{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_55230/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_55230","id":"gutenberg_55230","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/55230","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Cosmology","Future life","Transmigration"],"text":"Transcriber's Note.\n\nA list of the changes made can be found at the end of the book.\n\n  Mark-up: _italic_\n           =bold=\n\n\n\n\nTHE DAY AFTER DEATH\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n\n  THE\n\n  DAY AFTER DEATH\n\n  OR\n\n  Our Future Life according to Science\n\n  TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH OF\n  LOUIS FIGUIER\n\n  _ILLUSTRATED BY TEN ASTRONOMICAL PLATES_\n\n\n  A NEW EDITION\n\n\n  London\n\n  MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED\n  NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN COMPANY\n  1904\n\n\n\n\n  _Formerly published by Richard Bentley & Son.\n  Reprinted 1904._\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS.\n\n\n                                                                    PAGE\n\n  INTRODUCTION                                                         1\n\n  CHAPTER THE FIRST.\n\n  MAN IS THE RESULT OF THE TRIPLE ALLIANCE OF THE BODY, THE SOUL, AND\n  LIFE.--OF WHAT DOES DEATH CONSIST?                                   6\n\n  CHAPTER THE SECOND.\n\n  WHAT BECOMES, AFTER DEATH, OF THE BODY, THE SOUL, AND LIFE?          9\n\n  CHAPTER THE THIRD.\n\n  WHERE DOES THE SUPERHUMAN BEING RESIDE?                            16\n\n  CHAPTER THE FOURTH.\n\n  DO ALL MEN PASS AFTER DEATH TO THE STATE OF SUPERHUMAN\n  BEINGS?--RE-INCARNATIONS OF PERVERSE SOULS.--RE-INCARNATION OF\n  CHILDREN WHO HAVE DIED IN INFANCY                                   24\n\n  CHAPTER THE FIFTH.\n\n  WHAT ARE THE ATTRIBUTES OF THE SUPERHUMAN BEING? PHYSICAL SHAPE,\n  SENSES, DEGREE OF INTELLIGENCE.--FACULTIES OF THE SUPERHUMAN BEING  30\n\n  CHAPTER THE SIXTH.\n\n  WHAT BECOMES OF THE SUPERHUMAN BEING AFTER DEATH?--DEATHS,\n  RESURRECTIONS, AND NEW INCARNATIONS IN THE ETHEREAL SPACES          55\n\n  CHAPTER THE SEVENTH.\n\n  PHYSICAL AND GEOGRAPHICAL DESCRIPTION OF THE SUN                    61\n\n  CHAPTER THE EIGHTH.\n\n  THE SUN.--DEFINITIVE SOJOURN OF SOULS ARRIVED AT THE HIGHEST DEGREE\n  OF THE CELESTIAL HIERARCHY.--THE SUN IS THE FINAL AND COMMON SOJOURN\n  OF THE SOULS WHICH COME FROM THE EARTH.--PHYSICAL CONSTITUTION OF THE\n  SUN.--THIS HEAVENLY BODY IS A MASS OF BURNING GAS                   89\n\n  CHAPTER THE NINTH.\n\n  THE INHABITANTS OF THE SUN ARE PURELY SPIRITUAL BEINGS.--THE\n  SOLAR RAYS ARE EMANATIONS FROM SPIRITUAL BEINGS THAT LIVE IN\n  THE SUN.--THESE BEINGS THUS PRODUCE VEGETABLE AND ANIMAL LIFE\n  ON EARTH.--THE CONTINUITY OF SOLAR RADIATION, INEXPLICABLE\n  BY PHYSICISTS, EXPLAINED BY EMANATIONS FROM THE SOULS OF THE\n  INHABITANTS OF THE SUN.--THE WORSHIP OF FIRE, AND THE ADORATION OF\n  THE SUN IN DIFFERENT NATIONS, ANCIENT AND MODERN                   104\n\n  CHAPTER THE TENTH.\n\n  WHAT ARE OUR RELATIONS WITH SUPERHUMAN BEINGS?                     122\n\n  CHAPTER THE ELEVENTH.\n\n  WHAT IS THE ANIMAL?--THE SOULS OF ANIMALS.--MIGRATIONS OF SOULS\n  THROUGH THE BODIES OF ANIMALS                                      138\n\n  CHAPTER THE TWELFTH.\n\n  WHAT IS THE PLANT?--THE PLANT CAN FEEL.--HOW DIFFICULT IT IS TO\n  DISTINGUISH PLANTS FROM ANIMALS.--GENERAL CHAIN OF LIVING BEINGS   149\n\n  CHAPTER THE THIRTEENTH.\n\n  DOES MAN EXIST ELSEWHERE THAN ON THE EARTH?--DESCRIPTION OF THE\n  PLANETS.--PLURALITY OF THE INHABITED WORLDS                        177\n\n  CHAPTER THE FOURTEENTH.\n\n  THAT WHICH TOOK PLACE ON EARTH FOR THE CREATION OF ORGANIZED BEINGS\n  MUST HAVE EQUALLY TAKEN PLACE IN THE OTHER PLANETS.--SUCCESSIVE ORDER\n  OF THE APPEARANCE OF LIVING BEINGS ON OUR GLOBE.--THE SAME SUCCESSION\n  MUST HAVE TAKEN PLACE IN EACH PLANET.--THE PLANETARY MAN.--THE\n  PLANETARY MAN, LIKE THE TERRESTRIAL MAN, IS TRANSFORMED, AFTER DEATH,\n  INTO A SUPERHUMAN BEING, AND PASSES INTO THE ETHER                 195\n\n  CHAPTER THE FIFTEENTH.\n\n  PROOFS OF THE PLURALITY OF HUMAN EXISTENCES, AND OF\n  RE-INCARNATIONS.--WITHOUT THE AID OF THIS DOCTRINE THE PRESENCE OF MAN\n  UPON THE EARTH IS INEXPLICABLE, LIKEWISE THE UNEQUAL CONDITIONS OF\n  HUMAN LIFE, AND THE FATE OF CHILDREN WHO DIE IN INFANCY            202\n\n  CHAPTER THE SIXTEENTH.\n\n  FACULTIES PECULIAR TO CERTAIN CHILDREN, APTITUDES AND VOCATIONS\n  AMONG MEN, ARE ADDITIONAL PROOFS OF RE-INCARNATIONS.--EXPLANATION OF\n  PHRENOLOGY.--DESCARTES' INNATE IDEAS, AND DUGALD STEWART'S PRINCIPLE\n  OF CAUSALITY CAN ONLY BE EXPLAINED BY THE PLURALITY OF LIVES.--VAGUE\n  REMEMBRANCES OF OUR FORMER EXISTENCES                              212\n\n  CHAPTER THE SEVENTEENTH.\n\n  SUMMARY OF THE SYSTEM OF PLURALITY OF EXISTENCES                   226\n\n  CHAPTER THE EIGHTEENTH.\n\n  ANSWERS TO SOME OBJECTIONS.--FIRST: THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL, WHICH\n  SERVES AS THE BASIS TO THIS SYSTEM, IS NOT DEMONSTRATED.--SECOND: WE\n  HAVE NO REMEMBRANCE OF FORMER EXISTENCES.--THIRD: THIS SYSTEM IS ONLY\n  THE METEMPSYCHOSIS OF THE ANCIENTS.--FOURTH: THIS SYSTEM IS CONFOUNDED\n  WITH DARWINISM                                                     232\n\n  CHAPTER THE NINETEENTH.\n\n  SEQUEL TO OBJECTIONS.--DIFFICULTY OF UNDERSTANDING HOW THE RAYS OF\n  THE SUN, MATERIAL SUBSTANCES, CAN BE THE GERMS OF SOULS, IMMATERIAL\n  SUBSTANCES                                                         259\n\n  CHAPTER THE TWENTIETH.\n\n  PRACTICAL RULES RESULTING FROM THE FACTS AND PRINCIPLES DEVELOPED\n  IN THIS WORK.--TO ELEVATE ONE'S SOUL BY THE PRACTICE OF VIRTUES,\n  AND BY TRYING TO ACQUIRE A KNOWLEDGE OF NATURE AND ITS LAWS\n  THROUGH SCIENCE.--TO RENDER PUBLIC WORSHIP TO THE DIVINITY.--WE\n  SHOULD PRESERVE THE REMEMBRANCE OF THE DEAD.--WE SHOULD NOT FEAR\n  DEATH.--DEATH IS BUT AN INSENSIBLE TRANSITION FROM ONE STATE TO\n  ANOTHER; IT IS NOT AN END, BUT A METAMORPHOSIS.--IMPRESSIONS OF THE\n  DYING.--THOSE WHO DIE YOUNG ARE LOVED BY THE GODS                  269\n\n  EPILOGUE.\n\n  IN WHICH WE SEEK GOD, AND IN OUR SEARCH DESCRIBE THE UNIVERSE      284\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\nTHE DAY AFTER DEATH.\n\nINTRODUCTION.\n\n\nREADER, you must die. You may perhaps die to-morrow. What will become\nof you? What shall you be, on the day after your death? I do not now\nallude to your body; that is of no more importance than the clothes\nwhich it wears, or the shroud in which it will be buried. Like these\ngarments, like that cerecloth, your body must be decomposed, and its\nelements distributed among Nature's great reservoirs of material,\nearth, air, and water. But your soul, whither shall it go? That which\nwas free within you, that which thought, loved, and suffered, what\nshall become of it? Of course you do not believe that your soul will\nbe extinguished with your life on the day of your decease, and that\nnothing will remain of that which has palpitated in your breast,\nvibrating to the emotions of joy and sorrow, to the tender affections,\nthe numberless passions and disturbances of your life.\n\nWhere shall that sensible, existing soul, which must survive the tomb,\ngo to? What will it become, what shall you be, my reader, the day after\nyour death?\n\nTo the consideration of this question this book is devoted.\n\nAlmost all thinkers have declared that the problem of the future life\ndefies solution. They have argued that the human mind is powerless to\nforesee so profound a mystery, and that therefore the only rational\ncourse is to abstain from the endeavour. This is the reasoning of\nthe majority of mankind, partly from carelessness, or partly from\nconviction. Besides, when we venture to look at this tremendous\nquestion closely, we find ourselves immediately surrounded with such\nthick darkness that we lack courage to pursue the investigation. And\nthus we are led to turn away from all thought of the future life.\n\nThere are, nevertheless, circumstances which force us to reflect on\nthis dark and difficult subject. When one finds oneself in danger\nof death, or when one has lost a dearly beloved object, there is no\nescape from meditation upon the future life. When we have dwelt long\nand earnestly upon the idea, we may be brought to acknowledge that the\nproblem is not, as it has so long been believed, beyond the reach of\nthe human mind.\n\nDuring the greater portion of his life, the author of this book\nbelieved, in common with everybody else, that the problem of the\nfuture life is out of our reach, and that true wisdom consists in not\ntroubling our minds about it. But, one dreadful day, a thunderbolt fell\nin his path. He lost the son in whom centred all the hope and ambition\nof his life. Then, in the bitterness of his grief he reflected deeply\non the new life which must open for each of us, above the tomb. After\nlong dwelling on this idea in solitary meditation, he asked of the\nexact sciences what positive information, on this question, they could\nfurnish him with, and subsequently, he interrogated ignorant and simple\npeople, peasants in their villages, and unlettered men in towns, an\never precious source of aid in re-ascending towards the true principles\nof nature, for it is not perverted by the progress of education, or by\nthe routine of a commonplace philosophy.\n\nThus the author of this book succeeded in constructing for himself an\nentire system of ideas concerning the new life of man, which is to\nfollow his terrestrial existence.\n\nBut his system is all contained in nature. Each organized being is\nattached to another which precedes, and another which follows it,\nin the chain of the living creation. The plant and the animal, the\nanimal and the man, are linked, soldered to one another; the moral\nand physical order meet and mingle. It results from this, that any\none who believes himself to have discovered the explanation of any\none fact concerning this organization, is speedily led to extend this\nexplanation to all living beings, to reconstruct, link by link, the\ngreat chain of nature. Thus it was with the author of this book. After\nhaving sought out the destination of man, when dismissed from his\nterrestrial life, he was led to apply his views to all other living\nbeings, to animals, and then to plants. The power of logic forced him\nto study those beings, impossible to be seen by our organs of vision,\nby which he holds the planets, the suns, and all the innumerable stars\ndispersed over the vast extent of the heavens, to be inhabited. So\nthat you will find in this book, not only an attempt at the solution of\nthe problem of the future life by science, but also the statement of a\ncomplete theory of nature, of a true philosophy of the universe.\n\nIt may be that I am deceiving myself; it may be that I am taking the\ndreams of my imagination for serious views; I may lose myself in that\ndark region through which I am trying to grope my way; but at least I\nwrite with absolute sincerity, and that is my excuse for writing this\nbook at all. I hope that others may be induced by my example to attempt\nsimilar efforts, to apply the exact sciences to the study of the great\nquestion of the destinies of man after this life. A series of works\nundertaken in this branch of learning, would be the greatest service\nwhich could be rendered to natural philosophy, and also to the progress\nof humanity.\n\nAfter the terrible misfortunes of 1870 and 1871, there is not a family\nin France which has not had to mourn a kinsman or a friend. I found,\nnot indeed consolation for my grief, but tranquillity for my mind,\nin the composition of this work; and I have therefore hoped that, in\nreading its pages, they who suffer and they who grieve might find some\nof the same hope and assurance which have lifted up my stricken heart.\n\nSociety is in our day the prey of a deadly disease, of a moral canker,\nwhich threatens it with destruction. This disease is materialism.\nMaterialism, which was preached first in Germany, in the universities,\nand in books of philosophy, and the natural sciences, afterwards spread\nrapidly in France. With brief delay, it came down from the level of\nthe _savans_ to that of the educated classes, and thence it penetrated\nthe ranks of the people; and the people have undertaken to teach us\nthe practical consequences of materialism. Little by little they have\nflung off every bond, they have discarded all respect of persons\nand principles; they no longer value religion or its ministers; the\nsocial hierarchy, their country, or liberty. That this must lead to\nsome terrible result it was easy to foresee. After a long period of\npolitical anarchy, a body of furious madmen carried death, terror, and\nfire through the capital of France.\n\nIt was not patriotism which fired the illustrious and sacred monuments\nof Paris, it was materialism. Nothing can be more evident than that,\nfrom the moment one is convinced that everything comes to an end in\nthis world, that there is nothing to follow this life, we have nothing\nbetter to do, one and all of us, than to appeal to violence, to excite\ndisturbance, and invoke anarchy everywhere, in order to find, amid such\npropitious disorder, the means of satisfying our brutal desires, our\nunruly ambition, and our sensual passions. Civilization, society, and\nmorals, are like a string of beads, whose fastening is the belief in\nthe immortality of the soul. Break the fastening, and the beads are\nscattered.\n\nMaterialism is the scourge of our day, the origin of all the evils of\nEuropean society. Now, materialism is fiercely fought in this book,\nwhich might be entitled, \"Spiritualism Demonstrated by Science.\"\nBecause this is its aim, and its motive, my friends have induced me to\npublish it.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nCHAPTER THE FIRST.\n\nMAN THE RESULT OF THE TRIPLE ALLIANCE OF THE BODY, THE SOUL, AND THE\nLIFE. WHAT CONSTITUTES DEATH.\n\n\nBARTHEZ, Lordat, and the Medical School of Montpellier have created the\ndoctrine of the _human aggregate_, which, in our opinion, affords the\nonly explanation of the true nature of man. This doctrine of which we\nshall avail ourselves, as a guide in the earlier portions of this work,\nmay be defined as follows:--\n\nThere exists in man three elements:--\n\n1. The body, or the material substance.\n\n2. The Life, or as Barthez calls it, the _Vital Force_.\n\n3. The Soul, or as Lordat calls it, the _Intimate Sense_.\n\nWe must not confound the soul with the life, as the materialists\nand certain shallow philosophers have done. The soul and the life\nare essentially distinct. The life is perishable, while the soul is\nimmortal; the life is a temporary condition, destined to decline and\ndestruction; while the soul is impervious to every ill, and escapes\nfrom death. Life, like heat and electricity, is a force engendered\nby certain causes; after having had its commencement, it has its\ntermination, which is altogether final. The soul, on the contrary, has\nno end.\n\nMan may be defined as _a perfected soul dwelling in a living body_.\n\nThis definition permits us to specify what it is that constitutes death.\n\nDeath is the separation of the soul and the body. This separation is\neffected when the body has ceased to be animated by the life.\n\nPlants and animals cannot live except under certain conditions: plants\nin the air or in the water, animals in the air, fish in the water; and\nif they are deprived of these conditions, they perish immediately.\nAgain, there are existences which require special conditions for their\nsupport within the general ones.\n\nCertain polypoid-worms can live only in carbonic acid, or azotic gas;\nthe germs of cryptogams produced by damp can be developed only in\naqueous infusions of vegetable matters; the fish which live in the sea,\ndie in fresh, or only moderately salt, water.\n\nEvery living being has then its special _habitat_. The soul does not\nform an exception to this rule. The place, the _habitat_ of the soul\nis a living body. The soul disappears from the body when this body\nceases to live, just as a man forsakes a house when that house has been\ndestroyed by fire.\n\nSuch is the doctrine of the triple alliance of the body, the soul, and\nthe life, as formulated by the School of Montpellier, and such, as a\nconsequence of this doctrine, is the mechanism of death.\n\nIt must be added that this triple alliance of the body, the soul,\nand the life, is not peculiar to man; it exists also in all animals.\nThe animal has also a living body, and soul; but the soul in animals\nis much inferior to the soul in men, in the number and extent of its\nfaculties. Having few wants, the animal has a very small number of\nfaculties, which are all in a rudimentary condition. It is only in\nthe very considerable development of the faculties of the soul that\nman differs from the superior animals, to which he bears a strong\nresemblance in his physiological functions, and his anatomical\nstructure.\n\nIt must be remarked that the Montpellier School does not admit this\nview of the condition of animals. In another part of this work,[1] a\nfuller explanation of the distinctions which divide man from animal\nwill be found.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[1] Ch. XV.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nCHAPTER THE SECOND.\n\nWHAT BECOMES OF THE BODY, THE SOUL, AND THE LIFE, AFTER DEATH.\n\n\nAFTER death, the body, whether of a man, or of an animal, being no\nlonger preserved from destruction by vital force, falls under the\ndominion of chemical forces. If the body of a dead animal, or a human\ncorpse be kept in a place where the temperature is below 0\u00b0, or if\nit be shut up in a space entirely air-tight, or if it be impregnated\nwith antiseptic substances, it will remain intact, as at the moment\nat which life has abandoned it. Such is the process of embalming.\nThe effect of the various chemical substances with which a corpse is\nimpregnated, is to coagulate the albumen of the tissues, and thus to\npreserve the animal substance from putrefaction. A similar result will\nbe obtained if the corpse be placed between two layers of ice, or in\na coffin entirely surrounded with ice constantly renewed. If kept at\na temperature of 0\u00b0, the body will not be subject to decomposition,\nbecause putrid fermentation cannot take place at so low a temperature.\n\nThis was the process by which the entire carcasses of the mammoths,\nor extinct elephants, which belonged to the quaternity period, were\npreserved. In 1802 a perfectly preserved carcass of this gigantic\npachyderm was found on the bank of the Lena, a river which runs into\nthe Arctic Sea, after traversing a portion of the Asiatic continent\nin the vicinity of the North Pole. The frozen earth and the ice which\ncovers the banks of the river into which the mammoth had plunged, had\nso effectually preserved it from putrefaction, that the flesh of the\nhuge creature, dead for more than a hundred thousand years, made a\nfeast for the fishermen of that desert place. In northern countries, if\none would preserve the body of a man, it could be effectually done by\nsimply keeping it constantly wrapped in ice.\n\nWhen the body of a man, or of an animal, is exposed to the combined\ninfluences of air, of water, and of a moderately high temperature, it\nundergoes a series of chemical decompositions, whose final term is its\ntransformation into carbonic acid gas, and some compounds, gaseous or\nsolid, which represent the less advanced products of destruction. Gases\nof various kinds, carbonic acid, hydrosulphuric, and ammoniac, and the\nvapour of water, spread themselves through the atmosphere, or dissolve\ninto the humidity of the soil. At a later stage these compounds, thus\ndissolved into the water which bathes the earth, are absorbed by the\nlittle roots of the plants which live on it, and aid in their nutrition\nand development. As for the gas, it begins by spreading through the\nair; and then falling to the earth again dissolved in the rainwater,\nit also equally supplies the needs of vegetable life. The ammoniac and\ncarbonic acid in the water which penetrates the soil, is absorbed by\nthe roots, introduced into the tubes of the plants, and supplies them\nwith nourishment.\n\nThus, the matter which forms the bodies of men and animals is not\ndestroyed; it only changes its form, and under its new conditions it\naids in the composition of fresh organic substances.\n\nIn all this the human body does but obey the common laws of nature.\nThat which it undergoes, every organized substance, vegetable or\nanimal, exposed to the combined influences of air, water, and\ntemperature, equally undergoes. A piece of cotton or woollen stuff, a\ngrain of wheat, a fruit--they all ferment, and reduce themselves to\nnew products, exactly as our bodies do. The cere cloth which enfolds a\ncorpse is destroyed by precisely the same process which destroys the\ncorpse.\n\nBut, if the material substance which forms man's body does but\ntransform itself, journeying through the globe, passing from animals\nto plants and from plants to animals; it is quite otherwise with life.\nLife is a force. Like the other forces, heat, light, and electricity,\nit is born, and it transmits itself; it has a beginning and an end.\nLike light, heat, and electricity--the physical agents which make us\ncomprehend life, and which have certainly the same essence and the same\norigin--life has its producing causes, and its causes of destruction.\nIt cannot rekindle itself when it has been extinguished; it cannot\nre-commence its course when its fatal term has arrived. Life cannot\nperpetuate itself; it is a simple condition of bodies, a fugitive and\nprecarious condition, subject to countless influences, accidents, and\nchances.\n\nThe life is therefore greatly inferior in importance to the soul, which\nis indestructible and immortal. The soul is the essential element in\nall nature. It has active and positive qualities in all respects where\nthe two other elements, the body and the life, have only negative\nqualities. Whilst the body dissociates itself and disappears, while the\nlife becomes annihilated, the soul can neither disappear nor become\nannihilated.