same time to retain the vanishing dreams, the\npictures and events of which are still passing before it. At times when\nthus absorbed in the recollection of a delightful dream, the eyelids\nclose, and in a half slumber the visions reappear. It is thus that our\nthinking faculty is divided at death, between a reality that it does\nnot yet comprehend and a dream which has completely disappeared. The\nmost conflicting impressions mingle in and confuse the mind, and if,\noverwhelmed by perishable feelings, a regret comes into the mind for\nthe world that has been left behind, a sense of indefinable sadness\nweighs upon and darkens the imagination and hinders clearness of vision.\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. Did you feel these sensations immediately after death?\n\n[Sidenote: No such thing as death.]\n\n[Sidenote: Not death, but change.]\n\nLUMEN. After death? There is no such thing as death. What you call\ndeath--the separation of the body from the soul--is not, strictly\nspeaking, effected in a material form like the chemical separation of\na combination of elements such as one sees in the world of matter. One\nis no more conscious of this final separation, which seems to you so\ncruel, than the new-born babe is aware of his birth. We are born into\nthe heavenly life as unconsciously as we were born into the earthly;\nonly the soul, no longer enveloped by its bodily covering, acquires\nmore rapidly the consciousness of its individuality and of its powers.\nThis faculty of perception varies essentially between one soul and\nanother. There are those who, during their earthly life, never lift\ntheir souls toward heaven, and never feel a desire to penetrate the\nlaws of creation; these, being still dominated by fleshly appetites,\nremain long in a troubled and semi-conscious state. There are others\nwhose aspirations have happily flown upwards towards the eternal\nheights; to these the moment of separation comes with calmness and\npeace. They know that progress is the law of being, and that the\nlife to come will be better than that which they have quitted. They\nfollow, step by step, that lethargy which reaches at last to the\nheart, and when, slowly and insensibly, the last pulsation ceases,\nthe departed are already above the body whose falling asleep they\nhave been watching. Freeing themselves from the magnetic bonds, they\nfeel themselves swiftly borne, by an unknown force, toward the point\nof creation, to which their sentiments, their aspirations, and their\nhopes have drawn them.\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. The conversation into which I have drawn you, my dear master,\nrecalls to my memory the dialogues of Plato on the immortality of the\nsoul; and as Ph\u00e6drus asked his master, Socrates, on the day he had\nto drink the hemlock in obedience to the iniquitous sentence of the\nAthenians, I ask you--you who have passed the dread boundary--what is\nthe essential difference which distinguishes the soul from the body,\nsince the latter dies, whilst the former cannot die?\n\n[Sidenote: Life viewed scientifically.]\n\nLUMEN. I shall not imitate Socrates by giving a metaphysical answer to\nthis question, nor shall I, with the theologians, reply in a dogmatic\nway; but I will give you instead a scientific answer, for you, like\nmyself, accept only as of real value the results of positive knowledge.\n\n[Sidenote: Renewal of the body.]\n\n[Sidenote: Atoms and molecules.]\n\nWe find in the human being three principles, _different, and yet in\ncomplete union_: 1. The body; 2. The vital energy; 3. The soul. I\nname them thus in order that I may follow the _a posteriori_ method.\nThe body is an association of molecules which are themselves formed\nof groups of atoms. The atoms are inert, passive, immutable, and\nindestructible. They enter into the organism by means of respiration\nand alimentation; they renew the tissues incessantly, and are\ncontinually replaced by others, and when cast out from the body go to\nform other bodies. In a few months the human body is entirely renewed,\nand neither in the blood, nor in the flesh, nor in the brain, nor in\nthe bones, does an atom remain of those which constituted the body\na few months before. The atoms travel without ceasing from body to\nbody, chiefly by the grand medium of the atmosphere. The molecule of\niron is the same whether it be incorporated in the blood which throbs\nin the temples of an illustrious man, or form part of a fragment of\nrusty iron; the molecule of oxygen is the same in the blush raised by\na loving glance, or when in union with hydrogen it forms the flame of\none of the thousand jets of gas that illuminate Paris by night, or when\nit falls from the clouds in the shape of a drop of water. The bodies\nof the living are formed of the ashes of the dead, and if all the dead\nwere to be resuscitated, the last comers might find the material for\ntheir bodies wanting, owing to their predecessors having appropriated\nall that was available. Moreover, during life many exchanges are made\nbetween enemies and friends, between men, animals, and plants, which\namaze the analyst who looks at them with the eyes of science. That\nwhich you breathe, eat, and drink, has been breathed, drunk, and eaten\nmillions of times before. Such is the human body, an assemblage of\nmolecules of matter which are constantly being renewed. The principle\nby which these molecules are grouped according to a certain form so as\nto produce an organism, is the vital energy of life. The inert, passive\natoms, incapable of guiding themselves, are ruled by vital force, which\ncalls them, makes them come, takes hold of them, places and disposes of\nthem according to certain laws, and forms this marvellously-organised\nbody, which the anatomist and the physiologist contemplate with wonder.\n\n[Sidenote: Atoms indestructible.]\n\n[Sidenote: Vital energy or force in nature and man.]\n\n[Sidenote: Vital force has limits.]\n\nThe atoms are indestructible; vital force is not: atoms have no age;\nvital force is born, grows old, and dies. Why is an octogenarian\nolder than a youth of twenty, since the atoms of which his body is\ncomposed have only belonged to his frame a few months, and since\natoms are neither old nor young? The constituent elements of his\nbody when analysed have no age, and what is old in him is solely his\nvital energy, which is but one of the forms of the general energy of\nthe universe, and which in his case has become exhausted. Life is\ntransmitted by generation, and sustains the body instinctively, and,\nas it were, unconsciously. It has a beginning and an end. It is an\nunconscious physical force, which organises and maintains the body\nof which it is the preserving element. The soul is an intellectual,\nthinking, immaterial being. The world of ideas in which the soul lives\nis not the world of matter. It has no age, it does not grow old. It is\nnot changed in a few months like the body; for after months, years,\ndozens of years, we feel that we have preserved our identity--that\nour _ego_, ourself, is always ours. On the other hand, if the soul did\nnot exist, and if the faculty of thinking were only a function of the\nbrain, we should no longer be able to say that _we have_ a body, for\nit would be our body, our brain, _that would have us_. Besides, from\ntime to time our consciousness would change; we should no longer have\na feeling of identity, and we should no longer be responsible for the\nresolutions, secreted by the molecules, which had passed through the\nbrain many months before. The soul is not the vital force; for that\nis limited and is transmitted by generation, has no consciousness of\nitself, is born, grows up, declines, and dies. All these states are\nopposed to those of the soul, which is immaterial, unlimited, not\ntransmissible, conscious.\n\n[Sidenote: The soul has no limits.]\n\nThe development of the vital force may be represented geometrically\nby a spindle, which swells out gradually to the middle, and decreases\nagain to a point. When the soul reaches the middle of life, it does\nnot become less, like a spindle, and dwindle down to the end, but\nfollows its parabolic curve into the infinite. Moreover, the mode of\nexistence of the soul is essentially different from that of the vital\nforce. It lives in a spiritual way. The conceptions of the soul, such\nas the sentiments of justice or injustice, of truth or falsehood, of\ngood and evil, as well as knowledge, mathematics, analysis, synthesis,\ncontemplation, admiration, love, affection or hatred, esteem or\ncontempt--in a word, the occupations of the soul, whatever they may be,\nare of an intellectual and moral order, which neither the atoms nor\nthe physical forces can apprehend, and which have as real an existence\nas the physical order of things. The chemical or mechanical work of\ncerebral cells, however subtle they may be, can never produce an\nintellectual judgment, such, for instance, as the knowledge of the fact\nthat four multiplied by four is equal to sixteen, or that the three\nangles of a triangle are equal to two right angles.\n\n[Sidenote: The soul survives the body.]\n\nThese three elements of the human being are reproduced in the universe\nat large: 1. The atoms, the material world inert, passive; 2. The\nphysical forces which regulate the world, and which are continually\ntransformed into one another or into others; 3. God, the eternal and\ninfinite spirit, the _intellectual_ organiser of the _mathematical_\nlaws which these forces obey, the unknown being in whom reside the\nsupreme principles of truth, of beauty, of goodness. The soul can be\nattached to the body only by means of the vital force. When life is\nextinct the soul naturally separates from the organism and ceases to\nhave any immediate connection with time and space. After death the soul\nremains in that part of the universe where the Earth happens to be at\nthe moment of its separation from the body. You know that the Earth is\na planet in the heavens like Venus and Jupiter. The Earth continues to\nrun in its orbit at the rate of 12,700 kilometres an hour, so that the\nsoul an hour after death is at that distance from its body because of\nits immobility in space, when no longer subject to the laws of matter.\nThus we are in the heavens immediately after death, where, however, we\nhave also been during the whole of our lives; but we then had weight\nwhich held us to the Earth. I must add, however, that as a rule the\nsoul takes some time to disengage itself from the nervous organism,\nand that it occasionally remains many days, and even many months,\nmagnetically connected with the old body, which it is reluctant to\nforsake. Moreover, it has special faculties by means of which it can\ntransport itself from one point of space to another.\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. Now for the first time I am able to understand death as a\nnatural process, and to comprehend the individual existence of the\nsoul, its independence of the body and of life, its personality, its\nsurvival, and its obvious position in the universe. This synthetic\ntheory has prepared me, I hope, to understand and appreciate your\nrevelation. But you said that a singular event struck you on your\nentrance into the eternal life; at what moment did that take place?\n\n[Sidenote: The hour of death.]\n\n[Sidenote: Last impressions of the parting soul.]\n\n[Sidenote: Separation of the soul.]\n\nLUMEN. Well, my dear friend, let me go on with my story. Midnight\nhad just struck, you will remember, on the sonorous bell of my old\ntimepiece, and the full Moon shed its pale light on my dying bed,\nwhen my daughter, my grandson, and other friends withdrew to take\nsome rest. You wished to remain with me, and you promised my daughter\nnot to leave me till the morning. I would thank you for your warm and\ntender devotion if we were not so truly brothers. We had been alone\nabout half-an-hour, for the star of night was declining, when I took\nyour hand and told you that life had already abandoned my extremities.\nYou assured me that it was not so; but I was calmly observing my\nphysiological state, and I knew that in a few moments I should cease\nto breathe. You moved gently towards the room where my children were\nsleeping, but concentrating my powers by an extreme effort I stopped\nyou. Returning with tears in your eyes, you said to me, \"You are right;\nyou have given them your last wishes, and to-morrow morning will be\ntime enough to send for them.\" There was in these words a contradiction\nthat I felt without expressing it to you. Do you remember that then I\nasked you to open the window. It was a beautiful night in October; more\nbeautiful than those of the Scottish bards sung by Ossian. Not far from\nthe horizon, just level with my eyes, I could distinguish the Pleiades,\nveiled by mist, whilst Castor and Pollux floated triumphantly a little\nhigher up. Above, forming a triangle with them, shone the beautiful\nstar with rays of gold, which, on maps of the zodiac, is marked\n\"Capella.\" You see how clearly I remember it all. When you had opened\nthe window the perfume of the roses, sleeping under the wings of night,\nascended upwards to me and mingled with the silent rays of the stars.\nI cannot express to you how sweet were these last impressions that I\nreceived from the Earth; language fails me to describe what I felt. In\nthe hours of my sweetest happiness, of my tenderest love, I never felt\nsuch an intensity of joy, so glorious a serenity, such real bliss, as\nI experienced then in the ecstatic enjoyment of the perfumed breath\nof the flowers and the tender gleam of the distant stars.... When you\nbent over me I seemed to return to the outer world, and with my hands\nclasped over my breast, my sight and my thoughts, united in prayer,\ntogether took flight into space. Before my ears closed for ever I heard\nthe last words as they fell from my lips: \"Adieu! my old friend, I feel\nthat death is bearing me away to those unknown regions where I trust we\nshall one day meet. When the dawn effaces these stars, only my mortal\nbody will be here. Repeat then to my daughter my last wish: to bring up\nher children in the contemplation of the eternal goodness.\" And whilst\nyou wept, as you knelt by my bed, I added, \"Recite the beautiful\nprayer of Jesus,\" and you began with trembling voice, \"Our Father, ...\nForgive us ... our trespasses, ... as we ... forgive those ... that ...\ntrespass ... against us....\" These were the last thoughts that passed\nthrough my soul by means of the senses; my sight grew dim as I looked\nat the star Capella, and immediately I became unconscious.\n\n[Sidenote: Time does not exist outside the Earth]\n\nYears, days, and hours are constituted by the movements of the Earth.\nIn space, outside these movements time _does not exist_; indeed, it is\nimpossible to have any notion of time. I think, however, that the event\nI am now going to describe to you occurred on the very day of my death,\nfor, as you will see presently, my body was not yet buried when this\nvision appeared to my soul.\n\n[Sidenote: Sight of the soul in the heavens.]\n\nAs I was born in 1793, I was then, in 1864, in my seventy-second year,\nso I was not a little surprised to find myself animated by a vivacity\nof mind as ardent as in the prime of my life. I had no body, and yet\nI was not incorporeal; I felt and saw that I was constituted of a\nsubstance which, however, bore no analogy to the material form of\nterrestrial bodies. I know not how I traversed the celestial spaces,\nbut by some unknown force I soon found that I was approaching a\nmagnificent golden sun, the splendour of which did not, however,\ndazzle me. I perceived that it was surrounded by a number of worlds,\neach enveloped in one or more rings. By the same unconscious force\nI was driven towards one of these rings, and was a spectator of the\nmarvellous phenomena of light, for the starry spaces were crossed\neverywhere by rainbow bridges. I lost sight of the golden sun, and\nI found myself in a sort of night coloured with hues of a thousand\nshades. The sight of my soul far exceeded that of my body, and, to\nmy surprise, this power of sight appeared to be subject to my will.\nThe sight of the soul is so marvellous that I must not stop to-day to\ndescribe it. Suffice it to say that instead of seeing the stars in the\nheavens as you see them on the Earth, I could distinguish clearly the\nworlds revolving round each other; and strange to say, when I desired\nto examine more closely these worlds, and to avoid the brilliance of\nthe central sun, it disappeared from my sight, and left me under the\nmost favourable conditions for observing any one of them I wished.[1]\nFurther, when my attention was concentrated on one particular world,\nI could distinguish its continents and its seas, its clouds and its\nrivers, although they did not appear to become larger, as objects seen\nthrough a telescope do. I saw any special thing that I fixed my sight\nupon, such as a town or a tract of country, with perfect clearness and\ndistinctness.\n\n[Sidenote: The soul clothed in a new body.]\n\nWhen I reached this ringed world I found myself clothed in a form like\nthat of its inhabitants. It appeared that my soul had attracted to\nitself the constituent atoms of a new body. Living bodies on the Earth\nare composed of molecules which do not touch one another, and which are\nconstantly renewed by respiration, by nutrition, and by assimilation.\nThe envelope of the soul is formed more quickly in that far-off world.\nI felt myself more alive than the supernatural beings whose passions\nand sorrows Dante celebrates. One of the special faculties of this new\nworld is that of seeing very far.\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. But pardon a rather simple remark. Is it not likely that\nthe worlds or planets that revolve round each star must mingle in a\ndistant view with their central sun; for instance, when you see our Sun\nfrom afar with the planets of his system, is it possible for you to\ndistinguish our Earth amongst them?\n\n[Sidenote: The soul's powers of vision.]\n\nLUMEN. You have raised the single geometrical objection which seems\nto contradict all previous experience. In point of fact, at a certain\ndistance the planets are absorbed in their suns, and our terrestrial\neyes would have difficulty in distinguishing them. You know that\nfrom Saturn the Earth is invisible. But you must remember that this\ndiscrepancy arises as much from the imperfection of our sight as from\nthe geometrical law of the decrease of surfaces. Now, in the world\non which I had just landed, the inhabitants are not incarnated in a\ngross form, as we are here below, but are free beings, and endowed\nwith eminently powerful faculties of perception. They can, as I have\ntold you, _isolate_ the source of light from the object lighted, and,\nmoreover, they can perceive distinctly details which at that distance\nwould be absolutely hidden from the eyes of those dwelling upon this\nEarth.\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. Do they make use, then, of instruments superior to our\ntelescopes?\n\nLUMEN. Well, if, in order to realise this marvellous faculty, you find\nit easier to suppose that they possess such instruments, you may do so,\nin theory. Imagine a telescope which, by a succession of lenses and\nan arrangement of diaphragms, brings near in succession these distant\nworlds, and isolates each one in the field of view in order to study it\nseparately. I should also inform you that these beings are endowed with\na special sense by which they can regulate at will the powers of their\nmarvellous organs of sight.\n\nAnd you must further understand that this power and this regulation\nof vision are natural in those worlds, and not supernatural. In order\nto conceive of the faculties possessed by these ultra-terrestrial\nbeings, reflect for a moment upon the eyes of some insects--of those,\nfor instance, which have the power to draw in, to lengthen out, or to\nflatten the crystalline lens so as to make it magnify in different\ndegrees; or of those which can concentrate on the field of view a\nmultitude of eyes in order to bring them to bear upon the desired\nobject.\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. Yes, I can imagine it to be possible. Then you are able to see\nthe Earth, and to distinguish from above even the towns and villages of\nour lower world?\n\n[Sidenote: Lumen on a star world.]\n\nLUMEN. Let me proceed with my description. I found myself then upon\nthe ring-shaped world, the size of which I told you is great enough\nto make two hundred worlds like yours. The mountain on which I stood\nwas covered with trees woven into arboreal palaces. These fairy-like\nchateaux seemed to me either to grow naturally, or else to be produced\nby a skilful arrangement of branches and of tall flowering plants. The\ntown, where I entered it, was thickly peopled, and on the summit of the\nmountain I noticed a group of old men, twenty or thirty in number, who\nwere looking with the most fixed and anxious attention at a beautiful\nstar in the southern constellation of the Altar on the confines of the\nMilky Way. They did not observe my arrival amongst them, so absorbed\nwere they in observing and examining this star, or perhaps one of the\nworlds belonging to its system.\n\n[Sidenote: Lumen learns the language of spirits.]\n\nAs for myself, I became aware, on arriving in this atmosphere, that\nI was clothed in a body resembling that of its inhabitants, and to\nmy still greater surprise I heard these old men speaking of the\nEarth--yes, of the Earth in that universal spirit-language which all\nbeings comprehend from the seraphim to the trees of the forest. And not\nonly were they talking about the Earth, but about France. \"What can\nbe the meaning of these legal massacres?\" they said. \"Is it possible\nthat brute force reigns supreme there? Will civil war decimate these\npeople, and will rivers of blood run in this capital, at one time so\nmagnificent and so gay?\"\n\nI could not follow the drift of this speech, I who had just come from\nthe Earth with the swiftness of thought, and who but yesterday had\nbreathed in the heart of this tranquil and peaceful capital. I joined\nthe group, fixing my eyes, as they did, on the beautiful star, and I\ntried at the same time to understand what they were talking about.\nPresently I saw to the left of the star a pale-blue sphere--that was\nthe Earth.\n\n[Sidenote: The Solar System in the heavens.]\n\nYou are aware, my friend, that, notwithstanding the apparent paradox,\nthe Earth is really a star in the sky, as I reminded you just now. Seen\nfrom one of the stars comparatively near to your system, it appears\nto the spiritual sight, of which I have told you, like a family of\nstars composed of eight principal worlds crowding round the Sun, which\nis itself reduced to a star. Jupiter and Saturn first arrest the\nattention, because of their great size; then one notices Uranus and\nNeptune, and at length, quite near to the Sun-star, Mars and the Earth.\nVenus is very difficult to make out. Mercury remains invisible because\nof its too great proximity to the Sun. Such is the appearance of the\nplanetary system in the heavens.\n\n[Sidenote: The Earth as seen from the heavens.]\n\nMy attention was fixed exclusively on the little terrestrial sphere\nby the side of which I perceived the Moon. I soon remarked the white\nsnow of the North Pole, the yellow triangle of Africa, and the\noutlines of the Ocean. Whilst my attention was concentrated on our\nplanet, the Sun-star became eclipsed before my eyes. Then I was able\nto distinguish, in the midst of an expanse of azure, a brown cleft or\nhollow, and pursuing my investigations I discovered a town in the midst\nof this cleft. I had no difficulty in recognising that this continental\nhollow was France, and that the town was Paris. The first sign by which\nI recognised it was the silver ribbon of the Seine, that describes so\nmany graceful convolutions to the west of the great town. By the use of\nmy new optical organs I could see it in detail. At the eastern side of\nthe city I saw the nave and towers of Notre Dame in the form of a Latin\ncross. The Boulevards wound round the north. To the south I recognised\nthe gardens of the Luxembourg and the Observatory. The cupola of the\nPantheon covered like a grey hood the Mount of Ste. Genevi\u00e8ve. To the\nwest the grand avenue of the Champs-\u00c9lys\u00e9es formed a straight line.\nFarther on I could distinguish the Bois de Boulogne, the environs of\nSt. Cloud, the Wood of Meudon, S\u00e8vres, Ville d'Avray, and Montretout.\n\n[Sidenote: Paris.]\n\nThe whole scene was lighted up by splendid sunshine; but, strange to\nsay, the hills were covered with snow as in the month of January,\nwhilst I had left it in October when the country was perfectly green.\nI was fully convinced that I was looking at Paris; but as I could\nnot understand the exclamations of my companions, I endeavoured to\nascertain more details.\n\n[Sidenote: Old Paris.]\n\n[Sidenote: No Arc de Triomphe visible.]\n\n[Sidenote: No Column Vend\u00f4me.]\n\n[Sidenote: No obelisk in the Place de la Concorde.]\n\nMy eyes were fixed with most interest upon the Observatory. It was my\nfavourite quarter, and for forty years I had scarcely left it for more\nthan a few months. Judge, therefore, of my surprise when I came to look\nmore closely at it to find that the magnificent avenue of chestnuts\nbetween the Luxembourg and the Observatory was nowhere to be seen,\nthat in its place were the gardens of convents. My indignation as an\nartist was aroused against these municipal misdeeds, but it was quickly\nsuspended by still stranger feelings. I beheld a monastery in the midst\nof our beautiful orchard. The Boulevard St. Michel did not exist, nor\ndid the Rue de Medici; instead I saw a confused mass of little streets,\nand I seemed to recognise the former Rue de l'Est and the Place St.\nMichel, where an ancient fountain used to supply water to the people\nof the faubourg, and I made out a number of narrow lanes which existed\nlong ago. The cupolas and the two side wings of the Observatory had\ndisappeared. By degrees, as I continued my observations, I discovered\nthat Paris was indeed much changed. The Arc de Triomphe de l'\u00c9toile,\nand all the brilliant avenues that meet there, had disappeared. There\nwas no Boulevard de S\u00e9bastopol, no Station de l'Est, nor any other\nstation, and no railway. The tower of St. Jaques was enclosed in a\ncourt of old houses, and the Column of Victory was reached that way.\nThe Column of the Bastile was also absent, for I should easily have\nrecognised the figure upon it. An equestrian statue filled the place\nof the Vend\u00f4me Column. The Rue Castiglione was an old green convent.\nThe Rue de Rivoli had disappeared. The Louvre was either unfinished or\npartly pulled down. Between the Court of Francis I. and the Tuileries\nthere were tumble-down old hovels. There was no obelisk in the Place\nde la Concorde; but I saw a moving crowd, though I was unable at first\nto distinguish the figures. The Madeleine and the Rue Royal were\ninvisible. Behind the Isle of St. Louis I saw a small island. Instead\nof the outer Boulevards there was only an old wall, and the whole was\nenclosed by fortifications. In short, although I recognised the capital\nof France by some familiar buildings, I was aware of a marvellous\nmetamorphosis, which had completely changed its aspect.\n\n[Sidenote: Time merely relative.]\n\nAt first I fancied that, in place of having just come from the Earth,\nI must have been many years _en route_. As the notion of time is\nessentially relative, and there is nothing real or absolute in the\nmeasure of duration, having once left the Earth, I had lost all\nstandard of measure, and I said to myself that years, centuries indeed,\nmight have passed over my head without my perceiving it, and that\nthe time had seemed short to me because of the great interest I had\ntaken in my aerial voyage--a commonplace idea which shows how merely\nrelative is our notion of time. Not having any means of assuring myself\nof the facts of the case, I should undoubtedly have concluded that I\nwas separated by many centuries from the terrestrial life which was\nnow going on before my eyes in Paris, and I imagined that I saw the\nperiod of the twentieth or twenty-first century until I penetrated\nmore deeply into the details of the life picture and examined all its\nfeatures. Eventually I succeeded in identifying the aspect of the town,\nand I gradually recognised the sites of the streets and of the public\nbuildings which I had known in my early youth. The H\u00f4tel de Ville\nappeared to be decorated with flags, and I could distinguish the square\ncentral dome of the Tuileries.\n\n[Sidenote: Lumen sees a scene in his past life.]\n\nA little further examination recalled everything to me; and then I saw,\nin an old convent garden, a summer-house which made me tremble with\njoy. It was in that spot that I met in my youth the woman who loved me\nso deeply, my Sylvia, so tender and so devoted, who gave up everything\nto unite her life to mine. I saw the little cupola of the terrace where\nwe loved to saunter in the evenings and to study the constellations.\nOh, with what joy I greeted those promenades where we had walked,\nkeeping step with one another, those avenues where we took refuge from\nthe curious eyes of intruders! You can fancy how, as I looked at this\nsummer-house, the sight of it alone was enough to assure me, absolutely\nand convincingly, that I had before my eyes not, as it was natural to\nsuppose, the Paris of long _after my death_, but in reality the Paris\n_of the past_, old Paris of the beginning of this century or of the\nend of last century. But, in spite of all, you can easily imagine that\nI could scarcely believe my eyes. It seemed so much more natural to\nthink that Paris had grown old and had suffered these transformations\nsince my departure from the Earth--an interval of time absolutely\nunknown to me. It was so much easier to think that I beheld the city\nof the future. I continued my observations carefully, in order to\nascertain if it was really the old Paris, now partly demolished, that\nI was looking at, or if, by a phenomenon still more incredible, it was\nanother Paris, another France, another world.\n\n\nII\n\n[Sidenote: In the star Capella.]\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. What an extraordinary discovery for an analytical mind like\nyours, dear Lumen! By what means did you satisfy yourself that your\nconclusions were correct?\n\n[Sidenote: The French Terror visible in Capella.]\n\n[Sidenote: Old men in Capella watch the doings on the Earth.]\n\nLUMEN. While I was gradually arriving at the conviction of which I\nhave told you, the old men around me on the mountain continued their\nconversation. Suddenly the oldest of them, a venerable Nestor whose\naspect commanded both admiration and respect, called out, in a loud\nand mournful voice \"On your knees, my brethren; let us pray for\nforbearance to the universal God. That world, that nation, that city\ncontinues to revel in blood. A fresh head, that of a king this time,\nis about to fall.\" His companions seemed to understand, for they\nknelt down on the mountain, and prostrated their white faces to the\nground. For myself, I had not yet succeeded in distinguishing men in\nthe streets and squares of Paris, and not being able to verify the\nobservations of these old men, I remained standing, but I pursued\nmy examination of the scene before me carefully. \"Stranger,\" said\nthe old man to me, \"do you blame the action of your brothers since\nyou do not join your prayers to theirs?\" \"Senator,\" I replied, \"I\nneither approve nor blame what I do not comprehend. Having only just\narrived on this mountain, I do not know the cause of your righteous\nindignation.\" I then drew near the old man, and while his companions\nwere rising and entering into conversation in groups, I asked him\nto describe the situation to me. He informed me that the order of\nspirits inhabiting this world are gifted by intuition with the power\nof seeing and apprehending events in the neighbouring worlds, and\nthat they each possess a sort of magnetic relation with the stars and\nsystems around them. These neighbour-worlds, or stars, are twelve or\nfifteen in number. Outside that limit the perceptions become confused.\nThey have therefore a vague but distinct knowledge of the state of\nhumanity in the planets of our Sun, and of the relative elevation in\nthe intellectual and moral order of their inhabitants. Moreover, when\na great disturbance takes place, either in the physical or the moral\nrealm, they feel a sort of inner agitation, like that of a musical\nchord which vibrates in unison with another chord at a distance.\n\nFor a year (a year of this world is equal to ten of our years) they had\nfelt themselves drawn by special attraction towards the terrestrial\nplanet, and had observed with unusual interest and anxiety the march\nof events in that world. They had beheld the end of a reign and the\ndawn of glorious liberty, the conquest of the rights of man and the\nassertion of the great principles of human dignity. Then they had seen\nthe cause sacred to liberty placed in peril by those who should have\nbeen the first to defend it, and brute force substituted for reason and\njustice.\n\nI saw that he was describing the great Revolution of 1789, and the fall\nof the old political world before the new r\u00e9gime. Very mournfully\nthey had followed the events of the Reign of Terror and the tyranny of\nthat bloody time. They trembled for the future of the Earth, and felt\ndoubtful of the progress of a humanity which, when emancipated, so soon\nlost the treasure it had just acquired. I took care not to let the\nsenator know that I had just arrived from the Earth myself, and that I\nhad lived there seventy-two years. I do not know whether he was aware\nof this, but I was so much surprised by this vision before me that it\ncompletely absorbed my mind and I did not think of myself.\n\n[Sidenote: Lumen witnesses the scenes of the French Revolution.]\n\nAt last my sight was fully developed, and I perceived the spectacle\nin all its details. I could distinguish, in the midst of the Place\nde la Concorde, a scaffold, surrounded by a formidable array of war,\ndrums, cannon, and a motley crowd armed with pikes. A cart, led by\na man in red, bore the remains of Louis XVI. in the direction of\nthe Faubourg St. Honor\u00e9. An intoxicated mob lifted their fists to\nheaven. Some horsemen, sabre in hand, mournfully followed. Towards the\nChamps-\u00c9lys\u00e9es there were ditches into which the curious stumbled. But\nthe agitation was concentrated in this region. It did not extend into\nthe town, which appeared dead and deserted; the terror had thrown it\ninto a state of lethargy.\n\nI was not present during the events of 1793, since that was the year of\nmy birth, and I felt an inexpressible interest in being thus a witness\nof these scenes of which I had read in history. I have often discussed\nand debated the vote of the Convention, but I confess to you I see no\nexcuse of state in the execution of such men as Lavoisier, the creator\nof chemistry, Bailly, the historian of astronomy, Andr\u00e9 Chenier, the\nsweet poet, or the condemnation of Condorcet, the philosopher. These\nhave roused my indignation much more than the punishment of Louis XVI.\nI was intensely interested at being thus a witness of this vanished\nepoch. But you may imagine how much greater was my surprise, and how\nmuch more I was astonished, _that I beheld in_ 1864 _events actually\npresent before me which had taken place at the end of the last century_.\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. In truth, it seems to me that this feeling of its\nimpossibility ought to have awakened doubt in you. Visions are\nessentially illusory. We cannot admit their reality even though we see\nthem.\n\nLUMEN. Yes, my friend, it was as you say, impossible! Now can you\nunderstand my experience in seeing with my own eyes this paradox\nrealised? The common saying is, \"One cannot believe one's own eyes.\"\nThat was just my position. It was impossible to deny what I saw, and\nequally impossible to admit it.\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. But was it not a conception of your own mind, a creation of\nyour imagination, or perhaps a reminiscence of your memory? Are you\nsure it was a reality, not a strange reflection from your memory?\n\n[Sidenote: Not a paradox.]\n\nLUMEN. That was my first idea; but it was so obvious that I saw before\nme the Paris of '93, and the events of January 21, that I could\nno longer be in any doubt about it. Besides, this explanation was\nanticipated by the fact that the old men of the mountain had preceded\nme in observing these phenomena, and they had seen, and analysed, and\nconversed on them as actual facts without knowing anything of the\nhistory of our world, and were quite unaware of my knowledge of that\nhistory. Further, we had before our eyes _a present fact_, not a past\nevent.\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. But, on the other hand, if the past can be thus merged into\nthe present, if reality and vision can be allied in this way, if\npersons long since dead can be seen again acting on the scene of life,\nif new structures and metamorphoses in a city like Paris can disappear\nand give place to the aspect of the city as it was formerly--in short,\nif the present can vanish and the past be re-created, what certainty\ncan we have of anything? What becomes of the science of observation?\nWhat becomes of deductions and theories? On what solid foundation\ncan we base our knowledge? If these things are true, ought we not\nhenceforth to doubt everything, or else to believe everything?\n\n[Sidenote: A reality.]\n\nLUMEN. Yes, my friend, these considerations and many others occupied\nmy mind and tormented me, but they did not do away with the reality\nwhich I was observing. When I had assured myself that we had _present_\nbefore our eyes the events of the year 1793, it immediately occurred\nto me that science, instead of conflicting with these facts, ought to\nfurnish an explanation of them, for two truths can never be opposed to\none another. I investigated the physical laws, and I discovered the\nsolution of the mystery.\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. What! the facts were real?\n\n[Sidenote: Explanation of the apparent paradox.]\n\n[Sidenote: Lumen ascertains the place where he was in space.]\n\nLUMEN. They were not only real, but comprehensible and capable of\ndemonstration. You shall have an astronomical explanation of them.\nIn the first place, I examined the position of the Earth in the\nconstellation of the Altar as I have told you; I took the bearings of\nmy position relatively to the Polar star and to the Zodiac. I remarked\nthat the constellations were not very different from those we see from\nthe Earth, and that except in the case of a few particular stars,\ntheir positions were evidently the same. Orion still reigned in the\nultra-equatorial region, the Great Bear pursuing his circular course\nstill pointing to the north. In comparing the apparent movements, and\nco-ordinating them scientifically, I calculated that the point where\nI saw the group of the Sun, the Earth, and the planets, marked the\n17th hour of right ascension, that is to say, about the 256th degree,\nor nearly so. I had no instrument to take exact measurements. I\nobserved, in the second place, that it was on the 44th degree from the\nSouth Pole. I made these observations to ascertain the star on which\nI then was, and I was led to conclude that I was on a star situated\non the 76th degree of right ascension, and the 46th degree of north\ndeclination. On the other hand, I knew from the words of the old man\nthat the star on which we were was not far from our Sun, since he\nconsidered it to be one of the neighbouring stars. From these data I\nhad no difficulty in recalling the star that stands in the position I\nhad determined. One only answered to it, that of the first magnitude,\nAlpha in the constellation of Auriga, named also _Capella_, or the\n_Goat_.\n\nThere was no doubt about this. Thus I was certain that I was on one of\nthe planetary worlds of the sun Capella. From thence our Sun looks like\na simple star, and appears in perspective to be in the constellation of\nthe Altar, just opposite that of Auriga, as seen from the Earth.\n\nThen I tried to remember what was the parallax of this star. I recalled\nthat a friend of mine, a Russian astronomer, had made a calculation,\nwhich had been confirmed, of this parallax. It was proved to be\n0,\u2033046.--When I had thus solved the mystery my heart beat with joy.\nEvery geometrician knows that parallax indicates mathematically the\ndistance in units of the magnitude employed in the calculation. I\nsought then to recall exactly the distance which separated this star\nfrom the Earth, in order to prove the accuracy of the calculation. I\nonly needed to find out what number corresponded to 0,\u2033046.[2]\n\n[Sidenote: The velocity of light.]\n\nExpressed in millions of leagues, this number is 170,392,000, and so,\nfrom the star on which I was, the Earth was distant 170 billions 392\nthousand millions of leagues. The principle was thus established,\nand the problem was three parts solved. Now, here is the main point,\nto which I call your special attention, for you will find in it an\nexplanation of the most marvellous realities. Light, you know, does\nnot cross instantaneously from one place to another, but in successive\nwaves. If you throw a stone into a pool of tranquil water, a series of\nundulations form around the point where the stone fell. In the same\nway, sound undulates in the air when passing from one point to another,\nand thus, also, light travels in space--it is transmitted in successive\nundulations. The light of a star takes a certain time to reach the\nEarth, and this time naturally depends on the distance which separates\nthe star from the Earth.\n\n[Sidenote: How the heavenly bodies are seen.]\n\nSound travels 340 metres in a second. A cannon shot is heard\nimmediately by those who fire it, a second later by persons who are\nat a distance of 340 metres, in three seconds by those who are a\nkilometre off, twelve seconds after the shot at four kilometres. It\ntakes two minutes to reach those who are ten times farther off, and\nthose who live at a distance of a hundred kilometres hear this human\nthunder in five minutes. Light travels with much greater swiftness,\nbut it is not transmitted instantaneously, as the ancients supposed.\nIt travels at the rate of 300,000 kilometres per second, and if it\ncould revolve, might encircle the Earth eight times in a second. Light\noccupies one second and a quarter to come from the Moon to the Earth,\neight minutes and thirteen seconds to come from the Sun, forty-two\nminutes to come from Jupiter, two hours to come from Uranus, and four\nhours to come from Neptune. Therefore, we see the heavenly bodies not\nas they are at the moment we observe them, but as they were when the\nluminous ray which reaches us left them. If a volcano were to burst\nforth in eruption on one of the worlds I have named, we should not see\nthe flames in the Moon till a second and a quarter had elapsed, if in\nJupiter not till forty-two minutes, in Uranus two hours after, and we\nshould not see it in Neptune till four hours after the eruption. The\ndistances are incomparably more vast outside our planetary system, and\nthe light is still longer in reaching us. Thus, a luminous ray coming\nfrom the star nearest to us, Alpha, in Centaurus, takes four years in\ncoming. A ray from Sirius is nearly ten years in crossing the abyss\nwhich separates us from that sun. The star Capella, being the distance\nabove mentioned from the Earth, it is easy to calculate, at the rate\nof 300,000 kilometres the second, what time is needed to cross this\ndistance. The calculation amounts to seventy-one years, eight months,\nand twenty-four days. The luminous ray, therefore, which came from\nCapella to the Earth, traversed space without interruption seventy-one\nyears, eight months, and twenty-four days before it was visible on the\nEarth. In like manner, the ray of light which leaves the Earth can only\narrive at Capella in the same period of time.\n\n[Sidenote: Time occupied in the transmission of light.]\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. If the luminous ray which comes from that star takes nearly\nseventy-two years to reach us, it follows that we see the star as it\nwas nearly seventy-two years ago?\n\nLUMEN. You are quite right, and this is the fact that I want you take\nnote of specially.\n\n[Sidenote: A belated courier.]\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. In other words, the ray of light is like a courier who brings\ndespatches from a distant country, and having been nearly seventy-two\nyears on the way, his news is of events that occurred at the time of\nhis departure seventy-two years ago.\n\nLUMEN. You have divined the mystery. Your illustration shows me that\nyou have lifted the veil which shrouded it. In order to be still more\nexact, the light represents a courier who brings, not written news, but\nphotographs, or, strictly speaking, _the real aspect_ of the country\nfrom whence he came. We see this living picture such as it appeared,\nin all its aspects, at the moment when the luminous rays shot forth\nfrom the distant orb. Nothing is more simple, nothing more indubitable.\nWhen we examine the surface of a star with a telescope we see, not the\nactual surface as it was at the time of our observation, but such as it\nwas when the light was emitted from that surface.\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. This being so, if a star, the light of which takes ten years\nto reach us, were to be annihilated to-day, we should continue to see\nit for ten years, since its last ray would not reach us before ten\nyears had elapsed.\n\n[Sidenote: We see the past, not the present, aspect of the stars.]\n\nLUMEN. It is precisely so. In short, the rays of light that proceed\nfrom the stars do not reach us instantaneously, but occupy a certain\ntime in crossing the distance which separates us from them, and show us\nthose stars not as they are now, but such as they were at the moment\nin which those rays set out to transmit the aspect of the stars to\nus. Thus we behold a wondrous _transformation of the past into the\npresent_. In the star we observe we see the past, which has already\ndisappeared, while to the observer it is the present, the actual.\nStrictly speaking, the past of the star is positively the present of\nthe observer. As the aspect of the worlds change from year to year,\nalmost from day to day, one can imagine these aspects emerging into\nspace and advancing into the infinite, and thus revealing their phases\nin the sight of far-distant spectators. Each aspect or appearance is\nfollowed by another, and so on in endless sequence. Thus a series of\nundulations bears from afar the past history of the worlds which the\nobserver sees in its various phases as they successively reach him.\nThe events which we see in the stars at present are already past, and\nthat which is actually happening there we cannot as yet see. Realise\nto yourself, my friend, this presentation of an actual fact, for it\nis of importance to you to comprehend the precession of the waves of\nlight and to understand the essential nature of this undoubted truth.\nThe appearance of things, borne to us by light, shows us those things\nnot as they are at present, but as they were in that period of the past\nwhich preceded the interval of time needed for the light to traverse\nthe distance which separates us from those events.\n\nWe do not see any of the stars such as they are, but such as they were\nwhen the luminous rays that reach us left them.\n\n[Sidenote: The planet Earth as seen from afar.]\n\n_It is not the actual condition of the heavens that is visible, but\ntheir past history._ Moreover, there are distant stars which have been\nextinct for ten thousand years, but which we can see still, because\nthe rays of light from them had set out before they were extinguished.\nSome of the double stars, the nature and movements of which we seek\nwith care and toil, ceased to exist long before astronomers began to\nmake observations. If the visible heavens were to be annihilated to-day\nwe should still see stars to-morrow, even next year, and for a hundred\nyears, a thousand years, and even for fifty and a hundred thousand\nyears, or more, with the exception only of the nearest stars, which\nwould disappear successively as the time needed for their luminous rays\nto reach us expired. Alpha of Centaur would go out first, in four\nyears, Sirius in ten years, and so on.\n\nNow, my friend, you can easily apply a scientific theory in explanation\nof these strange facts of which I was witness. If from the Earth one\nsees the star Capella, not as it is at the moment of observation, but\nas it was seventy-two years before, in the same way from Capella one\nwould see the Earth as it was seventy-two years earlier, for light\ntakes the same time to traverse the distance either way.\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. Master, I have followed your explanation attentively. But, I\nask you, does the Earth shine like a star? Surely she is not luminous?\n\n[Sidenote: The other planets seen from afar.]\n\nLUMEN. She reflects in space the light of the Sun; the greater the\ndistance the more our planet resembles a star. All the light that\nradiates from the Sun on its surface is condensed into a disc that\nbecomes smaller and smaller. Seen from the Moon our Earth appears\nfourteen times more luminous than the full Moon, because she is\nfourteen times larger than the Moon. Seen from the planet Venus the\nEarth appears as bright as Jupiter appears to us. From the planet\nMars the Earth is the morning and the evening star, presenting phases\nlike those of Venus to us. Thus, although our Earth is not luminous\nherself, she shines afar like the Moon and the planets, by the light\nthat she receives from the Sun, and reflects into space.\n\nNow the events taking place on Neptune, if seen from the Earth, would\nhave a delay of four hours; in like manner the view of life on the\nEarth could only reach Neptune in the same time; nearly seventy-two\nyears, therefore, separate Capella and the Earth.\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. Although these views are new and strange to me, I now\nunderstand perfectly how, since the light was nearly seventy-two\nyears in traversing the abyss which separates the Earth from Capella,\nyou beheld not the Earth as it was in October 1864, the date of your\ndeath, but as it appeared in January 1793. And I comprehend quite as\nclearly that what you saw was neither a phenomenon of memory, nor a\nsupernatural experience, but an actual, positive, and incontestable\nfact, and that in very truth what had long passed away on the Earth was\nonly then present to an observer at that distance. But permit me to ask\nyou an incidental question. In coming from the Earth to Capella did you\ncross that distance even more quickly than light?\n\n[Sidenote: Thought swifter than light.]\n\nLUMEN. Have I not already anticipated your question in telling you\nthat I crossed this distance with the swiftness of thought. On the very\nday of my death I found myself on this star, which I had admired and\nloved so much all my life on the terrestrial globe.\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. Ah, Master, although everything is thus explained, your vision\nis not the less wonderful. Truly it is an astonishing phenomenon that\nof seeing thus at once the _past in the present_ in this extraordinary\nmanner. Not less marvellous is the thought of seeing the stars, not\nsuch as they are when one makes the observation, nor as they have been\nsimultaneously, but as they have been at different epochs according\nto their distances, and the time that the light of each has taken in\ncoming to the Earth!\n\n[Sidenote: Light.]\n\nLUMEN. I venture to say that the natural astonishment that you feel\nin contemplating this truth is only the prelude to the things which I\nhave now to unfold to you. Undoubtedly, it appears at first sight very\nextraordinary, that by removing to a distance in space, one can become\na witness of long past events, and remount as it were the stream of\ntime. But this is not more strange than what I have yet to communicate\nto you, and which will appear to you still more imaginary if you can\nlisten a little longer to the narrative of that day which followed my\ndeath.\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. Go on, I beg of you, I am eager to hear you.\n\n\nIII\n\n[Sidenote: Lumen sees his own life on Earth.]\n\nLUMEN. On turning away from the sanguinary scenes of the Place de la\nR\u00e9volution, my eyes were attracted towards a habitation of somewhat\nan antique style, situated in front of Notre Dame, and occupying\nthe place of the present square in front of the cathedral. I saw\na group of five persons before the entrance of the cathedral, who\nwere reclining on wooden benches in the sunshine, with their heads\nuncovered. When they rose and crossed the square, I perceived that one\nwas my father, younger than I could remember him, another my mother,\nstill younger, and a third a cousin of mine who died the same year as\nmy father, now nearly forty years ago. I found it difficult at first\nto recognise these persons, for instead of facing them, I saw them\nonly from on high above their heads. I was not a little surprised at\nthis unlooked-for meeting, but then I remembered that I had heard that\nmy parents lived in the Place Notre Dame before my birth. I cannot\ntell you how profoundly I was affected by this sight; my perception\nseemed to fail me, and a cloud appeared to obscure Paris from my view.\nI felt as though I had been carried off by a whirlwind; for, as you\nare aware, I had lost all sense of time. When I began again to see\nobjects distinctly, I noticed a troop of children running across the\nPlace de Panth\u00e9on. They looked like school children coming out of\nclass; for they had their portfolios and books in their hands, and were\napparently going to their homes, gambolling and gesticulating. Two of\nthem attracted me especially, for I saw they were quarrelling and just\npreparing to fight, and another little fellow was advancing to separate\nthem when he received a blow on the shoulder and was thrown down. In an\ninstant a woman ran to help him; this was my own mother. Words fail me\nto tell my amazement when I perceived that the child to whose rescue my\nmother came was _my own self_. Never in my seventy-two years of earthly\nlife, with all the unlooked-for changes and strange events with which\nit was crowded, never in all its surprises and chances have I felt such\nemotion as this sight caused me; I was completely overcome when in this\nchild I recognised--_myself!_\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. You saw yourself?\n\nLUMEN. Yes, myself, with the blond curls of six years of age, with\nmy little collar embroidered by my mother's hands, my little blouse\nof light blue colour, and the cuffs always rumpled. There I was, the\nvery same as you have seen in the half-effaced miniature that stood on\nmy mantelpiece. My mother came over to me, and sharply reproving the\nother boys, took me up in her arms, and then led me by the hand into\nthe house, which was close to the Rue d'Ulm. There I saw that, after\npassing through the house, we reappeared in the garden in the midst of\na numerous company.\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. Master, pardon me a criticism. I confess to you that it\nappears to me impossible that you could see yourself; you could not be\ntwo persons; and since you were seventy-two years old, your infancy was\npassed, and had totally disappeared. You could not see a thing that no\nlonger existed. I cannot comprehend how when an old man you could see\nyourself as an infant.\n\nLUMEN. Why cannot you admit this point on the same grounds as the\npreceding ones?\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. Because you cannot see yourself double, an infant and an old\nman, at the same time.\n\n[Sidenote: A logical inference.]\n\nLUMEN. Look at the matter more closely, my friend. You admit the\ngeneral fact, but you do not sufficiently observe, that this last\nparticular is logically inferred from that fact. You admit that the\nview I had of the Earth was seventy-two years in coming to me, do you\nnot? that events reached me only at that interval of time after they\nhad taken place? in short, that I saw the world as it was at that\nepoch? You admit, likewise, that as I saw the streets of that time I\nsaw also the children running in those streets? You admit all this?\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. Yes, decidedly.\n\nLUMEN. Well, then, since I saw this troop of children, and myself\namongst them, why do you say I could not see myself as well as the\nothers?\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. But you were no longer there amongst them!\n\nLUMEN. Again, I repeat, this whole troop of children has ceased to\nexist. But I saw them such as they were at the moment the ray of light\nleft the Earth, which only reached me at the present time. And as I\ncould distinguish the fifteen to eighteen children in the group, there\nwas no reason why I should disappear from amongst them because I myself\nwas the distant spectator. Since any other observer could see me in\ncompany with my comrades, why should I form an exception? I saw them\nall, and I saw myself amongst them.\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. I had not fully taken in the idea. It is evident, in short,\nthat seeing a troop of children, of whom you were one, you could not\nfail to see yourself as well as you saw the others.\n\n[Sidenote: Lumen sees himself a child.]\n\nLUMEN. Now you can understand into what a state of surprise I was\nthrown. This child was really myself, flesh and bones, as the vulgar\nexpression has it--myself, at the age of six years. I saw myself as\nwell as the company in the garden who were playing with me saw me. It\nwas no mirage, no vision, no spectre, no reminiscence, no image; it\nwas reality, positively myself, my thought and my body. I was there\nbefore my eyes. If my other senses had the perfection of my sight, it\nseemed as though I should have been able to touch and hear myself. I\njumped about the garden and ran round the pond, which had a balustrade\naround it. Some time after my grandfather took me on his knees and\nmade me read in a big book. It is not possible for me to describe my\nastonishment. I must leave you to imagine what it was to me, and to\nrealise the fact, now that you understand upon what it was based.\nSuffice it to say, that I had never received such a surprise in my\nlife. One reflection especially puzzled me. I said to myself, this\nchild is really me, he is alive, he will grow up, and he ought to live\nsixty-six years longer. It is undoubtedly myself. And on the other\nhand, here I am, having lived seventy-two years of the terrestrial\nlife. I who now think and see these things, I am still myself, and\nthis child is me also. _Am I then two beings_, one there below, on\nthe Earth, and the other here in space--two complete persons and yet\nquite distinct? An observer, placed where I am, could see this child in\nthe garden, as I see him, and at the same time see me here. I must be\ntwo--it is incontestable. My soul is in this child; it is no less here.\nIt is the same soul, my own soul. How can it animate two beings? What\na strange reality! For I cannot say that I delude myself, or that what\nI see is an optical illusion, for both according to nature, and by the\nlaws of science, I see at once a child and an old man--the one there\nbeyond, the other here where I am, the former joyous and free-hearted,\nthe other pensive and agitated.\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. In truth it is strange!\n\n[Sidenote: Lumen sees himself a young man.]\n\n[Sidenote: Lumen witnesses the events of the Hundred Days.]\n\nLUMEN. Yes, but no less true. You may search through all creation and\nnot find such a paradox. Well, to proceed with my history, I saw\nmyself grow up in this vast city of Paris, I saw myself enter college\nin 1804, and perform my first military exercises when the First Consul\nwas crowned Emperor. One day as I passed by the Carrousel I got a\nglimpse of the domineering and thoughtful face of Napoleon. I could\nnot remember having seen him in my life, and it was interesting to see\nhim thus pass across my field of view. In 1810 I saw myself promoted\nto the Polytechnic School, and there I was talking of the course of\nstudies with Fran\u00e7ois Arago, the best of comrades. He already belonged\nto the institute, and had replaced Monge at the school, because the\nEmperor had complained of the Jesuitism of Binet. I saw myself, in like\nmanner, all through the brilliant years of my youth, full of projects\nof travels for scientific exploration, in company with Arago and\nHumboldt, travels which only the latter decided to undertake. Later on\nI saw myself during the Hundred Days, crossing quickly the little wood\nof the old Luxembourg, and then the Rue de l'Est and the avenue of the\ngarden of the Rue St. Jaques, and hastening to meet my beloved under\nthe lilac-trees. Sweet meetings all to ourselves, the confidences of\nour hearts, the silences of our souls, the transports of our evening\nconversations, were all presented to my astonished sight, no longer\nveiled by distance, but actually before my eyes. I was present again\nat the combat with the Allies on the Hill of Montmartre, and saw their\ndescent into the capital, and the fall of the statue in the Place\nVend\u00f4me, when it was drawn through the streets with cries of joy. I saw\nthe camp of the English and the Prussians in the Champs-\u00c9lys\u00e9es, the\ndestruction of the Louvre, the journey to Ghent, the entrance of Louis\nXVIII.\n\n[Sidenote: Napoleon at St. Helena.]\n\nThe flag of the island of Elba floated before my eyes, and later on\nI sought out the far Atlantic isle where the eagle, with his wings\nbroken, was chained. The rotation of the Earth soon brought before\nmy eyes the Emperor in St. Helena sadly musing at the foot of a\nsycamore-tree.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Historical events appear in succession.]\n\nThus the events of the years as they passed were revealed to me in\nfollowing my own career--my marriage, my various enterprises, my\nconnections, my travels, my studies, and so on. I witnessed at the\nsame time the development of contemporary history. To the restoration\nof Louis XVIII. succeeded the brief reign of Charles X. I saw the\nbarricades of the days of July 1830, and not far from the throne of\nthe Duke of Orleans I saw the Column of the Bastile arise. Passing\nrapidly over eighteen years, I perceived myself at the Luxembourg at\nthe time when that magnificent avenue was opened, that avenue I loved\nso much, and which has been threatened by a recent decree. I saw Arago\nagain, this time at the Observatory, and I beheld the crowd before the\ndoor of the new amphitheatre. I recognised the Sorbonne of Cousin and\nof Guizot. Then I shuddered as I saw my mother's funeral pass. She was\na stern woman, and perhaps a little too severe in her judgments, but\nI loved her dearly, as you know. The singular and brief revolution of\n1848 surprised me as much as when I first witnessed it. On the Place\nde la Bourse I saw Lamorici\u00e8re, who was buried last year, and in the\nChamps-\u00c9lys\u00e9es, Cavaignac, who has been dead five or six years. The 2nd\nof December found me an observer on my solitary tower, and from thence\nI witnessed many striking events which passed before me, and many\nothers which were unknown to me.\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. Did the event pass rapidly before you?\n\nLUMEN. I had no perception of time; but the whole retrospective\npanorama appeared to me in successive scenes--in less than a day,\nperhaps in a few hours.\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. Then I do not understand you at all. Pardon your old friend\nthis interruption, a little too abrupt perhaps. As I took it, you saw\nthe real events of your life, not merely images of them. But, in view\nof the time necessary for the passage of light, these events appeared\nto you after they had happened. If, then, seventy-two terrestrial years\nhad passed before your eyes, they should have taken seventy-two years\nto appear to you, and not a few hours. If the year 1793 appeared to you\nonly in 1864, the year 1864, consequently, should only in 1936 appear\nto you.\n\n[Sidenote: The anachronism explained.]\n\nLUMEN. You have grounds for your fresh objection, and this proves to\nme that you have perfectly comprehended the theory of this fact. I\nfully appreciate your belief in me; indeed its consciousness helps me\nin my explanations. Thus it is not necessary that seventy-two years\nshould be needed in which to review my life, for under the impulse of\nan involuntary force all its events passed before me in less than a\nday. Continuing to follow the course of my existence, I reached its\nlater years, rendered memorable by the striking changes which had\ncome over Paris. I saw our old friends, and you yourself; my daughter\nand her charming children; my family, and circle of acquaintances; and\nlast of all I saw myself lying dead upon my bed, and I was present at\nthe final scene. Yes; I tell you I had returned to the Earth. Drawn by\nthe contemplation which absorbed my soul, I had quickly forgotten the\nmountain, the old men, and Capella. Even as a dream all faded from my\nmind.\n\nI did not at first perceive the strange vision which captivated all\nmy faculties. I cannot tell you either by what law or by what power\nsouls can be transported with such rapidity from one place to another.\nSuffice it to say, _I had returned to the Earth_ in less than a day,\nand I had entered my chamber even at the moment of my decease. Also in\nthis returning voyage I had travelled faster than the rays of light,\nhence the various phases of my life on Earth had unrolled themselves to\nmy sight in their successive stages as they occurred. When I reached\nhalf-way I saw the rays of light arriving only thirty-six years behind\ntime, showing me the Earth, not as it appeared seventy-two years ago,\nbut thirty-six. When I had travelled three-quarters of the way I saw\nthings as they had been eighteen years ago; at the half of the last\nquarter, as they were nine years previously; until finally the whole\nacts of my life were condensed into less than one day because of the\nrapid rate at which my soul had travelled, which far surpassed the\nvelocity of the rays of light.\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. Was not this a very strange phenomenon?\n\nLUMEN. Do any other objections rise in your mind as you listen to me?\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. No, this is the only one; or rather, this one has puzzled and\ninterested me so greatly that it has absorbed all others.\n\nLUMEN. I would remark that there is another, an astronomical one,\nwhich I will hasten to dispel, for fear it should arise and cloud\nyour mind. It depends upon the Earth's movement, not only upon its\ndiurnal rotation, which in itself would be sufficient to prevent\nmy seeing the facts in succession, but this movement would also\nbe greatly accelerated by the rapidity of my return to the Earth.\nHence seventy-two years would pass before me in less than a day. On\nreflection, I was surprised that I had not earlier perceived this;\nyet as I had only seen a comparatively small number of countries,\npanoramas, and facts, it is probable that in returning to our planet I\nhad only a fleeting glance for a few moments of the successive points\nof interest. But however this may be, I can but bear evidence that I\nhave been witness to the rapid succession of events both throughout the\ncentury and of my own life.\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. That difficulty had not escaped me; I had weighed the thought,\nand had come to the conclusion that you had revolved in space, even\nas a balloon is spun round by the rotation of the globe. It is true\nthat the inconceivable speed with which you would be whirled through\nspace would be likely to give you vertigo, nevertheless, after hearing\nyour experience, this hypothesis forces itself upon me, that spirits\nrush through space with the lightness and velocity of thought; and\nin remarking on the intensity of your gaze as you approached certain\nparts of the Earth, may it not be admissible to infer that this very\neagerness to see certain localities, might be the reason of your being\ndrawn to them, and as it were fixed above their point of vision?\n\nLUMEN. As to this I can affirm nothing, because I know nothing; but\nI do not think this is the explanation. I did not see all the events\nof my life, but only a few of the main ones, which, successively\nunfolding, passed in review before me on the same visual ray. A\nmagnetism drew me imperiously as with a chain to the Earth; or, if you\nprefer it, a force similar to that mysterious attraction of the stars,\nby reason of which, stars of a lesser degree would inevitably fall\nupon those of the first magnitude, unless retained in their orbits by\ncentrifugal force.\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. In reflecting on the effect of the concentration of thought\nupon a single point, and of the attraction which consequently ensues\ntowards that point, I cannot but conclude that therein lies the\nmainspring of the mechanism of dreams.\n\n[Sidenote: The source of dreams.]\n\nLUMEN. You say truly, my friend; I can confirm you in this remark,\nas for many years I have made dreams the subject of a special study\nand observation. When the soul, freed from the attentions, the\npreoccupations, the encumbrance of the body, has a vision of the\nobject which charms it, and towards which it is irresistibly drawn,\nall disappear except the object. That alone remains, and becomes the\ncentre of a world of creations; the soul possesses it entirely without\nany reserve, it contemplates it, it seizes it as its own, the entire\nuniverse is effaced from the memory in order that its domination over\nthe soul may be absolute. I felt thus on being drawn earthwards. I saw\nbut one object, around which were grouped the ideas, the images, and\nthe associations to which it had given birth.