\n\nWe have seen what becomes of a man's body after his death, and also of\nhis life; let us now examine into the condition of his soul.\n\nNo philosopher, no learned man, none of those who know the immensity of\nthe universe and the eternity of the ages, can admit that our existence\non the earth is a definite thing,--that human life has no link with\nanything above or beyond itself. Man dies at thirty, or twenty years\nold; he may live only a few months, or a few minutes. The average\nlength of life, according to Duvilard's tables, is twenty-eight years.\nAt present it is thirty-three. One fourth of mankind die before their\nseventh year, and one half do not outlive their seventeenth. Those who\nsurvive this time enjoy a privilege which is denied to the rest of the\nhuman race.[2]\n\nWhat is so short an interval, compared to the general duration of\ntime, to the age of the earth and of the worlds? It is one minute in\neternity. Our brief life is not, cannot be anything but an accident, a\nrapid and passing phenomenon, which hardly counts for anything in the\nhistory of nature.\n\nOn the other hand, the physical conditions of terrestrial life are\ndetestable. Man is a martyr, exposed to every sort of suffering: owing\npartly to the defective organization of his body, incessantly menaced\nwith danger from external causes, dreading the extremes of heat and\ncold; weak and ailing, coming into the world naked, and without any\nnatural defence against the influence of climate. If, in one portion\nof Europe, and in America, the progress of civilization has secured\ncomfort for the rich, what are the sufferings of the poor in those\nvery same countries? Life is perpetual suffering to the greater number\nof the men who inhabit the insalubrious regions of Asia, Africa, and\nOceania. And then, before there was any civilization at all, during the\nperiod of Primitive Man, a period so immense that it stretches back\nto a hundred thousand years before our epoch, what was the fate of\nhumanity? It was a perpetual succession of suffering, danger, and pain.\n\nThe conditions of human existence are as evil from the moral as from\nthe physical point of view. It is granted that here below happiness is\nimpossible. The Holy Scriptures, when they tell us that the earth is\na valley of tears, do but render an incontestable truth in a poetic\nform. Yes, man has no destiny here but suffering. He suffers in his\naffections, and in his unfulfilled desires, in the aspirations and\nimpulses of his soul, continually thrust back, baffled, beaten down\nby insurmountable obstacles and resistance. Happiness is a forbidden\ncondition. The few agreeable sensations which we experience, now and\nthen, are expiated by the bitterest grief. We have affections, that we\nmay lose and mourn their dearest objects; we have fathers, mothers,\nchildren, that we may see them die.\n\nIt is impossible that a state so abnormal can be a definitive\ncondition. Order, harmony, equilibrium reign throughout the physical\nworld, and it must be that the same are to be found again in the moral\nworld. If, on looking around us, we are forced to acknowledge that\nsuffering is the common and constant rule, that injustice and violence\ndominate, that force triumphs, that victims tremble and die under the\niron hand of cruelty and oppression; then it must be that this is only\na temporary order of things. It cannot be otherwise than a moment of\ntransition, an intermediary period which Providence condemns us to pass\nthrough rapidly, on our way to a better state.\n\nBut, what is this new condition, what is this second existence which is\nto succeed to our terrestrial life? In other words, what becomes of the\nhuman soul after death has broken the bonds which held it to the body?\nThis is what we have to investigate.\n\nThat being, superior to man in the scale of the living creatures\nwhich people the universe, has no name in any language. The _angel_\nacknowledged by the Christian religion, and honoured by an especial\n_cultus_, is the only approach we have to a realization of the idea.\nThus Jean Reynaud calls the superior creature, who is, he believes, to\nsucceed to man after his death, an _angel_. But we will put aside the\nword altogether, and call the perfected creature who, in our belief,\ncomes after man in the ascending series of nature, the _superhuman\nbeing_.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[2] Rambosson. \"The Laws of Life.\" _Paris_, 1871. P. 121.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nCHAPTER THE THIRD.\n\nWHERE DOES THE SUPERHUMAN BEING DWELL?\n\n\nWE have seen that of the three elements which compose the _human\naggregate_, one only, the soul, resists destruction. After the\ndissolution of the body, after the extinction of the life, the soul,\ndetached from the material bonds which chained it to the earth, goes\naway, to feel, to love, to conceive, to be free, in a new body, endowed\nwith more powerful faculties than those allotted to humanity. It goes\naway to compose that which we call the superhuman being. But where does\nthis new creature dwell?\n\nAll students of nature know that life is spread over our globe in\nprodigious proportions. We cannot take a step, our eyes cannot glance\naround us, without everywhere encountering myriads of living beings.\nThe earth is nothing but a vast reservoir of life. Examine a blade\nof grass in a field, and you will find it covered with insects, or\ninferior animals. But your eyes will not suffice for this examination;\nyou must have recourse to the microscope. With the aid of the\nmagnifying glass, you will discover that this blade of grass is the\nrefuge of an active population, which are born, multiply, and die with\nprodigious rapidity on their almost imperceptible domain.\n\nFrom this blade of grass you may draw inferences and conclusions\nrespecting the vegetation of the entire globe.\n\nThe fresh waters which flow upon the surface of the earth are also\nthe receptacle of a prodigious quantity of organic existence. Without\nmentioning the plants, and the animals which live in the waters of\nthe rivers and streams, and are visible to the naked eye, if you take\na drop of water from a pool, and place it under the microscope, you\nwill see that it is filled with living beings, who, though so small\nthat they escape our unassisted vision, are none the less active,\nand all hold their appointed place in the economy of nature. We know\nhow thickly peopled with inhabitants is the great drop; but, without\nspeaking of beings visible to all, the fishes, the crustacea, and the\nzoophytes, or of the marine plants, creatures, invisible except under\nmicroscopical examination, abound to such an extent in sea water, that\none single drop of it, so examined, displays innumerable quantities of\nthese microscopic animals and plants.\n\nFrom this drop of water you may draw inferences and conclusions\nrespecting the entire mass of waters which occupy the basins of the\nseas, and form three-fourths of the surface of our globe.\n\nIn order that some conception may be reached of the enormous numbers\nof the living beings contained in the seas now, and formerly, we may\nfitly recall in this place a fact well known to geologists. It is, that\nall building stone, all the calcareous earth of which chalk hills\nand banks are formed, are entirely composed of the pulverized and\nagglomerated remains of the shells of mollusca, visible or microscopic,\nwhich, in the most remote ages of the existence of the globe, peopled\nthe basin of the seas. The whole of this formation is composed of the\naccumulation of shells. If life has been lavished with such profusion\nin the waters during the geological periods, it must be equally\nlavished now, in almost similar ways, because the actual conditions of\nnature do not differ from what they were in the primitive ages of the\nglobe.\n\nThe air which surrounds us is, like the earth and the seas, a vast\nreceptacle of living creatures. We see only a few animals cleaving the\na\u00ebrial space, but the _savant_, who looks beyond the simple appearance\nof things, discovers myriads of existences in the air.\n\nThe air seems to us very pure, very transparent, but only because it\nis not sufficiently illumined by light to enable us to perceive the\nparticles, or foreign bodies, which are floating about in it. When\nwe allow one ray of daylight to penetrate into a closed room, one\nthread of solar light, we can discern a luminous streak flung across\nthe chamber, while the remaining portion is still in darkness. We all\nknow that, thanks to the powerful light, and its contrast with the\nsurrounding obscurity, the luminous streak is seen to be filled with\nlight, slender floating bodies, rising, descending, fluttering with the\nmotion of the air. That which is perceptible in the atmosphere of a\nbrightly-lighted room is necessarily existent in the entire atmosphere\nsurrounding our globe, so that the air is everywhere filled with these\nspecks of dust.\n\nOf what are these specks of dust formed? Almost entirely of living\ncreatures, of the germs of microscopic plants (cryptogamia), or of the\neggs of inferior animals (zoophytes). So-called spontaneous generation,\nso largely discussed of late in France and other countries, is merely\ndue to these organic germs which fill the atmosphere, and which,\nfalling into the water, or into the infusions of plants, give birth to\nforms of vegetation, which have been imputed to spontaneous generation;\nthat is to say, to a creation without a germ, a generation without a\ncause, which is an error. Every living thing has parents, which are\nalways discoverable by science and attention.\n\nThose animals and plants which are called parasites furnish another\nexample of the extraordinary profusion with which life is distributed\nover the earth. Animals and plants which live on other animals or on\nother plants, and which feed on the substance of their involuntary\nentertainers, are called _parasites_. Each of the mammals has its\nparasites, such as fleas, lice, &c., and man has the flea, the louse,\nand the bug. So each vegetable has its parasite. The oak gives shelter\nand food to lichens and various cryptogamia, and even on its roots we\nfind particular kinds of cryptogamia, such as the truffle. Thus we see\nthat life plants itself, grafts itself upon life.\n\nBut, more than this, these parasites in their turn have their smaller\nparasites, so minute as only to be microscopically discerned. Take\na lichen off an oak and examine it with a magnifying glass, and also\nexamine a flea, or a nit, and you will behold the curious spectacle of\na parasite attached to another parasitical creature, and living upon\nits substance. From the great vegetable the alimentary substance passes\nto the visible parasite, and from that to the invisible. In this little\nspace life is superposed and concentrated. Such a fact proves with what\nprodigious abundance life is spread over our globe.\n\nThus, then, we see that the surface of the globe, the fresh waters, and\nthe salt seas, and, finally, the atmosphere, are inhabited by immense\nnumbers of living beings. Life abounds on the earth, in the waters,\nand in the air. Our globe is like an immense vase, in which life is\naccumulated, pressed down, and running over.\n\nBut, the earth, the air, and the waters are not the only places at the\ncommand of nature. Above the atmosphere there extends another region,\nwith which astronomers and physicists are acquainted, and which they\ncall _ether_ or _planetary ether_. The atmosphere which surrounds our\nglobe, and is drawn with it in its course through space, as it is\ndrawn with it in its rotation upon its own axis, is not very high. It\ndoes not extend beyond thirty or forty leagues, and it diminishes in\nsubstance in proportion to its elevation above the earth. At three\nor four leagues in height the air is so rarefied that it becomes\nimpossible for men or animals to breathe it. In a\u00ebrostatic ascents it\nis impossible to go beyond seven or eight kilometres, because at that\nheight the air loses so much density, is so highly rarefied, that it\nno longer serves for purposes of respiration, nor counterbalances the\neffect of the interior pressure of the body on the exterior. After that\nheight, the density of the air decreases more and more, until there is\nabsolutely no air. At that point begins the fluid which astronomers and\nphysicists call _ether_.\n\nThis ether is a true fluid, a gas, analogous to the air we breathe,\nbut infinitely more rarefied and lighter than air. The existence of\nthe planetary ether cannot be disputed, since astronomers take account\nof its resistance in calculating the speed of heavenly bodies, just\nas they take account of the resistance of the air in calculating the\nmotions of bodies traversing our atmosphere.\n\nEther is, then, the fluid which succeeds to atmospheric air. It is\nspread, not only around the earth, but around the other planets. More\nthan this, it exists throughout all space, it occupies the intervals\nbetween the planets. It is, in fact, in ether that the planets, which,\nwith their satellites, compose our solar world, revolve. The comets,\ntoo, in their immense journeys through space pass through ether.\n\nThe uneducated mind is disposed to believe that above the air which\nsurrounds the terrestrial globe, there is nothing more, that all is\nvoid. But no void exists anywhere in nature. Space is always occupied\nby something, whether it be by earth, by water, by atmospheric air, or,\nfinally, by _planetary ether_.\n\nIt has just been said that life abounds upon the globe, swarms upon\nthe earth, clusters in the air and in the waters. Is the ethereal\nfluid which succeeds to our atmosphere, and which fills space, equally\ninhabited by living beings? This is a question which no _savant_ has\never yet asked himself. In our opinion, it would be very surprising\nthat life, which we may say overflows in the waters and in the air,\nshould be absolutely wanting in the fluid which is contiguous to the\nair. Everything, then, indicates that the ether is inhabited. But who\nare the beings who dwell in the planetary ether? We believe that they\nare those _superhuman beings_, whom we consider to be resuscitated men,\nendowed with every kind of moral perfection.\n\nThe chemical composition of planetary ether is not known. Astronomical\nphenomena have taught us its existence, but not its components. We\nbelieve it may safely be asserted that the ether does not contain\noxygen. In fact, oxygen is the fundamental element of atmospheric air;\nand as, in proportion as they ascend into that air, the respiration\nof men and animals becomes more and more difficult, it is, in our\nopinion, presumable, that this difficulty is caused by the approach\nof a description of gas impossible to breathe; and which, therefore,\nexcludes human life from the superior regions of the air. A man, rising\nin a balloon towards the ether, is like a fish half drawn out of the\nwater, half exposed to the air. The fish is breathless and palpitating\nin a place which is fatal to him; thus it is with man, when he rises by\ndegrees through our nether atmosphere, and draws near to the ether. It\nseems to us that we may, at once, conclude, from this, that there is no\noxygen in planetary ether.\n\nIt seems not unlikely that the planetary ether may be composed of\nhydrogen gas, excessively rarefied, that is to say, of an extremely\nlight gas, still further rarefied, and rendered infinitely more subtle\nby the absence of all pressure. We are induced to conclude that\nthe ether in which the planets revolve is hydrogen, because, from\nobservations made of late years during the solar total eclipses, it has\nbeen ascertained that the sun is surrounded by burning hydrogen gas.\n\nIn the language of every nation, the space which lies beyond our\natmosphere is called by the same name, that of _heaven_. It is, then,\nin the universally recognized _heaven_ that we place our superhuman\nbeings. In this we are in accord with popular belief and prejudice,\nand we recognize this argument with satisfaction. These prejudices,\nthese presentiments are frequently the outcome of the wisdom and the\nobservation of an infinite number of generations of men. A tradition\nwhich has a uniform and universal existence, has all the weight of\nscientific testimony.\n\nIn accordance with this phrase, and the immemorial tradition, the\nmost widely-spread modern religions, Christianity, Buddhism, and\nMahometanism, assign _heaven_ as the sojourn of the elect of God.\n\nThus, we find science, tradition, and religion at one on this point;\nand that it was a scientific truth which found utterance by the lips\nof the priest who said to the martyred king upon the scaffold: \"Son of\nSaint Louis, ascend to heaven.\"\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nCHAPTER THE FOURTH.\n\nDO ALL MEN, WITHOUT DISTINCTION, PASS, AFTER DEATH, INTO THE\nCONDITION OF THE SUPERHUMAN BEING?--RE-INCARNATION OF IMPENITENT\nSOULS.--RE-INCARNATION OF CHILDREN WHO HAVE DIED IN INFANCY.\n\n\nDEATH is not a termination, it is a change. We do not die; we\nexperience a metamorphosis. The fall of the curtain of death is not the\ncatastrophe, it is only a deeply moving scene in the drama of human\ndestiny. The agony is not the prelude to annihilation, it is only the\nobligatory suffering which, throughout all nature, accompanies every\nchange. Every one knows that the insect world, the cold and motionless\nchrysalis, rends itself asunder that the brilliant butterfly may come\nforth. If you examine the butterfly a moment after it has left its\ntemporary tomb, you will find it trembling and panting with the pain\nof bursting through the trammels which had held it. It needs to rest,\nto calm itself, and to collect its strength before it soars away into\nthe air which it is destined to traverse. This is a symbol of our death\nagony. In order that we may cast aside the material covering which we\nleave behind us here below, and rise to the unknown spheres which\nawait us beyond the tomb, we must suffer. We suffer, in the body,\nfrom physical pain, and in the soul, from the anguish with which we\ncontemplate our approaching destiny, wrapped, as it is, in the most\nappalling darkness.\n\nBut here a difficulty presents itself. Do all men, without distinction,\npass into the condition of the superhuman being? An infinite range\nof qualities and of moral perversion is an attribute of humanity.\nTo it belong good and evil, the honest man and the criminal. Let us\ninhabit whatsoever spot of earth we may, let the culture of our minds\nbe what it may, whether we be savages or civilized men, learned or\nignorant, whether we contemplate contemporary generations or those of\nfar distant times, there exists one universal morality, one law of\nabsolute equity. Everywhere, in all times, it has been a bad action\nto kill one's neighbour, to take another's goods, to ill-treat one's\nchildren, to be ungrateful to parents, to live on bad terms with one's\nwife, to conspire against the liberty of others, to lie, and to commit\nsuicide. From one end of the earth to the other, these actions have\nbeen esteemed evil.\n\nThere exists, therefore, in the sphere of nature, and in the absolute\nmeaning of the words, good souls and perverse souls. Must we believe\nthat both the good and the wicked are called, without distinction, to\nundergo the change of nature which elevates us to the condition of\nsuperhuman beings? Are both classes admitted, upon the same footing,\nto the felicity of the new life, which is reserved for us beyond the\ntomb? Our conscience, that exquisitely accurate sentiment which dwells\nwithin us, and which never deceives, tells us that this could not be.\n\nBut how is the separation of the good grain from the tares to be\neffected by natural forces only? How is the process of sorting, in\nitself extremely difficult to explain, when one takes into account\nthe complication of the natural question by the mingling of moral\nand physical influences, to be carried out? We can only state our\nindividual sentiment, not in the dogmatic sense of imposing it on any\none, but simply as a testimony to be registered.\n\nIt seems to us that the human soul, in order to rise to the ethereal\nspaces, needs to have acquired that last degree of perfection which\nsets it free from every besetting weight; that it must be subtle,\nlight, purified, beautiful, and that only under such conditions can it\nquit the earth and soar towards the heavens. To our fancy, the human\nsoul is like a celestial a\u00ebrostat, who flies towards the sublimest\nheights with swift strength, because it is free from all impurity.\nBut the soul of a perverse, wicked, vile, gross, base, cowardly man\nhas not been purified, perfected, or lightened. It is weighed down by\nevil passions and gross appetites, which he has not sought to repress,\nbut has, on the contrary, cultivated. It cannot rise to the celestial\nheights, it is constrained to dwell upon our melancholy and miserable\nearth.\n\nWe believe that the wicked and impenitent man is not called to the\nimmediate enjoyment of the blessed life of the ethereal regions. His\nsoul remains here below, to re-commence life a second time. Let us\nremark, at once, that he re-commences this life without preserving any\nrecollection of his previous existence.\n\nIt will be objected to this, that to be born again without retaining\nany remembrance of a past life, would be to fall into the nothingness\nto which we are condemned by the materialists. In fact, it is identity\nwhich constitutes the resurrection; and without memory there is no\nidentity. The individual, therefore, as an individual, would fall into\nnothingness if he were born again without memory.\n\nThis remark is just. If, after our resurrection to the state of\nsuperhuman beings, we were to lose, absolutely and irreparably, all\nremembrance of our former life, we should be, indeed, the prey of\nnothingness. But, let us hasten to add, that this loss of memory is\nof but short duration. Oblivion of our past life is only a temporary\ncondition of our new existence, a sort of punishment. The remembrance\nof his first terrestrial life will return to each individual, when,\nby perfecting processes meet for the needs of his soul, he shall have\nmerited the attainment of the condition of a superhuman being. Then\nhe shall recall the evil actions of his first existence, or of his\nnumerous existences, if it has been his lot to have several probations,\nand the thought of those evil deeds will still be his chastisement,\neven in the blissful abode to which he shall at length have attained.