\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. Your rapid flight to Capella and your equally rapid return\nto the Earth were governed by this psychological law; and you acted\nmore freely than in a dream, because your soul was not impeded by the\nmachinery of your organism. Often in our former conversations have you\ndiscoursed to me upon the strength of the will. Thus, willing to do\nso, you were enabled to return and to see yourself upon your death-bed\nbefore your mortal remains had been committed to the dust.\n\n[Sidenote: Lumen witnesses his own funeral.]\n\n[Sidenote: His flight to the stars.]\n\nLUMEN. I did return; and I blessed my family for the sincerity of\ntheir grief. I shed a benediction on them; I soothed their grief, and\npoured balm upon their wounded hearts; and I inspired my children\nwith the belief that the body lying there was not my real self--my\n_ego_--but merely the shell from which my soul had risen to a sphere\ncelestial, infinite, and far beyond their earthly ken. I witnessed my\nown funeral procession, and I noticed those who called themselves my\nfriends and who yet, for some trifling reason, begged to be excused\nfrom following my remains to their last resting-place. I listened to\nthe various comments of those following my bier, and although in this\nregion of peace we are free from that thirst for praise which clings\nto most of us whilst on Earth, nevertheless I felt gratified to know\nthat I had left pleasant memories behind me. When the stone of the\nvault was rolled away, that which separates the dead from the living,\nI gave a last farewell to my poor sleeping body; and, as the Sun set\nin its bed of purple and gold, I went out into the air until night had\nfallen, plunged in admiration of the beautiful scenes which unrolled\nthemselves in the heavens. The aurora borealis displayed itself above\nthe North Pole in bands of glistening silver, shooting stars rained\nfrom Cassiopeia, and the full Moon rose slowly in the east like a\nnew world emerging from the waves. I saw Capella scintillating and\nlooking at me with a glance pure and bright, and could distinguish\nthe crowns surrounding it, as if they were princes dowered with a\ncelestial divinity. Then I forgot the Earth, the Moon, the Planetary\nSystem, the Sun, the Comets, in one intense, overpowering attraction\ntowards a shining brilliant star, and I felt myself carried towards\nit instinctively with a celerity far greater than that of an electric\nflash. After a time, the duration of which I cannot guess, I arrived\nupon the same ring and upon the same mountain, from which I had first\nkept watch when I saw the old men occupied in following the history\nof the Earth, seventy-one years and eight months ago. They were still\nabsorbed in the contemplation of events happening in the city of Lyons\non the 23rd of January 1793. I will avow to you the reason of the\nmysterious attraction of Capella for me. For marvellous as it may seem,\nthere are in creation invisible ties which do not break like mortal\nties; there are means by which souls can commune with each other, in\nspite of the distance that separates them.\n\n[Sidenote: He meets the spirit of his wife.]\n\n[Sidenote: They recall their life on Earth.]\n\nOn the evening of the second day, as the emerald Moon enshrined itself\nin the third ring of gold--for such is the sidereal measurement of\ntime--I found myself walking in a lonely avenue enamelled with flowers\nof sweet perfume. Sauntering along, as if in a dream, imagine my\ndelight when I saw coming towards me my beautiful and beloved Sylvia.\nShe was at a ripe age at her death, and notwithstanding an indefinable\nchange I recognised the features, whose expression had but deepened\nand spiritualised, in happy correspondence with her sweet, pure life.\nI will not stop to describe to you the joy of our meeting, this is not\nthe time for it; but perchance some day we may have the opportunity of\ndescanting upon the different manifestations of affection in this world\nand the world beyond the grave, and I only add now that together we\nsought our native land on Earth, where we had passed days of peace and\nhappiness. We delighted to turn our gaze towards the luminous point,\nwhich our state of exaltation enabled us to perceive was a world--the\none upon which we had lived in earthly form--we loved to wed the memory\nof the past with the reality of our present, and in all the freshness\nof our new and ecstatic sensations we sought to recall and review the\nscenes of our youth. It was thus we actually saw again the happy years\nof our earthly love, the pavilion of the convent, the flower garden,\nthe promenades in the charming and delightful environs of Paris, and\nthe solitary rambles that, loving and beloved, we took together. To\nretrace these years we had but to travel together into space in the\ndirection of the Earth, where these scenes, focused by the light, were\nbeing photographed. Now, my friend, I have fulfilled my promise in\nrevealing to you these remarkable observations.\n\nBehold the day breaks, and the star Lucifer is paling already under its\nrosy light. I must return to the constellations....\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. Just one more word, Lumen, before we conclude this interview.\nCan earthly scenes be transmitted successively into space--if so,\nthe present could be kept perpetually before the eyes of distant\nspectators, and be limited only by the power of their spiritual sight?\n\n[Sidenote: The precession of events as seen in space.]\n\nLUMEN. Yes, my friend. Let us, for example, place our first observer on\nthe Moon--he would perceive terrestrial events one second and a quarter\nafter they had happened. Let us place a second observer at four times\nthe distance--he would be cognisant of them five seconds later. Double\nthe distance, and a third would see them ten seconds after they had\ntaken place. Again double the distance, and a fourth observer would\nhave to wait twenty seconds before he could witness them; so on and on\nwith ever-increasing delay, until at the Sun's distance; eight minutes\nand thirteen seconds must elapse before they could become visible.\n\nUpon certain planets, as we have seen, hours must intervene between\nthe action and the sight of it; further off still, days, months even\nyears must elapse. Upon neighbouring stars earthly events are not seen\nuntil four, six, ten years after their occurrence; but there are stars\nso distant that light only reaches them after many centuries, and even\nthousands of years. Indeed, there are nebul\u00e6 to which light takes\nmillions of years to travel.\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. Therefore it only needs a sight sufficiently piercing to\nwitness events historic or geologic which are long since past. Could\nnot one, therefore, so gifted see the Deluge, the Garden of Eden, Adam\nand. . . .\n\nLUMEN. I have told you, my old friend, that the rising of the sun on\nthis hemisphere puts to flight all spirits, so I must go. Another\ninterview may be granted us some other day, when we can continue our\ntalk on this subject, and I will then give you a general sketch which\nwill open out for you new horizons. The stars call me, and are already\ndisappearing. I must away. Adieu, Qu\u00e6rens, adieu.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[1] Physiological anatomy would probably explain this fact by\nsuggesting that a sort of _punctum c\u00e6cum_ is displaced in order to\nconceal the object that one does not wish to see.\n\n[2] Every one knows that the farther an object is, the smaller it\nappears. An object which is seen under an angle of one second, is at a\ndistance of 206,265 times its own diameter, whatever it may be; because\nas there are 1,296,000 seconds in the circumference, the ratio between\nthe circumference and its diameter being 314,159 \u00d7 2, it follows that\nthis object is at a distance equal to 206,265 times its own diameter.\nAs Capella sees the semi-diameter of the terrestrial orbit only under\nan angle 22 times smaller, its distance is 22 times greater. Capella\nis therefore at a distance of 4,484,000 times the radius of the\nterrestrial orbit. Future micrometrical measurements may modify these\nresults concerning the parallax of this star, but they cannot change\nthe principle upon which the conception of this work is grounded.\n\n\n\n\nSECOND CONVERSATION\n\nREFLUUM TEMPORIS\n\n\n\n\nI\n\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. Your revelations which were interrupted by the break of day,\nO Lumen, have left me hungering and thirsting to hear more of this\nwonderful mystery. As a child to whom one shows a delicious fruit\nlongs to have a bite, and when he has tasted of it begs for more, so\nmy curiosity is eager to have renewed enjoyment of these paradoxes of\nnature. May I venture to submit to you a few questions in relation to\nthe subject, which have been suggested to me by the friends to whom I\nhave communicated the substance of your revelations, and then may I ask\nyou to continue the narrative of your impressions of the regions beyond\nthis Earth?\n\n[Sidenote: Scientific truth, not fancy or romance.]\n\nLUMEN. No, my friend, I cannot consent to such curiosity. However\nperfectly disposed your mind may be to accept my communications, I\nam convinced that all the details of my subject have not been equally\napprehended by you, and are not in your eyes equally self-evident. My\nrecital has been called mystical by those who have not quite understood\nthat it is neither a romance nor a phantasy, but a scientific truth,\na physical fact demonstrable and demonstrated, indisputable and as\npositive as the fall of an aerolite or the motion of a cannon-ball. The\nreason which prevents you and your friends from fully comprehending\nthese facts is, that they took place beyond this Earth, in regions\nforeign to the sphere of your impressions, and inaccessible to your\nterrestrial senses. Naturally you do not comprehend them. (Pardon\nmy frankness, but in the spiritual world one is frank; there, even\nthoughts are visible.) You only comprehend those things which you\nperceive. And as you persist in regarding your ideas of time and space\nas _absolute_, although they are only _relative_, and thence form a\njudgment on truths which are quite beyond your sphere, and which are\nimperceptible to your terrestrial organism and faculties, I should not\ndo you a true service, my friend, in giving you fuller details of my\nultra-terrestrial observations.\n\n[Sidenote: An inquiring mind.]\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. It is not, I assure you, in a spirit of simple curiosity,\ndear Lumen, that I ventured to draw you forth from the bosom of the\ninvisible world, where advanced souls partake of indescribable joys.\nBut I have understood, perhaps better than you, the grandeur of the\nproblem, and it is under the inspiration of an earnest, studious\navidity that I seek for other aspects of it, still more novel than\nthose you have given me, if I may say so, or rather more bold and more\nincomprehensible. As the result of reflection, I have arrived at the\nconclusion that what we know is _nothing_, and that what we do not know\nis _everything_; I am therefore disposed to welcome everything you tell\nme. I beg of you, if you will allow me, to share your revelations....\n\nLUMEN. The fact is, my friend, I assure you, either you are not\nsufficiently able to understand, or you are too willing to believe: in\nthe first case, you do not fully comprehend; in the second, you are too\ncredulous, and do not appreciate my communications at their full value.\nHowever, I shall continue.\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. Dear comrade of my earthly life!\n\nLUMEN. The remaining facts, which I shall now relate to you, are still\nmore extraordinary than any that preceded them.\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. I feel like Tantalus in the midst of his lake, or like the\nspirits in the twenty-fourth canto of the Purgatorio. I am as eager as\nthe Hesperides holding out their hands for the fragrant fruit, or as\nEve in her desire for....\n\n[Sidenote: Travelling on a ray of light.]\n\n[Sidenote: Lumen sees the Revolution of 1848.]\n\nLUMEN. Some time after my departure from the Earth, the eyes of my soul\nbeing still mournfully directed toward my native world, I found that,\non an attentive examination, I could perceive at the 45th degree of\nnorth latitude and the 35th degree of longitude, a triangular piece\nof land of a sombre colour, north of the Black Sea, on the shores of\nwhich I saw, towards the west, a grievous number of my compatriots\nmadly engaged in killing one another. I recalled to mind that relic\nof barbarism, war, formerly called glorious, with which you are still\nbeset and burdened, and I remembered that in this corner of the Crimea\n800,000 men fell, in ignorance of the cause of their mutual massacre.\nSome clouds then passed over Europe. At that time I was not on Capella,\nbut in mid space, between that star and the Earth, about half the\ndistance from Vega. Having left the Earth some time before, I turned\ntoward a group of stars, that, seen from your planet, are to the left\nof Capella. Meanwhile my thoughts recurred from time to time to the\nEarth, and soon after taking the observation to which I have referred,\nmy eyes being fixed on Paris, I was surprised to see it a prey to an\ninsurrection of the people. Examining it more attentively, I discerned\nbarricades on the boulevards, near the H\u00f4tel de Ville, and along the\nstreets, and the citizens firing at one another. The first idea that\noccurred to me was that a new revolution was taking place before my\neyes, and that Napoleon III. was dethroned. But, by the secret sympathy\nof souls, my sight was attracted to a barricade in the Faubourg St.\nAntoine, upon which I saw lying prostrate the Archbishop Denis Auguste\nAffre, with whom I had been slightly acquainted. His sightless eyes\nwere turned towards the heavens where I was, but he saw nothing; in his\nhand he held a green branch. I was thus witnessing the days of 1848,\nand in particular that of the 25th of June.\n\n[Sidenote: He sees the events of 1831.]\n\nA few minutes--a few hours, perhaps--passed, during which my\nimagination and my reason sought in turns for an explanation of this\nspecial scene. To see 1848 _after_ 1854! When my sight was again\nattracted to the Earth, I remarked a distribution of tricoloured flags\nin a grand square of the city of Lyons, Trying to distinguish the\nofficial person who was making this distribution, I recognised the\nuniforms, and I remembered that after the accession of Louis Philippe,\nthe young Duke of Orleans had been sent to quell the disturbances in\nthe capital of French manufactures. It followed from thence that,\n_after_ 1854 and 1848, I had before my eyes an event of 1831. Presently\nmy glance turned to Paris on the day of a public f\u00eate. The king, a\ncoarse-looking man, with a rubicund face, was tearing along in a\nmagnificent chariot, and was just crossing the Pont Neuf. The weather\nwas splendid. Some fair ladies posed, like a basket of lilies, on the\nwhite parapet of the bridge. Floating over Paris some brightly-coloured\ncreatures could be seen. Evidently I beheld the en trance of the\nBourbons into France.\n\n[Sidenote: Supposed explanation of this strange slight.]\n\nI should not have understood this last strange sight if I had not\nrecollected that a number of balloons, in the form of animals, had\nbeen sent up on that occasion. From my higher altitude they appeared\nto wriggle about the roofs of the houses. To see again past events\nwas comprehensible enough, according to the law of light. But to see\nthings contrary to their real order in time, that was too fantastic,\nand puzzled me beyond expression. Nevertheless, as I had the things\nbefore my eyes, I could not deny the fact. I sought forthwith for\nsome hypothesis to account for this singular phenomenon. At first I\nsupposed it was really the Earth that I saw, and that by a fiat of\nfate, the secret of which is known only to God, the history of France\nrepeats itself, and passes through the same phases that it has already\ntraversed; that the course of events proceed up to a certain maximum,\nwhere they shine gloriously for a time, and then comes a reaction to\nthe original state of things, by an oscillation in human affairs like\nthe variations of the magnetic needle, or like the movements of the\nstars.\n\nThe personages whom I took for the Duke of Orleans and Louis XVIII.\nwere perhaps other princes, who were repeating exactly what the\nformer had done. This hypothesis, however, appeared to be so very\nextraordinary, that I paused to consider a more rational theory.\nAdmitting the fact of the number of stars, with planets moving round\nthem, is it not probable that a world exactly like the Earth exists\nsomewhere in the universe of space?\n\n[Sidenote: Calculation of probabilities.]\n\nThe calculation of probabilities supplies an answer to this question.\nThe greater the number of worlds, the greater will be the probability\nthat the forces of nature have given birth to an organisation like\nthat of the Earth. Now the real number of worlds surpasses all human\ncalculation, either written or possible to be written. If we could\nunderstand what \"infinite\" means, we might venture to say that this\nnumber is infinite. I concluded, then, that there is a very high\nprobability in favour of the existence of many worlds exactly like the\nEarth, on the surface of which the same history is accomplished, and\nthe same succession of historical events takes place; worlds which are\ninhabited by identically the same species of vegetables and animals,\nand the same humanity, and where men and families like our own, I doubt\nnot, exist.\n\nIn the second place, I asked myself if another world analogous to\nthe Earth might not also be symmetrical to it; and then I worked out\nthe geometry of the problem, and the metaphysical theory of images.\nI arrived at the conclusion that it was _possible_ for the world in\nquestion to be like the Earth, but in an inverse form. When you look\nat yourself in a mirror, you notice that the ring on your right hand\nappears to be on the ring-finger of your left hand. This explains the\nsymbol. If you wink your right eye, your reflection winks the left\neye; when you advance your right arm, your image advances the left\narm. It is not impossible that in the infinity of the stars a world\nexists exactly the converse of the terrestrial world. Undoubtedly in an\n_infinity_ of worlds the non-existence of a similar world, perhaps of\nmillions of them, would be the real impossibility. Nature of necessity\nrepeats herself, reproduces herself, but still under all forms plays\nthe game of creation. I thought therefore that the world on which I saw\nthose things was not the Earth, but a globe like the Earth, the history\nof which was precisely the opposite of yours.\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. I myself have had the idea also that it might have been as you\nsay. But was it not easy for you to make sure of it by ascertaining\nwhether it was the Earth or another star that you had before your eyes,\nby examining its astronomical position?\n\n[Sidenote: The solution of the problem.]\n\nLUMEN. That is precisely what I did immediately, and this examination\nconfirmed me in my opinion. The star where I had just witnessed four\nfacts, analogous to four terrestrial facts, but inversely, did not\nappear to me to occupy its original position. The little constellation\nof the Altar no longer existed, and on that side of the heavens where\nyou remember the Earth appeared to be in my first episode, there was\nan irregular polygon of unknown stars. I was thus convinced that it\nwas not our Earth that I had before my eyes. I could no longer feel\nany doubt about it, and I was satisfied that I had now, for my field\nof exploration, a world so much the more curious that it was not the\nEarth, and that its history appeared to represent, in an inverse order,\nthe scenes of the history of our world.\n\n[Sidenote: History retraced]\n\n[Sidenote: France of the past.]\n\nSome events, it is true, did not appear to have corresponding ones\non the Earth, but in general the coincidence was very remarkable. I\nwas the more struck with this because the contempt which I feel for\nthe instigators of war had led me to hope that a folly so absurd\nand so infamous might not have existed in other worlds. But, on the\ncontrary, the greater part of the events which I witnessed were\ncombats or preparations for war. After a battle, which appeared to\nme very much to resemble that of Waterloo, I saw the battle of the\nPyramids. An image of Napoleon as emperor had become first Consul,\nand I saw the Revolution succeed to the Consulate. Some time after\nI observed the square in front of the Ch\u00e2teau of Versailles covered\nwith mourning-coaches, and in an open pathway from Ville-d'Avray I\nrecognised the botanist Jean Jacques Rousseau slowly walking along,\nand, no doubt, at that moment philosophising on the death of Louis XV.\nI was particularly struck with the gala f\u00eates at the beginning of the\nreign of Louis XV., worthy successors of those of the Regency, during\nwhich the treasures of France glistened in precious stones on the\nfingers of the three or four adored courtesans. I saw Voltaire, with\nhis white cotton cap, in his park at Ferney; and later on, Bossuet,\nwalking on the little terrace of his episcopal palace at Meaux, not far\nfrom the little hill through which the railway is now cut, but I could\nnot see the least trace of the railway line. In this same succession of\nevents, I saw the highroads covered with diligences, and large sailing\nships on the seas. Steam and all the factories that are moved by it\nnow, had disappeared. Neither telegraphs nor any other application\nof electricity existed. Balloons, which more than once I had seen in\nthe field of observation, were lost to sight. The last that I saw was\nthe shapeless globe sent up by the brothers Montgolfier at Annonay\nin the presence of the States-General. The face of the Earth was\nquite changed--Paris, Lyons, Marseilles, Havre, and more especially\nVersailles, were not recognisable; the first four had lost their\nimmense activity, the last had gained incomparably in magnificence.\n\n[Sidenote: The monarchy.]\n\nI had formed a very imperfect idea of the splendour of the royal f\u00eates\nat Versailles. It was a satisfaction to me to be present at them; and\nit was not without interest that I recognised Louis XIV. himself, on\nthe splendid terrace at the west, surrounded by a thousand nobles whose\nbreasts were covered with decorations. It was in the evening; the last\nrays of glowing sunshine were reflected on the royal fa\u00e7ade, whilst\ngallant couples gravely descended the steps of the marble stairs, and\npresently disappeared along the silent and shady avenues. My sight was\nfixed in preference on France, or at least toward that region of this\nunknown world which represented France to me; for absence makes the\nheart grow fonder, and when far from one's country one thinks of it\nall the more, and recurs with ever new interest to the thought of it.\nDo not believe that souls liberated from their bodies are scornful,\nand indifferent, and devoid of memory. Our existence would then be a\nsad one. No; we preserve the faculty of remembrance. Our hearts are\nnot wholly absorbed in the life of the spirit; and so it was with an\ninstinctive feeling of delight, which you can imagine, that thus I saw\nagain the history of France unfolded before me as though its phases\nwere being accomplished in an inverse order.\n\n[Sidenote: Feudalism]\n\n[Sidenote: Joan of Arc.]\n\n[Sidenote: The Crusades.]\n\n[Sidenote: The history of France unrolled.]\n\nAfter the people had amalgamated into one nationality, I saw the rule\nof a single sovereign established. After that came princely feudalism.\nMazarin, Richelieu, Louis XIII., and Henry IV. appeared to me at Saint\nGermain. The Bourbons and the Guises resumed their skirmishes for me.\nI thought I could distinguish the night of St. Bartholomew, I saw some\nspecial events in the history of our provinces--for instance, one of\nthe scenes in the sorcery of Chaumont, which I had time to observe,\nbefore the Church of Saint Jean, and the massacre of the Protestants\nat Vassy. What a comedy is human life! Alas! too often a tragedy!\nSuddenly I beheld in space the magnificent comet of 1577, in the\nform of a sabre. In grand array in the midst of a plain, brilliantly\ndecorated, I recognised Francis I. and Charles V. saluting one another.\nLouis XI. I perceived on a terrace of the Bastile, attended by his two\ngloomy companions. Later on, my sight was turned to a square in Rouen,\nwhere I observed flames and smoke, and in their midst I discerned the\nform of the Maid of Orleans. Convinced as I was that the world I was\nlooking at was the exact counterpart of the Earth, I divined beforehand\nthe events that I was about to see. Thus, after having seen Saint\nLouis dying before Tunis, I was present at the eighth Crusade, and\nsubsequently at the third, where I recognised Frederick Barbarossa by\nhis beard. Then at the first Crusade, when Peter the Hermit and Godfrey\nreminded me of Tasso. I was not a little surprised. I then expected to\nsee, in succession, Hugh Capet, leading a procession, arrayed in his\nofficial robes; the Council of Tauriacum deciding that the judgment of\nGod would be pronounced in the battle of Fontanet; Charles the Bald\nordering the massacre of a hundred thousand men and all the Merovingian\nnobility; Charlemagne crowned in Rome: his war against the Saxons and\nthe Lombards; Charles Martel hammering away at the Saracens; King\nDagobert founding the Abbey of St. Denis, just as I had seen Alexander\nIII. laying the first stone of Notre Dame; Brunehaut dragged along\nthe pavement by a horse; the Visigoths, the Vandals, the Ostrogoths,\nClovis Meroveus appearing in the country of the Saliens: in a word,\nthe history of France, from its very beginning, unrolled itself before\nme in an order inverse to the succession of events--this was what\nactually happened. Many historical questions which were very important,\nand which had hitherto been obscure to me, were rendered clear. I\nascertained, among other things, that the French were the original\npossessors of the right bank of the Rhine, and that the Germans have no\nright to claim that river, and still less to dispute the possession of\nthe left bank.\n\n[Sidenote: Old Paris]\n\n[Sidenote: Rome of the C\u00e6sars.]\n\n[Sidenote: Judea.]\n\n[Sidenote: Calvary.]\n\n[Sidenote: Death of Julius C\u00e6sar.]\n\nThere was, I assure you, an immense interest in taking part, if I may\nso express myself, in the events of which I had but the vague ideas\nderived from the echoes of history, often deceptive, and in visiting\ncountries that are now totally transformed. The vast and brilliant\ncapital of modern civilisation became old to me, and had shrunk to\nthe size of an ordinary town, but was at the same time fortified with\ncrenellated towers. I admired in turns the beautiful city of the\nfifteenth century, its curious types of architecture, the celebrated\ntower of Nesle, and the extensive convents of Saint Germain-des-Pr\u00e9s.\nWhere the tower of St. Jacques now stands, I recognised the gloomy\ncourt of the alchemist Nicolas Flamel. The round and pointed roofs had\nthe singular effect of looking like mushrooms on the banks of a river.\nThen this feudal aspect disappeared, and gave place to a solitary\ncastle in the Seine valley surrounded by cottages; and finally there\nwas nothing but a fertile plain, where one could only distinguish a\nfew huts of savages. At the same time I remarked that the seat of\ncivilisation was changed, and was now in the south. I will confess to\nyou, my friend, that I never felt greater delight than at the moment\nwhen I was permitted to see Rome of the C\u00e6sars in all its splendour.\nIt was the day of a triumph, and no doubt under the rule of the Syrian\nprinces; for in the midst of magnificent surroundings, gorgeous\nchariots, the purple oriflammes of the Senate, and of elegant women\nand of performers of theatres, I distinguished the Emperor luxuriously\nreclining in a golden car, clothed in delicately-coloured silk,\ncovered with precious stones and ornaments in gold and silver, which\nglittered in the golden sunshine. This must have been Heliogabalus,\nthe priest of the sun. The Coliseum, the temple of Antoninus, the\ntriumphal arches, and Trajan's column were standing. Rome was in all\nits ancient beauty and grandeur, that last beautiful phase which was\nno more than a scene in a theatre to those crowned buffoons. A little\nlater I was present at the eruption of Vesuvius, which overwhelmed\nHerculaneum and Pompeii. I saw Rome in flames, just for a moment; and\nalthough I was not able to distinguish Nero on his terrace, I have no\ndoubt I beheld the conflagration in the year 64, and the signal for the\npersecution of the Christians. A few hours after, my attention being\nstill occupied in examining the extensive gardens by the Tiber, I had\njust seen the Emperor near a parterre of roses, when, in consequence of\nthe revolution of the Earth on its axis, Judea was presented to me. How\nanxiously I regarded it when I distinguished Jerusalem and the mountain\nof Golgotha. Jesus was climbing this mountain, accompanied by a few\nwomen, escorted by a troop of soldiers, and followed by the Jewish\npopulace. I shall never forget this spectacle. It assumed a totally\ndifferent aspect to me from what it did to those who were living at\nthe time and who took part in it, for the glorious future (and the\npast also) of the Christian Church was unfolded for me as the crown of\nthe Divine sacrifice.... I cannot dwell on it; you can understand what\nvarious feelings agitated my soul on this supreme occasion.... A little\nlater, returning to Rome, I recognised Julius C\u00e6sar prostrate in death,\nwith Antony beside him holding what I think was a roll of papyrus in\nhis left hand. The conspirators were hastening down to the banks of\nthe Tiber. With a very natural curiosity I traced back the life of\nJulius C\u00e6sar, and found him with Vercingetorix in the centre of Gaul,\nand I may state that none of the suppositions of our modern historians\nrespecting the situation of Alesia are correct. In fact, this fortress\nwas situated on . . .\n\nQU\u00c6RENS.. Master, pardon me for interrupting you, but I am anxious to\nseize this opportunity to question you on a particular point respecting\nthe Dictator. Since you have seen Julius C\u00e6sar, tell me, I pray you, if\nhis face resembles that given by the Emperor Napoleon III. in his great\nwork on the life of that famous captain?\n\nLUMEN. I should be delighted, my old friend, to enlighten you on this\npoint if it were possible for me to do so. But reflect for a moment,\nand you will see that the laws of perspective forbid me.\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. Of perspective? You mean to say of politics.\n\nLUMEN. No, of perspective (although these two things strongly resemble\none another); for in seeing great men from the height of heaven, I do\nnot see them as they appear to the vulgar. From the heavens we see\nmen geometrically from above, not face to face; that is to say, when\nthey are standing we have only a horizontal projection of them. You may\nremember that once in a balloon, as we passed over the Vend\u00f4me Column\nat Paris, you remarked to me that Napoleon seen from that height was\nnot above the level of other men. It was just the same with C\u00e6sar. In\nthe other world material measures disappear, only intellectual measures\nexist.\n\n[Sidenote: Roman history.]\n\n[Sidenote: Building of the Pyramids.]\n\n[Sidenote: The Stone Age.]\n\nTo continue, however, I retraced history, from Julius C\u00e6sar to the\nConsuls, and then to the kings of Latium, in order to witness the rape\nof the Sabines, which I was pleased to observe actually, as a type of\nancient manners. History has embellished many things, and I discovered\nthat most events as represented to us are totally different from the\nactual facts. Then I saw King Candaules in Lydia, in the scene in the\nbath that you remember, then the invasion of Egypt by the Ethiopians,\nthe oligarchical republic of Corinth, the eighth Olympiad in Greece,\nand Isaiah the prophet in Judea. I saw the building of the Pyramids\nby troops of obedient slaves under chiefs mounted on dromedaries.\nThe great dynasties of Bactria and of India appeared before me, and\nChina showed the marvellous skill in the arts that she possessed even\nbefore the birth of the western world. I had an opportunity to search\nfor the Atlantis of Plato, and I saw that the opinions of Bailly on\nthat continent, now submerged, are not devoid of foundation. In Gaul I\ncould distinguish nothing but vast forests and swamps; even the Druids\nhad disappeared, and the savage inhabitants strongly resembled those\nthat we find now in Oceania. It was truly the _stone age_ as it is\nunearthed for us by modern arch\u00e6ologists. Further back still, I saw\nthat the number of men diminished by degrees, and the domination of\nnature seemed to belong to a race of the great apes, to the cave bears,\nto lions, hyenas, and the rhinoceros. A moment arrived when it was\nnot only impossible to distinguish a single man on the surface of the\nearth, but when not the least vestige of the human race was visible.\nAll had disappeared; earthquakes, volcanoes, deluges prevailed over the\nsurface of the planet, and the presence of man in the midst of such a\nchaotic state of things was no longer possible.\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. I shall confess to you, dear Lumen, that I have waited with\nimpatience for the moment when you should arrive at the garden of Eden,\nin order to learn in what form the creation of the human race on the\nearth was presented to you. I am surprised that you do not seem to have\nthought of making this important observation.\n\nLUMEN. I relate to you only the things which I saw, my curious friend,\nand I refrain from substituting the dreams of my imagination for the\nevidences of my sight. I did not perceive the least trace of that\nEden so poetically depicted in the primitive theogonies. Now, this\nwas very extraordinary, since the resemblance between the world that\nI had before my eyes and the Earth was so complete. It was more than\nsurprising, if the terrestrial paradise was really the cradle of\nhumanity. But I do not see why paradise might not have been, with as\ngood reason, at the end of human society.\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. Indeed I think it would be more just to suppose it to be at\nthe end rather than the beginning, as the result and the recompense,\ninstead of the misunderstood prelude, to a life of suffering. But since\nyou have not seen it I shall not urge my question.\n\n[Sidenote: Prehistoric ages.]\n\n[Sidenote: A dying world.]\n\n[Sidenote: The beginning, not the end of the Earth.]\n\nLUMEN. Finally, in concluding my observations of this singular world,\nwhose history was exactly the inverse of yours, I saw marvellous\nanimals, of monstrous forms, in combat on the shores of vast oceans.\nThere were enormous serpents armed with formidable paws; crocodiles\nthat flew in the air, sustained by wings organically longer than their\nbodies; misshapen fishes with jaws wide enough to swallow an ox; birds\nof prey struggling in terrible battles in the desert islands. There\nwere whole continents covered with forests, trees with enormous leaves\nentangled in one another; a vegetation at once sombre and severe,\nfor the vegetable kingdom was devoid of both flowers and fruit. The\nmountains vomited forth clouds of flame and vapour, the rivers fell\nin cataracts, the ground opened in immense chasms in which were\nengulfed hills, woods, streams, trees, and animals. But before long it\nbecame impossible for me to perceive even the surface of the globe; a\nuniversal sea appeared to cover it, and the vegetable kingdom, like\nthe animal kingdom, was slowly effaced, and gave place to a monotonous\nverdure interspersed with lightning and whitish smoke. Henceforth\nit was a dying world. I was present at the last palpitations of its\nheart, intermittently revealed in the gloom by flashes of flame. Then\nit seemed to me that it rained everywhere over its whole surface,\nfor the Sun threw light on nothing but clouds and torrents of rain.\nThe hemisphere opposite to the Sun appeared less sombre than before,\nand one could perceive a dull light gleaming through the tempests.\nThis light increased in intensity, and spread over the entire sphere.\nGreat crevasses became red like iron in the furnace; and as iron in\na hot furnace becomes bright red, then orange, then yellow, then in\nsuccession white and incandescent, so the world passed through all\nthe progressive phases of heat. Its volume increased, its movement of\nrotation became slower. The mysterious globe seemed like an immense\nsphere of molten metal enveloped in metallic vapours. Under the\nincessant action of this interior furnace and the elemental combats\n(or combinations) of this strange chemistry, it acquired enormous\nproportions, and the sphere of fire became a sphere of smoke. Thence\nit went on developing without cessation, and lost its personality. The\nSun, which at first had shed light on it, no longer surpassed it in\nbrightness, and it itself increased so much in circumference that it\nbecame evident to me that the vaporous planet would soon lose its own\nexistence and be absorbed in the enlarged atmosphere of the Sun. It is\na rare experience to be present at the end of a world. And so in my\nenthusiasm I could not prevent myself from crying out with a kind of\nvanity, \"Behold the end of the world, O God! and this, then, is the\nfate in store for all the inhabited worlds!\" \"This is not _the end_,\"\nreplied a voice in the hearing of my soul; \"_this is the beginning_.\"\n\"How can this be the beginning?\" thought I immediately. \"The beginning\nof the Earth itself,\" replied the same voice. \"Thou hast seen over\nagain the whole history of the Earth _in thus withdrawing from her with\na velocity greater than that of light_.\"\n\nThis declaration did not surprise me so much as the first episode\nof my ultra-terrestrial life, for I was now familiarised with the\nastonishing effects of the laws of light; I was henceforth prepared\nfor every new surprise. I had some doubts of the fact, in consequence\nof certain details that I have not given you to avoid disturbing the\nunity of my recital or breaking the thread of my narrative, but which\nwere nevertheless incomparably more extraordinary than the general\nsuccession of events.\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. But if it was really the Earth, how comes it that the\nastronomical calculations you made in order to recognise her in the\nconstellation of the Altar, indicated, as you have pointed out, that\nthe world you were examining was neither the Earth nor a star of the\nAltar?\n\n[Sidenote: Events retraced.]\n\n[Sidenote: Sidereal perspective.]\n\nLUMEN. The fact is, that even that constellation had itself changed\nin consequence of my voyage in space. In place of the stars of the\nthird magnitude, \u03b1, \u03b3, and \u03db (alpha, gamma, zeta), and stars of the\nfourth magnitude, \u03b2, \u03b4, and \u03b8 (beta, delta, theta), which constitute\nthat figure as seen from the Earth, my distance towards the nebul\u00e6 had\nreduced those starsa to little imperceptible points. It had placed\nother brilliant stars there, which were no doubt \u03b1 (alpha) and \u03b2 (beta)\nof Auriga, \u03b8, \u03b9, \u03b7 (theta, iota, eta), and perhaps even \u03b5 (epsilon) of\nthe same constellation--stars diametrically opposite to the preceding\nwhen seen from the Earth, but which were necessarily interposed there\nwhen I had passed them by. The celestial perspective had already\nchanged, and it had become, in truth, almost impossible to determine\nthe position of our Sun.\n\n[Sidenote: It was really the Earth that Lumen saw.]\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. I had not thought of this inevitable change of perspective\non the other side of Capella; and so it was really the Earth that you\nsaw, and therefore its history was unrolled before you in an inverse\norder--you saw ancient events taking place _after_ modern events. By\nwhat new process has light thus enabled you to ascend the stream of\ntime? Furthermore, dear Lumen, you have informed me that you have\nobserved some curious particulars relative to the Earth itself. I am\nwishful to ask you some special questions on these details. I shall\nlisten, then, with interest to the extraordinary history which ought to\ncomplete this recital, persuaded, as before, that it will fully reward\nmy curiosity.\n\n\nII\n\n[Sidenote: History read backwards.]\n\nLUMEN. The first circumstance is connected with the battle of Waterloo.\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. No one remembers that catastrophe better than I do. I received\na ball in my shoulder there, in the neighbourhood of Mont Saint-Jean,\nand a sabre-cut on my right hand from one of Blucher's blackguards.\n\n[Sidenote: Waterloo beyond the tomb.]\n\nLUMEN. Well, my old comrade, in taking part in this battle again,\nI found it quite different from what it was in the past, as you\nmay judge from what I will relate to you. When I had recognised\nthe field of Waterloo, to the south of Brussels, I distinguished\nfirst a considerable number of dead bodies lying on the ground\nindiscriminately. Far off, through the mist, I perceived Napoleon\nwalking backwards, holding his horse by the bridle. The officers who\naccompanied him were marching backwards also. The cannon began to\nboom, and from time to time I saw the lurid gleam of their flashes.\nWhen my sight was sufficiently habituated to the scene, I perceived\nsome soldiers coming to life out of the eternal night, and by a single\neffort standing up. Group after group, a considerable number, were thus\nresuscitated. The dead horses revived like the dead cavaliers, and\nthe latter remounted them. As soon as two or three thousand men had\nreturned to life, I saw them form unconsciously in line of battle. The\ntwo armies took their places fronting one another, and began to fight\ndesperately with a fury that one might have taken for despair. As the\ncombat deepened on both sides, the soldiers came to life more rapidly.\nFrench, English, Prussians, Germans, Hanoverians, Belgians--grey\ncoats, blue uniforms, red tunics, green, white--arose from the field\nof the dead and fought. In the centre of the French army I espied the\nEmperor, a battalion in square surrounded him; the Imperial Guard was\nresuscitated. Their immense battalions advanced from the two camps\nand engaged in a fierce onslaught; from the left and from the right,\nsquadrons advanced. The white manes of the white horses floated in the\nwind. I remembered the strange picture by Raffet, and the spectral\nepigram of the German poet Sedlitz:--\n\n    \"La caisse sonne, \u00e9trange,\n     Fortement elle retentit.\n     Dans leur fosse ressuscitent\n     Les vieux soldats p\u00e9ris.\"\n\nAnd this other:--\n\n    \"C'est la grande revue,\n     Qu'\u00e0 l'heure de minuit\n     Aux Champs-\u00c9lys\u00e9es\n     Tient C\u00e9sar d\u00e9c\u00e9d\u00e9.\"\n\nIt was really Waterloo, but a _Waterloo beyond the tomb_, for the\ncombatants were raised from the dead. Besides, in this singular\napparition they marched backwards one against the other. Such a battle\nhad a magical effect, and impressed me more forcibly, because I foresaw\nthe event itself, and this event was strangely transformed in its\ncounterpart image. Not less singular was the fact, that the longer they\nfought, the more the number of combatants increased; at each gap made\nby the cannon in the serried ranks a group of resuscitated dead filled\nup the gaps immediately. When the belligerents had spent the whole day\nin tearing one another to pieces with grape-shot, with cannons and\nbullets, with bayonets, sabres, and swords--when the great battle was\nover, there was not a single person killed, no one was even wounded;\neven uniforms that before it were torn and in disorder were in good\ncondition, the men were safe and sound, and the ranks in correct form.\nThe two armies slowly withdrew from one another, as if the heat of the\nbattle and all its fury had no other object than the restoration to\nlife, amid the smoke of the combat, of the two hundred thousand corpses\nwhich had lain on the field a few hours before. What an exemplary and\ndesirable battle it was!\n\n[Sidenote: Reascending the ages.]\n\nAssuredly it was the most singular of military episodes, and the moral\naspect of it far surpassed the physical, when I found that this battle\nresulted not in the defeat of Napoleon, but in placing him upon the\nthrone. Instead of losing the battle, it was the Emperor who gained\nit; instead of a prisoner, he became a sovereign. Waterloo was an 18th\nBrumaire!...\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. Dear Lumen, I do not half understand this new effect of the\nlaws of light. If you have discovered it, I shall be grateful to you if\nyou will give me an explanation of it.\n\nLUMEN. I have helped you to divine it by telling you that I removed\nfrom the Earth with a _greater_ velocity than that of light.\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. But tell me, I pray you, how does this retrogression in space\nenable you to see events in an order inverse to that in which they took\nplace?\n\nLUMEN. The theory is very simple. Suppose you set out from the Earth\nwith the velocity exactly _equal_ to that of light, you would always\nhave with you the aspect that the Earth assumed at the moment you\nset out, since you would be receding from the globe with a swiftness\nprecisely equal to that which bore this very aspect into space. Thus,\neven if you voyaged for a thousand years or a hundred thousand years,\nthis aspect would accompany you always like a photograph which did not\ngrow old; whilst the original is made old by the years that elapse.\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. I understood this fact already in our first conversation.\n\n[Sidenote: Retrogressive light pictures.]\n\nLUMEN. Well, suppose now that you remove from the Earth with a velocity\n_superior_ to that of light, what will happen? You will find again, as\nfast as you advance into space, the rays that set out _before_ you,\nthat is to say the successive photographs which, from second to second,\nfrom instant to instant, project their rays into space. If, for\nexample, you set out in 1867 with the velocity equal to that of light,\nyou would retain for ever the year 1867 in sight. If you went more\nquickly, you would find before you the rays that had set out in former\nyears, and which bore upon them the photographs of those years. In\norder further to illustrate this fact, reflect, I pray you, on the many\nluminous rays that have set out from the Earth in different epochs. Let\nus suppose the first to be at some instant of the 1st January 1867.\nAt the rate of 300,000 kilometres a second, it has, at the moment in\nwhich I am speaking to you, already passed a portion of space from the\ninstant of its departure till it reached a certain distance which I\nshall express by the letter A. Let us now suppose that a second ray\nsets out from the Earth a hundred years before, on the 1st January\n1767; it is a hundred years _in advance_ of the first, and is found at\na still greater distance--a distance that I shall express by the letter\nB. A third ray which I shall in like manner suppose on the 1st January\n1667, is still _further off_ by a length equal to the distance that\nthe light would travel in a hundred years. I call the place where this\nthird ray reaches, C. Then a fourth, a fifth, a sixth, on respectively\nthe 1st January 1567, 1467, 1367, &c., are posted at equal distances D,\nE, F, penetrating more and more into the infinite.\n\nHere, then, we have a series of photographs, taken on the same line,\nfrom post to post in space. Now, the mind which travels on in passing\nsuccessively by the points A, B, C, D, E, F, can retrace successively\nthe secular history of the Earth in those epochs.\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. Master, at what distance are these photographs from one\nanother?\n\n[Sidenote: Photographs of the life on Earth imprinted in space.]\n\nLUMEN. The calculation is very easy. The interval which separates\nthem is of necessity that which light travels in a hundred years.\nNow, at the rate of 75,000 leagues per second, you see at once that\nit travels 4,500,000 leagues in a _minute_, 270,000,000 leagues in\nan _hour_, 6,480,800,000 leagues in a _day_, 2,366,820,000,000 in a\n_year_, allowing for leap-years; consequently, the result would be\nthat the interval between two points of departure at the distance of\na _century_ from one another, is nearly 236 _billions_ 682 thousand\nmillions of leagues. Here, then, I say we have a series of terrestrial\nphotographs, imprinted in space, at corresponding distances, one after\nanother. Let us now suppose that between each of these centennial\npictures we should find annual pictures, between each of which the\ndistance is preserved in accordance with the time that light travels in\na year, which I have just given you; then between each of the annual\npictures we have those of every day, and as each day contains the\nphotographs of each hour, every hour the photographs of its minutes,\nand every minute of its seconds, all succeeding one another, according\nto their respective distances apart--we shall have in a ray of light,\nor rather in a jet of light, composed of a series of distinct pictures\nin juxtaposition, the aerial register of the history of the Earth.\n\n[Sidenote: Psychical optics.]\n\nWhen the spirit travels in this ethereal ray of pictures with a\nswiftness greater than that of light, it sees in succession, backwards,\nthe ancient pictures. When it arrives at the distance at which the\naspect of events that set out in 1767 is to be seen, it has already\nretraced a hundred years of terrestrial history. When it reaches the\npoint where the aspect of 1667 has arrived, it retraces two centuries.\nWhen it attains to the photograph of 1567, it has seen, again, three\ncenturies, and so on successively. I told you in the beginning that I\ndirected my course toward a group of stars situated at the left of\nCapella. This group proved to be at an incomparably greater distance\nthan that star, although from the Earth it appeared to be close beside\nit, because the two visual rays are near one another. This apparent\nproximity is solely due to the perspective. In order to give you an\nidea of the remoteness of this far-off universe, I may tell you that\nit is not less vast in size than the Milky Way. One may then ask to\nwhat distance should the Milky Way be transported to reduce it to\nthe apparent size of this nebula. My learned friend Arago made this\ncalculation, of which you must be aware, as he repeated it every year\nin his course of lectures at the Observatory, that have been published\nsince his death. It would be necessary to suppose the Milky Way to be\ntransported to a distance equal to 334 times its own length. Now, as\nlight takes 15,000 years to traverse the Milky Way from one end to\nanother, it follows that it cannot take less than 334 times 15,000\nyears, that is to say, less than 5,000,000 years, in coming from\nthence. I have ascended a ray of light from the Earth to these remote\nregions, and if my spiritual sight had been more perfect, I should have\nbeen able to distinguish not only the retrogression of history for\n10,000 years or 100,000 years, but even for 5,000,000 years.\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. Can the mind, then, by its powers alone, cross in this way the\nimmeasurable spaces of the heavens?\n\nLUMEN. Not by its own power alone, but by making use of the forces\nof nature. Attraction is one of these forces. It is transmitted with\na velocity incomparably superior to that of light, and the most\nrigorously exact astronomical calculations are obliged to consider\nthis transmission as almost instantaneous. I will add that if I have\nbeen able to perceive events at such distances, it is not by the\napprehension of a physical sense that I know them, but by a process\nincomparably more subtle, which belongs to the psychic order. The\nmovements of the ether, which constitute light, are not luminous by\nthemselves, as you know. The eye is not necessary in order to perceive\nthem. A soul vibrating under their influence perceives them as well,\nand often incomparably better than an organic optical apparatus. This\nbeing psychical optics. For example, attraction crosses instantaneously\nthe 148,000,000 of kilometres that separate the Earth from the Sun,\nwhilst light occupies 493 seconds in this passage.\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. What length of time did your voyage to that remote universe\noccupy?\n\nLUMEN. Have I not told you that time does not exist outside the\nmovements of the Earth? Whether I employed a year or an hour, it would\nhave been exactly the same period in infinity.\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. I have thought it over, and the physical difficulties seem to\nme enormous. Permit me now to submit to you a strange thought that has\njust come into my head.\n\nLUMEN. It is to hear your reflections that I give you this narrative.\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. I want to ask you if the same inversion would take place with\nthe hearing as well as the sight? If you can see an event backwards\nfrom its real occurrence, can you also hear a discourse backwards,\nbeginning at the end? This is perhaps a daring question, and apparently\nridiculous, but in paradoxes where can one stop?\n\n[Sidenote: Light and sound.]\n\nLUMEN. The paradox is only apparent. The laws of sound are essentially\ndifferent from the laws of light. Sound travels only at the rate of 340\nmetres a second, and its effects have absolutely nothing in common with\nthose of light. Nevertheless it is evident that if we were to advance\ninto the air with a velocity _superior_ to that of sound, we should\nhear inversely the sounds that left the lips of a speaker. If, for\ninstance, some one were to recite an alexandrine, an auditor in moving\nwith the aforesaid velocity, starting at the moment when he heard the\nlast foot of the line, would find successively the eleven other feet\nwhich had been uttered before, and would thus hear the alexandrine\nbackwards.\n\nAs to the theory itself, it suggests a curious reflection, that nature\nmight have caused sound to travel, not at the rate of 340 metres\na second, and that its velocity, which depends on the density and\nthe elasticity of the air, might have been very much less. Why, for\ninstance, might it not have been transmitted at the rate of only a few\ncentimetres a second? Now see what would be the result if this were\nthe case. Men would not be able to speak to one another when walking\ntogether. Let two friends be conversing, and suppose one takes a step\nor two in advance, or goes on, say the distance of a metre; now, if\nsound were to take many seconds to cross this metre, the consequence\nwould be that, instead of hearing the phrases spoken in their right\norder by his friend, the foremost walker would hear in an inverse\norder the sounds conveying the anterior phrases. In that case we could\nnot speak whilst walking, and three-fourths of mankind would not be\nable to hear one another.\n\nThese remarks, my friend, induce me to suggest to you, in this\nconnection, for your consideration, a subject well worthy of attention,\nand which has hitherto received little notice--that of the adaptation\nof the human organism to its terrestrial environment. The manner in\nwhich man sees, in which he hears; his sensations, his nervous system,\nhis build, his weight, his density, his walk, his functions--in a word,\nall his actions are regulated and constituted by the condition of your\nplanet. None of your acts are absolutely free and independent. Man is\nthe obedient, though unconscious, creature of the organic forces of the\nEarth.\n\n[Sidenote: The human organism derived from the Earth.]\n\n[Sidenote: Organic life accords with its habitat on each planet.]\n\nUndoubtedly the human soul, not being a function of the brain,\nand existing by itself, enjoys relative liberty; but this liberty\nis limited by its faculties, its powers, and its energies; it is\ndetermined, according to the causes which decide it, at the moment of\nthe birth of every man. Could one know exactly the faculties of his\nsoul and the circumstances which were to surround his life, one could\nwrite beforehand that man's life in all its details. The human organism\nis the product of the planet. It is not by a Divine fantasy, by a\nmiracle, or by a direct creation that terrestrial man is constituted\nsuch as he is. His form, his figure, his weight, his sense, his whole\norganisation, are derived from the state or condition of your planet,\nthe atmosphere that you breathe, the food that nourishes you, the\ngravity of the surface of the Earth, the density of terrestrial matter,\n&c. The human body does not differ anatomically from that of one of the\nhigher mammalia, and if you go back to the origin of species, you will\nfind gradual transformations established by unimpeachable evidence. The\nwhole of terrestrial life, from the mollusc to man, is the development\nof one single and sole genealogical tree. The human form has its\norigin in the animal form. Man is the butterfly developed from the\nchrysalis of the pal\u00e6ontological ages. From this fact the consequence\nresults that on other worlds organic life is different from what it is\nhere, and that their humanities, which, like our own, are the result\nof forces in activity on each planet, differ absolutely in their\nforms from that of terrestrial humanity. For example, on the worlds\nwhere they do not eat, the digestive apparatus and the intestines do\nnot exist. On the worlds which are very highly electric, the beings\ninhabiting them are gifted with an electric sense. On others, sight is\nadapted for the ultra-violet rays, and the eyes have nothing in common\nwith your eyes; they do not see what you see, and they see what you\ncannot see. The organs are adapted to the functions they have to fulfil.\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. We are not, then, the absolute type of creation? Creation\nitself is, it appears, a perpetual development of forces in activity.\n\n[Sidenote: The soul and destiny]\n\nLUMEN. The soul itself is subject to a similar law. There are as many\ndiversities of souls as of bodies. In order that the soul should exist\nas an independent being having a consciousness of itself, in order that\nit should preserve the recollection of its identity and be qualified\nfor immortality, it is necessary that even in this life it should know\nthat it really exists. Otherwise it is no more advanced the day after\ndeath than the day before death, and falls as an insensible breath\ninto the blind cosmos, neither more nor less than any other centre\nof unconscious force. Many men on the Earth boast that they do not\nbelieve in anything but matter, without knowing what they say, since\nthey do not know what matter is. These last, and those, still more\nnumerous, who _do not think at all_, are not immortal, since they have\nno consciousness of their existence. The spirits who live really the\nspiritual life are the only ones who are fitted for immortality.\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. Are there many of them?\n\nLUMEN. My friend, behold the dawn of morning which invites me anew to\nreturn into the depths of space, peopled with things unknown on Earth,\nthat fruitful mine in which spirits find again the wrecks of past\nexistences, the secrets of many mysteries, the ruins of disintegrated\nworlds, and the genesis of future worlds. And for the rest, it would\nbe superfluous to lengthen out this recital with useless details. My\nobject has been to show you that, in order to have the spectacle of a\nworld and of a system exactly opposite to yours, all that is needed is\nto recede from the Earth with a velocity greater than that of light.\nIn this flight of the soul towards the inaccessible horizons of the\ninfinite, one retraces the luminous rays reflected by the Earth and\nby the other planets for millions and myriads of years, and _while\nobserving the planets at this vast distance one can be present_ in\nvision _at the events of their past history_. Thus one ascends the\nstream of time to its source. Such a faculty ought to illuminate for\nyou the regions of eternity with a new light. If, as I hope, you admit\nthe scientific value of my expositions of these ultra-terrestrial\nstudies, I look forward to unfolding to you before long their\nmetaphysical consequences.\n\n\n\n\nTHIRD CONVERSATION\n\nHOMO HOMUNCULUS\n\n\n[Sidenote: Clouds no impediment to vision.]\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. I have listened to you with interest, Lumen, without, I\nown, being entirely convinced that all you have told me is actually\nreal. Indeed it is difficult to believe that it is possible to see\nwith absolute certainty all the things of which you speak. When, for\ninstance, there are clouds across your field of view, you cannot see\nclearly what passes on the Earth. The same objection obtains for the\ninterior of houses.\n\n[Sidenote: Light a vibration of ether.]\n\nLUMEN. You are mistaken, my friend. The undulations of ether pass\nthrough obstacles that you would believe impenetrable. Clouds are\nformed of molecules between which rays of light frequently pass. In the\ncontrary case, there are here and there vistas or gaps, across which\none can only see obliquely. The case is very rare when nothing can be\ndistinguished. Besides, light is not what it appears to be; it is a\nvibration of ether, and there are other ways of seeing than by means\nof the retina and the optic nerve.\n\nThe vibrations of ether are perceptible to senses other than those you\npossess. Therefore, if this be your sole objection, it is, I must say,\nfar from being an insurmountable one.\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. You have a special faculty for resolving all doubts. Perhaps\nthis is one of the gifts granted to spiritual beings. I have been\nobliged successively to admit, that you have been transported to\nCapella with a swiftness exceeding that of light; that you reached\nanother world as a spirit; that your soul is liberated from the flesh;\nthat your ultra-earthly perception is able to distinguish from that\nheight all that passes here; that you can advance or recede in space\naccording to your fancy; and lastly, that the clouds themselves are no\nobstacles to your clearly seeing the surface of our globe. It must be\nowned that these are grave difficulties indeed.\n\nLUMEN. You are very material, my old friend! Should you be very\nsurprised if I undertook to prove to you that all these difficulties\nexist only in name, and that all the objections which oppose themselves\nto your conception of phenomena are the effects of ignorance?\n\nWhat should you think if I affirmed that no one has a single true idea\nof what takes place upon the Earth, and that man utterly fails to\nunderstand nature?\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. In the name of all the indisputable truths of modern science,\nI should dare to think that you were trying to impose upon me.\n\n[Sidenote: The marvels of spectral analysis.]\n\n[Sidenote: Piercing nature of the soul's sight.]\n\nLUMEN. God forbid! Listen to me, my friend. The marvellous discoveries\nof contemporary science ought to enlarge the sphere of your\nconceptions. You have just discovered spectral analysis! By this\nmethodic examination of a simple ray of light shot from a far-off star,\nyou learn what are the elements which compose this inaccessible star\nand feed its brilliancy. This knowledge, my brother, is of more value\nthan all the conquests of Alexander, of C\u00e6sar, and of Napoleon, than\nall the discoveries of Ptolemy, of Columbus, of Gutenberg, than all the\nbooks of Moses and of Confucius. Only think, trillions of leagues span\nthe abyss which separates us from Sirius, from Arcturus, from Vega,\nfrom Capella, from Castor and Pollux, and it is now possible to analyse\nthe substances which constitute these suns, just as accurately as if\nyou could take them in your hand and submit them to the crucible of\nthe laboratory! How then can you refuse to admit that, by processes\nwhich are unknown to you, the soul's sight can be sufficiently piercing\nto see clearly a bright far-off world, and to distinguish even its\nsmallest details? Does not the telegraph carry in an inappreciable\nmoment your thought from Europe to America through the depths of the\nocean? Cannot two people converse in a low voice at a distance of\nthousands of leagues, and still you hesitate to admit the truth of my\nnarrations, because you do not altogether comprehend them? But can you\nexplain how the telegraphic message is transmitted? No, you cannot.\nCease then to retain doubts which have not even the merit of being\nscientific.\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. My objections, learned master, have not any other end in view\nthan to elicit fresh light upon the subject. I am far from denying the\ntruth of all you tell me, and I but seek to form a rational and exact\nidea of it.\n\n[Sidenote: The inadequacy of the earthly senses.]\n\nLUMEN. Be assured, my friend, I do not take any offence at your\nobjections. My only desire is to develop and enlarge the sphere of your\nconceptions. I can at this very instant open your eyes to see the utter\ninadequacy of your terrestrial faculties, and the fatal poverty of\npositive science itself, by inviting you to reflect that the causes of\nyour impressions are solely modes of motion, and that what is proudly\ntermed _science_ is only a very _limited organic perception_.\n\n[Sidenote: The limitations of the senses.]\n\nLight by which your eyes see--sound by which your ears hear--are\ndifferent forms of motion by which you are impressed; odours, flavours,\n&c., are emanations which strike upon your olfactory nerve or touch\nyour palate; these are solely vibratory motions which are transmitted\nto your brain. You can only appreciate a few of these movements through\nthe senses you possess, principally those of sight and hearing. You, in\nyour simplicity, believe that you see and hear nature? Nothing of the\nkind. All you do is to receive some of the movements in activity upon\nyour sublunary atom. That is all. Beyond the impressions you receive\nthere are an infinitely greater number unperceived by you.\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. Pardon, master, but this new aspect of nature is not\nsufficiently clear for me to understand it. Would you....\n\n[Sidenote: The extent of the gamut _re_ vibrations of sound.]\n\n[Sidenote: The extent of the vibrations of light.]\n\nLUMEN. This aspect is indeed new to you, but attentive reflection will\nenable you to grasp it. Sound is formed by vibrations in the air which\nstrike upon the membrane of the tympanum and give you the impression of\nvarious tones. Man does not hear all sounds. When the vibrations are\ntoo slow (below forty a second), the sound is too low; your ear cannot\ncatch it. When the vibrations are too rapid (above 36,000 a second),\nthe sound is too sharp; your ear cannot receive it. Above and below\nthese two limits, therefore, human beings do not perceive them. These\nvibrations exist, however, and are perceived by creatures of other\nkinds, as, for example, certain insects. The same rules apply to light.\nThe different aspects of light, the shades and colours of objects, are\nequally due to the vibrations which strike upon the optic nerve and\ngive you the impression of the different degrees of intensity in light.\nMan does not by any means see all that is visible. When the vibrations\nare too slow (under 458 billions a second), light is too feeble; your\neye sees nothing. When the vibrations are too rapid (over 727 billions\na second), light outruns your organic faculty of perception and is\ninvisible to you. Above and below these two limits the vibrations of\nether still exist, and are perceived by other beings. You do not know\ntherefore, nor can you receive, any impressions except those that can\nbe made to vibrate upon the two chords of your organic lyre, called\nrespectively the optic nerve and the auditory nerve.\n\nImagine for one instant the extent of all the sights and sounds which\nare not perceptible to you. All the undulatory movements that exist in\nthe universe between the figures of 36,000 and those represented by\n458,000,000,000,000 in the same unity of time, can neither be heard nor\nbe seen by you, and remain utterly unknown to you.\n\n[Sidenote: Man deaf to the concert of universal harmonies by reason of\nhis limitations.]\n\nTry to measure that distance! Contemporary science is beginning to\npenetrate a little into this invisible world, and you know that it\nhas just calculated the vibrations below 458 billions (these are the\ncaloric invisible rays) and the vibrations above 727 billions (these\nare the chemical rays, also equally invisible to the human eye).\nScientific methods can enlarge the sphere of the perceptions but a\nlittle; you remain isolated in the midst of infinitude. Moreover,\nan endless number of other vibrations exist in nature which have no\n_correspondence_ with your organisation, and therefore cannot be\nreceived by you, _consequently you remain for ever utterly ignorant of\nthem_. Did you possess other strings to your lyre--ten, a hundred, a\nthousand--the harmony of nature could more completely translate itself\nto you, each of the myriad vibrations according to their kind. You\nwould perceive a number of facts which are certainly passing around\nyou, whose very existence you cannot even now guess, and in place of\ntwo dominant notes you would be conscious of the grand concert of\nharmonies everywhere about you.\n\nBut although thus ignorant, you are unconscious of it, because all\naround you are equally ignorant, and therefore it is impossible to\ncompare your limited faculties with those of beings much more highly\norganised.\n\n[Sidenote: Were the eye a combined spectroscope and telescope, it would\nsee the chemical elements composing bodies.]