\n\nTo such persons as refuse assent to these views, we would remark that\nthe question of rewards and punishments after death is the rock upon\nwhich all religions and all philosophers have split. The explanation of\nthe punishment of the wicked which we offer, is at least preferable\nto the hell of the Christian creed. A return to a second terrestrial\nlife is a less cruel, a more reasonable, and a more just punishment\nthan condemnation to eternal torment. In the one case the penalty is\nin proportion to the sin. It is equitable and indulgent, like the\nchastisement of a father. It is not eternal punishment for a sin of\nshort duration, it is a merciful form of justice, which places beside\nthe penalty the means of freedom from the sin. It does not shut out all\nreturn to good by a condemnation without appeal to all eternity, it\nleaves to man the possibility of retracing the road to happiness from\nwhich his passions have led him astray, and of recovering, by deserving\nthem, the blessings which he has forfeited.\n\nThus, in our opinion, if the human soul, during its sojourn here below,\ninstead of perfecting, purifying, and ennobling itself, has lost its\nstrength, and its primitive qualities,--if, in other words, it has\nbeen misused by a perverse, gross, uncultivated, mean, and wicked\nindividual,--then, in that case, it will not quit the earth. After the\ndeath of that individual, the soul will tenant a new human body, losing\nall recollection of its previous existence. In this second incarnation\nthe imperfect and earth-laden soul, deprived of all noble faculties and\nbereft of memory, will have to re-commence its moral education. This\nman, born again as an infant, will recommence his existence with the\nsame uncultivated and feeble soul which he possessed at the moment of\nhis death.\n\nThese _re-incarnations_ in a human body may be numerous. They must\nrepeat themselves until the faculties of the soul are sufficiently\ndeveloped, or until its instincts are sufficiently ameliorated and\nperfected for the man to be raised above the general level of our\nspecies. Then only the soul, purified and lightened of all its\nimperfections, can quit the earth, and after the death of the flesh\nsoar into space, and pass into the new organism which succeeds that of\nman in the hierarchy of nature.\n\nWe must add, here, that the fate of children who die young, either\nwhile at the breast or only a few months old, before the soul has\nundergone any development, is analogous. Their souls pass into the\nbodies of other children, and re-commence a novel existence.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nCHAPTER THE FIFTH.\n\nWHAT ARE THE ATTRIBUTES OF THE SUPERHUMAN BEING?--THE PHYSICAL FORM,\nSENSES, DEGREE OF INTELLIGENCE, AND FACULTIES OF THE SUPERHUMAN BEING.\n\n\nNOTWITHSTANDING the daring of such an attempt, let us now endeavour to\nform some idea of the radiant creatures which float in the mysterious\nand sublime regions of that empyrean which hides them from our view.\nLet us try to discern the attributes, form, and qualities of the\nsuperhuman being.\n\nLike the human, the superhuman being possesses the three elements of\nthe aggregate, the body, the soul, and the life. In order to gain some\nidea of him, we must examine each of these three elements separately.\n\n_The Body of the Superhuman Being._--We might perhaps conceive a\nsuperhuman being without a body; we might imagine that the soul, purely\nspiritual, constitutes the blessed dweller in ethereal space. But it\nis not thus that we do conceive him. Absolute immateriality appears to\nus to apply only to a being much more elevated in the moral hierarchy\nthan the superhuman one--a being of whom we shall speak hereafter. We\nbelieve that the inhabitant of the ethereal spaces has a body; that the\nsoul, leaving its terrestrial dwelling, incarnates itself in a body,\nas it did here below. But this body must be provided with qualities\ninfinitely superior to those which belong to the human body. First,\nlet us inquire what the form of this body may be. The painters of the\nRenaissance, whom modern artists follow in this respect, give to the\nangel the form of a young and handsome man, furnished with white wings,\nwhich bear him through the air on his celestial missions. This image is\nboth coarse and poetic. It is poetic because it responds to the idea\nwhich we have of the radiant creature who dwells in ethereal space;\nand it is coarse, because it gives to a being far superior to man the\nphysical attributes of man, which is inadmissible.\n\nPainters who, like Raphael, represent the angel by the head of a child,\nwith wings, give a far more profound expression to the same thought. By\nsuppressing the larger portion of the body, and reducing the seraphic\nbeing to the head, the seat of intelligence, they indicate that in\nthe angel of the Christian belief the spiritual dominates, in immense\nproportion, over the material part.\n\nWe shall not be expected to delineate the form of the dwellers in the\nrealms of ether. We can only say, that, as ether is an excessively\nsubtle and rarefied fluid, it necessarily follows that the superhuman\nbeing who is to float and fly in its light masses, must be wonderfully\nlight, must be composed of extraordinary subtle substances. A slight\nmaterial tissue, animated by life, a vaporous, diaphanous drapery of\nliving matter, such do we represent the superhuman being to our fancy.\n\nHow is this body supported? Does it need food for its maintenance, like\nthe bodies of men and of animals? We may reply with confidence that\nfood--that tyrannous obligation of the human and the animal species--is\nspared to the inhabitants of the planetary ether. Their bodies must be\nsupported and refreshed by mere respiration of the fluid in which they\nexist.\n\nLet us consider the immense space occupied in the lives of animals by\ntheir need of alimentation. Many animals, especially those which live\nin the water, have an incessant need of food. They must eat always,\nwithout intermission, or they die of inanition. Among superior animals,\nthe necessity for eating and drinking is less imperious, because the\nrespiratory function comes to their aid, bringing into the body, by the\nabsorption of oxygen and a small proportion of azote, a certain amount\nof reparative element, as a supplement to alimentary substances. Man\nprofits largely by this advantage. Our respiration is a function of\nthe highest importance, and it bears a great share in the reparation\nof all our organs. The oxygen which our blood borrows from the air\nin breathing, contributes largely to our nutrition. The respiratory\nfunction in birds is very active, and the organs which exercise it are\nlargely developed, and in their nutrition also oxygen counts largely,\nand takes the place of a certain quantity of food.\n\nIt is our belief that the respiration of the ether in which he lives,\nsuffices for the support of the material body of the superhuman being,\nand that the necessity for eating and drinking has no place in his\nexistence.\n\nI do not know whether my reader forms an exact conception of the\nconsequences which would result from the theory, that the superhuman\nbeings whom we are contemplating are exempted from all need of\nfood. Those consequences will be most readily comprehended, if we\nconsider that it is the pressing obligation of procuring food which\nrenders the lives of animals so miserable. Forced incessantly to seek\ntheir subsistence, animals are entirely given up to this grovelling\noccupation; thence come their passions, their quarrels, and their\nsufferings. It is much the same in the case of man, though in a less\ndegree. The necessity for providing for the aliment of every day,\nthe obligation of earning his daily bread--as the popular phrase has\nit--is the great cause of the labours and the sufferings of the human\nspecies. Supposing that man could live, develop himself, and sustain\nhis life without eating--that the mere respiration of air would supply\nthe waste of his organs--what a revolution would be effected in human\nsociety. Hateful passions, wars, and rivalries would disappear from the\nearth. The golden age, dreamed of by the poets, would be the certain\nconsequence of such an organic disposition.\n\nThis blessing of nature, refused to man, assuredly belongs to the\nsuperhuman being. We may conclude also that the evil passions, which\nare a sad attribute of our species, would be unknown in the home of\nthese privileged creatures. Released from the toil of seeking their\nfood, living and repairing their functions by the mere effect of\nrespiration--an involuntary and unconscious act (as the circulation of\nthe blood and absorption are unconscious acts in men and animals)--the\ninhabitants of the ethereal spaces must be able to abandon themselves\nexclusively to impressions of unmixed happiness and serenity.\n\nThe forces of our body become rapidly exhausted; we cannot exercise our\nfunctions for a certain time without experiencing fatigue. In order to\ntransport ourselves from one place to another, to carry burthens, to go\nup or down any height, to walk, we are obliged to expend these forces,\nand lassitude immediately ensues. We cannot exercise the faculty of\nthought for more than a certain time. At the end of a short period\nattention fails, and thought is suspended. In short, our corporeal\nmachine, beautifully ordered, is subject to a thousand derangements,\nwhich we call diseases.\n\nFrom the sense of fatigue, from the continual menace of illness by\norganic derangement, the dwellers in the ether are free. Rest is not\nfor them, as for us, a necessity ensuing on exercise. The body of\nthe superhuman being, inaccessible to fatigue, does not need repose.\nUnembarrassed by the mechanism of a complicated machine, it subsists\nand sustains itself by the unaided force of the life which animates it.\nIts sole physiological function, probably, is the inhalation of ether,\na function which, it is easy to conceive, may be exercised without\nthe aid of numerous organs, if we see a whole class of animals--the\nBatrachian--for whose respiration the bare and simple skin suffices.\n\nIf we admit, that the only function which the superhuman being has\nto exercise is that of respiration, the extreme simplicity of his\nbody will be easily understood. The numerous and complicated organs\nand apparatus which exist in the bodies of men and animals, have\nfor their object the exercise of the functions of nutrition and\nreproduction. These functions being suppressed in the creature whom we\nare considering, his body must be proportionably lightened. Everything\nis reduced to respiration, and the preservation and maintenance of the\nfaculties of the soul; all is in harmony with those ends. We admire,\nwith good reason, the wise mechanism of the bodies of men and animals;\nbut, if human anatomy reveals prodigies in our structure, marvellous\nprovision in securing the preservation of the individual and his\nreproduction, what infinitely greater marvels would, if we were but\npermitted to study it, be revealed by the organization of the body of\nthe superhuman being, in which everything is calculated to secure the\nmaintenance and the perfection of the soul. With what astonishment\nshould we learn the use and the purpose of the different parts of that\nglorious body, discover the relations of resemblance or of origin\nbetween the living economy of the human, and the living economy of the\nsuperhuman being, and divine the relations which might exist between\nthe organs of the superhuman being and those which he should assume in\nanother life, still superior, in which he should be the same being,\nagain resuscitated in new glory and fuller perfection!\n\nThe special organization of the being whom we are describing would\ngive him the power of transporting himself in a very short space of\ntime from one place to another, and of traversing great distances\nwith extraordinary rapidity. We are but simple human beings, and yet\nby thought we devour space, and travel, in a twinkling, from one end\nof the globe to another; may we not therefore believe that the bodies\nof superhuman beings, in whom the spiritual principle is dominant,\nare endowed with the privilege of passing from one point in space to\nanother, with a rapidity which the speed of electricity enables us to\nmeasure?\n\nThe superhuman being, who does not require to eat or drink, or rest,\nwho is always active, and incessantly sensible, has no need of sleep.\nSleep is no more necessary for the reparation of his forces, than\nfood for their creation. We know that man is deprived of one third of\nhis existence, by the imperious necessity for sleep. A man who dies\nat thirty years of age, has in reality lived for twenty only; he has\nslept all the rest of the time! What a poor notion this conveys of the\ncondition of man! Whence arises this need of sleep? It arises from the\nfact that our forces, impaired by their exercise, require inaction\nand motionlessness for their repair--this is attained in the kind of\ntemporary death produced by the suspension of the greater portion of\nthe vital action, in sleep. During sleep, man prepares and stores up\nthe forces which he will require to expend during the ensuing period.\nHe devotes the night to this physical reparation, as much in obedience\nto what he observes in all the other portions of creation, as in\nobedience to the customs of civilization. But it is probable that all\nthe forces of the superhuman being are inexhaustible, and that they do\nnot require sleep, which is one of the hardest conditions of human\nexistence. Everything leads us to believe that perpetual wakefulness is\nthe permanent state of the superhuman being, and that the word \"sleep\"\nwould have no meaning for him.\n\nDarkness must be equally unknown to all those beings who float in the\nethereal spaces. Our night and day are produced alternatively by the\nrotation of the earth upon her axis, a rotation which hides the sun\nfrom her view during one half of her revolution. This rotatory motion\ndraws our atmosphere with it, but its influence extends no further, the\nether which surmounts our atmosphere is not subject to it. That fluid\nmass remains motionless, while the earth and its atmosphere turn upon\ntheir axis. The superhuman beings, who, according to our ideas, inhabit\nthe planetary ether, are not drawn into this motion. They behold the\nearth revolving beneath them, but, being placed outside its movements,\nthey never lose sight of the radiant sun-star.\n\nNight, we repeat, is an accidental phenomenon, which belongs to the\nplanets only, because they have a hemisphere now illumined, and then\nnot illumined by the sun; but night is unknown to the remainder of the\nuniverse. The superhuman beings, who people the regions far above the\nplanets, never lose sight of the sun, and their happy days pass in the\nmidst of an ocean of light.\n\nLet us pass on to the consideration of the senses which these\nsuperhuman beings probably possess, premising:\n\n1. That the superhuman being must be endowed with the same senses\nwhich we possess, but that those senses are infinitely more acute and\nexquisite than ours.\n\n2. That he must possess special senses, unknown to us.\n\nWhat are the new senses enjoyed by the superhuman being? It would be\nimpossible to return a satisfactory reply to this question. We have no\nknowledge of any other senses than those with which we ourselves are\nendowed, and no amount of genius could enable any man to divine the\nobject of a sense denied to him by nature. Try to give a man born blind\nan idea of the colour, red; and he will answer: \"Yes, I understand!\nIt is piercing, like the sound of a trumpet!\" Try to give a man born\ndeaf an idea of the sound of the harp, and he will answer: \"Yes! It\nis gentle and tender, like the green grass of the fields!\" Let us\nrenounce, once for all, any attempt to define the senses with which\nnature endows the beings who people the ethereal plains; these senses\nbelong to objects and ideas the mere notion of which is forbidden to us.\n\nThere is a well-known story of a man born blind, upon whom the famous\nsurgeon Childesen operated. Having recovered his sight, the patient\nwas a long time learning the use of his eyes; he was obliged to\neducate those organs, step by step, and by slow degrees to form his\nintelligence. Equally well known is Condillac's beautiful fiction,\nin which he imagines a man born into the world without the senses\nof sight, speech, and hearing, and who is, therefore, destitute of\nideas. By degrees, he is endowed with each of these senses, and the\nphilosopher thus composes, bit by bit, a soul which feels, and a mind\nwhich thinks. This philosophical idea has been greatly admired. Like\nthe man-statue of Condillac, we are only, while here below, imperfect\nstatues, endowed with but a small number of senses. When, however,\nwe shall have reached the superior regions destined to our ennobled\ncondition, we shall be put in possession of new senses, such as our\nreason dimly perceives, and our hearts long for.\n\nWe cannot, as we have previously said, divine what the new senses\nwhich shall be granted to the superhuman being are to be, because they\nbelong to objects and ideas of which we are ignorant, and to forms\nwhich are exclusively proper to worlds at present hidden from our eyes.\nThe kingdom of the planetary ether has its geography, its powers, its\npassions, and its laws; and the new senses of men, resuscitated to that\nglorious existence, will be exercised upon those objects.\n\nThe only thing which we can safely prognosticate is that all the senses\nwhich we now possess will then exist in their full perfection--sight,\nhearing, touch, taste, and smell. It is allowable to deduce this\nprocess of future perfection by reasoning from the extraordinary\ndevelopment of certain senses in the case of animals.\n\nThe sense of smell is developed in the hunting dog to a degree which\nsurpasses our imagination. How can we understand this quite ordinary\nfact, that the dog perceives the scent which has emanated from a hare\nor a partridge which has passed by the place at which he is smelling\nmany hours previously, and is now several leagues away! The perfection\nof sight in the eagle and other birds of prey astonishes us equally.\nThese birds, floating at an immense height, see their prey upon the\nearth, creatures much smaller than themselves, and descend upon them\nwithout deviating from the perpendicular line of their flight. The\nbat, accidentally deprived of sight, supplies this deficiency so\nwell by the sense of touch, by means of his membranous wings, that\nhe guides himself through the air, and finds his way to the interior\nof human dwellings, as unerringly as if he had the full use of his\neyesight. To such a degree of exquisite sensibility has the sense of\nhearing attained among native Indian tribes, that a man, laying his ear\nagainst the earth, will detect the tread of an enemy at the distance\nof a league. Among musicians, also, how must the sense of hearing be\ncultivated by a man, who, partly by a natural gift, and partly by\npractice, comes to be able to detect the most minute difference in\nthe tone of one instrument among fifty different kinds, all played at\nonce, in an orchestra. Supposing that the senses of the superhuman\nbeing should have acquired the degree of extraordinary activity which\nis common to animals, and, in certain cases, to man, we can form some\nestimate of the power and extent of such a sensorial system.\n\nWe can also arrive at some idea of the perfection of the senses\nattained by resuscitated man, by considering the accession of power\nwhich our own senses may receive by the assistance of science and art.\nBefore the invention of the microscope, no one ever imagined that the\neye could penetrate the mysteries of that world in miniature well named\nthe _Infinitely Little_, until then absolutely unknown; no one had\never divined, for instance, that in one drop of water might be seen\nmyriads of living beings. These beings have existed throughout all\ntime, but man has been able to contemplate them for only two centuries.\nOur visual power over microscopic beings was until then unknown. The\nleast enlightened, the most careless student of this day, regards with\nindifference things which Aristotle, Hippocrates, Pliny, Galienus,\nAlbertus Magnus, and Roger Bacon could not have contemplated, or even\nsuspected to exist. The discovery of the telescope, in the days of\nKepler and Galileo, hurled back the boundaries of the human intellect\nand threw open to its investigation a domain hitherto sealed from its\nsight. There, where Hipparchus and Ptolemy had seen nothing, Galileo,\nHuyghens, Kepler, made, in a few nights, by the aid of the telescope,\ndiscoveries of hitherto unsuspected celestial splendour. The satellites\nof Jupiter and Saturn, a multitude of new stars, the phases of Venus,\nand, at a later period, the discovery of new planets only to be seen by\nthe telescope, the observation of spots on the sun, and the revolution\nof the nebul\u00e6 into collections of stars, were the almost immediate\nconsequences of the invention of the telescope. Thus we learned that,\nby the aid of art, the human eye can penetrate the most distant regions\nof heaven.\n\nLet us now suppose all the powers of the telescope and all those of the\nmicroscope concentrated in the sense of vision; that is to say, that in\naddition to all objects placed at ordinary distances, it can discern\nall microscopic objects, and at the same time all the celestial bodies\ninvisible to the naked eye, and you will have an idea of what the\nsense of sight is, in the superhuman being.\n\nThere is no occasion to dwell upon the extraordinary proportions which\nour accumulated knowledge would assume, if our sight could enjoy those\nextraordinary powers of extension, if it could perform simultaneously\nthe functions of the telescope and the microscope. Science would\nmarch forward with the tread of a giant. What enormous progress would\nbe made by chemistry if our eyes could penetrate into the interior\nof all bodies, beholding their molecules, estimating their relative\nvolume, their arrangement, and the form and colour of their atoms. A\nglance would reveal to us secrets of chemical solutions such as the\ngenius of a Lavoisier could not penetrate. Physics would contain no\nfurther mysteries for us, for we should know, by simply using our eyes,\neverything which we are now painfully striving to divine by reason, and\nby the aid of difficult and uncertain experiments. We should _see_ why\nand how bodies are warmed and acquire electricity. We should have the\nexplanation of the mathematical laws in obedience to which the physical\nforces, light, heat, and magnetism are exercised. Our eyes would\nsuffice for the solution of those physical and mechanical problems\nbefore which the genius of such men as Newton, Malus, Amp\u00e8re, and\nGay-Lussac stands still.\n\nWe do not doubt that the superhuman being is endowed with sight thus\nmarvellously perfect.\n\nWe might carry this argument out in detail, applying it to all the\nother senses, but enough has been said to illustrate the exaltation\nand perfecting of those senses which man possesses only in their\nrudiments, in the favoured dwellers in a superior sphere. We will only\nadd, that the result of such a degree of perfection of the senses is,\nthat the superhuman being can move with a rapidity, of which light\nand electricity only can give us some notion, that is to say, that\nthese perfected senses can be used at great distances, and with great\npromptitude. If the entire body of the superhuman being can transport\nitself with wonderful rapidity from one place to another, as we have\nalready admitted, his senses can also act from, and at great distances.\nWe do not think we can err in comparing the actions of the dwellers in\nthe invisible world which we presume to investigate, with the phenomena\nof light and electricity.\n\nDoes sex exist in the superhuman being? Assuredly not. The Christian\nreligion defines its absence in the angel. The angel of the Christian\ncreeds has the features of either man or woman, the mild face of\na youth, or the pathetic beauty of a girl. Sex is suppressed, the\nindividual is androgynous. Thus, too, it must be in the case of the\nsuperhuman being. The reciprocal affection which reigns among the\nblessed dwellers in the ether does not require diversity of sex.\n\nThe affections undergo a purifying process, according as they are\nelevated, from those of the animals to those of man. The animals have\nbut little of the sentiment of friendship. Love, with its material\nimpulses, is almost all they know. The sentiments of affection\npossessed by animals, apart from their carnal instincts, reduce\nthemselves to those of maternity, which are strong and sincere, but\nof short duration. Their young are the objects of attentive care and\ncaresses while their helplessness demands such aid, but as soon as they\ncan live on their own resources they are abandoned by the mothers, who\nno longer even recognize them. There is no constant, lasting affection\nin animals, except the sentiment of love, which is caused by their\nsexual necessities. The sentiments of affection entertained by man are\nnumerous, and frequently noble and pure. We love our mothers and our\nsons as long as our hearts beat in our breasts. We love our brothers,\nour sisters, and our relations with a sentiment in which there is\nnothing carnal, and which is deeply rooted in the soul. If love is\noften inseparably attached to physical desires, it can, nevertheless,\nshake itself free from them, and a disinterested friendship frequently\nsurvives the extinction of sensual feeling. In this respect we are\nfar superior to the animals. Let us go a step further, even to the\nsupernatural being, the next link in the chain to ourselves, and we\nshall find the sentiment of affection entirely detached from the\nconsideration of sex. In that sublime and blessed realm which they\ninhabit, superhuman beings are all of the same organic type. They need\nnot, in order to love one another, to belong to two opposite sexes, or\ndifferent groups of organization: their tenderness is the result of the\nserenity of the infinite purity of souls, of the sympathy evoked by\ncommon perfections.\n\nOn the other hand, the ethereal region which awaits us is the scene of\nthe reunion of those who have loved one another in this world. There\nthe father will find the son, and the mother will rejoin the daughter,\ntorn from each by death, there husbands and wives will meet, and the\nseparation of friends come to an end. But, under their new form, in the\nperfected body wherein their regenerated souls shall dwell, there is\nno more sex, and love is for all an ideal, noble, and exquisitely pure\nsentiment.\n\nHow blind and self-interested is love here below! How narrow and\negotistical a sentiment is friendship. It cannot enlarge itself without\npain and difficulty, to embrace the totality of the human kind. Why\nis it so hard for it to lift itself up to the sublime Creator of the\nworlds? Why do we not love God as we love our neighbours? In the\nupper world it will be far otherwise. Our faculty of loving, limited\nhere by fleshly bonds, will be set free there, from every sensual\nrestraint. Man, resuscitated to glory, will love his wife as he loves\nhis children, his friends, and his brethren. His affections will never\nmore be degraded by his senses. The happiness which this purified\nsentiment, constantly received from ever living sources, will afford\nhim, will suffice to fill and satisfy his soul. His power of loving\nwill be extended to all nature, it will be spread abroad over the most\nelevated spheres; his soul will be exalted by the sublime sensations of\nthis universal love, this wide sympathy with the whole creation. True\ncharity, comprehending the entire universe, will burn in all hearts.\nThe love of God will rule over all these multiplied affections, from\nthe height of His infinite power, and the fervour of our sentiments\nof love for our kind will be crowned by our sublime adoration of the\nCreator of all.\n\nBut, it will be said, if superhuman beings are of no sex, how\nare they to be reproduced, how is the species to be kept up, and\nmultiplied? There will be no need of reproduction, the species of the\nsuperhuman being will not require to be maintained, or multiplied.\nThe reproduction, the preservation of his species is the business of\nthe inhabitants of the inferior worlds, of the earth and the planets.\nSuch is their lot, such the task imposed upon them by nature. But\nreproduction is unknown and unnecessary to the fortunate beings who\ndwell in the planetary ether. From the earth and the other planets\nfresh and ever fresh phalanxes are despatched to them. The battalions\nof the elect are recruited by arrivals from the lower worlds. Below\nis the multiplication of individuals; above is the sojourn of blessed\nbeings, who have no need of maintaining their species, because the laws\nof their destiny differ from those which rule the lot of terrestrial\nman. Reproduction is the task of inferior worlds, permanence is the\ninheritance of the world above.\n\n\n_The Soul of the Superhuman Being._ In an excellent volume of popular\nscience, the _Universe_, by Dr. Pouchet, director of the Museum\nof Natural History at Rouen, we find a striking definition. Dr.\nPouchet informs us that a German naturalist, Bremser, lays down, as a\nprinciple, that, in man, matter and spirit exist in almost equal parts;\nthat is, to say, that man is half spirit and half matter. Bremser, in\nadvancing this proposition, takes his stand upon the fact that, in man,\nit is sometimes spirit which governs and subdues matter, and sometimes\nmatter which dictates laws to spirit, with equal power and success on\nthe side of each.[3]\n\nAdmitting, with the German philosopher, that this relation is true, we\nwould say, that, while in man the proportion of the soul is fifty in\none hundred, this proportion, in the superhuman being, is undoubtedly\nfrom eighty to eighty-five in one hundred. Of course we only employ\nthis valuation to make our idea comprehensible, and give these figures\nonly to prove that facts in the intellectual order may be submitted to\nweight, measure, and comparison, all which the world supposes to be\nimpossible.\n\nThe soul has a preponderating share in the superhuman being. That is\nwhat we need to know, and to remember. Let us now endeavour to analyze\nthe soul of the superhuman being, as we have analyzed his senses.\n\nIf the senses of the superhuman being are numerous and exquisitely\nacute, the faculties of his soul, which are intimately allied to the\nexercise of the senses, and depend on their perfection, must also be\nsingularly active and powerful. We know that in men the faculties of\nthe soul are feeble and limited. We have so short a time to pass upon\nthe earth, that very powerful faculties would be of no use to us; they\nwould not have time to be developed, or efficaciously employed. But\neverything is magnified and elevated in the superior world which awaits\nus; consequently the faculties of the thinking creature who inhabits\nthe realms on high must be numerous and of vast extent.\n\nWe must repeat, concerning the faculties of the soul of the superhuman\nbeing, what we have just said concerning his senses. The superhuman\nbeing must be provided with new faculties, and also those faculties\nwhich he has brought with him from the earth must be singularly\nperfected. To determine the nature and the object of the new faculties\nbestowed upon the superhuman being would be impossible, because\nthose faculties belong to the superior world which is unknown to us;\nthey respond to moral wants of which we have no conception. Let us,\ntherefore, renounce all idea of discovering the nature of those\nnew faculties, and content ourselves with examining the degree of\nperfection which may be attained by those faculties of the soul which\nactually belong to man.\n\nAttention, thought, reason, will, and judgment, all which render us\nwhat we are, must acquire special force and sureness in the superhuman\nbeing. La Bruy\u00e8re has said that there is nothing more rare in this\nworld than the _spirit of discernment_; which means that judgment and\ngood sense are excessively rare. When we have lived for a while among\nmen, we recognize how thoroughly well founded the saying is. We may\nsafely assert, without being over-misanthropical, that among a hundred\nmen there will be not more than one or two possessed of sound judgment.\nIn the majority of instances, ignorance, prejudices, and passion\ncontend with judgment, so that, as La Bruy\u00e8re says, good sense is much\nmore rare than pearls and diamonds. This great and precious faculty of\njudgment, in which the majority of human beings are deficient, cannot\nbe wanting in the inhabitants of the other world; there it must be the\nuniversal rule, here it is the exception.\n\nThe most precious of all faculties, enabling us to form large and lofty\nideas and comparisons, whose outcome is knowledge, is memory. But how\nimperfect, changeable, weak, and, one may say, sickly, is our memory!\nIt is absolutely mute respecting the whole period which preceded our\nbirth, and during which, nevertheless, we existed. It is also as silent\nrespecting all that concerns the early portion of our life. We retain\nno recollection of the care which was lavished upon our childhood. A\nchild who loses its mother in infancy has never known a mother; for\nit, the mother has never existed. If those who saw us in the cradle\ndid not recount our actions during that period, we should be entirely\nignorant of them. We have to witness the successive stages of infancy,\nthe sucking child, the long clothes, the staggering steps, the little\ngo-cart, in order to realize that we too have been like that infant,\nhave gone through those stages of being. Memory, which is not developed\nat all in man until he is a year old, and which becomes extinct in old\nmen, is subject, even when it is at its highest point of activity, to\ninnumerable weaknesses, caused by illness or the want of exercise, so\nthat in fact our hold of this faculty is always precarious. We cannot\ndoubt that in the other life it will have the power, the certainty, and\nscope which it lacks here below.\n\nAt the same time, our memory will be enriched by a number of new\nsubjects. The soul, beholding and understanding the worlds which\nsurround it, will be able to fix the geography of all those different\nplaces in its memory. It will know the physical revolutions, the\npopulations, and the legislation of these thousand countries. The\nsuperhuman being will know what exists in such planets and their\nsatellites as come within his reach, or as he shall visit. Just as,\nin order to gain information, we visit America or Australia, so the\nsuperhuman being visits Mars or Venus, and furnishes his memory with\nmillions of facts, which it retains and reproduces at will. What\nimmense power must memory, always supplied and always ready at call,\nbestow on the mind and reason!\n\nLanguages are only the expression and the assembling of ideas.\nCondorcet has said that a science always reduces itself to a\nwell-constructed language. The mathematical sciences employ a language\nwhich is perfect, because the science of mathematics is perfect. The\nlanguage spoken in the planetary spaces must be perfect, because it\nexpresses all the knowledge of superhuman beings, and this knowledge\nis immense. The more the mind knows, the better it expresses:--the\nsuperhuman being, who is highly informed, will have a very expressive\nlanguage, which will also be universal.\n\nThe language of mathematics is understood by the peoples of both\nhemispheres. Algebra can be read by a Frenchman or a German, as well\nas by an Australian or a Chinese, on account of the simplicity and\nperfection of the conventional signs which it uses. The language of\nmathematics, which is truly universal, makes us infer that the language\nspoken in the planetary space must be also universal, and common,\nwithout distinction, to all the inhabitants of the ethereal worlds.\n\nOwing to the immense scope of their faculties, and to the perfection of\ntheir language, in itself a certain means of increasing and exalting\ntheir knowledge, superhuman beings have a power of reasoning, and a\nclearness of judgment, which, added to the immense number of facts\nstored in their memory, place them in possession of absolute science.\nArduous questions, before which the mind of man humbly confesses its\npowerlessness, or which drive him mad if he persists in the effort to\nsolve them, such as the thought of the Infinite, the idea of the First\nCause of the Universe, the Essence of Divinity, all these problems,\nforbidden to us, are easily accessible to these mighty thinkers. He who\nis regarded by mankind as a genius of the first order, an Aristotle,\na Keppler, a Newton, a Raphael, a Shakespeare, a Moli\u00e8re, a Mozart, a\nLavoisier, a Laplace, a Cuvier, a Victor Hugo, would be among them a\nbabbling child. No science, no moral idea is above their conception.\nBeneath their feet rolls the earth, with the splendid train of the\nplanets, its sisters; they behold the planets of our solar system\ngravitating in harmonious order round the great central star, which\ndeluges them with its light. From the height of their sublime abode\nthey witness the infinitely various spectacles furnished by the\nelemental strife of our poor globe, and those which resemble it; and,\nhappier than terrestrial humanity, they admire the works of God, while\nknowing the secret of their mechanism. In the moral order they have\npenetrated the great _Wherefore_! They know why man exists, and why\nthey themselves exist. They know whence they come, and whither they\nare going; and we, alas! know neither. Where, to our eyes, there is\nonly confusion, they perceive harmony and order. The designs of God\nare distinctly apparent to them, and also the events of the lives of\nnations and individuals, which often seem to us cruel, unjust, and bad\non the part of God; but they understand that these events are just and\nuseful, and worthy of our heartfelt gratitude.\n\nWe also think, that in the ethereal spaces time is an element which\ndoes not count. We believe this, because time does not exist for God,\nand all superhuman beings approach, by their perfections, the entirely\nspiritual nature, and consequently approach God. We are confirmed in\nthis belief by the fact, that very profound grief resists time, that\nthere is no limit in duration to the great blows struck at the human\nsoul, that the loss of a beloved being is felt as keenly after a long\ninterval as when he was taken away.\n\nThus, time, which is everything to man, which is not only, according\nto the English adage, \"money,\" but is also the instrument of our\nwisdom, our studies, and our attainments--far otherwise precious\nthan money--time does not count in the life of the superhuman being.\nHe awaits, without impatience and without suffering, the arrival of\nthe beings whom he has loved and left upon the earth at his peaceful\nabode; and when their re-union takes place, he and they enjoy happiness\nwhich no inquietude concerning the future can ever trouble. Enabled to\ndespise, to put aside the idea of time, the superhuman being looks on\nwith unutterable serenity, tranquillity, and majesty, at the majestic\nspectacle, always new and always marvellous, of the revolutions of the\nstars, and the great movements of the universe.\n\n_The Life of the Superhuman Being._--In completion of our speculation\nupon the attributes of the superhuman being, we shall consider the life\nwhich animates him and gives his body its active qualities.\n\nWe have said that, in our belief, the superhuman being proceeds from\nthe soul of a man which has domiciled itself afresh, in a new body, in\nthe bosom of the world of ether. Is this body destined, at the end of\na more or less prolonged period to perish, to be dissolved, to restore\nits elements to matter, as they are restored by the human body? Shall\nlife be withdrawn from the body of the superhuman being, and shall the\nsoul take flight thence?\n\nWe believe that it will be so. Life everywhere implies death, and is\nits necessary term. We do not cast anchor in the current of the waters\nof life. If the soul of the superhuman being resides in a living body,\nthis body must die, and its material elements must return to the common\nreservoir of nature. The torch of life is extinguished in the spaces,\nas it is extinguished upon earth.\n\nWe believe the superhuman being to be mortal. After an interval, whose\nduration we shall not attempt to fix, he dies; and the soul which dwelt\nwithin him escapes, like a sweet perfume from a broken vase. What\nbecomes of the soul which has torn itself away from the body, cold in\ndeath? We shall seek after the answer to this question in our next\nchapter.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[3] \"We must consider,\" says Bremser, \"that man is not a spirit, but\nonly a spirit limited, in different ways, by matter. In a word, man\nis not a god, but, notwithstanding the captivity of his spirit in his\ncorporality, it retains sufficient freedom to enable him to perceive\nthat he is governed by a spirit more exalted than his own, that is to\nsay, by a God.\n\n\"It is to be presumed, in the supposition that there will be a new\ncreation, that beings far more perfect than those produced by preceding\ncreations will see the light. In the composition of man, spirit holds\nto matter the proportion of fifty to fifty, with slight occasional\ndifferences, because it is now matter, and again spirit which\npredominates. In a subsequent creation, should that which has formed\nman not prove to be the last, there will apparently be organizations\nin which spirit will act more freely, and be in the proportion of\nseventy-five to twenty-five.\n\n\"It results from this consideration that man, as such, was formed\nat the most passive epoch of the existence of our earth. Man is a\nwretched intermediary between animal and angel, he aspires to elevated\nknowledge, and he cannot attain to it; though our modern philosophers\nsometimes think so, it is really impossible. Man wishes to make out the\nprimary cause of all that exists, but he cannot get at it. With less\nintellectual faculty, he would not have had the presumption even to\ndesire to know these causes; and, if he were more richly endowed, they\nwould have been clear to him.\"--_L'Univers_, pp. 760-761.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nCHAPTER THE SIXTH.\n\nWHAT BECOMES OF THE SUPERHUMAN BEING AFTER DEATH?--DEATHS,\nRESURRECTIONS, AND NEW INCARNATIONS IN THE ETHEREAL SPACES.\n\n\nIN the living nature which surrounds us, there is a continually\nascending scale of gradual perfection, from the plant to man. Taking\nmosses and alg\u00e6, which represent the rudimentary condition of vegetable\norganization, as our point of departure, we pass on through the whole\nseries of the perfecting processes of the vegetable kingdom, and we\nreach the inferior animals, zoophytes and mollusca. From thence we\nascend to the superior animals by insensible degrees, and thus fully\nattain to man. Each step of this ladder is almost imperceptible, so\nfinely arranged are the transitions and the shades; so that there is\na really infinite chain of intermediate beings, at one end of which\nare the alg\u00e6, and at the other ourselves. And yet we think it possible\nthat between us and God there should be no kind of intermediate being!\nthat in this scale of continual progress, there should be an immense\nvoid between man and the Creator! We think it possible that all nature,\nfrom the lowest vegetable to mankind, should be arranged in successive\nand innumerable degrees, and that between man and God there should\nexist only a desert, an immeasurable hiatus. Evidently, this is\nimpossible, and that such an error should ever have been countenanced\nby religion and philosophy is only to be explained by ignorance of\nnatural phenomena. It is impossible to doubt that between man and God,\nas between the plant and the animal, the animal and man, there exist a\ngreat number of intermediate creations, which establish the transition\nof humanity into the divinity which governs it, in infinite power and\nmajesty.