\n\nThe senses you do possess suffice, however, to indicate the existence\nof other senses, not only more powerful, but of a totally different\norder. By the sense of touch, for example, you can, it is true, feel\nthe sensation of _heat_; but it is easy to conceive the existence of\na special sense, analogous to that by which light reveals to you the\naspect of exterior objects, and which would render man capable of\njudging of the form and substance of an object, its interior structure,\nand other qualities, by the action of the caloric waves radiating from\nit. The same reasoning would hold good on the subject of _electricity_.\nYou could equally well conceive the existence of a sense, endowing\nthe eye with the powers of a spectroscope and telescope in one, thus\nenabling it to see the _chemical_ elements, of which bodies are\ncomposed.\n\nThus already, from a scientific point of view, you have sufficient\nground for imagining modes of perception, quite different from those\nwhich characterise human beings. These faculties exist in other worlds,\nand there are endless ways of perceiving the action of the forces of\nnature.\n\n[Sidenote: Our terrestrial senses are limited.]\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. Certainly, master, I own that as you unfold these\npossibilities a new and singular clearness enlightens my understanding,\nand your teachings appear to me a true interpretation of the reality.\nI had already dreamed that similar marvels might be possible, but\nI had not been able to explain them, enveloped as I still am in my\nterrestrial senses. One thing is certain, we must be lifted out of our\nearth-bound limitations ere we are capable of comprehending, or even of\nattempting to judge, of the scope of the universe.\n\nThus, being endowed with only a few limited senses, we can but know the\nfacts that are perceptible to them. The remainder is naturally unknown.\nCan it be that the unknown is infinitely more than the known?\n\n[Sidenote: The ordinary senses are insensible to many physical\nmovements.]\n\nLUMEN. This \"remainder\" is immense, and all you at present know will\nseem as nothing by comparison. Not only do your senses not perceive\nphysical movements--such as solar and terrestrial electricity whose\ncurrents cross in the atmosphere, the magnetism of minerals, of plants,\nand of beings, the affinities of organisms, &c., which are invisible\nto you--but they perceive still less the movements of the moral world,\nits sympathies and antipathies, its presentiments, its spiritual\nattractions, &c. I only speak the simple truth when I say, that all\nthat you know, and all that you could know, through the medium of your\nearthly senses, is as nothing compared to that which is.\n\n[Sidenote: Beings exist with other than our senses.]\n\nThis truth is so profound that it might well be asserted, that beings\nexist upon the Earth essentially different from you, possessing neither\neyes, nor ears, nor any of your senses, but endowed with _other_\nsenses, and capable of perceiving that which you cannot perceive, and\nwho, while living in the same world as yourself, know that which you\ncannot know, and form an idea of nature completely at variance with\nyour own.\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. All this is utterly beyond my comprehension.\n\nLUMEN. Moreover, my earthly friend, I can add most emphatically that\nthe perceptions you receive, and that constitute the bases of your\nscience, are not even the perceptions of the _reality_. No. Light,\nlucidity, colours, looks, tones, noises, harmonies, sounds, perfumes,\nflavours, apparent qualities of bodies, &c., are nothing but _forms_.\n\nThese forms enter into your mind by the avenue of the eye, and the ear,\nby the senses of smell, and taste, and are represented to you by their\nappearances, but not even by the essence of the things themselves.\n\n_The real nature of things entirely escapes your understanding, and you\nare utterly incapable of comprehending the universe._\n\n[Sidenote: Matter is not solid.]\n\nMatter itself is not what you believe it to be. To speak absolutely,\nthere is not anything that is _solid_; your own body, a piece of iron\nor of granite, are not more solid than the air you breathe. All these\nthings are composed of atoms which do not touch each other, and which\nare in perpetual movement. The Earth, atom of the Heavens, moves in\nspace with a swiftness of 643,000 leagues a day; but, in proportion to\ntheir dimensions, each atom which constitutes your own body and that\ncirculates in your blood, moves much more quickly. If your vision were\nsufficiently powerful to see through this stone, you would no longer\nsee it thus, because your sight would pass through and beyond it....\n\n[Sidenote: How man errs in thinking his limited sensations describe\nthose of the universe.]\n\n[Sidenote: The difference of organisms on Mars, Uranus, &c.]\n\n[Sidenote: The tie uniting the physical and spiritual world]\n\nBut I see by the disturbance of your brain, and the rapid movements of\nthe fluid which crosses your closely-concentrated lobes, that you no\nlonger understand my revelations. I will not then pursue this subject\nwhich I have thus merely lightly touched upon, with the end in view of\nthereby demonstrating how greatly you would err, did you attach any\nimportance to difficulties born of your terrestrial sensations, and\nto assure you that neither you nor any man upon the Earth could form\neven an approximate idea of the universe. What is earthly man but a\nmere pigmy! Ah! if you were but acquainted with the organisms which\nvibrate upon Mars or upon Uranus; if it had but been granted to you, to\nappreciate the senses in action, upon Venus and upon a ring of Saturn;\nif during centuries of travel you had been permitted to glance at and\nobserve the forms of life in the systems of the double stars; at the\nsensations of sight in the coloured suns, to glean the impressions\nof an electric sense, of which you can know absolutely nothing,\nin the groups of multiple suns; if a suitable comparison of this\nultra-terrestrial state had furnished you with the elements of a fresh\nknowledge, you would then have comprehended that beings exist--who can\nsee, hear, feel, or, to be more accurate, understand nature without\neyes, without ears, without sense of smell; that an incredible number\nof other senses exist in nature, senses essentially different from\nyours; and that there are in creation an incalculable number of\nmarvellous facts which it is absolutely impossible for you to imagine.\nIn this general contemplation of the universe, my friend, one perceives\nthe solidarity--the tie which unites the physical with the spiritual\nworld; one sees from a higher ground the instinctive strength which\nraises certain souls, tried by the coarseness of matter but purified\nby sacrifice, towards the higher regions of spiritual light; and one\nunderstands how immense is the happiness reserved for those beings,\nwho, even while on Earth, have succeeded in gradually overcoming their\nlower nature.\n\nQU\u00c6RENS.. To return to the transmission of light in space. Does\nnot light lose itself at last? Does the aspect of the Earth remain\neternally visible, and never, on the contrary, diminish in proportion\nto the square of distance, thus becoming finally annihilated?\n\n[Sidenote: The word end applied to space meaningless]\n\nLUMEN. Your expression \"at last\" is without meaning, because there is\nno end in space.\n\nLight becomes attenuated, it is true, with distance, the scenes become\nless vivid, but nothing is lost entirely. Any number, whatever it may\nbe, perpetually reduced by half, for example, can never become equal\nto zero. The Earth is not visible to all eyes at a certain distance.\nNevertheless it still exists, even though it may not be seen by all;\nand only spiritual sight can see it.\n\nBesides, the image of a star, borne upon the wings of light, goes into\nthe unfathomable depths of the mysterious abysses of space.\n\n[Sidenote: Vast regions exist without stars.]\n\nVast regions exist in space without stars, regions decimated by time,\nwhence worlds have been successively removed by the attraction of\nexterior suns. The image of a star in crossing these dark abysses,\nwould be in a condition analogous to that of a person, or object, that\nthe photographer had forgotten and left in the _camera_.\n\nIt is not impossible that such images encounter in these vast spaces an\nobscure star (celestial mechanics state the existence of many such) in\na special condition whose surface (formed perhaps of iodine, if one is\nto credit spectral analysis) would be sensitised, and capable of fixing\nupon itself the image of this far-off world.\n\nThus terrestrial events might be printed upon a dark globe. And if this\nglobe turns upon itself, like other celestial bodies, it would present\nsuccessively its different zones to the terrestrial image, and would\nthus take a sort of continuous photograph of successive events.\n\n[Sidenote: Images of this world's events photographed spirally upon\nother globes in space.]\n\nFollowing moreover, in ascending, or descending, a perpendicular\nline to its equator, the line where the images were reproduced would\nno longer be described in a circle, but in a spiral; and after the\nfirst movement of rotation was finished, the new images would not\ncoincide with the old ones, nor superimpose them, but would follow\nabove and below. The imagination could now suppose that this world is\nnot spherical, but cylindrical, and thus see in space an imperishable\ncolumn around which would be engraved the great events of the world's\nhistory.\n\nI have not myself seen this realisation. It is so short a time since I\nleft the Earth, that I have barely done more than glance superficially\nat these celestial marvels. Before long I shall seek to verify this\nfact, and see if its reality does not form a part of the infinite\nrichness of the astral creations.\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. If the ray which leaves the Earth is never _destroyed_,\nmaster, our actions are then eternal?\n\nLUMEN. Certainly they are.\n\n[Sidenote: Actions carried for ever on rays of light.]\n\nAn act once accomplished can never be effaced, and no power can ever\ncause it to be as if it had never been. Say that a crime is committed\nin the heart of a desert country. The criminal goes far away, remains\nunknown, and supposes that the act which he has committed has _passed_\nfor ever. He has washed his hands of it, he has repented, he believes\nhis action _obliterated_. But in reality nothing is destroyed. At the\nmoment when this act was accomplished, the light seized it and carried\nit into space with the rapidity of lightning. It became incorporated\nin a ray of light; eternal, it will transmit itself eternally into\ninfinitude.\n\nLikewise a good action is done in secret; the benefactor thinks it is\nconcealed, but a ray of light has taken possession of it. Far from\nbeing forgotten, it will live for ever.\n\nNapoleon, in order to satisfy his personal ambition, was voluntarily\nthe cause of the death of five millions of men, whose ages averaged\nabout thirty years, and who, according to the laws of life, had\nthirty-seven more years to live. Therefore, by this calculation, he\ncaused the destruction of 185 millions of years of human life.\n\n[Sidenote: Napoleon's punishment.]\n\nHis chastisement, his expiation, consists in being carried along by\nthat ray of light which left the plains of Waterloo on the 18th June\n1815, and to be ever moving in space with the quickness of light\nitself; to have constantly in sight that critical scene, where he saw\nfor ever crumbling to pieces the scaffolding of his vain ambition;\nto feel, without respite, the bitterness of despair; and to remain\nbound to this ray of light for the 185 millions of years for whose\ndestruction he was responsible. By thus acting, in place of worthily\nfulfilling his mission, he has retarded for a similar length of time\nhis progress in the spiritual life.\n\nAnd if it were given to you to see that which goes on in the moral\nworld, as clearly as you now see that which passes in the physical one,\nyou would recognise vibrations and transmissions of another nature,\nwhich imprint in the arcana of the spiritual world, not only the\nactions, but even the most secret thoughts.\n\n[Sidenote: Speculation upon the problem of communication by luminous\nsignals between the Earth and stars.]\n\n[Sidenote: An interval of two centuries between question and answer.]\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. Your revelations, Lumen, are awful! Thus, our eternal\ndestinies are intimately bound up with the construction of the universe\nitself. I have many times speculated upon the problem of communication\nbetween the worlds by the aid of light. Many physicists have supposed\nthat it will be possible to establish communication between the Earth\nand the Moon, and even the planets, by the aid of luminous signals.\nBut suppose one could make signs from the Earth to a star, by employing\nthe light, for example, a hundred years must come and go before the\nsignal from the Earth could reach its destination, and the response\ncould only return after the same interval of time had elapsed. Two\ncenturies must consequently elapse between the question and its answer.\nThe terrestrial observer would have died long before his signal could\nhave reached his sidereal observer, and the latter would doubtless have\nundergone a similar fate before his answer could have been received!\n\nLUMEN. It would, in fact, be a conversation between the living and the\ndead.\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. Pardon a last question, master--one perhaps a little\nindiscreet, but a last one, for I see Venus is paling, and I feel that\nyour voice will soon cease to be heard. If actions are thus visible\nin ethereal regions, we can then see, after our death, not only our\nown actions, but also those of others--I mean those which specially\ninterest us?\n\nFor instance, a pair of twin souls, dwelling in perfect unity, would\nlike to see again for a thousand years the delightful hours passed\ntogether on the Earth; they would rush into space with a rapidity equal\nto that of light, in order to have always before their eyes the same\nhours of joy.\n\nIn another sense, a husband would trace with interest the entire life\nof his companion; and should some unexpected situation have presented\nitself, he could at leisure examine the causes leading to the same. He\nmight even, if his disembodied companion resided in some neighbouring\nregion, call upon her to observe, in common with himself, these\nretrospective incidents.\n\nNo denial could be admissible before such palpable evidence, and might\nnot this power exercised by these spirits give rise to some strange\nrevelations?\n\nLUMEN. You are very earthly, my friend, to think that in the Heavens\nmemories of a material kind will be valued, and I am astonished that\nyou can continue to think them of importance. What should specially\nstrike you in all we have said during these two interviews is, that\nby virtue of the laws of light, we can see events after they have\nbeen accomplished, although they are past, and indeed when they have\nentirely vanished.\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. Believe me, master, this truth will never more be effaced from\nmy memory. It is precisely this point which I find so exceedingly\nmarvellous.\n\nForget, I pray you, my last digression.\n\nTo say the truth, that which from our first interview has most\ntaxed and surpassed the bounds of my imagination, was to think\nthat the duration of the voyage of the spirit can be not only\n_nil_--negative--but also _retrograde_!\n\n[Sidenote: Time retrogressive.]\n\n\"Time retrogressive!\" These two words involve a contradiction in terms.\nDare one believe it?\n\nYou start to-day for a star, and you arrive yesterday! What do I\nsay--yesterday? You will arrive there seventy-two years ago, even a\nhundred years ago! The farther you go, the sooner you will arrive!\nTerms in grammar must be remade for such extraordinary reckoning.\n\nLUMEN. This is undeniable.\n\nSpeaking according to terrestrial style, there is not any error in this\nmode of expression, since the Earth was only in 1793, &c., for the\nworld in which we arrived, or for the world which we reached.\n\n[Sidenote: Apparent paradoxes anent time.]\n\nYou have, however, on your little globe certain apparent paradoxes,\nwhich give an idea of this one.\n\nFor example, a telegram sent from Paris at noon arrives at Brest\ntwenty minutes before noon. But these curious aspects of particular\napplication are not of sufficient significance for you to dwell upon,\nbut rather the _revelation_ of which they are the metaphysical form and\nthe outward expression. Know that time is not an absolute reality, but\nonly a transitory measure caused by the movements of the Earth in the\nSolar System.\n\nRegarded with the eyes of the soul, and not with those of the body,\nthis picture of human life, not imaginary but real, such as it was,\ndissimulation being impossible, touches on one side the domain of\ntheology, inasmuch as it explains physically a mystery hitherto\ninexplicable: I mean \"individual judgment\" of ourselves after death.\n\nFrom the point of view of the whole question, the present of a world\nis no longer a momentary actuality, which disappears as soon as it\nhas appeared, it is no longer a phase without consistency, a gate\nthrough which the past is precipitated unceasingly towards the future,\na mathematical plan in space. It is, on the contrary, an effective\nreality, which flies away from this world with the swiftness of light,\nsinking for ever in the infinite, and remaining thus an _eternal\npresent_.\n\n[Sidenote: Events live for ever.]\n\nThe metaphysical reality of this vast problem is such, that one can now\nconceive the omnipresence of the world throughout all its duration.\nEvents vanish from the place in which they were born, but they exist in\nspace. This successive and endless projection of all the facts enacted\nupon every world takes place in the bosom of the _Infinite Being_,\nwhose ubiquity holds everything in an eternal permanence.\n\n[Sidenote: Scientific explanation of ubiquity.]\n\nThe events which have been accomplished upon the surface of the Earth\nsince its creation are visible in space at distances proportioned to\ntheir remoteness in the past. The whole history of the globe, and the\nlife of each one of its inhabitants, could thus be seen at a glance by\nan eye which could embrace that space. We thus understand optically, as\nit were, that the eternal Spirit, present everywhere, can see all the\npast at one and the same moment.\n\nThat which is true of our Earth is true of all the worlds in space.\nThus the entire history of the whole universe can be present at once\nto the universal ubiquity of the Creator. I may add that God knows all\nthe past, not only in consequence of this direct sight, but also by\nthe knowledge of each thing in the present. If a naturalist, such as\nCuvier, knows how to reconstruct, by the aid of a fragment of bone, any\nspecies of extinct animals, surely the Author of Nature knows by the\npresent Earth the Earth which is past, the Planetary System, and the\nSun of the past, and all the conditions of temperatures, aggregations,\nand combinations, by which the elements have produced the complex\ncondition of things at present in existence.\n\n[Sidenote: Present, past, and future, all one.]\n\nOn the other hand, the future can be as completely present to God in\nits actual germs, as the past is in its fruits.\n\nEach event is bound in an indissoluble manner with the past and the\nfuture.\n\nThe future will be as inevitably the outcome of the present, and is,\nas logically deducible from it, and exists in it as exactly, as that\nthe past itself is therein inscribed for those who are able to decipher\nit. But--and I emphasise it--the main point of this recital is to\nstate, to make you understand, that the past life of all worlds, and\nof all beings, is always visible in space, thanks to the successive\ntransmission of light across and through the vast regions of the\ninfinite.\n\n\n\n\nFOURTH CONVERSATION\n\nANTERIORES VIT\u00c6\n\n\n[Sidenote: New horizons.]\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. Two years have fled, Lumen, since the day when you granted\nme that mysterious interview. During this period, unconsciously for\nthe inhabitants of eternal space, but most consciously for us dwellers\nupon the Earth, I have often raised my thoughts to the great problems\nin which you have initiated me, and to the horizons developed before\nmy mind's eye. Doubtless, also, since your departure from the Earth\nyou have made, through your observations and studies, great advance\nupon a field of research more and more vast. Doubtless, also, you have\nnumberless marvels to declare to me, now that my intelligence is better\nprepared to receive them. If I am worthy, and if I can comprehend\nthem, give me an account, Lumen, of the celestial voyages which have\ntransported your spirit into the higher spheres; of the unknown truths\nwhich they have revealed to you; of the grandeurs which they have\nopened out to you, and of the principles they have taught you in\nreference to that mysterious subject, viz., the destiny of man, and\nother beings.\n\nLUMEN. I have prepared your mind, my dear old friend, to receive\nmarvellous impressions, such as no earthly spectacle ever has, or could\nproduce. It is, nevertheless, necessary that you should keep your\nunderstanding free from all earthly prejudice. That which I am going to\nunfold will astonish you, but receive it from the first with attention\nas an undeniable truth, and not as a romance. This is the first\ncondition that I demand from my earnest pupil. When you comprehend--and\nyou will comprehend, if you bring to the task a mathematical mind\nand an unprejudiced spirit--you will see that all the facts which\nconstitute our ultra-terrestrial existence are not only possible, but\nalso real, and moreover, are in perfect harmony with our intellectual\nfaculties as already manifested upon the earth.\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. Be assured, Lumen, that I bring to you an open mind, cleared\nfrom all prejudice, and I am eagerly expecting to hear revelations such\nas the human ear has never before heard.\n\n[Sidenote: Space and Light.]\n\nLUMEN. The events which will form the subject of this recital have\nnot only the Earth and its neighbouring stars for their subject, but\nthey will extend over immense fields of sidereal astronomy, and make\nus acquainted with their marvels. Their explanation will be solved,\nas was that of former difficulties, by the study of _light_, a magic\nbridge thrown from one star to another, from the Earth to the Sun, from\nthe Earth to the stars--of _light_, the universal movement which fills\nspace, sustains worlds in their orbits, and constitutes the eternal\nlife of nature. Take care, then, to keep ever in mind, the fact of the\n_successive transmission of light in space_.\n\n[Sidenote: Velocity of Light.]\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. I know that light, whatever it may be, is the agent by which\nobjects are rendered visible to our eyes, that it is not transmitted\ninstantaneously from one point to another, but gradually, like all\nmotion. I know that it flies at the rate of 75,000 leagues a second,\nthat it runs 750,000 leagues in ten seconds, and 4,500,000 each minute.\nI know that it takes more than eight minutes to cross the distance of\n37 millions of leagues which separate us from the Sun. Modern astronomy\nhas made these facts familiar.\n\nLUMEN. Do you perfectly realise its undulatory movement?\n\n[Sidenote: Undulatory movement of Sound.]\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. I think so. I compare it to that of sound, although it be\naccomplished upon a scale incomparably more vast. By undulation\nfollowing undulation, sound is diffused in the air. When the bells\npeal forth their sonorous sound, this is heard at the very moment when\nthe clapper strikes the bell, by those living round the church, but is\nnot heard till one second after, by those living at a distance of 492\nyards; two seconds later by those at 765 yards; and three seconds later\nstill, by those at a distance of 1093 yards from the church. Thus sound\nonly gradually reaches one village after another as far as it can go.\n\nIn the same way light passes successively from one region in space to\nanother at a greater distance, and travels without being extinguished\ninto the far-off realms of Infinity. If we could see from the Earth\nan event which is being accomplished upon the Moon; for instance, if\nwe had sufficiently good instruments to perceive from here, a fruit\nfalling from a tree on the surface of the Moon, we should not see the\nfact at the _moment of its occurrence_, but one second and a quarter\n_after_, because light requires about that time to travel the distance\nfrom the Moon to the Earth. Similarly, could we see an event taking\nplace upon a world at ten times greater distance than the Moon, we\ncould not witness it until 13 seconds after it had really happened. If\nthis world were a hundred times farther off than the Moon, we could\nnot see an event until 130 seconds after it had taken place; were it a\nthousand times more distant, we should not see it until 1300 seconds,\nor 21 minutes 40 seconds had elapsed. And so on according to the\ndistance.\n\n[Sidenote: Time taken by Light in travelling from the Earth to the star\nCapella.]\n\nLUMEN. Exactly, and you are aware that the luminous ray sent to the\nEarth by the star _Capella_ takes seventy-two years in reaching it. It\nfollows, therefore, that if we only receive the luminous ray to-day,\nwhich left its surface seventy-two years ago, the denizens of Capella\nsee only that which happened on the Earth seventy-two years ago. The\nEarth reflects in space the light that it gets from the Sun, and from\na distance, appears as brilliant as Venus and Jupiter appear to you,\nplanets lighted by the same Sun that lights the Earth. The luminous\naspect of the Earth, its photograph, journeys in space at the rate of\n75,000 leagues a second, and only reaches Capella after seventy-two\nyears of incessant travel. I recall these elementary principles in\norder that you may have them thoroughly fixed in your memory; you\nwill then be able to comprehend, without difficulty, the facts which\nhave happened to me during my ultra-terrestrial life since our last\ninterview.\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. These principles of optics are, to my mind, clearly\nestablished. The day after your death in October 1864, when, as\nyou have confided to me, you found yourself rapidly transported to\nCapella, you were astonished to arrive there at the moment when the\nphilosophical astronomers of the country were observing the Earth in\nthe year 1793, and witnessing one of the most significant acts of the\nFrench Revolution. You were not less surprised to see yourself again as\na child, running about in the streets of Paris. Then, leaving Capella\nand coming nearer to the Earth, you arrived at the zone where that part\nof the terrestrial photography passed before your vision, which showed\nyou your infancy, and you saw yourself at six years of age, not in\nmemory, but in reality. Out of all your previous revelations, this is\nthe one I had the most difficulty in believing--I mean, in grasping its\nmeaning.\n\nLUMEN. That which I now wish to make you comprehend is stranger still.\nBut it was first necessary for you to admit that one, before I could\nadequately reveal to you this one.\n\n[Sidenote: Retrospective survey of life on Earth.]\n\nOn leaving Capella and approaching the Earth, I saw again my\nseventy-two years of earthly existence, my entire life such as it had\nbeen, passed before me; for, in approaching the Earth, I passed through\nsuccessive zones of earthly scenes, where I saw spread out as in a\nscroll the visible history of our planet, because in going back towards\nthe Earth, I was continually meeting the various zones which carried\nthrough space the visible history of our planet, comprising that of\nParis as well as my own, for I was there. Taking thus in one day a\nretrospective survey of the road which it had taken light seventy-two\nyears to traverse, I had reviewed my whole life in that one day, and I\nperceived even my own interment.\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. It is as if, on returning from Capella to the Earth, you had\nseen, as in a mirror, the seventy-two years of your life photographed\nyear by year. The one the farthest from the Earth, but which had\nstarted the first, and was the oldest, showed events as they were in\n1793; the second, which left the Earth a year later, and had not yet\nreached Capella, contained those of 1794; the tenth, those of 1803;\nthe thirty-sixth, having reached midway on the road, gave those of\n1829; the fiftieth, those of 1843; the seventy-first, those of 1864.\n\nLUMEN. It is impossible to have better grasped these facts, which seem\nso mysterious and incomprehensible at first sight. Now I can recount to\nyou that which happened to me upon Capella, after having thus witnessed\nover again my existence on the Earth.\n\n\nI\n\nLUMEN. Whilst not very long ago (but I can no longer express that time\nby earthly measurements), in a melancholy region of Capella, I was\ncontemplating the starry heavens at the beginning of a clear night,\noccupied in noting the star which is your earthly Sun, and near it the\nlittle azure planet, your Earth, I observed one of the scenes of my\nchildhood--my young mother seated in the midst of a garden, holding\nan infant in her arms (my brother), having at her side a little girl\nof two summers (my sister), and a boy two years older (myself). I saw\nmyself at that age when man is not yet conscious of his intellectual\nexistence, though he bears even then upon his brow the germ of future\npromise. Whilst dreaming of this singular spectacle, which showed _me_\nmyself at the entrance of my earthly career, I felt my attention drawn\nfrom your planet by a superior power, and directed towards another\npoint in the heavens, which, even at that moment, seemed to be linked\nwith the Earth and my career there, by some mysterious tie. I could\nnot turn my gaze from this new point in the the heavens, my eyes\nbeing, as it were, chained to the spot by some magnetic power I was\nunable to resist. Several times I endeavoured to withdraw my eyes, and\nto fix them on the Earth I love so well; but in vain, for I was ever\nre-attracted to the same unknown star.\n\n[Sidenote: The star Gamma in Virgo.]\n\n[Sidenote: Life on the planet of Virgo.]\n\nThis star, upon which my eyes sought instinctively to divine something,\nbelongs to the constellation of _Virgo_, whose form varies slightly as\nseen from Capella. It is a double star, that is to say, an association\nof two suns, one of a silvery whiteness, the other of a bright golden\nyellow, which revolve round one another once in 175 years. This star\ncan be seen from the Earth with the naked eye, and its sign is the\nletter \u03b3 (_Gamma_), in the constellation of Virgo. Around\neach of the suns which form it there is a planetary system. My sight\nwas fixed upon one of the planets belonging to the golden sun. On that\nplanet there are animals and vegetables as upon the Earth; their forms\nbear a similarity to earthly ones, although there is an essential\ndifference in their organisms. Their animal kingdom is analogous to\nyours; they have fishes in the seas, quadrupeds in the air, in which\nmen can fly without wings, by reason of the extreme density of the\natmosphere. The men of this planet possess almost the same form as\nthose on the Earth, but no hair grows upon their heads, and they have\nthree large thin thumbs instead of five fingers on their hands, and\nthree great toes at the heel in place of soles to their feet, the\nextremities of their arms and legs being supple as india-rubber. They\nhave, nevertheless, two eyes, a nose, and a mouth, which give them\ntheir resemblance to earthly beings. They have not two ears, one on\neach side of the head, but one only, in the shape of a cone, which is\nplaced on the upper part of the skull like a little hat.\n\nThey live in societies and wear clothing. Thus, you see, in their\nexterior they differ little from the inhabitants of the Earth.\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. Are there, then, in other worlds beings entirely distinct from\nus, but who, notwithstanding their dissimilarities, can be compared\nwith us?\n\nLUMEN. A distinction profound and unimaginable by you separates in\ngeneral the animal life of the different worlds. _These forms are the\nresult of elements special to each globe, and of the forces which\nregulate them_: matter, density, weight, heat, light, electricity,\natmosphere, &c., differ essentially on each globe. Even in the same\nsystem these forms differ.\n\n[Sidenote: The system of Gamma in Virgo.]\n\nThus the men of Uranus and Mercury do not in any way resemble the men\nof the Earth; those who see them for the first time cannot perceive\nthat they possess either head, members, or senses. On the contrary,\nthe forms of those in the planetary system of Virgo, towards which my\nattention was being persistently drawn, are nearly similar to those\nof the inhabitants of the Earth, whom they also resemble morally\nand intellectually. Slightly inferior to ourselves, they belong to\nthat scale in the order of souls which immediately precedes that of\nterrestrial humanity as a whole.\n\nQU\u00c6RENS.. Yet there is a wide divergence between human beings\nthemselves in all that pertains both to intellect and morals. We in\nEurope differ greatly from the tribes of Abyssinia and from the savages\nof the Oceanic Isles. What people do you take as a type of the highest\ndegree of intelligence on the Earth?\n\n[Sidenote: The Arabs and their intelligence.]\n\nLUMEN. The Arabs. They are capable of producing their Keplers, their\nNewtons, their Galileos, their Archimedes, their Euclids, their\nD'Alemberts. Besides, they sprang from those primitive hordes whose\nroots reach down to the bed rock of humanity. But it is not necessary\nto choose a people for a type. It is better to consider modern\ncivilisation as a whole. Nor is there so marked a distance as you\nappear to suppose, between the brain capacity of a negro and that of\nthe Latin race.\n\nHowever, if you insist upon a comparison, I can assure you that the\nmen of the planet of Virgo are almost on a par intellectually with the\nScandinavians.\n\n[Sidenote: Vital difference between Virgo and the Earth.]\n\nThe most vital difference which exists between their world and the\nEarth, _is the absence of sex_. Neither plants, animals, nor human\nbeings have sex. Generation is effected spontaneously, as the natural\nresult of the union of certain physiological conditions in some of\nthe fertile isles of this planet, man not being formed in the womb of\nhis mother as upon earth. It would be useless to explain the process,\nto one whose earthly faculties prevent him comprehending the facts\nof a world distinctly different from his own. It results from this\norganic arrangement, that marriage in any form does not exist in this\nworld, and that the friendships between human beings are never mixed\nwith the carnal desires, which are inevitably manifested on the Earth\nbetween people of different sexes, even when the attraction is most\npure. Probably you will remember that during the protozoic period, the\ninhabitants of the Earth were all deaf, dumb, and sexless. The division\ninto sexes took place much later in the history of Nature both among\nanimals and plants.