\n\nThat these intermediate beings exist, we are certain. They are\ninvisible to us, but, if we refused to admit the existence of\neverything which we cannot see, we should be very easily refuted. Let\na naturalist take a drop of water from a pond, and, shewing it to\nan ignorant person, tell him, \"this drop of water, in which you do\nnot see anything, is filled with little animals, and with miniature\nplants, which live, are born and die, like the animals and plants,\nwhich inhabit our farms.\" The ignorant person would probably shrug up\nhis shoulders, and consider the speaker crazy. But if he were induced\nto apply his eye to the magnifier of a microscope, in order to examine\nthe contents of the drop of water, he must acknowledge that the truth\nhad been told him; because, in this drop of water, in which he could\nat first see nothing, his eye, when assisted by science, would discern\nwhole worlds.\n\nA great number of living beings can therefore exist where we see\nnothing, and it is feasible to science to open the eyes of the\nmultitude in this respect.\n\nWe desire to assume the position of the naturalist of whom we have\nspoken. Between man and God, the ignorant crowd and a blind philosophy\nperceive nothing; but, when we replace the eyes of the body by those of\nthe spirit, that is to say, when we make use of reason, analogy, and\neducation, these mysterious beings come to light.\n\nWe have already, in studying the superhuman being, described one\nof those intermediate creations between man and the divinity, and\ndefined the existence of one of those landmarks placed by nature on\nthe high-road of infinite space. But the ladder does not break off at\nits first step, and we are convinced that numerous living hierarchies\nintervene between the superhuman being and the radiant throne of the\nAlmighty. We have said elsewhere, that, in our belief, superhuman\nbeings are mortal. What becomes of them after their death? Let us now\ntake up the thread of our deductions.\n\nWe believe that--the superhuman being having died at the end of a term\nwhose duration we have no means of knowing--his soul, perfected by\nthe exercise of the new faculties which it has received, and the new\nsenses with which it has been endowed, enters into a new body, provided\nwith senses still more numerous and more exquisite, and endowed with\nfaculties of still greater power, and thus commences a fresh existence.\n\nWe call the being who succeeds to man _angel_, or superhuman; we\nmay call his succession in the ethereal realm, _arch-angel_, or\n_arch-human_.\n\nThe actual moment of the passage from one life to another, must be,\nas it is in the case of man, a time of moral and physical pain. The\nsupreme periods at which a metamorphosis takes place in a sensible\nbeing are crises full of anguish and torment.\n\nWe will not endeavour to penetrate the secrets of the organization\nof the new being whose existence we thus trace, and who is superior\nto the superhuman being in the natural hierarchy; because our means\nof investigation fail us at this point. We have ventured to form\nsome conjecture respecting the body, the soul, and the life of the\nsuperhuman being, because in that case, however adventurous our\nexcursion into unknown spheres, we had a point of comparison and\ninduction in the human species. But all induction respecting the\narch-human being who succeeds the superhuman, is wanting, for we could\nonly perceive the latter by means of conjectures and analogies which we\nmust not carry farther.\n\nWe will, therefore, abstain from pursuing this kind of investigation,\npermitting the reader to exercise his own imagination upon the form\nof the body, the number and perfection of the senses, and the extent\nof the faculties of the happy creature who succeeds to the superhuman\nbeing, and who dwells, like him, in the immensity of ethereal space.\nWe will only add that we do not think a second, a third, or a fourth\nincarnation arrests the succession of the chain of sublime creations,\nwhich float in the infinitude of the heavens, and which proceed from\na primitive human soul, which has grown in perfection and in moral\npower. It surpasses our faculty to define, by the unassisted light of\nour reason and our knowledge, the number of these beings who go on\nsucceeding one another in ever-increasing perfection. We can only say\nthat we believe the creatures, which compose this ladder of perfections\nin succession, must be very numerous.\n\nAt every stage of his promotion in the hierarchy of nature the\ncelestial being beholds the growth of those wings which symbolize his\nmarvellous power to us. Each time his organs become more numerous, more\nflexible, have greater scope. He acquires new and exquisite senses.\nHe acquires more and more power of extending his beneficent empire,\nof exercising his faculty of loving his fellows and all nature, and,\nabove all, of comprehending and reading the designs of God. Deeper and\ndeeper affections engage his soul, for the tenderness and the happiness\nengendered in its pure satisfaction, are granted to him to console him\nfor the sufferings of death, to which he is always condemned. It is\nthus that the happiness of the elect is augmented. It is thus that the\nbeings who inhabit the boundless plains of the invisible world employ\neach of their lives in preparing for the life which is to follow, in\nsecuring by a wise exercise of their freedom, industrious culture\nof their faculties, strict observance of morality, and continuous\nbeneficence, a more noble, more animated, and happier destiny in the\nnew spaces which await them, in the development of their sublime\ndestiny.[4]\n\nNevertheless, as everything comes to an end in this world, so must\neverything have an end in the surrounding spheres. After having\ntraversed the successive stages and rested in the successive stations\nof their journey through the skies, the beings whom we are considering\nmust finally reach a defined place. What is this place, the ultimate\nterm of their immense cycle across the spaces? In our belief, it is the\nsun.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[4] On this subject see the book of Dupont de Nemours, \"_Philosophie de\nl'Univers_,\" quoted by M. Pezzani in his \"_Pluralit\u00e9 des existences de\nl'\u00e2me_,\" pp. 216-218.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nCHAPTER THE SEVENTH.\n\nPHYSICAL AND GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION OF THE SUN.\n\n\nACCORDING to our system of thought the sun is the central place in\nwhich souls which come from the ethereal spaces are finally gathered\ntogether. After having undergone the successive incarnations which we\nhave described, souls, primitively human, finish by reaching the sun,\nby dwelling within the borders of the star-king.\n\nThis, then, is a fitting place for a description of the sun from the\nphysical and astronomical point of view. Such a description will at\nonce reveal the entirely sovereign part played by that globe which\nhas no fellow. The astonishing attributes which belong to it, the\nunimaginable power which it wields, will sufficiently explain the place\nat the summit of the ascending scale of nature, which we assign to the\nsun.\n\nIn the first place, the sun is totally different from the other stars\nof our world. He resembles nothing, and nothing can be compared with\nhim. Neither planets, satellites, asteroids, nor comets can give us\nany idea of him. His immense volume, his physical constitution, his\nexceptional properties place him in a totally separate rank, and afford\nfull justification to those who claim for him a separate and sovereign\nplace.\n\nThe enormous mass of the sun at once proclaims his supremacy. The sun\nis sufficiently vast to receive everything which could come to him from\nall the other planets. He surpasses in volume the united size of all\nthe celestial bodies which revolve around him. He is six hundred times\nlarger than the entire assemblage of the planets with their satellites,\nof the asteroids and the comets which compose what is called the\nsolar world; that is to say, the world of which we form a part. The\nproportion in which the sun exceeds the earth in volume is, then,\nnecessarily enormous; since he is larger than all the other stars put\ntogether. He is _one million three hundred thousand_ times larger than\nour globe.\n\nIt is only by drawing that we can give an exact idea of the comparative\nsizes of the sun and the other planets. The reader will find in the\naccompanying illustration (Fig. 1) a figure which exactly represents\nthe comparative dimensions of the sun, and the largest planets of our\nworld. The earth, represented by a dot, gives an idea of what Mars,\nMercury, and Venus, which are smaller than the earth, must be.\n\nIt takes three years to circumnavigate the earth. To circumnavigate the\nsolar globe, under similar conditions, would take three hundred years.\nIf human life be not more prolonged in the sun than on the earth, an\nexistence would not suffice to enable a traveller to become acquainted\nwith the surface of the globe he inhabits.\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 1.--Comparative Dimensions of the Sun and the\nPlanets.]\n\nWeight is thirty times more intense on the surface of the sun than on\nthe earth. We know that a body which falls upon the earth traverses, in\nthe first second of its fall, a space of four metres, nine centimetres.\nIn the sun a falling body traverses 144 metres in the first second of\nits fall. It follows from this, that a human body, if transported to\nthe sun, would weigh about 2000 kilogrammes, the weight of an elephant.\nThe body of a dog or of a horse would weigh twenty-eight times as much\nas upon our earth, so that these animals would remain fixed to the\nsurface. The conditions of nature must therefore be entirely different\nin the sun from what they are in the group of planets to which the\nearth belongs.\n\nThe sun sheds rays from perpetual fire, a characteristic that\nappertains to him alone among all the stars of our world. Of himself\nhe burns, and sheds abroad light and heat. The other stars are neither\nwarm nor luminous, and if the sun did not exist, they would be plunged\ninto eternal darkness and eternal cold. This privilege alone ought to\nmake us comprehend the immense importance of the central star.\n\nThe light and heat which emanate from the sun are constant; they are\nnever interrupted, and they never lose their force. Thus, a second\ncharacteristic--constancy of illumination--separates the sun from all\nthe other celestial bodies of our world.\n\nThe intensity of the real heat of the sun has been measured by the\nphysicists. This result was attained in an endeavour to determine by\nexperience the quantity of heat which accumulates in a given time,\nupon a certain portion of the earth's surface, exposed to the sun's\nrays, and adding to that element the quantities of heat which would be\nabsorbed by the atmospheric air, the ethereal spaces, and the soil.\n\nPouillet, the French physicist, who undertook this critical\ninvestigation, arrived at certain results, which he states as follows:\n\n    \"If the total quantity of heat emitted by the sun was exclusively\n    employed to melt a layer of ice applied to the solar globe, and\n    covering it completely in all its parts, that quantity of heat\n    would be able to melt, in one minute, a layer of eleven metres,\n    eighty centimetres, and in one day a layer of seventeen kilometres\n    in thickness.\"\n\n    \"'This same quantity of heat,' says Professor Tyndall, 'would boil\n    2900 milliards of cubical kilometres of water, at the temperature\n    of ice.'\"\n\nThe astronomer Herschel found, that, in order to extinguish the sun, to\nprevent his \"giving out caloric,\" according to the scientific phrase,\nit would be necessary to dash a stream of iced water, or a cylindrical\ncolumn of ice, eighteen leagues in diameter, against its surface, at\na rate of speed of 70,000 leagues per second. A comparison adopted\nby Professor Tyndall gives us an amazing view of the intensity of\nthe calorific force of the sun. \"Imagine,\" says he, \"that the sun is\nsurrounded by a layer of peat, seven leagues in thickness, the heat\nproduced by its combustion would be the same as that produced by the\nsun in one year.\" The physicists have measured the intensity of the\nsun's light with exactitude, as they had previously measured his heat.\n\nIt is known that the solar light is 300,000 times stronger than that\nof the full moon, and 765,000,000 stronger than that of Sirius, the\nmost brilliant of the stars.\n\nBouguer discovered, by experiments made in 1725, that the sun, at a\nheight of 31\u00b0 above the horizon, gives a light equal to that of 11,664\ncandles, placed within 43 centimetres of the object to be lighted, and\nequal to 62,177 candles placed within one metre.\n\nAccording to this result, if we take account of atmospheric absorption,\nand of the law of the variation of the intensity of light, which\ndecreases in inverse ratio to the square of distance, the light given\nby the sun at its zenith would be 75,200 times greater than that of\na single candle, placed within one metre. Wollaston had arrived at\na similar conclusion. By means of experiments of another kind, made\nduring the months of May and June, 1799, Wollaston found that 59,882\ncandles, at one metre, give as much light as the sun. Supposing the sun\nto be in the zenith, the lightening power of that great star would be\nequivalent to 68,009 candles.\n\nThere is but little difference between this valuation and that of\nBouguer, who states the result at 75,200 candles.\n\nWhatever may be the intensity of the light of the sun, we now possess\nother sources of light which approach to it. Such is the oxhydric\nlight, produced by burning hydrogen gas by means of a current of\noxygen gas, or air, a method of lighting which has recently been\nemployed in Paris and in London. This light is equal in power to more\nthan 200 candles. A thread of magnesium burning in the air, develops\na prodigious quantity of light, which may be taken as equivalent to\nthat of 500 candles. The electric light produced by a voltaic battery\nof from 60 to 80 coils, produces a luminous arc equal to the light of\n800 or 1000 candles. In the latter instance the voltaic arc, according\nto Bouguer and Wollaston, would give 75 times less light than the sun,\nsupposing the luminous electric point to be placed at a distance of one\nmetre.\n\nWith very powerful batteries, it has been possible to go further, and\nproduce a light not much inferior to that of the sun. Messieurs Fizeau\nand Foucault, by comparing the light of a voltaic arc, produced by the\naction of three series of Bunsen's coils, of forty-six couples each,\nwith the light of the sun in a clear sky in April, have established\nthat the light-giving power of the sun is not more than twice and a\nhalf that of the electric light.\n\nThe preceding numbers represent the light-giving power of the sun\nupon our globe, taking into account atmospheric absorption. Arago, on\nendeavouring to determine the intrinsic light-giving power of the sun,\nfound that the intensity of the solar light is 52,000 times greater\nthan that of a candle placed at one metre. But, according to more\nrecent researches for which we are indebted to Mr. Edmond Becquerel,\nthe result obtained by Arago is greatly inferior to the truth, and\nthe light of the central star is 180,000 times greater than that of a\ncandle placed at one metre.\n\nAll the planets, attended by their satellites, and all the comets which\naccidentally manifest themselves to us, turn round the sun. The sun\nremains motionless in the midst of this imposing procession of stars,\nwhich circulate around him, like so many courtiers paying him homage.\n\nThus, the sun is the heart of our planetary system; everything is\ndrawn, everything converges towards him.\n\nHalf-informed persons will exclaim, \"What can be more simple! The sun\nbeing six hundred times the size of all the other stars put together,\nthe phenomenon of the condition of all those stars around the sun is\nexplained by the law of attraction, which prescribes that bodies shall\nattract in proportion to their mass. If the sun attracts the stars of\nour world to itself, it is because his mass is greater than that of all\nthe other stars collectively.\" But such an answer would be erroneous,\ninvolving the common error of taking a word for a thing, an hypothesis\nfor an explanation, of putting a term of language in the place of a\nlogical consideration. When Newton conceived the hypothesis (and the\nphrase) of _reciprocal attraction of matter_, he was careful to state\nthat he only proposed to characterise by a name a phenomenon which in\nitself is entirely inexplicable, and of which we know nothing but the\nexterior mode of its manifestation, that is to say, the mathematical\nlaw. We know that bodies go towards each other in the ratio of their\nmasses, and in the inverse ratio of the square of their distances; but\nwhy do they go towards each other? This is what we do not know, and\nwhat we probably never shall know. If, for the word _attraction_ we\nwere to substitute the word _electrization_, or, as Keppler did, the\nwords _affection_, _sympathy_, _obedience_, &c., we should have a new\nhypothesis, with a new name, but the mathematical law would remain the\nsame, the hypothesis only would be changed. The real cause which makes\nsmall bodies rush towards large ones, and the stars of lesser magnitude\nrevolve round the stars of greater magnitude, is an impenetrable\nmystery to mankind.\n\nWhatever may be the hypothesis by which we seek to explain the fact,\nit is certain that the sun holds the planets with their satellites,\nthe asteroids and the comets, suspended above the abysses of space,\nand that they journey through the heavens in unintermitting obedience\nto his guiding influence. The sun draws with him all the stars which\nfollow and surround him, like flatterers of his power, like humble\nslaves of his universal preponderance. Like the father of a family\nin the midst of his progeny, the sun peacefully governs the numerous\nchildren of sidereal creation. Obedient to the irresistible impulsion\nwhich emanates from the central star, the earth and the other planets\ncirculate, roll, gravitate, around him, receiving light, heat and\nelectricity from his beneficent rays, which are the first agents of\nlife. The sun marks out for the planets their path through the heavens,\nand distributes to them their day and night, their seasons and their\nclimate.\n\nThe sun is, then, the hand which holds the stars above the unfathomable\nabysses of infinite space, the centre from which they obtain heat, the\ntorch which gives them light, and the source whence they derive the\nprinciple of life.\n\nFrom all time the immense and unique task fulfilled by the sun in the\neconomy of nature has been understood. But this great truth has only\nbeen deeply studied in our days. Science has gone far beyond all the\nimagination the poets had conceived relative to the preponderance of\nthe sun in our world. By means of numerous experiments and abstruse\ncalculations, modern physicists have proved that the sun is the first\ncause of almost all the phenomena which take place on our globe, and\nthat, without the sun, the earth and no doubt all the other planets\nwould be nothing but immense wastes, gigantic corpses, rolling about,\nfrozen and useless, in the deserts of infinite space.\n\nProfessor Tyndall, who has added largely to the discoveries of physics\nand mechanics, has brought out this truth very strongly, and the\nresults to which he has been led may be said to form the most brilliant\npage of contemporary physical science.\n\nWe shall now endeavour to explain how it is that everything on the\nearth, and no doubt on all the other planets also, is derived from the\nsun, so entirely, that we may affirm that vegetables, animals, man, in\nshort, all living beings, are but the productions, the children of the\nsun; that they are, so to speak, woven out of solar rays.\n\nIn the first place, the sun is the primary cause of all those movements\nwhich we observe, in the air, in the water, or in the ground under our\nfeet, and which keep up life, feeling, and activity on the surface of\nour globe.\n\nLet us consider the winds, which have such important relations with\nall the physical phenomena of our globe. Whence proceed the winds?\nFrom the action of the sun. The sun heats the different portions of\nthe earth very unequally, bestowing much more warmth on the tropical\nand equatorial regions than on the other latitudes, which he leaves\nexposed to cold. On each point of the earth which is struck by the rays\nof the sun, the layers of air near the ground are dilated and raised,\nand immediately replaced by colder layers from the temperate regions.\nThus the periodical winds are produced. Across the hemispheres two\ngreat a\u00ebrial currents are perpetually blowing, going from the equator\nto each of the poles; one, the upper current, towards the north-east\nin the northern hemisphere, and towards the south-east in the southern\nhemisphere; the other, the lower current, in a contrary direction.\n\nThe movement of the earth gives rise to other regular winds. The action\nof heat and of evaporation, added to the unequal distribution of the\ncontinents and the seas, produce others, which are irregular. Thus,\nfor example, in the great valleys of the Alps, as in those of the\nCordilleras, the warmth of the air regulates the afflux of the cold\nair of the mountains, and brings on tumultuous winds, and, in fact,\nhurricanes.\n\nThe sea breezes arise from the difference in the temperature of the\nshore during the day and the night. By day, the sun has warmed the\nshore and produced a considerable dilatation of the air. When the sun\nquits the horizon, this hot air is replaced by cool currents from the\ninland. The same phenomenon is reversed in the morning, when the sun\nreturns; the shore is warmed, the hot air rises, and is replaced by\nthe colder air of the sea, which then goes inland. Thus, the evening\nbreeze comes from landward, and the morning breeze from seaward.\n\nWe see, therefore, that the great atmospheric movements which we call\nthe winds, are due to the successive appearances and disappearances\nof the sun, as are also the lesser movements which we call breezes.\nThe position of the sun, constantly varying according to the period\nof the year, and the hour of the day, explains the inequality and the\ncontinuous existence of the a\u00ebrial current.\n\nThe general cause of the winds which preserve the homogeneity of the\nair in all the terrestrial regions, is the heat of the sun dilating the\natmospheric air; its absence, on the other hand, causes that gaseous\nmass to contract.\n\nThe _watering of the globe_, that is to say the rain, an element\nindispensable to the exercise of life, is another consequence of solar\nheat. The waters of the seas, the rivers, and the lakes, those which\nsteep the soil, or are exhaled from vegetable matter, are gradually\ntransformed into vapour by the action of the sun's heat, and form\nclouds and invisible vapour. When the sun has quitted the horizon,\nthese vapours grow cold in the bosom of the atmosphere in which they\nfloated, and fall down upon the earth again in the form of dew, of fog,\nand of rain.\n\nWhen the cooling of the watery vapour in the bosom of the atmosphere\nis more intense, instead of rain we have snow, that is to say, a fall\nof congealed water. It is chiefly on the summit of mountains that snow\nfalls and accumulates, because the temperature of elevated places is\nalways cold. In very great altitudes the snow, remaining for long\nperiods on the tops of the mountains, passes into an intermediate\ncondition, between snow and pure ice, and ends by forming those great\nexpanses of congealed water which are called glaciers. During the\nhot seasons the glaciers melt by degrees; the water resulting from\nthis melting process, flows down the slopes of the mountains into the\nvalleys, and gives rise to springs, rivers, and streams. These streams\nand rivers run into the ocean, from which they are again evaporated by\nthe action of solar heat, and reconstitute clouds and invisible vapour.\n\nThus is established and maintained that incessant circulation of\nthe waters which lie on the surface of the earth, their continual\nexchange with the a\u00ebrial masses, whose effect is to water the globe,\na phenomenon necessary to the exercise of the functions of organized\nbeings.\n\nThe regular currents which furrow the waters of the ocean are also the\nresult of the action of solar heat. From the poles to the equator the\nwaters of the sea are unequally heated, and this absence of equilibrium\nin the temperature of the sea occasions a regular furrow, or line\nfrom the poles to the equator, resulting from the displacement of the\nwaters, the cold waves rushing in to replace the hot. The unequal\nevaporation caused by the unequal distribution of heat at the equator\nand the poles, concurs to produce a similar result, by augmenting the\ndegree of saltness at the equator, without augmenting it at the poles,\noccasioning a certain difference in density, and finally displacement\nfor want of equilibrium. The currents of the sea are thus entirely\nproduced by the action of the sun.\n\nWe see, therefore, that the winds, the watering of the globe, and the\ncurrents of the sea are the consequence of solar heat.\n\nThe movement of the magnet is another physical result of the action\nof the sun, if it be true, as Amp\u00e8re says, that the magnetic currents\nwhich traverse the terrestrial globe are nothing but _thermo-electric_\ncurrents engendered by the unequal distribution of heat on the surface\nof the globe.\n\nIn addition to being the agent of powerful physical forces, the sun is\na valuable agent of chemical forces,--indeed, this is the greatest part\nwhich he plays in the phenomena of nature. The light and heat of the\nsun produce the most important chemical actions on the earth's surface;\nthose on which the exercise of vegetable and animal functions depend.\nIf the sun did not exist, life would be banished from the terrestrial\nglobe. Life is the child of the sun, as I shall endeavour to prove to\nyou.\n\nThe operations of photography serve to make us understand how it is\nthat the sun presides over chemical action in the vegetable world. What\nis photography? What does that curious phenomenon which fixes a drawing\nformed by light upon a sheet of paper, consist of? A paper steeped in\nchloride or iodide of silver is placed in the focus of the lens of a\ndark camera, and the image formed by the lens is made to fall upon\npaper sprinkled with water. The portions of the picture not exposed to\nlight produce no effect upon the salt of silver, which is incorporated\nwith the paper, but the portions exposed to light decompose the salt\nof silver, and turn it black, or dark violet colour. On withdrawing\nthis paper from the apparatus, where the operations have been carried\non in darkness, we have a drawing which reproduces, in black, the\nluminous image formed by the lens. By certain means this image, solely\nproduced by the chemical action of light, is rendered fixed and\nunalterable.\n\nAll the salts of silver thus exposed to light undergo an analogous\ndecomposition. Nor are they the only salts which light modifies.\nCompounds of gold, platinum, and cobalt, properly prepared, may also be\naltered under the influence of direct or indirect rays, when exposed to\nthe sun, or to his diffused light.\n\nThe light of the sun possesses the power of bringing about the\ncombination of several other bodies. This is the case with hydrogen\nand chloric gas. If you mix equal parts of chloric gas and hydrogen in\na bottle, and expose the mixture to the sun, an immediate combination\nwill take place between the two gases, and chlorohydric acid gas will\nbe formed. The combination will take place with so much force that it\nwill be attended by a considerable escape of heat. If you throw the\nbottle containing the mixture up into the air, towards a space where\nthe sun is shining, the bottle will break before it falls, with a\nviolent explosion, at the moment of its contact with the light.\n\nWe might multiply examples of the chemical action produced by light\nonly on substances belonging to the mineral kingdom, but it is\nsufficient for our purpose to say that the chemical action of light\nis still more powerful and more general in the vegetable than in the\ninorganic realm. This is a phenomenon of such importance that it is\nimpossible to believe it otherwise than a premeditated design of nature.\n\nOne of the most fruitful discoveries of modern science is the\nrecognition of the fact, that the respiration of plants depends upon\nthe presence and the direct action of light, that is to say, that the\ndecomposition of the carbonic acid which circulates in the tissue of\nvegetables, and which has been breathed up from the soil by the roots,\ntakes place only when the plants are exposed to the sun. The labours of\nPriestley, Charles Bonnet, Ingenhouz and Sennebier, have taught us that\nthe decomposition of carbolic acid into carbon, which remains fixed in\nthe tissue of the plant, and into oxygen, which disengages itself from\nit, can take place only under the direct or indirect influence of the\nsun's rays. Our readers may easily convince themselves of this fact.\nPlace a handful of green leaves in a glass full of water, and expose\nthe glass to the sun. At the close of the day the upper portion of the\nglass will be filled with gas, which is nothing but pure oxygen, the\nresult of the breathing of the leaves.\n\nAll the importance, all the value of such a phenomenon will be evident,\nif we reflect that it takes place over the whole extent of the globe,\nand that the respiration, which means the life of all the vegetable\nmasses which cover the earth, depends solely upon the light of the\nsun. It is by means of the respiration of the plants, which restores\noxygen to the atmospheric air, that nature makes up for the withdrawal\nof oxygen by the respiration of animals, by the continual absorption\nof that gas by numerous mineral substances, and by the frequent\ncombustions, natural and artificial, which occur in the world. The\nresult of these combustions would be the disappearance of the greater\nportion of the oxygen contained in the air, if there did not exist a\npermanent machinery for the restitution of that oxygen. This permanent\nmachinery is the respiration of plants, produced by solar light. So\nabsolute is the dependence of plants for their respiration on the\naction of the sun's light, that if it be intercepted by clouds, the\nescape of oxygen from them suffers a marked diminution. If the light of\nthe sun be suddenly stopped, which occurs during a total solar eclipse,\nthe escape of oxygen ceases, and the plants transpire carbonic acid\nonly, as they always do during the night.\n\nIt is for this reason that a plant kept in complete darkness loses its\ncolour, and becomes white. It does not respire, it emits carbonic acid\ngas without retaining carbon, it becomes etiolated, according to the\nscientific phrase, which means that the plant no longer lives at the\ncost of the external air, or of gas furnished by the soil, but consumes\nits own substance. The whitened salads which we prefer are not green\nonly because they are grown in darkness, and the mushrooms brought to\ntable are white only because they are reared in cellars.\n\nM. Boussingault, who has studied vegetation in darkness, finds that\nthe leaves of a vegetable which has never had any light at all, in\nits first appearance and development, never exhales oxygen, its\nrespiration furnishes carbonic acid gas only. The plant, therefore,\nbreathes just as an animal does. We must observe in this case that the\nsubstance of the seed only supplies this product. The plant borrows\nnothing from without, consumes nothing but the elements which were\ncontained in the seeds, and dies when those nutritive elements are\nexhausted. The duration of its existence depends entirely on the\nweight of the seed whence it has sprung. If a well-developed plant be\nkept in darkness, the same fact may be observed. The plant gives out\nnothing but carbonic acid, and, as it borrows nothing from without,\nit perishes when it has thus devoured its own substance. M. Sachs\nsays, in his _Physiologie V\u00e9g\u00e9tale_, that the movements proper to the\nleaves of many vegetables cannot take place if the plant is kept in\ndarkness. Plants so kept remain always in the condition which Linn\u00e6us\ndefined as _sleep_. Flowers contained in natural coverings, which in a\ngreat measure debar them from the light of the sun, do indeed produce\ncolours, but those flowers are formed inside their natural coverings,\nat the expense of substances contained in their leaves, which could not\nbe produced except under the influence of light. The same truth applies\nto fruits.\n\nLeaves, flowers, fruits, are then, as the German physiologist,\nMoleschott, has said, \"beings woven of air by light.\" The same author\nadds: \"When we contemplate the brilliant colours of the flowers, and\nwhen their delicious perfume gives serene satisfaction to that poetic\nfaculty which exists, though it may slumber deeply, in the soul of\nevery man it is still the light which is the mother of colour and of\nperfume.\"\n\nThe influence of the sun on vegetation is of fundamental importance.\nWithout the sun no plant would grow upon our globe. In those regions\nwhich are permanently deprived of the powerful and beneficent torch\nof nature, towards the extreme north, all vegetation is stunted, and\nhigher still, it does not exist. Absence of light, and cold, are the\ncauses of the complete disappearance of the natural adornment, and the\nuseful tribute, which elsewhere vegetation furnishes to the earth. In\nthe hot regions, vegetation is vigorous and extensive, in proportion\nto the abundance of sunshine poured upon them. There is nothing to be\ncompared to the luxuriant vegetation of the tropical countries in both\nhemispheres. The vegetation of Brazil, of equatorial Africa, and the\ninter-tropical regions of India, is renowned for its abundance and\nvariety.\n\nAgriculture, enlightened by modern chemistry, has brought to light the\nspecial importance of the sun in promoting the activity of vegetation,\nand producing combinations of substances not to be attained by any\naction except that of the sun. M. Georges Ville, a professor at the\nMuseum of Natural History in Paris, states, as the result of numerous\nexperiments, that the activity imparted to vegetable production by the\nsun is truly miraculous. No chemical fact, no theory, according to the\nlearned professor, can explain the mystery of solar influence, and its\nprodigious power over the development and produce of vegetables.\n\nLet us remark, before we leave this subject, that by a providential\ncircumstance the present generations of mankind are profiting by\nthe chemical force of the sun which nature has stored in her great\nvegetable _dep\u00f4ts_ for thousands of centuries. For instance, what is\ncoal, which feeds all our industries, supplies our steam machines,\nships, engines, and locomotives? It is the residue of those gigantic\nforests which covered the earth during the geological periods. The\nsubstance of the trees of the forests of the ancient world was at first\nchanged into peat, which, becoming more and more compact by the action\nof ages, was finally pressed into the hard and heavy body which we call\ncoal. But what was the cause, what was the first agent, which produced\nthe trees of those forests, in the antediluvian times? It was the\nchemical force of the sun. This force, or, if the term be preferred,\nthe products of the chemical force of the sun, have been accumulated\nand preserved in the wood, and then in the coal which that wood has\nbecome. We find it thus, and we use it, to our present profit.\n\nThus, the glowing sunshine which lighted and warmed the ancient world,\nis not lost to us. Contemporary generations inherit those very rays,\nand that same chemical force. The power of the sun, which has slumbered\nin the coal for millions of years, arouses itself for us, comes forth\ninto the day, and transforms itself in our hands into a mechanical\nagent.\n\nThe light and heat of the sun, which play so great a part in the\nvegetable kingdom, exercise influence of a similar kind over the animal\nkingdom. If we reflect that plants are indispensable to the food of\nthe majority of animals, that the creation of vegetables necessarily\npreceded that of terrestrial animals (since vegetables constitute their\nfood), and that animals must inevitably disappear from the earth if\nplants ceased to exist; we shall be led to acknowledge that animals\noriginate as certainly, though indirectly, from the force of the sun as\nthe plants themselves.\n\nBesides, it can be proved that the action of the sun is directly\nindispensable to the maintenance of animal life. In the first place,\nis it not the fact that solar light and heat exercise an immense\ninfluence on the health of animals and of man? To convince ourselves\nof that, we need only compare men who pass the greater part of their\nlives in the air and sunshine, with men who live in dark houses, in the\nnarrow streets and lanes of great cities. Not only are these dwellings\nunwholesome because they are damp, but they are fatal to health because\nthey are not enlivened by the presence of the sun.\n\nLight, altogether indispensable to the exercise of respiration in\nplants, is not indispensable in the same degree to the respiration of\nanimals. It is, however, certain that the products of the respiration\nof man and animals are less abundant by night than by day. Moleschott\nhas found that the quantity of carbonic acid gas exhaled by an animal\nis augmented by the intensity of the light of day, and is at its\nminimum in complete darkness; \"which amounts to this,\" adds that\nauthor, \"that the light of the sun accelerates molecular action in\nanimals.\"\n\nThus, the rays of the sun are a primary condition of the existence of\nanimals, because they produce the formation of plants, the essential\nbasis of the alimentation of animals and of man, and because they\npreside over the fulfilment of many of their physiological functions.\nWe find views of precisely the same order as those we have endeavoured\nto express, eloquently put forward in Professor Tyndall's work on\n\"Heat:\"\n\n    \"And as surely as the force which moves a clock's hands is derived\n    from the arm which winds up the clock, so surely is all terrestrial\n    power drawn from the sun. Leaving out of account the eruptions\n    of volcanoes and the ebb and flow of the tides, every mechanical\n    action on the earth's surface, every manifestation of power,\n    organic and inorganic, vital and physical, is produced by the sun.\n    His warmth keeps the sea liquid, and the atmosphere a gas, and all\n    the storms which agitate both are blown by the mechanical force of\n    the sun. He lifts the rivers and the glaciers up the mountains;\n    and thus the cataract and the avalanche shoot with an energy\n    derived immediately from him. Thunder and lightning are also his\n    transmuted strength. Every fire that burns and every flame that\n    glows dispenses light and heat which originally belonged to the\n    sun. In these days, unhappily, the news of battle is familiar to\n    us, but every shock and every change, is only an application or\n    misapplication of the mechanical force of the sun. * * * * The sun\n    comes to us as heat; he quits us as heat; and between his entrance\n    and departure the multiform powers of our globe appear. They\n    are all special forms of solar power; the moulds into which his\n    strength is temporarily poured, in passing from its source through\n    infinitude.\"--p. 431.\n\nThe mechanical force which the heat of the sun represents has been\ncalculated, and the numbers thus ascertained are curious. In order to\nunderstand how a heat agent can be expressed by figures of mechanical\nforce, we must have a general idea of that theory which constitutes\nthe most valuable creation of natural philosophy in our day; we allude\nto _the mechanical theory of heat_, or the doctrine of the _mutual\ntransformation of physical forces_.\n\nExperience has proved that heat changes, under our eyes, into a\nmechanical force. See how, by the action of the steam engine, watery\nvapour becomes cold, and the dispersed heat immediately produces a\nmechanical force, and you will understand how it is that we maintain\nthat heat transforms itself into force. This being admitted, it is\neasily explicable that one of those elements may be represented by\nthe others, or that at least we may represent the value of both force\nand heat by a common unit. This common unit is called a _calorie_,\nand expresses the quantity of heat requisite to raise the temperature\nof a kilogram of water one degree. On the other hand, the term\n_kilogrammeter_ is used to express the quantity of force requisite to\nraise a kilogram to the height of one yard (_m\u00e9tre_) in a second.\n\nPhysicists have succeeded in solving the difficult problem, which\nconsists of ascertaining how many kilogrammeters may be produced by\na _calorie_, transformed into mechanical labour. The works of Mayer,\nJoule, Helmholtz, Hirn, Regnault, &c., establish that a calorie is\nequivalent to 425 kilogrammeters, that is to say that the quantity\nof heat requisite to raise the temperature of a kilogram of water\nto 1 degree centigrade produces a mechanical action represented by\nthe elevation of a weight of 425 kilograms 1 yard (_m\u00e9tre_) in height\nin the space of a sound. 425 kilograms are called the _mechanical\nequivalent of heat_.\n\nWith this information at our service, we are enabled to calculate in\nunits of mechanical force the work done by solar heat, by transforming\nitself into mechanical force. And, if we calculate the total heat of\nthe sun diffused over the earth, during a given time, we can calculate\nthe sum of the forces which all this distributed heat would develop on\nthe surface of the earth, if it were all employed in mechanical labour.\nIn one year every square yard of the surface of the earth receives\n2,318,157 calories, that is to say, more than 23,000,000,000,000 of\ncalories to each space of 2 acres, 1 rood, 35 perches.[5]\n\nTo understand the intensity of this force, we must conceive a steam\nengine, which, instead of working at 200 or 300 horse-power, like the\nengines of our larger steamers, should work at 4,163 horse-power.\nAnd this, we must bear in mind, refers only to the small space above\nmentioned. If we calculate the entire surface of the earth, we arrive\nat the astounding total of 217,316,000,000,000 horse-power. In order to\nconceive such a force, we must picture to ourselves 543,000,000,000,000\nsteam engines each working without relaxation day and night, at 400\nhorse-power. That is the amount of work which the heat of the sun does\nfor our globe alone.\n\nThe physical and mechanical actions which take place on our planet,\nvegetation, the phenomena of animal life, industrial and agricultural\noperations absorb only a very small quantity of this enormous mass of\nforces. Professor Tyndall says on this subject, in the book we have\nalready quoted:--\n\n    \"Look at the integrated energy of our world--the stored power\n    of our coal-fields; our winds and rivers; our fleets, armies,\n    and guns. What are they? they are all generated by a portion of\n    the sun's energy which does not amount to 1/2300000000th of the\n    whole. This, in fact, is the entire fraction of the sun's force\n    intercepted by the earth, and in reality we convert but a small\n    fraction of this fraction into mechanical energy. Multiplying all\n    our powers by millions of millions, we do not reach the sun's\n    expenditure.\"--p. 433.\n\nIn this chapter we have analyzed the different physical and vital\neffects produced upon our globe by the light and heat given out by the\nsun. We have considered its action upon animate and inanimate nature.