\n\nBeing attracted towards this far-off planet I attentively examined its\nsurface with my spiritual sight, and I was specially drawn, without\nknowing the cause, to a white city, resembling from afar a region\ncovered with snow; but it is improbable that it was snow, as it is\nunlikely that water can exist on that globe in the same physical\nand chemical conditions as upon the Earth. Upon the borders of this\ncity an avenue led to a neighbouring wood of yellow trees. I soon\nremarked three persons who seemed to be slowly sauntering towards\nthis wood. This little group was formed of two friends, who were in\nclose conversation, and of a third, who differed from both by his red\ngarment and the burden he bore, and who was probably their servant,\ntheir slave, or some domestic animal. Whilst intently regarding the two\nprincipal personages, I observed the one to the right raise his face\nto the sky, as if some one had called him from a balloon, and turn his\ngaze towards Capella, a star which, doubtless, he did not see, because\nfor him it was then daylight. Oh, my old friend, I shall never forget\nthe sudden surprise this sight gave me! I can still scarcely believe\nthat I was not dreaming....\n\nThis person on the planet of Virgo, who was looking towards me without\nknowing it, was.... Can I tell you? Well, it was _myself_!\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. How _yourself_?\n\nLUMEN. Yes, my very self. I recognised myself instantly, and you can\njudge of my surprise!\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. Certainly I can. I cannot comprehend it at all.\n\n[Sidenote: Anterior existence]\n\nLUMEN. The fact is, the situation was so entirely novel that it demands\nexplanation. It was in truth myself, and I was not long in finding\nout, not only that it was my former face and figure, but also that the\nperson walking by my side was my dear Kathleen, an intimate friend,\nand the companion of my studies upon that planet. My gaze followed\nthem as far as the Yellow Wood, across picturesque valleys, beneath\ngolden cupolas, under trees covered with large orange-tinted branches,\nand through hedges of elms with amber-coloured leaves. A purling brook\nbabbled on the fine sand, and we seated ourselves on its banks. I\nrecall sweet hours we have passed together, the happy years which have\nglided away in this far-off country, the fraternal confidences, and\nthe impressions we shared, in the midst of woodland scenes, of silent\nplains, of mist-covered hills, and of little lakes which smilingly\nreflected the heavens. With aspirations raised towards all that was\ngrand and sacred in nature, we adored God in His works. With what joy\nI saw again this phase of my previous existence, and riveted anew the\ngolden chain, whose links life on Earth had broken!\n\nIn truth, dear Qu\u00e6rens, it was my very self who then was living on that\nplanet of Virgo. I really saw myself, and I could follow in sequence\nthe events of my life and the happiest moments of that existence, now\nso far remote.\n\nBesides, if I had had any doubt of my identity, the uncertainty would\nhave ceased during my observation, for whilst pondering upon the\nmatter, I saw Berthor--my brother during that existence--come out of\nthe wood, approach us, and join in our conversation by the side of the\nmurmuring brook.\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. Master, I fail still to comprehend how you could really see\nyourself on that planet of Virgo. Were you then gifted with ubiquity?\n\nCould you, like Francis of Assisi or Apollonius of Tyana, be in two\nplaces at the same time?\n\n[Sidenote: Scientific explanation of anterior life on Virgo.]\n\nLUMEN. Certainly not. But in examining the astronomical co-ordinates of\nthe Sun Gamma in Virgo, and knowing its parallax as seen from Capella,\nI came to the conclusion that the light from this Sun could not employ\nless than 172 years in traversing the distance which separates it from\nCapella.\n\nI was then actually receiving the luminous ray which left that world\n172 years before. And it so happens that at that epoch I was absolutely\nliving upon the planet of which we speak, and that I was then in my\ntwentieth year. In verifying these periods, and in comparing the\ndifferent planetary styles, I found, in fact, that I was born on the\nworld of Virgo in the year 45904 (which corresponds to the year\n1677 of the Christian era on Earth), and that I died--through an\naccident--in the year 45913, which corresponds to the year 1767. Each\nyear of this planet equals ten of yours. When I saw myself, as I have\njust told you, I appeared to be about twenty years of age according to\nearthly reckoning, but following the way of reckoning on that planet,\nI was only two years old. There the age of fifteen years is often\nreached, which is considered the limit of life on that globe, and is\nequivalent to 150 years on the Earth.\n\n[Sidenote: Light takes 172 years to travel from Virgo to Capella.]\n\nThe luminous ray, or, to speak more accurately, the aspect or\nphotograph of the world of Virgo, takes 172 earthly years to traverse\nthe immense space which separates it from Capella; consequently, upon\nfinding myself upon this last star, I was receiving at that very moment\nthe image which left the constellation of Virgo 172 years previously.\nAnd although things have changed greatly, though generations have\nfollowed generations, though I died there myself, and have had time to\nbe born again and live seventy-two years on the Earth, nevertheless\nlight had taken all this time to cross the space which separates Virgo\nfrom Capella, and was bringing afresh to me impressions of events long\npassed away.\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. This duration of the passage of light being proved, I have not\nany objection to urge on this point, but I frankly own that to credit\nan experience of such amazing singularity, taxes my imagination beyond\nits just limits.\n\n[Sidenote: The history of each world is contained in the rays of light.]\n\nLUMEN. This is not any imagination, my old friend. It is a reality,\neternal and sacred, holding its fixed place in the universal plan of\ncreation. The light of every star, direct or reflected--say otherwise,\nthe aspect of each Sun, and of each planet--is diffused in space,\naccording to a rate of rapidity already known to you, and the luminous\nray contains in itself all that is visible. As nothing can be lost,\nthe history of each world is contained in the light which incessantly\nemanates from it in successive waves, eternally travelling into\ninfinite space without any possibility of its being annihilated. True,\nthe terrestrial eye cannot read it; but there are eyes immeasurably\nsuperior to your earthly ones.\n\n[Sidenote: Light is vibrations of ether; Sight, perceptions of thought.]\n\nI make use of the terms _sight_ and _light_, in these conversations,\nin order that you may comprehend me; but, as I told you in a previous\ncommunication, speaking absolutely, there is not such a thing as light,\nonly vibrations of ether; neither is there any sight, only perceptions\nof the mind. Moreover, even upon the Earth, when you examine the nature\nof a star with a telescope, or better still with a spectroscope, you\nwell know it is not its actual state you have before your eyes, but\nits past state, transmitted to you by a ray of light which left it,\nperhaps, ten thousand years ago. You know, besides, that a certain\nnumber of stars, of which your astronomers on the Earth are seeking\nto determine the physical and numerical properties, and which shine\nbrilliantly over your heads, have long ago ceased even to exist--may\nindeed have ceased to exist since the beginning of your world.\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. We know this is so. Thus you have seen, unrolled before your\neyes, your existence previous to the last one, 172 years after it had\nflown by.\n\nLUMEN. Say rather one phase of this existence; but I could have been\nable, and could now indeed review my entire life by going closer to\nthat planet, as I have already done for my terrestrial existence.\n\nQu\u00e6rens. So, through the medium of light, you have really seen again\nyour last two incarnations?\n\nLUMEN. Precisely; and what is more, I have seen them, and continue to\nsee them, _simultaneously_, side by side as it were of one another.\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. You see them again both at the _same time_?\n\nLUMEN. This fact is easily explained. The light from the Earth takes\nseventy-two years to reach Capella. The light from the planet of Virgo,\nbeing once and a half farther off than Capella, takes once and a half\nlonger time to travel, which would make it about 172 years. As I lived\nseventy-two years upon the Earth, and one hundred years before that\nupon the other planet, these two periods reach me at precisely _the\nsame time_ upon Capella. Thus by simply looking at these two worlds, I\nhave before me my last two existences, which unroll themselves as if I\nwere not here to see them, and without my being able to change any of\nthe acts that I see myself upon the point of accomplishing, either upon\nthe one or the other, since those acts, although present and future to\nmy actual observation, are in reality past.\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. This is indeed a strange experience!\n\nLUMEN. But what struck me most in this unexpected observation of two of\nmy previous existences in two different worlds, thus unrolled before\nme, was the odd resemblance between these two lives. I found that I had\nalmost the same tastes in the one as in the other, the same passions,\nthe same errors. Nothing criminal, nothing saintly in either.\n\n[Sidenote: Explanation of inherent tastes.]\n\nFurthermore (extraordinary coincidence), I have witnessed scenes in\nthe first analogous to those I have seen upon the Earth. This explains\nthe innate tastes I brought into the terrestrial world, for the poetry\nof the North, the poems of Ossian, the dreamy landscape of Ireland,\nfor its mountains and its Aurora Borealis. For Scotland, Scandinavia,\nSweden, Norway with its fiords, Spitzbergen with its solitudes--all\nalike attracted me. Old towers in ruins, rocks and wild ravines,\nsombre pines soughing with the northern winds--all these appealed\nto me on the Earth, and seemed to have some mysterious link with my\ndeepest thoughts. When I saw Ireland for the first time, I felt as\nif I had lived there before. When for the first time I ascended the\nRigi and the Finsteraarhorn, and saw the superb sunrise over the snowy\nsummits of the Alps, it seemed as if I had previously seen all this.\nThe spectre of the Brocken was not new, the reason being that I had\nin a former life inhabited similar regions on the planet of Virgo.\nThe same life, the same actions, the same circumstances, the same\nconditions--analogies, analogies! Almost all that I have seen, done,\nthought on the Earth, I had already seen, done, thought a hundred years\nbefore upon that anterior world. I had always suspected it! Taking it\naltogether, however, my terrestrial life as a whole was superior to the\none preceding it. Each child in coming into the world brings with him\ndifferent faculties, special predispositions, innate dissimilarities,\nwhich no one denies, and can only be explained to the philosophical\nmind,--or in view of eternal Justice,--by the supposition of works\npreviously accomplished by free souls.\n\nBut though my terrestrial life was superior to its anterior one,\nevincing, as it did, a more accurate and profound knowledge of the\nsystem of the World, it yet lacked, I am bound to state, the possession\nof certain moral and physical qualities which belonged to me in my\nformer existence.\n\nOn the other hand, I had faculties on that World which I had not had\nupon the Earth. I may cite one specially, that of flying.\n\n[Sidenote: Flying without wings.]\n\nI see that on the planet of Virgo I could fly, just as easily as walk,\nand this without either aeronautic apparatus or wings, by simply\nstretching my arms and legs, as if I were swimming in the water. On\nclosely examining the mode of locomotion in use on that planet, I see\nclearly that I have (or rather had) neither wings, balloon, nor any\nkind of mechanical appliance. At a given moment I spring from the\nground by a vigorous leap, and, spreading out my arms, sail in the air\nwithout fatigue. At other times, descending a steep mountain on foot, I\nspring out into space, with feet pressed together, and float at will,\nwith a slow and oblique motion, to any point I wish, standing upright\nas soon as my feet touch the ground.\n\n[Sidenote: Dreams bring reminiscences of a former existence.]\n\nThen again, when I wish to do so, I fly slowly in the manner of a\ndove which describes a curve in returning to its dovecot. All this I\ndistinctly see myself doing in this world. Not once, but a hundred,\na thousand times have I thus felt myself transported in my dreams\non Earth softly, naturally, and without apparatus. How can such\nimpossibilities so often present themselves to us in our dreams?\nNothing can explain them, for nothing analogous exists upon this\nearthly globe. Obeying instinctively this innate tendency, I have\nfrequently soared into the atmosphere suspended from the car of a\nballoon, but the sensation is not the same; _one does not feel one's\nself_ flying; on the contrary, one has the feeling of being stationary.\n\nI now have the key to my dreams. During the slumber of my terrestrial\nsenses my soul had reminiscences of its anterior existence.\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. But I also often feel, and see myself flying in dreams in\nprecisely the way you describe, without wings or machinery, and simply\nby an effort of will. Is this, then, a proof that I also have lived\nupon the planet of Virgo?\n\nLUMEN. I do not know. If you had abnormal sight, or instruments,\nor eyes sufficiently piercing, you could see this planet from your\nglobe, examine its surface, and if, perchance, you had existed there\nwhen it parted with the luminous rays which have actually reached the\nEarth, you might perhaps find yourself again there. But your eyes are\ntoo feeble to make a like research. Besides, it does not follow that\nbecause you have been able to fly, that therefore you have lived in\nthat world. There are a considerable number of worlds where flying\nis the normal condition, and where all the human race possess this\nfaculty. In reality, there are but few planets where the living\ncreatures crawl as upon the Earth.\n\n[Sidenote: Plurality of existences.]\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. The conclusion resulting then from your experience is, that\nyou have had a life anterior to that upon the Earth. Do you, then,\nbelieve in a plurality of existences for the soul?\n\nLUMEN. You forget that you speak to a disembodied spirit. I ought to\nbe well fitted to give such evidence, having before me both my earthly\nlife and my anterior life upon the planet of Virgo. Besides, I can\nrecall many other existences.\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. Ah! that is precisely what I lack in order to possess a\nsimilar conviction. I can recall absolutely nothing that preceded my\nbirth into this world.\n\n[Sidenote: The soul's memory.]\n\nLUMEN. You are yet in the flesh; you must wait for freedom from earthly\nfetters before you can recall your spiritual life. The soul has\nonly full remembrance, full possession of itself in its normal, its\ncelestial life; that is to say, between its incarnations. It then sees\nnot only its life on the Earth, but all its anterior lives.\n\nHow could a soul, enveloped in the gross materialities of the flesh,\nand fixed there for a transitory work, recall its spiritual life? Would\nnot such a remembrance even prove hurtful? What trammels would not be\nput upon the soul's liberty of action, could it see its life from the\nbeginning to the end?\n\nWhere would be the merit of striving if one's destiny could be foreseen?\n\nSouls incarnated upon the Earth have not yet attained to a sufficiently\nelevated state of advancement, for the memory of their anterior life to\nbe of use to them.\n\n[Sidenote: Man is oblivious of anterior impressions, as in the\nbutterfly.]\n\nThe permanence of the anterior impressions of the soul is not\nmanifested in this world of passage. The caterpillar does not remember\nits rudimentary existence in the egg. The sleeping chrysalis cannot\nrecall the days it spent in work when it crawled upon the herbage. The\nbutterfly, which flits from flower to flower, has not any memory of the\ntime when its cocoon dreamed, as it hung suspended from its web; nor\nof the twilight, when its larv\u00e6 trailed from plant to plant; nor of\nthe night, when it was buried like a nut in its shell. This does not\nalter the fact that the egg, the caterpillar, the chrysalis, and the\nbutterfly, are one and the same being.\n\nIn certain cases, even of terrestrial life, you have remarkable\nexamples of forgetfulness, such as that of somnambulism, either natural\nor artificial, and also in certain psychical conditions of which modern\nscience makes a study. Hence it is not surprising that during one\nexistence we should not remember our anterior ones. Uranic life and\nplanetary life represent two states, free and distinct the one from the\nother.\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. Still, master, if we had already lived a life before this\none, something of it would remain with us, otherwise these anterior\nexistences might as well never have been.\n\n[Sidenote: Heredity.]\n\n[Sidenote: Dissimilarities.]\n\n_Lumen._ Do you, then, call it nothing to be born on the Earth with\ninnate tendencies? Such a thing as intellectual heredity does not\nexist. Take two children of the same parentage, receiving identically\nthe same education, surrounded by the same care, and having in every\nrespect similar environments. Now examine each of them. Are they equal?\nNot in any way; equality of souls does not exist. The one is born with\npacific instincts and great intelligence. He will be good, learned,\nwise, illustrious perchance, amid the thinkers of his age. The other\none brings with him a domineering, envious perhaps, or even a brutal\ninstinct. His career defines and accentuates itself as each year\npasses, and will lead him eventually to high rank in military life, and\nwill give him the honour (little to be coveted, though still admired\nupon the Earth) which is attached to the title of an official assassin.\n\nWhether feebly or strongly pronounced, this dissimilarity of character,\nwhich depends neither upon family, nor upon race, nor upon education,\nnor upon material conditions, is manifest in every man. Reflect upon\nthis at your leisure; you will arrive at the conviction that it is\nabsolutely inexplicable, and can only be accounted for by belief in an\nanterior life of the soul.\n\n[Sidenote: Creation of the soul.]\n\n_Qu\u00e6rens._ Have not most philosophers and theologians taught that the\nsoul and the body are created at one and the same time?\n\n_Lumen._ And which, pray, is the precise moment of its creation? Is\nit at the moment of birth? Legislation, enlightened by anatomical\nphysiology, knows that a child lives before being delivered from its\nuterine prison, therefore the destruction of an embryo of eight months\nis regarded as murder. At what period do you then suppose, that the\nsoul appears in the fluid brain of the foetus or of the embryo?\n\n_Qu\u00e6rens._ It was thought in olden times that the real spiritual\nquickening of the human being took place during the sixth week of\ngestation, but the modern belief is that it occurs at the moment of\nconception.\n\n_Lumen._ Oh, bitter mockery! In accordance with this view you would\nhave the eternal designs of the Creator dependent in their execution\nupon capricious desires, upon the intermittent flames of two amorous\nhearts! You would dare to admit that our immortal being is created by\nthe physical contact of two human beings! You would be disposed to\nbelieve that the Divine Head which governs the worlds, is influenced by\nintrigue, by passion, even by crime! You would think that the number of\nsouls depends upon the number of flowers impregnated by the touch of\nthe sweet pollen dust borne to them on golden wings?\n\nIs not such a doctrine, such a supposition, an outrage upon the Divine\ndignity and the spiritual grandeur of the soul itself? And would it\nnot, besides, be the complete materialisation of our intellectual\nfaculties?\n\n_Qu\u00e6rens._ And yet----\n\n_Lumen._ Yes; that seems so to you, because upon your planet no soul\ncan incarnate itself otherwise than in a human embryo. It is a law of\nlife on the Earth. But you must look through the veil. The soul is not\nan effect. The body serves it only as its garment.\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. I admit that it would indeed be singular that an event of such\ndire importance as the _creation_ of an immortal soul should spring\nfrom a carnal cause, should be the result of casual unions, more or\nless legitimate. Also, I agree with you that organic causes do not\nexplain the different degrees of capacity with which mankind is born\ninto this world.\n\nBut I ask, of what use would be these various existences if, on\nbeginning a new life, we retain no remembrance of those that precede\nit? Also, if it is really desirable to have in prospect a journey\nwithout end through endless worlds, and an eternal transmigration?\nFor at last there must be an end to it all, and, after many \u00e6ons of\nvoyages, we must some day finish our existence and seek repose. Would\nit not be as well to do so after one existence only?\n\n[Sidenote: The unknown.]\n\nLUMEN. O men! You do not comprehend either time or space. Do you not\nknow that outside the movement of the stars time no longer exists,\nand that eternity is no longer measured? Do you not know that in the\ninfinite extent of the sidereal universe space is but a vain word, no\nlonger measurable? You ignore all; principles, causes, all escape you:\natoms upon a movable atom, you have not any exact appreciation of the\nuniverse; and yet, despite ignorance so dense, and comprehension so\nobscure, you would attempt to judge all, to envelop all, to seize all!\nBut it would be easier to put the ocean into a nutshell than it would\nbe to make you, with your terrestrial brain, understand the law of\ndestiny.\n\n[Sidenote: Nothing created, nothing annihilated.]\n\nCan you not, then, by making a legitimate use of the faculty of\ninduction which has been given you, gather the direct consequences\nresulting from observation supported by reason? Observation, sustained\nby proof, shows conclusively that all are not equal on coming into this\nworld; that the past is not unlike the future; and that the eternity\nwhich is before us is equally behind us; that nothing is created in\nnature, and that nothing is annihilated; that nature includes all\nthings existing, and that God, spirit, law, number, are no more outside\nnature than matter, weight, motion; that moral truth, justice, wisdom,\nvirtue, exist in the progress of the world as surely as its physical\nreality; that justice decrees equity in the distribution of its\ndestinies; that our destinies are not accomplished upon this earthly\nplanet; that the empyrean heaven does not exist, and that the Earth is\na star in the sky; that other inhabited planets soar with ours in the\nvast expanse; opening out to the wings of the soul an inexhaustible\nfield of vision, and that the infinite in the universe corresponds, in\nthe material creation, with the eternity of our intelligence in the\nspiritual creation.\n\n[Sidenote: Unknown forces in nature.]\n\n[Sidenote: Affinities.]\n\nAre not certainties such as these, followed by the inductions with\nwhich they inspire us, sufficient to liberate your mind from ancient\nprejudices, and to open out, to an enlightened judgment, a panorama\nworthy of the vague yet profound desires of our souls? I could\nillustrate this general sketch by examples and details which would\nsurprise you still more. Let it suffice for me to add that there are in\nnature other forces than those you know, which, both in essence and in\nmode of action, differ from electricity, attraction, light, &c. Now,\namong these natural and unknown forces there is one in particular,\nthe study of which will ultimately lead to singular discoveries in\nelucidating the problems of the soul and of life. This is the psychic\nforce. This invisible fluidic force establishes a mysterious bond,\nunknown to themselves, between living beings, and already in many\ncases you have been able to recognise its existence. Take the case of\ntwo beings _in love_ (as the saying is). It seems impossible for them\nto live apart. Should circumstances lead to their being separated, our\ntwo lovers become absent-minded, and their souls as it were leave their\nbodies, and span any distance which prevents them re-uniting with one\nanother. The thoughts of the one are shared by the other, and they live\ntogether despite their separation.\n\nShould any misfortune touch one, the other becomes immediately\nconscious of it; and such separations have been known to end in death.\nHow many facts have been stated by trustworthy witnesses of the sudden\napparition of a person to an intimate friend, of a wife to a husband,\nof a mother to a son, and _vice vers\u00e2_, just at the moment of death,\neven though many leagues might separate them! The most captious critic\ncannot in these days deny facts thus circumstantially proved. Twin\nchildren living ten leagues apart, and under very different conditions,\nare stricken at the same time with the same malady, or if one is\nexcessively fatigued, the other feels the same without apparently any\nassignable cause. And so on. These facts prove that ties of sympathy\nexist between souls and even between bodies, and give room for the\nrepeated reflection, that we are far from knowing all the forces\noperating in nature.\n\nIf I communicate these views to you, my friend, it is chiefly to show\nthat you can not only have a foretaste of truth before death, but\nalso that earthly existence is not so entirely deprived of light, as\nto prevent one's reason recognising the chief characteristics of the\nmoral world. Besides, all these truths will be emphasised by my further\nnarration, when you learn that it is not only the previous existence\nbefore my last one that I have seen again, thanks to the slowness of\nlight, but also my ante-penultimate planetary life, inclusive of more\nthan ten existences preceding that one in which we came to know each\nother upon this Earth.\n\n\nII\n\n[Sidenote: Plurality of lives.]\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. Reflection and study had already inclined me, Lumen, to\nbelieve in the plurality of the existences of the soul. Yet this\ndoctrine lacks proofs, logical, moral, and even physical, as numerous\nand as weighty as are those in favour of the plurality of the inhabited\nworlds. I own that until now I had grave doubts on the subject. Modern\noptics and marvellous calculations, which enable us to touch, as it\nwere, the other worlds, show us their years, their seasons, their days,\nand make us acquainted with the varieties of nature living on their\nsurface. All these elements have enabled contemporaneous astronomy to\nestablish the fact of human existence in the other worlds on a strong\nand imperishable foundation. But I repeat that it is not so with\npalingenesis, though I am strongly inclined towards the doctrine of\nthe transmigration of souls in the actual heaven, since this is the\nonly way by which we can gain an idea of eternal life. My desires,\nhowever, need to be sustained by the help of a light, and inspired by a\nconfidence I do not yet possess.\n\nLUMEN. It is precisely this light which we have under consideration,\nand will be brought out by this interview.\n\nI have, I own, an advantage over you, since I speak _de visu_, and\nthat I strictly limit myself to interpret with exactitude the events\nwith which my spiritual life is actually woven. But since you can see\nthe possibility and probability of the scientific explanation of my\nstatement, you cannot fail as you listen to increase your light and\naugment your knowledge.\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. It is for this cause chiefly that I am always eager to hear\nyou.\n\nLUMEN. Light, you understand, is the means of giving to the\ndisincarnated soul _a direct vision_ of its planetary existences.\n\n[Sidenote: Constellations.]\n\nAfter having reviewed my earthly existence, I saw once more my life\nprevious to my last one, upon one of the planets of Gamma in Virgo,\nlight bringing to me the former only after 72 years, and the latter\nafter 172 years. I see myself at present from Capella as I was upon the\nearth 72 years ago, and as I was upon Virgo 172 years ago. Thus two\nexistences, both _past and successive_, are here shown me as _present\nand simultaneous_, by virtue of the laws of light which transmit them\nto me.\n\n[Sidenote: Andromeda.]\n\n[Sidenote: Effects of perspective.]\n\nNearly five hundred years ago, I lived upon a world whose astronomical\nposition as seen from the earth is precisely that of the left breast\nof Andromeda. Assuredly the inhabitants of that world do not suspect\nthat the denizens of a little planet in space have joined the stars\nby fictitious lines, tracing figures of men, women, animals, and\ndivers objects, incorporating all the stars in figures more or less\noriginal, in order to give them a name. It would greatly astonish\nsome of these planetary people if they were told, that upon the\nEarth certain stars bear the names of Heart-of-the-Scorpion (what a\nheart!), Head-of-the-Dog, Tail-of-the-Great-Bear, Eye-of-the-Bull,\nNeck-of-the-Dragon, Brow-of-Capricorn. You are, of course, aware that\nneither the constellations drawn upon the celestial globe, nor the\nposition of the stars upon that globe, are either real or absolute, but\nare only the result of the position of the Earth in space, and thus are\nsimply a question of _perspective_. Go to the top of a mountain and\nfix upon a map the respective positions of all the summits surrounding\nyou in that circular panorama, its hills, its valleys, its villages,\nits lakes; a map so constructed could only serve for the place from\nwhence it was drawn. Now transport yourself ten miles farther; the same\nsummits are visible, but their respective positions in regard to each\nother are different, resulting from the change in perspective. The\npanorama of the Alps and of the Oberland, as seen from Lucerne, and\nPilatus does not in the least resemble that seen from the Fulkhorn,\nor from the Schynige Platte above Interlaken. Yet these are the same\nsummits and the same lakes. It is exactly so with the stars. The same\naspect is seen both from the star Delta in Andromeda and from the\nEarth; but there is not a constellation that can be recognised, because\nall the celestial perspectives have changed; stars of the first\nmagnitude have become of the second and of the third; whilst others, of\nlesser magnitudes, seen nearer, shine with increased brilliancy; and,\nabove all, the respective situation of the stars as regards one another\nhas completely changed in consequence of the different position of that\nstar and of the Earth.\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. Therefore the appearance of the constellation which one has so\nlong believed to be ineffaceably traced upon the vaulted sky is only\ndue to perspective. In changing our position we change our perspective,\nand our sky is no longer the same. But, then, ought we not to have a\nchange of celestial perspective every six months, since during this\ninterval the Earth has greatly altered its position, having removed\nto a distance of seventy-four millions of leagues from the place it\nformerly occupied?\n\nLUMEN. This objection proves that you have perfectly comprehended the\nprinciple of the deformation of the constellations as one moves in any\ndirection in space.\n\nIt would be, as you suppose, if the Earth's orbit were of a dimension\nsufficiently vast for the two opposite points of this orbit to change\nthe view of this celestial scenery.\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. Seventy-four millions of leagues--\n\nLUMEN. Are as nothing in the order of celestial distances, and can\nno more affect the perspectives of the stars, than taking a step in\nthe cupola of the Pantheon would change the apparent position of the\nbuildings in Paris to the eye of the observer.\n\n[Sidenote: The charts of the Middle Ages.]\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. Certain charts of the Middle Ages represent the Zodiac as\nan arch in the heavens, and place some of the constellations, such\nas Andromeda, the Lyre, Cassiopea, and the Eagle, in the same region\nas the Seraphim, the Cherubim, and the Thrones. That, therefore, was\nsimply fancy, since constellations have no real existence, but are\nsimply appearances due to perspective.\n\nLUMEN. Certainly the old heaven of theology has no legitimate place\nto-day, and simple common sense shows that it does not exist. Two\ntruths cannot oppose one another; it is a necessity that the spiritual\nheaven should accord with the physical heaven, and the object of my\nvarious conversations is the demonstration of this truth. Upon the\nworld of Andromeda of which I speak, there is nothing resembling\nthe constellation of Andromeda. Seen from the Earth, those stars\nwhich appear joined and have served on the celestial landscape to\ndistinguish the daughter of Cepheus and Cassiopea, are in reality\nspread out in space at all sorts of distances, and in every direction.\nOne cannot find either there or elsewhere the least vestige of the\ntracings of terrestrial mythology.\n\n[Sidenote: The poetry of the heavens lost.]\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. All its poetry is lost.... I shall feel, however, a certain\nsatisfaction in believing that for a part of my life I have rested\non the bosom of Andromeda. It is a pleasant fancy. There is in it a\nmythological perfume and a comforting sensation. I should like to be\ntransported there without fear of the monster, and without solicitude\nfor the young Perseus bearing the head of the Medusa, and mounted on\nhis famous Pegasus. But now, thanks to the scalpel of science, there is\nno longer an unveiled princess bound to a rock on the sea-shore, nor a\nvirgin holding an ear of golden corn, nor Orion pursuing the Pleiades;\nVenus has vanished from our evening sky, and old Saturn has let fall\nhis scythe in the night. Science has caused these ancient myths to\ndisappear! I regret its progress.\n\n[Sidenote: The facts of astronomy grander than its fancies.]\n\nLUMEN. Do you, then, prefer illusion to reality? Do you not know\nthat truth is immeasurably more beautiful, grander, and infinitely\nmore marvellous than error, however that may be embellished? What\ncan be comparable in all the mythologies past and present, to the\nrapt scientific contemplation of celestial grandeurs and the sublime\nmovements of nature? What impression can strike the soul more\nprofoundly than _the fact_ of the expanse crowded with worlds, and the\nimmensity of the sidereal systems? What voice is more eloquent than\nthe silence of a star-lit night? What wild flight of imagination could\nconceive an image surpassing that, of the interstellar voyage of light,\nstamping with the seal of eternity the transitory events of the life of\neach world?\n\nThrow off, then, my friend, your old errors and become worthy of the\nmajesty of science. Listen to what follows:--\n\n[Sidenote: Description of the world of Andromeda.]\n\n[Sidenote: The elements.]\n\nBy reason of the time light employs in coming from the system \u03b4 of\nAndromeda to Capella, I have seen again, in this year of 1869, my\nante-penultimate existence, already ended five hundred years ago.\nThat world is very singular according to our ideas. It has only one\nkingdom on its surface, and that the animal kingdom. The vegetable\nkingdom does not exist there. But that a\u03b4nimal kingdom is very different\nfrom ours, and of a superior kind, although it is endowed with five\nsenses similar to those on the Earth. It is a world without sleep and\nwithout fixity. It is entirely enveloped in a rose-coloured ocean,\nless dense than terrestrial water, and more dense than our atmosphere.\nIt is a substance holding a middle place as a fluid, between air and\nwater. Terrestrial chemistry does not produce any similar substance,\ntherefore it would be in vain to try and represent it to you. Carbolic\nacid gas that can be held invisible at the bottom of a glass, and can\nbe poured out like water, will give you the nearest idea of it. This\nis due to a fixed quantity of heat and electricity held in permanence\nupon that globe. You are aware that the composition of all things upon\nthe Earth, whether mineral, vegetable, or animal, is in three states,\nsolid, liquid, and gaseous, and that the sole cause of these different\nconditions is the heat radiated from the Sun upon the surface of the\nEarth. The interior heat of the globe has now hardly any appreciable\neffect upon its surface.\n\n[Sidenote: Degree of heat fixes the condition of matter.]\n\n[Sidenote: Effect of the Earth flying off at a tangent.]\n\nLess solar heat would liquefy gases and solidify liquids. Greater heat\nwould dissolve solids and evaporate liquids. A more or less quantity\nof heat would produce liquid air (yes, liquid air), and marble would\nbe turned into gas. If by any cause whatever the earthly planet were\none day to fly off from its orbit at a tangent, and rush away into the\nglacial obscurity of space, you would see all the water on the Earth\nbecome solid, and gases in their turn become liquids; then as to solids\nthemselves ... you would see! No, you could not see this by remaining\nupon the Earth, but you could from the depths of space witness this\ncurious spectacle, should your globe ever indulge in the freak of\nescaping from its orbit at a tangent. And note further, that should\nthis colossal cold ever take place suddenly, all creatures would find\nthemselves immediately frozen on the spot, and the globe would carry\ninto space the singular panorama of the whole human race, and every\nanimal immovably congealed for all eternity, in the various attitudes\nassumed by each individual and each creature, at the moment of the\ncatastrophe.\n\n[Sidenote: Worlds in a glacial state. Life arrested.]\n\n[Sidenote: The awakening out of glacial repose.]\n\nThere are worlds now in this state. They are eccentric worlds,\nthe life of whose inhabitants has been insensibly arrested by the\nrapid flight of their planet away from the Sun, and they have been\ntransformed into millions of statues. Most of them are lying down\nasleep, seeing that this profound change of temperature takes many\ndays in its accomplishment. There they are by millions, pell-mell,\ndead, or, to be more accurate, sunk in a complete lethargy. The cold\npreserves them. Three or four thousand years later, when the planet\nreturns from its dark and frozen aphelion to its brilliant perihelion,\ntowards the sun--whose fertilising heat caressing its surface with\nwelcoming rays will rapidly increase--and when it has reached the\ndegree which betokens the normal temperature of these beings, they will\nbe resuscitated at the age at which they were when overtaken by sleep;\nthey will take up their affairs from the moment of their interruption\n(long interruption indeed!) without any consciousness that they had\nslept a dreamless sleep for so many ages. One may see some continuing\na game, or finishing a phrase whose first words have been uttered four\nthousand years ago. All this is perfectly simple, for we have seen that\ntime does not in reality exist. This, on a large scale, is exactly\nwhat passes on a small one on the Earth when you revive infusoria,\nwhich take a fresh lease of life under the rain, after several years of\napparent death.\n\n[Sidenote: World of Andromeda.]\n\nBut to return to our world of Andromeda; the rose-coloured and\nquasi-liquid atmosphere, surrounding it entirely as an ocean without\nislands, is the abode of living beings, who are perpetually floating in\nthe depths of that ocean which none have ever sounded: from their birth\nto their death they have not one moment's repose. Incessant activity is\nthe condition of their existence. Should they become stationary they\nwould perish. In order to breathe, that is to say, to enable this fluid\nelement to penetrate to their bosom, they are constrained to keep their\ntentacles in unceasing motion, and their lungs (I use this word the\nbetter to be understood) constantly open.\n\n[Sidenote: Process of nourishment.]\n\nThe external form of this human race resembles that of the sirens\nof antiquity, but is less elegant, and their organism approaches\nthat of the seal. Do you see the essential difference between their\nconstitution and that of terrestrial man? It is that _on the Earth we\nbreathe without being conscious of the act_, and obtain oxygen without\nexertion, not being compelled with difficulty to convert venous into\narterial blood by the absorption of oxygen. Upon this other world, on\nthe contrary, this nourishment _is only obtained with labour_ and at\nthe price of incessant effort.\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. Then this world is inferior to ours in the scale of progress?\n\nLUMEN. Without any doubt, seeing that I inhabited it before coming\nupon the Earth. But do not think that the Earth is much superior by\nreason of our being able to breathe whilst we are asleep. Doubtless, it\nis a great advantage to be furnished with a pneumatic mechanism, which\nopens involuntarily every time that our organism needs the least breath\nof air, and which acts automatically and unceasingly night and day. But\nman does not live on air alone; his earthly organism requires to be\nnourished with something more solid, and this solid something does not\ncome to him involuntarily as does air.\n\n[Sidenote: Labour of life on the Earth.]\n\nWhat is the result? Look for a moment at the Earth. See what sorrow,\nwhat desolation! What a world of misery and brutality! Multitudes bowed\ndown with bent backs to the soil, which they dig with toil and pain,\nthat they may gain their daily bread! All these heads bent down to the\ngrossness of matter, in place of being raised up to the contemplation\nof nature! All these efforts and these labours, bringing in their wake\nfeebleness and disease! All this traffic to amass a little gold at the\nexpense of others! Man taking advantage of his brother man! Castes,\naristocracies, robbery and ruin, ambitions, thrones, wars! In a word,\n_personal interests_, always selfish, often sordid, and the reign of\nmatter over mind. Such is the normal state of the Earth, a condition\nforced by the law which rules over your bodies, compelling you to kill\nin order to live, and to prefer the possession of material goods that\ncannot be earned beyond the grave, to the possession of intellectual\ngifts, which the soul can keep as a rich and inalienable possession.\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. You speak, master, as if you thought it were possible to live\nwithout eating.\n\nLUMEN. Do you, then, believe that the beings of every world in space\nare subject to an operation so ridiculous as this? Happily, in many of\nthe worlds, the spirit is not subjected to such ignominy.\n\n[Sidenote: Atmospheric nutrition.]\n\nIt is not so difficult as you may suppose, on first thoughts, to\nbelieve in the possibility of atmospheric nutriment. The maintenance of\nlife among man and the animals depends upon two causes, respiration and\nnutrition. The first is found naturally in the atmosphere; the second\nis derived from nourishment. Nutrition produces blood; from the blood\ncome the tissues, the muscles, the bones, the cartilages, the flesh,\nthe brain, the nerves, in a word, the organic constituents of the\nbody. The oxygen we breathe can itself be considered as a nutritive\nsubstance, inasmuch as it combines with the principal aliments absorbed\nby the stomach, and completes the formation of the blood and the\ndevelopment of the tissues.\n\n[Sidenote: The process of alimentation.]\n\nNow, to imagine nutrition passing entirely into the domain of the\natmosphere, it is only necessary to observe that, as a whole, a\ncomplete aliment is made up of albumen, of sugar, of fat, and of\nsalt, and to imagine also that an atmospheric fluid, in place of\nbeing composed of azote and of oxygen only, should be formed of these\ndifferent substances in a gaseous state. These aliments are found in\nthe solids that you absorb; digestion is the function which separates\nthem, and which causes them to assimilate with the organs to which they\nbelong. When, for example, you eat a morsel of bread, you introduce\ninto your stomach a grain of starch, a substance insoluble in water,\nand which is not found in the blood. The saliva, and the pancreatic\njuice, transform the insoluble starch into soluble sugar. The bile,\nthe pancreatic juice, and the intestinal secretions, change the sugar\ninto fat. Both sugar and fat are present in the blood, and it is by\nthe processes of alimentation that substances are separated and\nassimilated in your body.\n\nIt astonishes you, my friend, that after living five years--according\nto terrestrial reckoning--in the celestial world, I can remember all\nthese material terms, and condescend to make use of them. But the\nmemories that I have brought from the Earth are still vivid, and as we\nspeak on this occasion on a question of organic physiology, I do not\nfeel ashamed of calling things by their own names.\n\nIf, then, we suppose that in place of being combined or mixed in the\nconstitution of bodies, solid or liquid, these aliments could be found\nin a gaseous state in the composition of the atmosphere, we should\ncreate by this means nutritive atmospheres, which would dispense with\ndigestion and its attendant coarse and humiliating functions.\n\nThat which man is capable of imagining in the restricted sphere of his\nobservation, Nature has put in practice in more than one spot of the\nuniverse.\n\nBesides, I can assure you that when one has ceased to be accustomed\nto this material process of the introduction of nourishment into the\ndigestive tube, one cannot avoid being impressed with its coarseness.\nThis was the reflection I made a few days ago whilst observing one of\nthe richest countries on your planet. I was struck by the suave and\nangelic beauty of a maiden, reclining in a gondola as it floated gently\non the blue waters of the Bosphorus before Constantinople. Red velvet\ncushions, embroidered with brilliant silks, whose heavy tassels of gold\ntouched the water, formed the divan of this young Circassian. Before\nher knelt a little black slave playing upon some stringed instrument.\nHer form was so juvenile and graceful, her bended arm so elegant, her\neyes so pure and innocent, her pensive brow so calm under the light of\nheaven, that for an instant I was captivated by a kind of retrospective\nadmiration for this masterpiece of living nature.\n\nWell! while this pure vision of awakening youth, sweet as a flower\nopening its petals to the sun's rays, held me in a kind of passing\nenchantment, the bark reached the landing-stage, and the maiden,\nleaning on a slave, seated herself on a couch near a well-spread table,\naround which others had already gathered. She began to eat! Yes! for\nnear an hour _she was eating_!\n\nI could scarcely tolerate the earthly recollections recalled by this\nridiculous spectacle. To see a being like that partaking of food\nthrough the mouth, and making her charming body the receptacle for I\ndo not know what substances! What vulgarity! Masticating morsels of\nsome kind of animal which her pearly teeth did not disdain to chew,\nand again fragments of another animal which her virginal lips opened\nwithout hesitation to receive and swallow! What a diet: a medley of\ningredients drawn from cattle, or from deer, which have lived in the\nmire and afterwards been slaughtered. Horror! I turned away with\nsadness from this strange contrast, and directed my gaze to the system\nof Saturn, where humanity need not stoop to such necessities.\n\n[Sidenote: Victims to the struggle for existence.]\n\nThe floating beings belonging to the world of Andromeda, where my\nantepenultimate existence was passed, are submitted to a still more\ndegrading manner of sustaining life than are the inhabitants of the\nEarth. They have not the advantage of finding three parts of their\nnutriment supplied by the air, as is the case on your globe: they\nmust work to obtain what may be called their oxygen, and, without\nceasing, they are condemned to use their lungs in order to prepare the\nnutritious air they need, without sleeping, and without ever feeling\nsatisfied, because, despite their incessant toil, they cannot absorb\nmore than a small quantity at a time. Thus they pass their entire life,\nand finally die victims to the struggle for existence.\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. Better far never to have been born! But does not the same\nreflection apply to the Earth?\n\nWhat is the use of being born, to weary one's self with endless work\nand worry, to turn in the same daily treadmill for sixty or a hundred\nyears; to sleep, to eat, to work, to speak, to run, to err, to agitate,\nto dream, _ad infinitum_? Of what use is all this? Would not one be\njust as advanced if one were extinguished the day after birth, or,\nbetter still, if one did not take the trouble to come into the world?\nNature would not go on in any worse fashion, and even if it did, no one\nwould be the wiser. And one might ask, of what use is Nature herself,\nand why does the universe exist at all?\n\n[Sidenote: Humanity in Andromeda.]\n\n[Sidenote: Humanity.]\n\nLUMEN. That is the great mystery. Yet must all destinies be\naccomplished. The world of Andromeda is decidedly an inferior one. To\ngive you an idea of the poor mental calibre of its inhabitants, I will\ncite two examples, selecting the subjects of religion and politics, as\nthese are generally the best criterions of the value of a people. In\nreligion, in place of seeking for God in nature, and of basing their\njudgment on science, instead of aspiring to the truth, and of using\ntheir eyes to see and their reason to comprehend--in a word, in place\nof establishing the foundations of their philosophy upon knowledge\nas exact as possible of the order which governs the world--they are\ndivided into sects, who are voluntarily blind, and believe they render\nhomage to their pretended God by ceasing to reason, and think they\nadore Him, in maintaining that their anthill is unique in space; by\nreciting phrases and in injuring other sects, and alas! by blessing\nswords, and burnings at the stake, and in authorising massacres and\nwars. Their doctrines contain assertions which seem expressly imagined\nto outrage common sense. These are precisely those which constitute the\narticles of their faith and belief!\n\nThey are stupid in politics. The most intelligent and pure-minded do\nnot understand each other. Therefore the Republic seems to be a form\nof government which cannot be realised. Tracing the annals of their\nhistory as far back as possible, one sees a people, cowardly and\nindifferent, deliberately choosing, rather than govern themselves, to\nbe led by an individual claiming to be their Basileus, their king.\nThis chief deprives them of three-fourths of their resources, keeping\nfor himself and his, the atmosphere containing the greatest amount of\nrose-essence--that is to say, that he keeps the best in the land for\nhis own use; he numbers his subjects, and from time to time sends them\nto fight with neighbouring peoples, who, like themselves, are subject\nto a similar Basileus.\n\nMarshalling them like shoals of herrings, he directs them on either\nside towards the field of battle, which they call the _field of\nhonour_, they then destroy one another like furious fools, without\nknowing why, and without, for that matter, the power to comprehend, as\nthey do not even speak the same language.\n\nAnd do you imagine that those who, most favoured by chance, live to\nreturn, feel any hatred against their Basileus?\n\nNothing of the kind. The remnant of the army who live to see their\nhomes again, think nothing more natural than to celebrate their\nthanksgivings in company with the dignitaries of their sects,\nsupplicating their God to grant long life to, and to pour blessings\nupon, the worthy man whom they designate their father and king.\n\n[Sidenote: Organisation of the beings on Andromeda.]\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. I gather from this narration, that the inhabitants of Delta\nAndromeda are, both physically and intellectually, greatly our\ninferiors, for upon the Earth we do not regulate our affairs in this\nmanner.... In short, upon their globe there is only one living kingdom,\nand that a mobile one, without repose, without sleep, kept in perpetual\nagitation by reason of an inexorable fate. A world like this strikes me\nas being very fantastic.\n\nLUMEN. What, then, would you say of the one I inhabited fifteen\ncenturies ago? A world also containing only one kingdom, and that not\na movable one, but, on the contrary, as fixed as is your vegetable\nkingdom?\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. How! Animals and men held down by roots?\n\n\nIII\n\n[Sidenote: Organisation of beings on Andromeda.]\n\nLUMEN. My existence anterior to that upon the world of Andromeda was\npassed upon Venus, a planet near to the Earth, where I can remember\nmyself as a woman. Not that I have directly seen myself there, for,\naccording to the law of light, it would require the same length of time\nto travel from Venus to Capella as it would from the Earth to Capella,\nand I consequently see Venus only as it was seventy-two years ago,\nand not as it was nine hundred years ago, which was the epoch of my\nexistence upon that planet.\n\nMy fourth life, previous to my terrestrial one, was passed upon an\nimmense annular planet belonging to the constellation Cygnus, situated\nin the zone of the Milky Way. This singular world is inhabited solely\nby trees.\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. That is to say, that so far only plants are there, and neither\nanimals nor intelligent speaking beings?\n\nLUMEN. Not exactly. There are only plants there, it is true. But in\nthis vast world of plants there are vegetable races more advanced than\nthose existing upon the Earth. There plants live as we do--feel, think,\nreason, and speak.\n\n[Sidenote: Reasoning plants.]\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. But this is impossible! Pardon!--I would say improbable,\nincomprehensible, and entirely inconceivable.\n\nLUMEN. These intelligent vegetable races really exist--so much so, that\nI myself belonged to them. Fifteen centuries ago I was a tree possessed\nof reason.\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. But tell me, how can a plant reason without a brain, and speak\nwithout a tongue?\n\nLUMEN. Tell me, I beg of you, by what process you yourself think,\nand by what transformation of motion your soul translates its mute\nconceptions into audible language?\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. I am seeking, O Master, but I fail to find, the material\nexplanation of this fact, however ordinary it may be.\n\n[Sidenote: Facts not impossible because unknown.]\n\nLUMEN. We have no right to declare an unknown fact impossible, when\nwe are so ignorant ourselves of the laws regulating our own being.\nBecause the brain is the physiological organ of intelligence placed at\nthe service of man on the Earth, do you therefore believe that there\nare similar brains and spinal marrows upon all the worlds in space?\nThis would be an error too childish. The law of progress governs the\nvital system of each world. This vital system differs according to the\nsecret nature of the special forces peculiar to each. When a world has\nreached a sufficient degree of evolution to fit it for entering into\nthe service of moral life, _mind_, more or less developed, appears on\nit.\n\n[Sidenote: Gradation of the human race.]\n\nDo not imagine that the Eternal Father creates at once a human race on\neach globe. Not so. The first step in the ladder of the animal kingdom\nreceives the human transfiguration by force of circumstance, and by\nnatural law, which ennobles it, as soon as progress has brought it to a\nstate of relative superiority.\n\n[Sidenote: The development of life.]\n\nDo you know why you have a chest, a stomach, two legs, two arms, and\na head furnished with visual, auditory, and olfactory senses? It is\nbecause the quadrupeds, the mammalia, which preceded the appearance\nof man on the Earth, had them already. Monkeys, dogs, lions, bears,\nhorses, oxen, tigers, cats, &c., and before them the horned rhinoceros,\nthe cave-hyena, the elk, the mastodon, the oppossum, &c., and prior\nto these the pleiosaurus, the ichthyosaurus, the iguanodon, the\npterodactyl, &c., and again before these the fishes, the crustacea, the\nmollusca, &c., have been the result of the vital forces in action upon\nthe Earth, dependent upon the state of the soil, of the atmosphere,\nof inorganic chemistry, of the quantity of heat, and of terrestrial\ngravity. The earthly animal kingdom has followed, from its origin, this\ncontinuous and progressive march towards the perfection of its typical\nforms of mammalia, freeing itself more and more, from the grossness of\nits material.\n\nMan is more beautiful than the horse, the horse than the bear, the bear\nthan the tortoise. A similar law governs the vegetable kingdom.\n\nHeavy, coarse vegetables without leaves and without flowers began the\nseries. Then, as the ages advanced, their forms became more pure, and\ngraceful leaves appeared filling the woods with silent shadows.\n\nFlowers in their turn began to beautify the gardens of the Earth, and\nspread sweet perfumes in an atmosphere until then insipid.\n\n[Sidenote: The genealogical tree of life.]\n\nTo the scrutinising eye of the geologist who visits these tertiary,\nsecondary, and primordial districts, this double progressive series of\ntwo kingdoms is to be seen to this day. There was a period upon the\nEarth when a few islands had but just emerged from the bosom of the\nwarm waters, into an atmosphere surcharged with vapour, when the only\nliving things distinguishing this inorganic kingdom were long floating\nfilaments held in suspension in the waves. Seaweed and sea-wrack were\nthe first forms of vegetation. On the rocks, live creatures for which\none has no name. There, sponges swell out. Here, a tree of coral lifts\nup itself. Further on, the Medus\u00e6 detach themselves and float like\nballs of jelly. Are these animals? Are these plants? Science does not\nanswer. They are animal-plants, zoophites. But life is not limited to\nthese forms. There are creatures not less primitive, and as simple,\nwhich typify a special species. These are the annelides, worms, fish in\nthe form of a simple tube, creatures without eyes, ears, blood, nerves,\nwill, a vegetative species, yet endowed with the power of _motion_.\nLater on rudimentary organs of sight and of locomotion appeared, and\nlife became less elemental. Then fishes and amphibious creatures came\ninto existence. The animal kingdom began to form itself.\n\n[Sidenote: Formation of the animal kingdom.]\n\nWhat would have been the result if the first creature had never quitted\nits rock? If these primitive elements of terrestrial life had remained\nstationary at the point of their formation, and if, for any cause\nwhatever, the faculty of locomotion had never had a beginning? The\nconsequence would have been, that in place of the system of terrestrial\nvitality being manifested in two different directions, viz., in the\nworld of plants and the world of animals, it would have continued\nmanifesting itself solely in the first direction, with the result that\nthere would have been but one kingdom instead of two, and the creative\nprogress would have operated in that kingdom as it operated in the\nanimal kingdom. It would not have been arrested at the formation of\nsensitives, superior plants which are already gifted with a veritable\nnervous system; nor would it have stopped at the formation of flowers,\nwhich are already bordering on ours in their organic functions; but,\ncontinuing its ascension, would have produced, in the vegetable\nkingdom, that which has already been produced in the animal kingdom. As\nit is, many vegetables feel and act; here would have been vegetables\nfeeling and making themselves understood. The Earth would not have been\non that account deprived of the human species. Only mankind, instead\nof being gifted with locomotion as it is, would have been fixed by the\nfeet. Such is the state of the annular world in which I lived fifteen\ncenturies ago in the heart of the Milky Way.\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. Of a truth, this world of men-plants astonishes me more than\nthe previous one, and I find it difficult to picture to myself the life\nand manners of these singular beings.\n\n[Sidenote: Men-plants.]\n\nLUMEN. Their kind of life is indeed very different from yours. They\nneither build cities nor make voyages; they have no need of any form\nof government; they are ignorant of war, that scourge of terrestrial\nhumanity, and they have nothing of that national self-love called\npatriotism which is one of your characteristics. Prudent, patient, and\ngifted with constancy, they have neither the mobility nor the fragility\nof the denizens of the Earth. Life there reaches an average of five or\nsix centuries, and is calm, sweet, uniform, and without revolutions.\nBut do not think that these men-plants live only a vegetable life. On\nthe contrary, they have an existence both personal and positive. They\nare divided, not by caste, regulated by birth and fortune, according to\nthat absurd custom on the earth, but by families, whose native value\ndiffers precisely according to its kind. They have an unwritten social\nhistory, but nothing which happens amongst them can be lost, inasmuch\nas they have neither emigrations nor conquests, but their records and\ntraditions are handed down from one generation to another. Each one\nknows the history of his own race. They have also two sexes, as upon\nthe Earth, and unions take place there in a similar manner, but are\npurer, more disinterested, and invariably affectionate. Nor are these\nunions always consanguineous; impregnation can even be effected at a\ndistance.\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. But, after all, how can they communicate their thoughts if it\nbe true that they think? And besides, master, how was it possible for\nyou to recognise yourself on this singular world?\n\n[Sidenote: Manner of life upon Cygnus.]\n\nLUMEN. The same reply will satisfactorily answer your double question.\nI was looking at that ring in the constellation of Cygnus, being drawn\nthere with persistence by some irresistible instinct. It surprised\nme to see only vegetable growths upon its surface, and I principally\nremarked their singular manner of grouping: here two and two, there\nthree and three, farther off ten and ten, besides others in larger\nclusters. Some were seated, as it were, upon the brink of a fountain,\nothers appeared to be reposing, with little shoots springing up round\nthem. I sought to find there the kinds familiar to me on the Earth,\nsuch as pines, oaks, poplars, willows, but I could not find any of\nthese botanical growths.\n\nAt last I fixed my eyes upon a plant in the shape of a fig-tree,\nwithout either leaves or fruit, but full of brilliant scarlet flowers,\nwhen suddenly I saw this enormous fig-tree stretch out a bough like a\ngigantic arm, raise the extremity of this arm to its head, and pluck\none of the magnificent flowers ornamenting its crown, and then present\nthe same, with an inclination of the head, to another fig-tree growing\nsome little distance apart, of slender and graceful form, and bearing\nsweet blue flowers. This one appeared to receive the red flower with a\ncertain pleasure, for it extended a branch, or one might say a cordial\nhand, to its neighbour, which was apparently held in a long clasp.\n\nUnder certain circumstances, as you know, a gesture is sufficient for\nmaking yourself known to another. Thus, then, the meaning of this\ntableau was borne in upon me. This gesture of the fig-tree in the Milky\nWay awoke within me a world of memories.\n\nThis Man-Plant _was myself_ as I was fifteen centuries ago, and in\nthe fig-trees with the violet flowers which were grouped around me I\nrecognised my children; for I recollected that the tints of the flowers\nborne by the offspring, are the result of the admixture of the two\ncolours distinguishing their parents.\n\n[Sidenote: Faculties of men-plants.]\n\nThese Men-Plants see without eyes, hear without ears, and speak without\nlarynx. Have you not flowers upon the Earth which can discriminate\nnot only night from day, but also the different hours of the day, the\nheight of the sun above the horizon, a clear sky from a cloudy one, and\nmore, which perceive divers sounds with exquisite sensitiveness; and,\nin fine, not only hear each other perfectly, but also the butterfly\nmessengers. These rudiments are developed to a veritable degree of\ncivilisation upon the world of which I speak, and these beings are\nas complete in their kind as you on the Earth are in yours. Their\nintelligence, it is true, is less advanced than the average intellect\nof terrestrial humanity; but in their manners and mutual relations,\nthey show in all ways a sweetness and refinement, which might often\nserve as a model to the dwellers upon the Earth.\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. How is it possible, master, that they see without eyes, and\nhear without ears?\n\n[Sidenote: Light and sound are only modes of motion.]\n\nLUMEN. You will cease to be astonished, my old friend, if you will\nbut reflect that light and sound are nothing else than two _modes of\nmotion_. In order to appreciate either one or the other of these two\nmodes of motion, you must (and that is sufficient) be endowed with an\napparatus in correspondence with them, which might be only a simple\nnerve. The eye and the ear are the apparatus for your terrestrial\nnature. In another natural organisation the optic nerve and the\nauditory nerve form quite different organs. Besides, light and sound\nare not the only two modes of motion in nature. I can even say that\nlight and sound are the result of your manner of feeling, and not of\nanything real.\n\n[Sidenote: Nature possesses myriads of modes of motion.]\n\nThere are in nature not one, but ten, twenty, a hundred, a thousand\ndifferent modes of motion. Upon the Earth you are so formed as to be\nable to appreciate chiefly these two, which constitute almost the whole\nof your life in its external relations.\n\nUpon other worlds there are other senses with which nature can be\nappreciated under its various aspects. Some of these senses take the\nplace of your eyes and of your ears, and others are in touch with\nperceptions entirely foreign to those which are received by terrestrial\norgans.\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. When you spoke to me just now of the men-plants in the world\nof Cygnus, the idea occurred to me to ask if earthly plants possess a\nsoul?\n\n[Sidenote: Form determined by soul.]\n\n[Sidenote: Souls of plants.]\n\nLUMEN. Most certainly. Terrestrial plants are gifted with a soul\njust as much as are animals and men. Without a potential soul no\norganisation could exist. The _form_ of a plant is determined by its\nsoul. An acorn and the kernel of a peach are planted side by side in\nthe same soil, the same situation, under the same conditions; why\nshould the first produce an oak and the second a peach tree? Because\nan organic force inherent in the oak will construct its special kind\nof vegetable, and another organic force, another soul inherent in the\npeach, will equally draw to itself other elements necessary for its\nspecial body, just as the human soul, in the construction of its body,\nuses the means put by nature at its disposal. Only the soul of the\nplant has not any self-consciousness.\n\n[Sidenote: Souls and atoms.]\n\n[Sidenote: Personality of the soul.]\n\nThe souls in vegetables, in animals, and in men, have already attained\nto that degree of personality and of authority, which enables them\nto bend at will, and to command and govern at pleasure, all those\nnon-personal forces which exist in the bosom of immeasurable nature.\nThe human monad, for example, being superior to the monad of salt,\nor of carbon, or of oxygen, absorbs and incorporates them in its\nstructure. Our human soul in our terrestrial body upon the Earth\ngoverns, without being conscious of it, all the elementary souls\nforming the constituent parts of its body. Matter is not a solid and\ncompassable substance. It is an assemblage of centres of forces.\nSubstance has not any importance. From one atom to another there is a\ngreat distance in proportion to the dimensions of atoms. At the head\nof the divers centres of forces which constitute and form the human\nbody is the human soul, governing all the ganglionic souls, which are\nsubordinated to it.\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. I must frankly own, most wise instructor, that I fail to\nclearly grasp this theory.\n\nLUMEN. Then I will illustrate it for you by an example which will\ndemonstrate the truth of all I have said, and convince you that it is a\nfact.\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. A fact? Are you, then, a reincarnation of the Princess\nScheherazade, and have you been fascinating me with a new tale from the\n\"Arabian Nights\"?\n\n\n\n\nFIFTH CONVERSATION\n\nINGENIUM AUDAX: NATURA AUDACIOR\n\n\n[Sidenote: Theta (\u03b8) in Orion.]