\nWe have seen that the sun is really the great cause of physical action\non our globe, and that he is also the first principle of both vegetable\nand animal life. Without the sun life would be banished from the\nterrestrial globe; as we have already said, life is the offspring of\nthe sun.\n\nWe know that in speech, heat and life are almost synonymous words. In\nevery language we find it said that persons are _frozen by death_, in\n_the icy sleep of death_, that _cold is death-like_, &c. This image\nis an exact expression of the reality. An animal or a plant, when\ndeprived of life is necessarily cold. A shiver is the precursor of\nevery malady, and the sure forerunner of death. Every dead body is\na cold body. It may be said that in the animal form cold takes the\nplace of life, as in inanimate bodies cold succeeds to heat. Let us\nnow consider the following facts. It is solely by the prolonged action\nof heat that plants can germinate, grow, and develop themselves; in\norder to come to perfection, every plant requires an ascertained\nnumber of degrees of heat, and botanists and agriculturists know quite\naccurately the total number of degrees of heat requisite to ripen their\ncereals, and make their fruit-trees bear. A prolonged and undisturbed\naccumulation of heat is indispensable to produce life in the\nimpregnated egg of a bird, so that by employing caloric in a hatching\nmachine, the process of hatching may be artificially perfected. The\neggs of viviparous animals are sustained by the heat of the mother's\nbody, and besides, as Hervey says, everything that has life proceeds\nfrom an egg (omne vivum ex ovo). If we recall to mind that, after the\ndevelopment of the germ in mammiferous animals, the unvarying maternal\nheat is indispensable to the formation of the organs of the f\u0153tus,\nwe shall be led to inquire whether heat does not directly produce\nlife, whether heat does not transform itself into vital force. Modern\nphilosophers who have propounded the _Mechanical Theory of Heat_, that\nis to say the profound and admirable doctrine of the mutual conversion\nof forces, the professors who have proved by mathematical evidence\nthat heat converts itself into mechanical force, and the converse,\nmight perhaps complete their brilliant synthesis by adding that heat,\nwhich converts itself into mechanical force, can also transform itself\ninto life, or into vital force, and that the splendid theory of the\ntransformation of forces does not apply to inanimate bodies only, but\nfinds an astonishing confirmation in animate bodies.\n\nThus heat and life would be the manifestation of one and the same\npower, and the cause of life would be found to dwell, like the cause of\nmechanical force, in the sun.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[5] Represented by the French word _hectare_.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nCHAPTER THE EIGHTH.\n\nTHE SUN THE DEFINITIVE ABODE OF SOULS WHO HAVE ATTAINED THE HIGHEST\nRANK IN THE CELESTIAL HIERARCHY.--THE SUN THE FINAL AND COMMON DWELLING\nOF SOULS WHO HAVE COME FROM THE EARTH.--THE PHYSICAL CONSTITUTION OF\nTHE SUN.--THE SUN IS A MASS OF BURNING GASES.\n\n\nTHE fundamental importance of the sun in the general economy of our\nworld being finally established, our readers will not be surprised to\nhear that we assign that radiant and sublime abode to the human souls\nreleased from the earth, and successively purified and perfected by\nthe long series of their multiplied incarnations in the bosom of the\ninterplanetary spaces. Some philosophers have perceived this truth.\nThe astronomer Bode placed the most elevated intelligences in the sun.\n\"The happy creatures which inhabit this privileged abode,\" he says,\n\"have no need of the alternate succession of day and night; a pure and\nunextinguishable light illumines it for ever. In the centre of the\nlight of the sun, they enjoy perfect security, under the shelter of the\nwings of the Almighty.\"[6] Under what form may we picture to our fancy\nthe inhabitants of the sun? We cannot answer this question without\nbeing acquainted with the _geography of the sun_, or as astronomers\ncall it, his _physical constitution_, which differs essentially from\nthat of the planets, of their satellites, and of the comets. He is\nunique in his position and office in the planetary system,--he must\ntherefore be specially constituted. What is this special constitution?\nWhat is the geography of the sun?\n\nWould that it were in our power to reply to this question with\nprecision; would that we could describe the configuration of the sun.\nUnhappily, science has not yet reached that point. The problem of the\nsun's true nature is full of uncertainty. Astronomers are divided\nbetween two opposite theories, and that which seems to be the best\nsupported, is too recent to be set forth in a dogmatic fashion. We can\nonly summarize the actual condition of our knowledge on this question,\nexplain the theory which seems conformable to ascertained facts, and\napplying it to the subject on which we are engaged, endeavour to deduce\nthe physical condition, which, in our opinion, would belong to the\ninhabitants of the king-star.\n\nUntil the great epoch of the discovery of the telescope, at the\nbeginning of the seventeenth century, in the time of Keppler and\nGalileo, only vague and arbitrary ideas respecting the sun prevailed.\nThe educated, as well as the vulgar, beheld in it merely a globe of\nfire; the most learned declared that they found in it _pure fire,\nelementary fire, the principle of light, and of fire_. But as no means\nexisted of examining the surface of the sun, and as his real distance\nfrom the earth was either unknown, or very imperfectly understood,\na prudent reserve was maintained on this question. The discovery of\nthe telescope immediately placed the astronomers in possession of the\ncelestial realm; it enabled them to sound the depths of space, and\nto study the apparent configuration of the stars, including the sun\nhimself. A few hours' observation with the astronomical spy-glass, and\nmore was learned of the nature of the sun, than in the two thousand\nyears of more or less philosophical reverie which preceded the\ndiscovery of the telescope.\n\nWith a glass which magnified the apparent diameter of the sun only\ntwenty-sixfold, Galileo, repeating the observations of Fabricius,\ndiscovered the spots on the sun. Although Galileo did not use the\nsmoked glasses which have since been found so useful, and although he\nlimited his observations to the horizon, watching the great star at\nits rising and its setting, or when it was veiled by slight clouds, he\nstudied its spots carefully, and described them faithfully.\n\nWe may observe that this discovery astonished the philosophers of that\nperiod, who were entirely submissive to the authority of Aristotle.\nThe _incorruptibility of the sun_ was held in the schools as a sacred\nprinciple, according to Aristotle, and these unfortunate spots\nperplexed the philosophers. The peripatetics vied with each other in\nproving to the Florentine astronomer that the purity of the sun was\nan unassailable principle, and that the spots which he had perceived\nexisted only on his eyes, or on the lens of his glasses.\n\nBut Galileo had seen correctly, and soon every one could convince\nhimself of the reality of the phenomenon he had proclaimed. Not only\ndo spots exist upon the disc of the sun, but they furnish the only\nmeans which we possess of becoming acquainted with the physical and\nastronomical peculiarities and properties of the great star. The\nexamination of these spots led to the discovery that the sun revolves\nlike the other planets, and that he accomplishes the entire revolution\nupon his axis in a period of twenty-five days. The sun's days are\ntherefore twenty-five times as long as ours. Here, however, we must\nremark upon the word _day_. To us, the _day_ signifies the periodical\nreturn of the earth to the same point, after a complete revolution\nupon its axis, with an alternation of light and darkness. It is quite\notherwise in the case of the sun, which, being self-luminous in all his\nparts, can never have any night.\n\nWe have said that the examination of the sun's spots established his\nrotation upon his axis. In fact, if we patiently observe the motion\nof a spot, or of a group of spots, we remark that it advances slowly\nfrom one edge of the solar disc to the other; for instance, if the\npoint of departure be the eastern edge, the spot or group will advance\nwith uniform speed towards the western edge, taking fourteen days\nto accomplish the distance. If we wait fourteen days more, we shall\nagain perceive the same spot making its appearance on the eastern\nedge of the disc, the interval having been consumed in passing over\nthe opposite and, of course, invisible side of the sun. The spot has\ntherefore taken twenty-eight days to reappear, which twenty-eight days\ndo not, however, represent the exact duration of the revolution of the\nsun himself. It must not be forgotten that the earth has not remained\nmotionless during this long observation; she, too, has gone round in\nthe sun, as the spots have done. This sort of advance, which causes us\nto see the same spot for a longer time than we should have seen it, if\nthe earth remained motionless, is of three days' extent, the deduction\nof which from the twenty-eight given days, allows twenty-five days for\nthe real duration of the sun's rotation upon his axis.\n\nIn the sun seasons are unknown as well as days. Time seems to have no\nexistence for the beings who occupy that radiant dwelling-place. The\nchanges, and the succession of things for us which constitute time,\nare unknown to their sublime essence. Duration has no measure in that\nblessed world.\n\nThe dweller in the sun must behold the revolution of the planets around\nhim, performed according to the same laws, but with different rates of\nspeed. The phases of the planets and their satellites, the phases of\nMars and Venus, or those of the moon, which we perceive from the earth,\nare unknown to them; they see only the hemisphere of those globes which\nis illumined by their own immense country. They behold, in larger\ndimensions, the globes of Mercury and Venus, and in lesser dimensions\nthe Earth and Mars. The distant planets, Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus,\nmust seem very small to them. Neptune they probably cannot see at\nall. The comets must be for a long time invisible to the inhabitants\nof the sun, who behold their flaming mass rushing towards them in\never-increasing size. They also see some comets sinking away into\nspace, and others falling on the surface of the sun himself, to be lost\nand absorbed in his substance.\n\nThus, the spots on the sun have revealed to us an important peculiarity\nof his astronomical character, his revolution upon his axis. They have\nalso given us the only exact ideas which we possess of the physical\nconstitution of the sun.\n\nThe accompanying plate conveys an idea of what the spots on the sun\nconsist of. Figures 2 and 3 represent the general aspect of these\nappearances. In the centre is a black space perfectly marked. To this\nsucceeds a space in grey tinting, whose outlines melt by degrees into\nthe rest of the luminous mass. The first region is called the Umbra;\nthe second, the Penumbra.\n\nThese words must be distinctly understood. The part indicated by the\nterm _Umbra_ is only dark relatively to the illumined portion. This\nUmbra is very luminous, its brilliancy is two thousand times that\nof the full moon. We are merely dealing with comparisons here. The\nsolar spots are often of very considerable dimensions. They have been\nfound 30,000 leagues in breadth, and could swallow up the earth,\nwhich is only one-tenth of that magnitude. They are not permanent,\nsometimes they remain for months, or even years, but the greater\nnumber increase and decrease rapidly, and disappear in a few weeks.\nThey are incessantly changing in form and in extent, and they grow\nand diminish. It is evident that they are regulated by a violent\ninterior movement, and that they are the seat of tumultuous motion.\nSomething like whirlwinds are seen to sweep across the regions occupied\nby the spots, and to carry them away, like the waves of a furious\nsea, or the flames of a conflagration. Gigantic bridges of apparently\nburning matter have been observed, thrown from one edge to the other\nof adjacent spots, uniting them by a shining band, and then this same\nband has stretched itself out and caught hold of other spots. Of a\nsudden the whole edifice has been seen to be swept away by fresh\nwhirlwinds. Signs of a prodigious commotion, of gigantic perturbation,\nare always evident. These hurricanes, these tempests of flame, are of\na widely different grandeur from the hurricanes and the tempests of\nour atmosphere, because the atmosphere of the sun is several thousands\nof yards in height, and covers an extent of surface 1,300,000 times\ngreater than ours.\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 2.--Group of Solar Spots observed in 1864 by\nNasmith.]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 3.--Another Solar Spot observed by Nasmyth.]\n\nWe have just said that the sun has an atmosphere. Such is the\nconclusion to which the careful examination of the great star has led.\n\nFrom the earliest times at which the sun was observed, a theory of its\nconstitution was formulated, which was perpetuated down to the present\nage, without receiving authoritative contradiction. In the eighteenth\ncentury the astronomers Herschel and Wilson developed this theory,\nwhich was popularized in our time by the writings of Humboldt and Arago.\n\nAccording to this theory, the sun is composed of a dark nucleus, and\na burning atmosphere, which is the only source of the light proper to\nthis star. Arago and Humboldt called the incandescent atmosphere of the\nsun, the _photosphere_. Heat and light would not, therefore, come to us\nfrom the nucleus, but only from the photosphere.\n\nThe spots are explained, according to this theory, by admitting that\nthey are openings accidentally formed in the sun's atmosphere by\ngases discharged from volcanic craters, or in some other way. Through\nthese openings the dark nucleus of the sun is seen. The _penumbra_ of\nthe spots are formed by the lower parts of the atmosphere of the sun,\nwhich is either hot or luminous. This lower portion of the atmosphere,\nreflecting the light emitted by the upper portion or photosphere, is\nslightly warm, and only partially illumined.\n\nThis theory of the constitution of the sun, and of the solar spots,\nseemed for a long time satisfactory. A similar explanation, that is to\nsay, by partial eruptions of gas from volcanic craters, was assigned\nto the kind of black dotted appearance observed on the surface of the\nsolar disc, and which is exactly reproduced in the two figures here\ngiven.\n\nThe brilliant spots scattered over the surface of the sun, which\ntouched here and there with points of intense luminosity, are called\n_facul\u00e6_. These brilliant points are said to proceed from local\naccidents, which cause an escape of light and heat from certain parts\nof the solar atmosphere.\n\nThus, according to this theory, the sun would be a solid body, opaque\nand dark like the planets, surrounded by an atmospheric layer, which\nwould prevent any heat in the nucleus. Outside that layer would be a\nsecond atmosphere, the _photosphere_, which only would be luminous,\nand capable of emitting light and heat. Dark nucleus, dark atmosphere,\nluminous photosphere, such would be the constituent elements of the\nsun, according to Wilson, William Herschel, Humboldt, and Arago. To\nany who hold this theory, it is not impossible to believe that the\nsun may be inhabited by beings who differ but slightly to man, or who\nare endowed with an organization similar to that of the inhabitants of\nthe earth. If the body of the sun be preserved by the interposition of\na cold, and but slightly conducting atmosphere from the rays of the\nphotosphere which burns at an immense distance, we can believe that\ncreatures organized almost like ourselves could live within it. The\nheat of the burning photosphere can reach it through the thickness of\nthe lower atmosphere with only the degree of heat necessary to maintain\nlife. The light thus filtered is brilliant, but not dazzling, and\nadmits of the existence of beings of organization similar to those who\nlive on the earth.\n\nTo this conclusion Arago came:\n\n    \"If I were asked,\" said the astronomer, \"is the sun inhabited? I\n    must reply that I do not know. But, if I were asked whether the\n    sun can be inhabited by beings of organization similar to that of\n    dwellers upon our globe, I should not hesitate to reply in the\n    affirmative.\"\n\nAt the present day Arago would hesitate, for science has made a great\nadvance in the question of the physical constitution of the sun. The\nnew method invented by MM. Kirchhoff and Bunsen, and known as analysis\nof the luminous spectrum, being applied to the solar rays, has given\nrise to an entirely new conception of the nature of the sun. We have\nreturned to the opinion of the physicists of the middle ages, who\nregarded the sun as a globe of fire, a sort of gigantic torch.\n\nIt would be impossible to enter into the details of the optical\nexperiments which rendered accurate analysis of the solar rays\npossible, and enabled us to deduce a new theory of the constitution of\nthe sun from their properties. We shall confine ourselves to explaining\nthis theory, as it evolves itself from the experiments of M. Kirchhoff.\n\nAccording to the German philosopher, the sun is not, as it has hitherto\nbeen supposed, a cold, dark, and solid body, surrounded by a burning\natmosphere; it is a globe, a sphere, probably liquid, which burns\nthroughout its whole mass, and in all its parts. This incandescent\nglobe is surrounded by a very heavy atmosphere, formed of the vapours\nwhich proceed from the incandescent globe, and which are themselves\nkept burning in consequence of the high temperature of all those masses\nof fire.\n\nHow are the spots on the sun to be explained according to this\ntheory? M. Kirchhoff admits that, owing to unknown causes, a cooling\nprocess may take place in the vaporous atmosphere which surrounds\nthe body of the sun. This cooling process would form at certain\npoints condensations of vapour analogous to the condensation of the\nvapour of water, which on our globe produces clouds and rain. These\nagglomerations of condensed vapours would form a species of cloud in\nthe atmosphere of the sun, and those clouds, which would intercept\nthe light of the solar disc from us, would produce the effect of a\nspot on this disc. The cloud, once formed, cools portions of the\nneighbouring vapours, and, by provoking a partial condensation, gives\nrise to the _penumbra_ which surround the _umbra_. Thus, according\nto M. Kirchhoff, the solar spots are clouds suspended in the sun's\natmosphere. Galileo had previously propounded an analogous hypothesis.\nWithout abandoning M. Kirchhoff's theory we may mention another\nexplanation of the spots. A German physicist considers the spots, not\nas clouds in the sun's atmosphere, but as partial solidifications of\nthe liquid matter which forms the body of the sun; a kind of scoria,\nanalogous to those which may be observed in crucibles containing\nmatters in a state of fusion, and which come from particles of metal\nnot yet melted, or which are beginning to solidify. The penumbra of\nthe spots would be the half-molten, and consequently, half-transparent\npollicule which always surrounds the edges of metallic scoria with a\nsemi-liquid ring.\n\nM. Faye, a French astronomer, has propounded a theory, which somewhat\nmodifies that of M. Kirchhoff. He thinks that the nucleus of the sun\nis neither solid nor liquid, but entirely gaseous. The solar spot, he,\nlike M. Kirchhoff, takes to be an opening made accidentally in the\nsun's atmosphere by the condensation of vapours on certain points of\nthat atmosphere. According to M. Faye, the spots are due to vertical\ncurrents of vapour ascending and descending, and the interception of\nthe light of the sun's atmosphere by the predominant intensity of the\nascending current.[7]\n\nThe new theory, the result of the optical experiments of the German\nphysicists, appears to explain all the facts which have been observed,\nand it has therefore been generally accepted. Some divergences exist\non questions of detail, but astronomers are nowadays almost unanimous\nin regarding the sun as a great body, incandescent in all its parts, as\na globe in a state of fusion, surrounded by a burning atmosphere, or,\nas M. Faye states it, a simple agglomeration of incandescent gases.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[6] Quoted by Flammarion in his \"_Pluralit\u00e9 des mondes habit\u00e9s_.\"\n\n[7] See \"_Le Soleil_,\" by M. A. Guillemin, pp. 194-208.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nCHAPTER THE NINTH.\n\nTHE INHABITANTS OF THE SUN ARE PURELY SPIRITUAL BEINGS.--THE SOLAR RAYS\nARE EMANATIONS FROM THE SPIRITUAL BEINGS WHO LIVE IN THE SUN.--THESE\nBEINGS THUS PRODUCE ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE LIFE UPON THE EARTH.--THE\nCONTINUITY OF SOLAR RADIATION, INEXPLICABLE BY PHYSICISTS, EXPLAINED\nBY THE EMANATION FROM THE SOULS OF THE INHABITANTS OF THE SUN.--THE\nWORSHIP OF FIRE, AND THE ADORATION OF THE SUN AMONG DIFFERENT PEOPLES,\nANCIENT AND MODERN.\n\n\nFROM the discussion of physical astronomy contained in the preceding\nchapters, we have concluded, with MM. Kirchhoff and Faye, that the\nsun is a mass of burning gases. But, our readers will ask, if this be\nso--if the sun is a gaseous incandescent mass, or a globe of matter in\na state of fusion, surrounded by an atmosphere of burning gas, where do\nyou place its inhabitants, and under what form do you picture them?\n\nWe have already said, that at each step of their promotion in the\nhierarchy, the creatures who live in the planetary spaces and have\nsucceeded to the superhuman being, grow in perfection, their senses\nare multiplied, their intellectual power is considerably extended.