\n\nLUMEN. You know the splendid constellation of Orion which reigns like\na sovereign over your winter nights, and the curious multiple star\n\u03b8 (theta) which is to be found below the sword suspended from the\nBelt, and shines in the midst of the famous nebula. This system \u03b8 of\nOrion is one of the most singular which is to be found in the vast\ntreasure-house which contains such a variety of celestial jewels. It is\ncomposed of four principal Suns disposed in a quadrilateral form. Two\nof these Suns, forming what I may call the base of the quadrilateral,\nare accompanied, the one by a single Sun, the other by two Suns. Thus\nit is a system of seven Suns around each of which circulate inhabited\nplanets.\n\n[Sidenote: A world in Orion.]\n\nI was on a planet turning round one of the secondary Suns. This\nrevolved round another of the four principal Suns. That in its turn\ncirculated, in concert with the others and at the same time, around an\ninvisible centre of gravity in the interior of the quadrilateral. I do\nnot insist on these movements, but the celestial mechanism explains\nthem.\n\n[Sidenote: Day Suns and night Suns.]\n\nI was therefore lighted and warmed on my planet by seven Suns at the\nsame time; by one larger and more brilliant in appearance than the\nother six, because it was nearer to me; by a second very large and\nequally bright; by a third of moderate size, and by two who were like\ntwins. These different Suns are never all together above the horizon.\nThere are day Suns and night Suns; that is to say, they have there no\nnight properly so called.\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. Really? Are there in the heavens double and multiple Suns?\n\n[Sidenote: Inhabitants of Theta Orionis.]\n\nLUMEN. Yes, a very great number. The system of which I am speaking to\nyou, amongst others, is known to the astronomers of the Earth, who\ncount by thousands in their catalogues, systems of double stars, of\nmultiple stars, and of coloured stars. You can study them yourself\nwith your telescope. Now, on the planet of Orion, which I have just\nmentioned to you, the inhabitants are neither vegetables nor animals.\nThey could not be placed in any classification of terrestrial life,\nnor in either of the two great divisions of the vegetable and animal\nkingdoms. In truth I do not know with what to compare them in order to\ngive you an idea of their form.\n\nHave you ever seen, in botanic gardens, the gigantic tapering plant the\n_Cereus giganteus_?\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. I know this plant very well. Its name comes from its\nresemblance to the wax tapers, placed in three or more branched stands,\nwith which churches are lighted.\n\n[Sidenote: Analysis of the nervous system.]\n\n[Sidenote: Plant-beings.]\n\nLUMEN. Well, the men of \u03b8 Orionis bear some likeness to this\nform. Only they move slowly, and maintain an upright position by means\nof a process of suction analogous to that of the ampull\u00e6 of certain\nplants. The lower part of the vertical stem, where it rests on the\nground, is slightly elongated, like a starfish, with little appendages\nwhich fix themselves to the soil by means of suction. These beings\noften go in troops, and change their latitude according to the seasons.\nBut the most singular peculiarity of their organisation is that which\nillustrates the principle of which I have spoken to you, of the union\nof elementary souls in the human body. One day I visited this world,\nand found myself in the midst of an Orionic landscape. I beheld a\nbeing standing there like a plant ten metres high, without leaves or\nflowers. He consisted in fact of a cylindrical stalk, the uppermost\npart of which separated into many branches like those of a chandelier.\nThe central stem, as well as those of the branches, measured about a\nthird of a metre in diameter. The tops of the stalk and of the branches\nwere crowned with a diadem of silver fringe. Suddenly I saw this being\nagitate his branches and then vanish. The fact is that in this world\nindividuals, although quite well, fall to pieces literally in an\ninstant.\n\n[Sidenote: Death by disintegration.]\n\nThe molecules of which they are constituted fall altogether to the\nground. The personal existence of the individual comes to an end. His\nmolecules separate and are dispersed.\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. They disintegrate, and the atoms fly apart, like truants from\nschool.\n\nLUMEN. Just so. I can recollect this disintegration of the body often\ntook place in their lives. Sometimes it was the result of contrariety,\nsometimes of fatigue, and in other cases of a want of organic accord\nbetween the different parts. They exist in their entirety actual\nand complete, then suddenly they are reduced into the most simple\nelementary form. The cerebral molecule, which constitutes each one in\nreality, feels itself descending in consequence of the fall of its\nsister molecules of the long branches, and it arrives at the surface\nof the ground solitary and independent.\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. This mode of dissolution would sometimes be a very convenient\nproceeding here below. To get out of an embarrassing situation, for\nexample a conjugal scene _\u00e0 la_ Moli\u00e8re, or a bad quarter of an hour\nsuch as Rabelais describes, or a mournful situation such as the\nscaffold for an execution, one would only have to let loose one's\nconstituent atoms, and--bid good-bye to the company....\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n[Sidenote: Animated molecules.]\n\nLUMEN. You seem to regard the matter as a joke, but I assure you it is\nan undoubted reality. It would exist on the Earth as well as on the\nplanet of Orion, if the principle of authority were not so firmly fixed\nwith you. There it is only in an elementary form. Your body is formed\nof animated molecules.\n\nAccording to one of your most eminent physiologists, your spinal marrow\nis a series of centres, linked together independently, and yet under\ncontrol. The essential constituents of your blood, of your flesh, and\nof your bones, are in a like case. They are provinces self-governed,\nbut subject to a superior authority. The working of this superior\nauthority is a condition of human life--a condition which is less\nexclusive amongst the inferior animals. Each ring of the worm called\nlombric is a complete worm, so that a lombric represents a series of\nsimilar beings constituting a veritable living cooperative society. Cut\ninto rings, the worm would be so many independent individuals.\n\nIn the tape-worm, a solitary worm, the head is of more importance\nthan the rest of the body, and possesses the faculty of reproducing\nthe rest of the body after it has been cut off. The leech is another\nexample of united individuals. Cut it into five or six rings, and the\noperation gives you as many leeches. Thus also, a cutting of a branch\nof a tree will grow. In like manner a crab's claw or a lizard's tail\nwill be reproduced. In reality the vertebrate animals, such as man, are\nessentially composite in structure. The spinal marrow, and its highest\nexpansion in the brain, consist of segments placed in juxtaposition,\nwith nervous centres, each of which possesses an elementary soul.\n\n[Sidenote: Power of the personal soul.]\n\nThe law of authority in action on the Earth, has determined in the\nanimal series a preponderating direction. You are composed of a\nmultitude of beings grouped together, and dominated by the plastic\nattraction of your personal soul, which from the centre of your being\nhas formed your body from the embryo, and has united round itself, in\na microcosm, a whole world of beings, who have not any consciousness of\ntheir individuality.\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. On the planet of Orion nature itself is then in a state of\nabsolute Republicanism.\n\nLUMEN. Republicanism governed by _law_.\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. But when a being finds itself thus disintegrated, how can he\nafterwards reconstitute himself as a whole?\n\nLUMEN. By an act of the will, and often without the least effort, and\neven by a casual desire. Although separated from the cerebral molecule,\nthe corporeal molecules are still intimately connected with one\nanother. At a given moment they combine, and each takes its place. The\ndirecting molecule draws the other from a distance, as the loadstone\nattracts iron filings.\n\nQU\u00c6RENS. I can easily picture to myself the spectacle of this\nLilliputian army, when summoned by a whistle, drawing to its centre\nto organise a reunion; all the little soldiers climbing one over the\nother, and in a moment taking their places to reconstruct the man-taper\nthat you have described to me. One really ought to leave the Earth to\nbehold such rare wonders!\n\nLUMEN. You still judge of universal nature by the atom that you have\nbefore your eyes, and you are only qualified to comprehend the facts\nwhich are within the sphere of your observations. But I assure you the\nEarth is not the type of the universe.\n\n[Sidenote: Various forms of life.]\n\nThis world of \u03b8 Orionis, with its seven revolving Suns,\nis peopled by an organic system analogous to that which I have just\ndescribed to you.\n\nI lived there 2400 years ago, and I can see myself there again in\naccordance with the time that light occupied in coming from that point\nin space to Capella. When there, I was acquainted with the spirit who\nin this century was incarnated on the Earth and published his studies\nunder the name of Allan Kardec.\n\nWe did not recollect that we had known one another before, during\nour terrestrial life, but we often felt attracted to one another by\npeculiar intellectual sympathies. Now that he has returned, like\nmyself, into the world of spirits, he also remembers the singular\nrepublic of Orion and can see it. Yes, this is very curious, but it is\nquite true. You have no idea, on your poor planet, of the unimaginable\ndiversity which separates the worlds in their geological, as much as in\ntheir physiological organisations.\n\n[Sidenote: Sense of sight in spirits.]\n\nThese conversations may serve to throw light on your knowledge of\nthis general truth, so important in the conception of the universe.\nBut the scientific service that these conversations can specially\nrender you is in making you understand that light is the mode of\ntransmission of universal history. With the powerful visual faculty\nwhich we enjoy here, we can distinguish the surface of distant worlds.\nThe eye of our \"perisprit\" is not identical with the bodily eye. In\nthe terrestrial sight the rays diverge, so that a very small object,\nplaced quite near the eye fills the interval of the two rays, whilst\nat a greater distance, a larger object is necessary to fill the space,\nproportionately increased, which separates the same rays. In our eye,\non the contrary, the visual rays enter in parallel lines, so that we\nsee each object in its real proportions, and in its normal size, its\napparent size being quite unaffected by distance. We do not see the\nwhole of large objects, but only sections of them proportioned to the\nopenings of our special retina, but these parts are seen by us with\nequal clearness at any distance (when there is no atmosphere to veil\nthis distance).\n\nA tree in a prairie on a celestial body, as far as Theta of Orion\nis from Capella, is perfectly visible to us. On the other hand, in\naccordance with the law of the successive transmission of the rays of\nlight, all the events in nature, and the history of all the worlds, are\ndepicted in space as a universal tableau, the most true and the most\nmagnificent in all nature.\n\n[Sidenote: Infinite diversity in Sirius.]\n\nAs these conversations will have shown you, I have traversed a great\nmany different celestial countries, and have actually studied creation\nwithout fixing myself in any place. I hope in the course of the next\ncentury to be reincarnated on a world dependent on the train of Sinus.\nThe humanity there is more beautiful than that of the Earth. Birth is\neffected by means of an organic system less ridiculous and less brutal\nthan that of the Earth.\n\nBut the most remarkable characteristic of the life on this world is,\nthat there men perceive the physico-chemical operations which take\nplace for the maintenance of the body. From each molecule of the body,\nso to speak, proceeds a nerve which transmits to the brain the various\nimpressions that it receives, so that the soul absolutely knows its\nbody, and rules over it as a sovereign.\n\n[Sidenote: Vegetable life in Aldebaran.]\n\nThere is an immense variety amongst the worlds. On one of the\nplanets of the system of Aldebaran, very curious from this point\nof view, the vegetables are all composed of a substance analogous\nto _the loadstone_, because silica and magnesia predominate in its\nconstitution. The animals feed on this substance only. Most of the\nbeings inhabiting this world are _incombustible_.\n\nUpon the world of which I speak night is illumined by phosphorescent\nlights. I have visited other worlds where night does not exist at\nall, where day and night do not succeed each other as upon the Earth,\nbecause every portion of their spheres is continuously supplied with\nlight by several suns, which never leave them in darkness for an\ninstant. There sleep is unnecessary, either for man, for animals, or\nfor plants.\n\nUpon your planet sleep consumes a third portion of your life, its\nprimary cause being the rotation of the earth on its axis, which\nproduces day and night in succession, on the various parts of the globe.\n\nUpon these worlds where it is always day, the inhabitants never sleep,\nand it would greatly surprise them to learn, that there exists a\nhumanity where a third of life is passed in a lethargy resembling death.\n\n[Sidenote: Phosphoric light]\n\nNot far from this, a world revolves where night is almost unknown,\nalthough it does not possess a nocturnal sun, as in the quadrilateral\nof Orion, and it has no satellites. The rocks of its mountains, being\nof a chemical composition that reminds one of the phosphates and the\nsulphates of barytes, store up the solar light received during the\nday; and during the night they radiate a sweet, calm, translucent\nlight, which illumines the scenery with a tranquil nocturnal clearness.\nThere, also, one sees curious trees, bearing flowers which shine in the\nevening like fire-flies. These resemble horse-chestnuts, but the snowy\nflowers are luminous.\n\nPhosphorus enters largely into the composition of this curious and\nsingular world. Its atmosphere is constantly electrical; its animals\nare luminous, as well as its plants, and its humanity partakes of the\nsame nature.\n\n[Sidenote: The passions phosphorescent.]\n\nThe temperature is very high, and the inhabitants have not much need to\ninvent clothes. Now, it happens that certain passions are manifested\nby the illumination of part of the body. This is, on a large scale,\nwhat takes place on a small scale in your terrestrial meadows, where\none sees in the sweet summer evenings the glow-worms silently consumed\nin an amorous flame. In the fire-flies of the north, that you see\nin France, the male is winged and is not luminous; the female, on\nthe contrary, is luminous, but does not possess the aerial faculty.\nIn Italy the two sexes are winged, and both can become luminous. The\nhumanity which I am describing to you has all the advantages of this\nlatter type.\n\nCertain forms of terrestrial life are to be met with among the sidereal\nhumanities. Thus we find in some of them, the same thing that takes\nplace on the Earth in the ant world, where, on the day of their aerial\nunions, all the males die of exhaustion; and again in the world of\nbees, where the procreators are pitilessly sacrificed; and amongst\nspiders, where they are devoured by their companions unless they can\nimmediately escape. We find reproduced the habits of a great number\nof insects, which never see their offspring, and lay their eggs in\nsurroundings in which the newly-born will find their first food.\n\nThe human body on this Earth owes its form and its state of being to\nthe atmospheric environment, and to the conditions of density, of\nweight, and of nutrition, by means of which terrestrial evolution\noperates.\n\nThe human being proceeds from the fusion of a microscopic masculine\ncorpuscle with a minute feminine ovule. This fusion gives birth to a\nlittle cell which is transformed into the embryo, in which gradually\nappear the heart, the head, the limbs, and the different organs. The\nnervous system of this embryo may be compared to rays of delicate\nthreads, proceeding from a central point which will become the brain.\n\nUnder the influence of the Solar light and of the vibrations of the\nair, one of these nerves is developed at its extremity, and forms the\neye. This is undefined at first, and almost blind in an elementary\nstate, like the eyes of the trilobites and of the fishes of the\nSilurian period, but it develops into the admirable eyes of birds, of\nthe vertebr\u00e6, and of man. The senses of smell and taste proceed from\nthe nerves in the same way. These last two senses, with that of touch,\nare the most primitive, the earliest, and the most necessary to life.\nThere are but two of the senses which place man in communication with\nthe outer world--sight and hearing,--but the eye is the sole organ\nwhich puts us in communication with the whole universe.\n\nMillions of these little nerve-threads proceed from the brain, through\nthe body, without producing any other than the five senses, unless we\nexcept certain sensations of touch, which are intimate and personal,\nand which have even been described as a sixth sense. You shall hear.\n\nNow there is no reason why that which has taken place and been arrested\non our little planet, should take place and be arrested in the same\nfashion elsewhere.\n\nIn proof of this I must tell you that I visited, not long since, two\nworlds on which human beings have two senses of which we have not any\nidea on our Earth.\n\nOne of these senses may be described as electrical. One of the\nlittle nerve-threads of which I have just told you is developed into\na multitude of ramifications which form a sort of cornet. These,\nunder the scalpel and the microscope, appear to be tubes placed in\njuxtaposition, the outer extremity of which receives the electric fluid\nand transmits it to the brain, much as our optic nerves receive the\nwaves of light, and our auditory nerves receive the undulations of\nsound.\n\nThe beings provided with this sense perceive the electrical condition\nof bodies, of material things, of plants and flowers, of animals, of\nthe atmosphere, and of clouds. To these beings this electric sense is\na source of knowledge which is wholly forbidden to us. Their organic\nsensations are all different from yours. Their eyes are not constructed\nlike yours; they do not see what you see; they see what you do not see.\nThey are conscious only of the invisible violet rays. But their mode of\nexistence differs from yours, especially through their electric sense.\nThe electric constitution of their world is the cause of the existence\nand of the development of this sense.\n\nAnother sense with which I was still more struck, and which was of\nquite a different character, I found on a second world. This was the\nsense of orientation. Another of the nerve-threads proceeding from the\nbrain produced a species of winged ear, very light, by means of which\nthe living being perceives his direct bearings. He is conscious of the\npoints of the compass, and turns to the north or the south, the east or\nthe west, instinctively.\n\nThe atmosphere is full of emanations which you never perceive. This\nsingular sense orients the possessors of it infallibly. It enables them\nalso to discover things concealed in the interior of the Sun, and gives\nthem an insight into some of Nature's secrets which are absolutely\nhidden from you.\n\nI would thus demonstrate to you that in the vast domains of creation\nan infinite variety exists, and that eternity will be inexhaustibly\noccupied in gathering and partaking of its flowers and of its fruits.\n\nThere are worlds where old age is unknown--where lovers are consumed in\na delirious fantasy, transported by the intoxication of the body, and\ncareless of the morrow. The active sex never survive these nuptials;\nthe passive sex, oviparous, having secured the perpetuity of the\nspecies, sleep their last sleep. Those celestial worlds, where one\nnever grows old, are not without their advantages.\n\n[Sidenote: Life too long]\n\n[Sidenote: A world without war.]\n\nWorlds exist in which the vital movements, respiration, assimilation,\nthe organic periods, day and night, the seasons and the years, are all\nof extreme length. Although the nervous system of the human inhabitants\nis highly developed, and thought has a prodigious activity, life there\nappears to be of an endless length. Those who die of old age have\nlived more than a thousand of these years, but they are so rare that\nthe memory of a few only have been preserved in the historical records\nof this humanity. War between the nations has never been invented,\nbecause there is only one race, one people, one language. The natural\nconstitutions of these organisms are remarkable. Diseases are almost\nunknown; there are no doctors. As a result of this great mental\nactivity, the length of life becomes a perspective without end, and\nbefore long becomes a burden. Hence suicide is almost universal. This\ncustom has been habitual from very ancient times. The few old men who\nfrom any special motive have not put an end to their lives, are looked\nupon as exceptional beings, originals, and more or less eccentric.\nSuicide is the general law.\n\nBut, my dear friend, it is impossible for me to describe to you all the\ncuriosities of the universe. Let it suffice that I have raised the veil\nsufficiently, to give you a glimpse of the incommensurable diversity\nthat exists, in the animated productions of all the various systems\ndisseminated through space.\n\n[Sidenote: Infinite diversity]\n\nWhile accompanying me in spirit in this interstellar voyage, you\nhave passed several hours away from the Earth. It is well to isolate\none's self thus at times amongst the celestial solitudes. The soul\nobtains a fuller possession of itself, and in its solitary reflections\nit penetrates profoundly into the universal reality. Terrestrial\nhumanity, you understand, is, as regards moral as well as physical\nlife, the result virtually of the forces of the Earth. Human strength,\nfigure, weight, all depend on these forces. The organic functions are\ndetermined by the planet. If life is divided with you between work and\nrest, between activity and sleep, it is because of the rotation of the\nglobe, and day and night. In the luminous globes, and those lighted by\nmany Suns alternately, they do not sleep. If you need to eat and drink,\nit is in consequence of the insufficiency of the atmosphere. The bodies\nof the beings who do not eat are not constructed like yours, since they\nhave no need of a stomach and intestines. The terrestrial eye enables\nyou to see the universe in a certain way, the Saturnian eye sees in a\ndifferent manner.\n\n[Sidenote: Other senses than those of the Earth.]\n\nThere are senses which perceive other things than those which you\nperceive in nature. Each of the worlds is inhabited by a race\nessentially different, and sometimes the inhabitants are neither\nvegetables nor animals. There are men of all possible forms, of all\ndimensions, of all weights, of all colours, of all sensations, of every\nvariety of characteristics. The universe is infinite. Our terrestrial\nexistence is only one phase of the infinite. An inexhaustible diversity\nenriches this marvellous field of the eternal Sower. The function of\nscience is, to study all that the terrestrial senses are capable of\nperceiving. The function of philosophy is, to form a synthesis of all\ndefined and determined ideas and facts, and to develop the sphere of\nthought.\n\nWhat would you say if I told you not only of the physical differences\nof humanity, but also of its moral and intellectual diversities?\nIts varieties are great--too much so, indeed, for you to thoroughly\nunderstand them. As an instance, I will give you just one noteworthy\nexample. In your terrestrial humanity, intellectual or moral worth\ncounts for nothing in advancing a man, whatever may be the value of his\nideas, or the worth of his personal character, unless he possesses the\nmeans and the determination to push himself forward. No one seeks for\nhidden merit. A man must needs make his own way, and struggle against\nintrigue, cupidity, and ambition--a strife which is the antipodes of\nwhat ought to be. It results, therefore, that the noblest and most\nworthy people remain in obscurity, whilst position, wealth, and social\ndistinction are often showered on worthless intriguers.\n\nAh well! I recently visited a world belonging to one of the most\nluminous regions of the Milky Way, where an intellectual order\nabsolutely different exists; where the constitution of the Government\nis such, that only those distinguished for their virtues are placed at\nthe head of the State; and their function is to seek out, and place in\nresponsible positions, men worthy of the trust.\n\nIn that country, in short, the search is as eager for the discovery\nof merit and intelligence, as it is in yours for gold and diamonds.\nAll is done there for the benefit of humanity. They have not invented\nany Academy, as they cannot conceive that a man of worth (instead of\nbeing sought after) should be compelled to waste his time in visits\nof ceremony, and find, probably, that a titled nobody (who has known\nbetter than he how to cajole votes) has been preferred to himself. So\ntrue it is, that the system prevailing in other worlds is far more\nenlightened than that of yours.\n\n[Sidenote: The magnifying power of time.]\n\nNow, my dear terrestrial friend, you know what the Earth is in the\nuniverse; you know something of what the heavens contain; and you know\nalso what Life is, and what Death is. We shall soon see the dawn of\nmorning, which puts spirits to flight and brings our conversations to\nan end, as the approach of your terrestrial day causes the brightness\nof Venus to fade away. But I should like to add to the preceding ideas\na very interesting remark suggested by the same observations. It is\nthis: If you set out from the Earth at the moment that a flash of\nlightning bursts forth, and if you travelled for an hour or more with\nthe light, you would see the lightning as long as you continued to\nlook at it. This fact is established by the foregoing principles. But\nif, instead of travelling _exactly_ with the velocity of light, you\nwere to travel with a little less velocity; note the observation that\nyou might make: I will suppose that this voyage away from the Earth,\nduring which you look at the lightning, lasts a minute. I will suppose\nalso, that the lightning lasts a thousandth part of a second. You will\ncontinue to see the lightning during 60,000 times its duration. In our\nfirst supposition this voyage is identical with that of light. Light\nhas occupied 60,000 tenths of seconds to go from the Earth to the point\nin space where you are. Your voyage and that of light have co-existed.\nNow if instead of flying with just the same velocity as light, you had\nflown a little less quickly, and if you had employed a thousandth part\nof a second more to arrive at the same point, instead of always seeing\n_the same moment of the lightning_, you would have seen, successively,\nthe different moments which constituted the total duration of the\nlightning, equal to 1000 parts of a second. In this whole minute\nyou would have had time to see first the beginning of the flash of\nlightning, and could analyse the development of it, the successive\nphases of it, to the very end. You may imagine what strange discoveries\none could make in the secret nature of lightning, increased 60,000\ntimes in the order of its duration, what frightful battles you would\nhave time to discover in the flames! what pandemonium! what unlucky\natoms! what a world hidden by its volatile nature from the imperfect\neyes of mortals!\n\n[Sidenote: Vision of the analysing eye.]\n\nIf you could see by your imagination sufficiently, to separate and\ncount the atoms which constitute the body of a man, that body would\ndisappear before you, for it consists of thousands of millions of atoms\nin motion, and to the analysing eye it would be a nebula animated\nby the forces of gravitation. Did not Swedenborg imagine that the\nuniverse by which he was surrounded, seen as a whole, was in the form\nof an immense man? That was anthropomorphism. But there are analogies\neverywhere. What we know most certainly is, that things _are not_ what\nthey appear to be, either in space or in time. But let us return to the\ndelayed flash of lightning.\n\nWhen you travel with the velocity of light, you see constantly the\nscene which was in existence at the moment of your departure. If you\nwere carried away for a year, at the same rate, you would have before\nyour eyes the same event for that time. But if, in order to see more\ndistinctly an event which would have taken only a few seconds, such\nas the fall of a mountain, an avalanche, or an earthquake, you were\nto delay, to see the commencement of the catastrophe (in slackening a\nlittle, your steps on those of light), you would see the progress of\nthe catastrophe, its first moment, its second, and so on successively,\nin thus nearly following the light, you would only see the end after\nan hour of observation. The event would last for you an hour instead\nof a few seconds. You would see the rocks, or the stones suspended\nin the air, and could thus ascertain the mode of production of the\nphenomenon, and its incidental delays. Already your terrestrial\nscientific knowledge enables you to take instantaneous photographs of\nthe successive aspects of rapid phenomena, such as lightning, a meteor,\nthe waves of the sea, a volcanic eruption, the fall of a building, and\nto make them pass before you graduated in accordance with their effect\non the retina. Similarly you can, on the contrary, photograph the\npollen of a flower, through each stage of expansion to its completion\nin the fruit, or the development of a child from its birth to maturity,\nand project these phases upon a screen, depicting in a few seconds the\nlife of a man, or a tree.\n\n[Sidenote: A chrono-telescope.]\n\nI see in your thoughts that you compare this effect to that of a\nmicroscope which would magnify time. That is exactly what it is; we\nthus see time amplified. This process cannot strictly speaking be\ncalled that of the microscope, but rather that of a _chronoscope_ or\nof a chrono-telescope (to see time from afar). The duration of a reign\nmight, by the same process, be augmented according to the good pleasure\nof the parti politique.\n\nThus, for example, Napoleon II. reigned only three hours, but one could\nsee him reign for fifteen years _successively_, by dispersing the 180\nminutes of the three hours over the length of 180 months (in removing\none's self from the Earth with a velocity a little inferior to that\nof light); so, by setting out at the very moment that the Chamber had\nproclaimed Napoleon II., one would arrive at the last minute of his\nsupposed reign, only at the end of fifteen years. Each minute would be\nseen for a month, each second for twelve hours.\n\n[Sidenote: Light transmission in space.]\n\nThe conclusions of this discourse are based entirely on this principle,\nmy dear Qu\u00e6rens. I have endeavoured to show you that the physical law\nof the _successive transmission of Light_ in space, is one of the\n_fundamental elements of the conditions of eternal life_. According\nto this law every event is imperishable, and the past is always\npresent. The image of the Earth as it was 6000 years ago, is actually\nnow in space at the distance that light crossed it 6000 years since.\nThe worlds situated in that region see the Earth of that epoch. We\ncould see again our own direct existence and our different anterior\nexistences. All that we need for this is to be at the proper distance\nfrom the worlds in which we had lived. There are stars which you see\nfrom the Earth, and which no longer exist, because they became extinct\nafter they had emitted the luminous ray which has only just reached you.\n\nIn the same way you might hear the voice of a man at a distance, who\nmight be dead before the moment at which you heard him, if, perchance,\nhe had been struck with apoplexy immediately after he had uttered his\nlast cry.\n\n[Sidenote: There are living forms unknown to Earth.]\n\nI am very much pleased that this last sketch has enabled me at the same\ntime to trace for you a picture of the diversities of existence and of\nthe _possibility of living forms unknown to the Earth_. Here also you\nsee the revelations of Urania are grander and more profound than those\nof all her sisters. _The Earth is only an atom in the universe._\n\nI must pause here, for all these numerous and diverse applications\nof the laws of light are not apparent to you. On the Earth, in this\ndark cavern, as Plato appropriately termed it, you vegetate in\nignorance of the gigantic forces in action in the universe. The day\nwill come when physical science will discover in light the principle\nof every movement and the inner reason of things. Already within the\nlast few years spectrum analysis has demonstrated to you that by the\nexamination of a luminous ray from the Sun, or from a Star, you can\nlearn what substances constitute that Sun and that Star. Already you\ncan determine, across a distance of millions and millions of miles, the\nnature of celestial bodies from which a ray of light has come to you!\nAnd the study of light will afford still more splendid results, both\nin experimental science, and in its application to the philosophy of\nthe universe.\n\n[Sidenote: Anticipations.]\n\nBut the refraction of the earth's atmosphere is projecting beyond the\nzenith the light shed forth by the distant Sun. The vibrations of the\nlight of day will let me talk with you no longer. Farewell, my good\nfriend. Farewell! or rather, _au revoir_! Great things are going to\nhappen around you. After the storm I shall perhaps return for one last\nvisit to give you proof of my existence, and to show that I have not\nforgotten you. Then, later, when your life upon this little planet is\ndone, I shall come to you once more, and together we will take our\nreal journey through the unspeakable splendours of speed. Nor can you\never, in your wildest dreams, form even a faint idea of the stupendous\nsurprises, the inconceivable wonders which there await you.\n\n\nTHE END\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nTranscriber's Notes:\n\nPage 32, Sidenote, \"h\" changed to \"e\" (the place where he was in)\n\nPage 34, Footnote, \"3,14159\" changed to \"314,159\" (314,159 \u00d7 2, it)\n\nPage 139, repeated word \"the\" deleted. Original read (Even in the the\nsame system)\n\nPage 160, period added to text (surprise you still more.)\n\nPage 172, Sidenote, \"Adromeda\" changed to \"Andromeda\" (World of\nAndromeda)\n\nPage 179, \"oxgyen\" changed to \"oxygen\" (called their oxygen)","title":"Lumen","tradition":"philosophy-ethics","translated_text":null,"word_count":48587}