\nIn proportion as the creature, who in the beginning was human, is\nraised by successive deaths and resurrections in the scale of\ninter-planetary being, the material substance, which, united to its\nspiritual principle, formed its radiant individuality, is diminished.\nIn further exposition of our system, we must state our belief that this\nsuperior being, when he has been sufficiently perfected and exalted, by\nhis different incarnations, by the multiplied stages in the immensity\nof the heavens, finally becomes pure spirit. When he attains the\nsun, he is free from all material substance, from all carnal alloy.\nHe is a flame, a breath; all is intelligence, sentiment, thought, in\nhim; nothing impure is mingled with his perfect essence. He is an\nabsolute soul, a soul without a body. The gaseous and burning mass of\nwhich the sun is composed is, therefore, appropriate to receive these\nquintessential beings. A throne of fire is a fitting throne for souls.\n\nWe might even go further, and maintain that not only is the sun the\nasylum and receptacle of souls which have finished the course of their\nperegrinations in this world, but that it is nothing else than a\ncollection of those souls which have come to it from the other planets,\nafter having passed through the intermediate states which we have\ndescribed. The sun may be only an aggregation of souls.\n\nSince the sun is the first cause of life on our globe, since he is,\nas we have proved, the origin of life, feeling, and thought, since he\nis the determining cause of the existence of everything possessing\norganization upon the earth, why may we not hold that the rays which\nthe sun pours upon the earth and the other planets are nothing else\nthan the emanations from these souls? that they are emissions from the\npure spirits dwelling in the central star, directed towards us, and the\nother planets, under the visible form of rays?\n\nIf this hypothesis were accepted, what magnificent, what sublime\nrelations existing between the sun and the globes which gravitate\naround him, would be revealed to us! A continual exchange would be\nestablished between the sun and the surrounding planets, an unbroken\ncircle, an inexhaustible communion, radiant emanations which should\ngenerate and maintain activity and motion, thought and sentiment, which\nshould keep the flame of life burning everywhere! Let us think of the\nemanations from souls dwelling in the sun descending upon the earth in\nsolar rays. Light gives existence to plants, and produces vegetable\nlife, accompanied by sensibility. Plants, having received this sensible\ngerm from the sun, communicate it, aided by heat likewise emanating\nfrom the sun, to animals. Let us think of the germs of souls, placed\nin the breasts of animals, developing themselves, becoming perfected\nby degrees, from one animal to another, and finishing by becoming\nincarnate in a human body. Let us think, then, of the superhuman being\nsucceeding to man, springing up into the vast plains of ether, and\nbeginning the series of numerous transmigrations which, from one step\nto another, will lead him to the summit of the scale of spiritual\nperfection, from which every material substance has been eliminated,\nand where the soul, thus exalted to the purest degree of its essence,\npenetrates into the supreme abode of happiness, and of intellectual and\nmoral power--the sun.\n\nSuch may be this endless circle, such this unbroken chain, binding\ntogether all beings in nature, and passing from the visible to the\ninvisible world.\n\nTo those persons who may declaim with severity against the system which\nwe have ventured to put forward, we shall put a question which cannot\nfail to embarrass them, for science has never been able to solve it.\nWe shall ask them how the light of the sun, and the heat which results\nfrom it, are maintained? It is evident that the enormous quantities of\nheat and light which the sun sends out in torrents into space, must\ncome from a source which cannot be inexhaustible, which has need of\nrenewal, otherwise the sun would become extinct. As there is no effect\nwithout a cause, it is plain that the inconceivable quantity of forces\nwhich the sun distributes by his burning rays, must be derived from\nsome place. M. Guillemin, in his work on the sun, passes in review the\ndifferent theories which have been adopted, up to the present day, to\nexplain solar radiation. The following is an analysis of a chapter of\nM. Guillemin's work on the \"Maintenance of Solar Radiation.\"\n\nPouillet has calculated that if the sun were not supplied with\nsomething to make up for the losses he sustains, he must cool at the\nrate of one degree in a century. But this calculation falls short of\nthe truth. Pouillet supposed that the specific heat of the sun is the\ngreatest which can be conceived. The specific heat of the sun is, it is\ntrue, unknown, but instead of placing it at the maximum power, which it\nis not proved to be, we might suppose it, by an allowable hypothesis,\nto be equal to that of water, which is well known. Now if we grant to\nthe sun the specific heat of water, we rectify Pouillet's calculation,\nand we arrive at the conclusion that the sun, if not furnished with any\nresources from which to repair his losses, would be entirely extinct at\nthe end of 10,000 years. Professor Tyndall, whose experiments are more\nrecent than those of Pouillet, and inspire greater confidence, says:\n\"If the sun were a block of coal, and it were supplied with sufficient\noxygen to enable it to burn at the degree of heat proper to that star,\nit would be entirely consumed at the end of 5000 years.\" Now the sun\nhas existed for millions of years, for the transition periods of our\nglobe, in which the first living beings were manifested, are traced\nback to millions of years. And yet his heat has not sensibly diminished\nsince those distant ages. The proof that it has not diminished, is that\nthe climates of the globe at the present time are the same as they were\nin the tertiary or quaternary epoch. In the tertiary or quaternary\nstrata the same plants and the same animals which exist at present are\nfound. Speaking of times nearer to our own, we may observe that the\nproductions of the soil remain unchanged during the 2000 or 3000 years,\nwhose traditions and historical archives we possess.\n\nThe sun has lost none of his heat during millions of years. Where has\nhe gotten this heat from? Where does he get it from now? By what means\nis that unquenched fire kept up.\n\nTo this question neither astronomy nor physics has ever furnished a\nsatisfactory reply. Treatises, whether astronomical or physical, give\nus nothing but hypotheses, which we cannot accept.\n\nAt first it was said that the sun, turning on his axis in twenty-five\ndays, produced by this movement a perpetual friction of his surface\nagainst the element in which he moves, in other words, against the\nether. But if that were the case, this friction ought to engender a\nsimilar heat on the surface of the planets, whose rotatory motion, and\nespecially the motion of translation in their orbit, is much more rapid\nthan that of the sun turning on his axis. Besides, if we calculate the\nelevation of the temperature which would result from the friction of\nthe sun against the ether, we shall find that the heat would hardly\nsuffice to maintain the radiation of the solar star during one century.\nThis hypothesis is therefore untenable.\n\nAnother theory, better supported, has been put forward by the\nphysicists Mayer, Watterston, and Thompson; it explains the maintenance\nof the solar heat by a constant fall of meteors on the surface of the\nsolar star.\n\nA multitude of corpuscles gravitate round the sun, and approach him\nwith sufficient nearness to be attracted by his surface, and fall upon\nit. These are _asteroids_, which turn in whirling swarms around the\nsun. A shower of corpuscles, of meteorolites, may be always falling on\nhis surface. Their fall would cause a great development of caloric,\nin consequence of the transformation of their enormous speed into\nheat, and this caloric would suffice, according to the authors of this\ntheory, for the maintenance of solar radiation. Let us quote Professor\nTyndall on this point:\n\n    \"It is easy to calculate both the maximum and the minimum velocity\n    imparted by the sun's attraction to an asteroid circulating round\n    him. The maximum is generated when the body approaches from an\n    infinite distance, the _entire pull_ of the sun being then exerted\n    upon it. The minimum is that velocity which would barely enable\n    the body to revolve round the sun close to its surface. The final\n    velocity of the former, just before striking the sun, would be\n    390 miles a second, that of the latter 276 miles a second. The\n    asteroid, on striking the sun with the former velocity, would\n    develop more than 9000 times the heat generated by the combustion\n    of an equal asteroid of solid coal; while the shock, in the latter\n    case, would generate heat equal to that of the combustion of\n    upwards of 4000 such asteroids. It matters not therefore whether\n    the substances falling into the sun be combustible or not; their\n    being combustible would not add sensibly to the tremendous heat\n    produced by their mechanical collision. Here then we have an agency\n    competent to restore his lost energy to the sun, and to maintain\n    a temperature at his surface which transcends all terrestrial\n    combustion.\n\n    \"The very quality of the solar rays--their incomparably penetrative\n    power--enables us to infer that the temperature of their origin\n    must be enormous; but in the fall of asteroids we find the means of\n    producing such a temperature.\"--P. 423.\n\nThe fall of these asteroids on the surface of the sun would be followed\nby an increase in the bulk of that star, and there has been no such\nincrease since the earliest period of its observation. Also, the\naugmentation of the sun's bulk by these foreign bodies, would have\nproduced an accelerant motion in the orbits of all the stars, which,\nhowever slight, would be distinctly perceptible; whereas, for the 2000\nyears of celestial observation, whose records we possess, unbroken and\nperfect regularity in the progression of the stars of our solar world\nis registered.\n\nThere is another objection to this hypothesis. It is that it\npresupposes a solid and resistant medium in the sun. This medium does\nnot exist, according to the new solar theory, which considers this star\nto be formed of vapour and of gas, or, at most, of a liquid sphere.\nAnother proof that this resistant medium does not exist, is to be found\nin the fact that several comets, among others those of 1680, and of\n1843, have passed so close to the sun at their perihelion, that their\nmovements must have been greatly disturbed by the resistance of a dense\nmedium. The movements of these comets, were, however, quite unaffected\nby this cause; they were observed to reappear at the moment indicated\nby the regular curve of their orbit.\n\nThe absence of a resistant medium in the sun has been regarded as so\ngrave an objection by one of the authors of this theory, Mr. Thompson,\nthat he has abandoned it, as incompatible with facts.\n\nAnother hypothesis has been proposed, for explaining the maintenance of\nsolar heat. The substances which now form the sun have not always been\ncollected together in their present state of aggregation. At first,\nhis molecules were, relatively, extremely distant from one another,\nand formed a _chaotic_, or confused mass. Under the influence of\nattraction, they drew together by degrees, and agglomerated themselves\ninto a nucleus, which has become the centre of attraction of the whole\nmass. This simply amounts to saying that the sun began by being in the\nstate of nebulosity, and passed at a later period into the condition of\nadherent and continuous matter.\n\n    \"The molecules of solar nebulosity,\" says Balfour Stewart,\n    \"precipitating themselves upon one another, produced heat; as, when\n    a stone is thrown with force from the top of a precipice, heat is\n    also the ultimate form into which the potential energy of the stone\n    is converted.\"\n\nThis system of explanation of the primary origin of the planets is in\ngeneral favour. Having drawn themselves together to form a continuous\nwhole, the elements of the sun would have changed their physical\ncondition, and the result of this change would have been an enormous\nescape of heat, sufficient to explain the origin of the solar focus.\nWe know, in fact, that condensation of matter always accompanies an\nescape of heat; and it has been calculated that a diminution of only\na thousandth part from the actual bulk of the sun would suffice to\nmaintain the solar heat for 20,000 years.\n\nM. Helmholtz, the author of this ingenious theory, has also calculated\nthat \"the mechanical force equivalent to the mutual gravitation of\nthe particles of the nebulous mass would have been originally equal\nto 454 times the quantity of mechanical force actually disposable\nin our system,\" 453/454 of the force coming from the conatus to the\ngravitation would therefore have been already expended. The author adds\nthat the 1/454 which remains of this original heat, would suffice to\nraise the temperature of a mass of water equal to the combined birth of\nthe sun and the planets, to 28,000,000 of degrees centigrade; this is\na quantity of heat equal to 2500 times that which would be engendered\nby the combustion of the entire solar system, supposing it to be turned\ninto a mass of coal.\n\nThese calculations are, doubtless, most interesting, but their defect\nis that they rest upon the conception of the sun's nebulosity, an\nhypothesis which requires closer examination before it ought to be\naccepted as the basis of so important a deduction. Besides, if the sun\nwere warmed by a physical cause not in action at the present time,\nhis heat, however great it may be estimated to be, must necessarily\nhave been diminishing as long as the sun has been in existence. Now,\nwe repeat that it does not appear that the heat of the sun has ever\nsuffered any diminution. The theory of nebulosity is therefore no more\nsecurely founded in principle than the other hypotheses which have\npreceded it.\n\nThus, we find that neither astronomy nor physical science offers us\nany satisfactory explanation of the constant maintenance of solar\nradiation. Common sense tells us that this furnace, constantly in\nactivity, must be as unceasingly fed; but science is as yet unable to\ndiscover the nature and source of its aliment.\n\nThere, where science places nothing, we venture to place something. In\nour belief solar radiation is maintained by the continuous, unbroken\nsuccession of souls, in the sun. These pure and burning spirits are\nperpetually replacing the emanations perpetually sent through space\nby the sun, to the globes which surround him. Thus we complete that\nuninterrupted circle of which we have previously spoken, which binds\ntogether all the creatures of nature by the links of a common chain,\nand attaches the visible to the invisible world. We may venture to put\nforward this explanation of the maintenance of solar radiation with\nsome confidence, since science can give us no exact information upon\nthe point, and philosophy in this case only fills up the void left by\nastronomy and physics.\n\nIn short, the sun, the centre of the planetary aggregation, the\nconstant source of light and heat, which sends forth motion, sensation,\nand life upon the earth, is, in our belief, the final sojourn of\npurified perfected souls, which have attained their most exquisite\nsubtlety. They are entirely devoid of material alloy, they are pure\nspirits who dwell in the midst of the blazing atmosphere and the\nburning masses which compose the sun. That star, whose size far\nsurpasses the bulk of all the others put together, is sufficiently\nvast to contain them. From their throne of fire, these souls, all\nintelligence and activity, behold the marvellous spectacle of the march\nof all the planetary globes which compose the solar world, through\nspace. Placed in the centre of this vast world, understanding the\nsecrets of nature, and all the mysteries of the universe, they are in\npossession of perfect happiness, of absolute wisdom, and of illimitable\nknowledge.\n\nThe Genoese naturalist, Charles Bonnet, was the first to bring forward\ngeneral ideas upon the philosophy of the universe, in the same\norder as those which we have just developed. In his _Paling\u00e9n\u00e9sie\nPhilosophique_, published in 1771, he introduces the doctrine of divers\nexistences for the human soul, outside that of the earth. In a chapter\nappended to that work, and entitled, \"Conjectures on the blessings to\ncome,\" he draws a picture of the perfect happiness which we shall enjoy\nin that abode, and dwells, in the following eloquent words, on the\ntranscendent knowledge which we shall possess, which will unfold to our\nview all the secrets of the physical and moral worlds:--\n\n    \"If the Supreme Intelligence,\" says Charles Bonnet, \"has varied\n    all His works here below, so that nothing created is identical\n    with anything else, if harmonious progression reigns among all\n    terrestrial beings; and one common chain unites them; is it not\n    probable that this marvellous chain is prolonged throughout all the\n    planetary worlds; that it unites them all, and that they are only\n    constituent and infinitesimal parts of the same series?\n\n    \"At present we can see only a few links of this great chain; we\n    are not even certain that we observe them in their habitual order;\n    we can only follow this admirable progression very imperfectly,\n    and through innumerable windings in which we meet with frequent\n    interruptions, but we always know that the breaches are not in the\n    chain, but in our knowledge.\n\n    \"When it shall have been granted to us to contemplate this chain,\n    as I have supposed the intelligences for whom our world was chiefly\n    made to contemplate it; when, like them, we shall be able to\n    follow its coils in other worlds, then, and then only, we shall\n    understand their reciprocal dependence, their secret relations,\n    the exact meaning of every link, and we shall rise by a scale of\n    relative perfection to the most transcendent and luminous truths.\n\n    \"With what feelings shall our souls be filled, when, having studied\n    to its depths the economy of a world, we shall fly to another,\n    and compare the two! How perfect shall our cosmology be then! How\n    wide the generalization and great the fecundity of our principles,\n    the succession, the mass, the exactness of our knowledge! What\n    light shall be shed from so many different objects upon the other\n    branches of our studies; upon physics, geometry, astronomy,\n    rational science, and especially upon that divine study whose\n    object is the Supreme Being.\n\n    \"All these truths are chained together, and the most distant\n    are held to the nearest by hidden links, which it is the end of\n    understanding to discover. Newton, no doubt, exulted in having\n    discovered the secret relation between the fall of a stone and the\n    motion of a planet; when he shall be one day transformed into a\n    celestial intelligence, he will smile at this child's play, and his\n    profound geometry will be to him only the first elements of another\n    Infinite.\n\n    \"Man's reason has already penetrated beyond all the planetary\n    worlds; it has raised itself up to heaven, where God dwells; it\n    contemplates the august throne of the Ancient of Days, it beholds\n    all the spheres rolling beneath His feet, and obeying the impulse\n    of His hand, it hears the acclamations of all the intelligences,\n    and, mingling its adoration and its praise with the majestic song\n    of the hierarchies, it cries with the deepest consciousness of its\n    own nothingness: 'Holy, holy, holy, is He who is eternal, and the\n    All Good; glory be to God in the highest, and good-will towards\n    man!' Oh! the depth of the riches of the Divine Goodness, which\n    is not satisfied with manifesting itself to men on the earth\n    by countless means, but will bring him one day to the celestial\n    dwelling-places, and satisfy the thirst of his soul with the\n    fulness of delight. There are many dwellings in our Father's home;\n    had it not been so, He whom He sent to us would have told us, and\n    He is gone thither to prepare a place for us. He will come back and\n    take us with Him; that where He is we may be also. Where He is, not\n    in the outer court, not in the vestibule, but in the sanctuary of\n    universal creation, in the holy of holies. _Where He is_, who is\n    the King of angels and of men, the Mediator of the new covenant,\n    the Author and Finisher of our Faith, who has made the new way for\n    us which leads to life, who has made us free to enter into the Holy\n    Place, who has brought us near to the city of the living God, to\n    the heavenly Jerusalem, to the innumerable multitude of angels, to\n    God Himself, who is the Judge of all.... In this eternal dwelling,\n    in the bosom of light, of perfection and happiness, we shall read\n    the general and particular history of Providence. Initiated, to\n    a certain extent, in the profound mysteries of His government,\n    His laws, His dispensations, we shall admiringly recognize the\n    secret reasons of the many general and particular events which\n    astonish us, confound us, and throw us into a state of doubt which\n    philosophy does not always dissipate, but which religion never\n    fails to allay. We shall ceaselessly meditate upon the great book\n    of the destinies of the worlds. We shall dwell particularly on the\n    pages which concern this little planet; the cradle of our infancy,\n    and the first monument of the paternal goodness of the Creator\n    towards man. We shall discover, with astonishment, the numerous\n    revolutions which this little globe has undergone before it assumed\n    its actual form, and we shall follow with our gaze those which it\n    is destined to undergo in the course of ages; but our admiration\n    and our gratitude will be chiefly excited by the wonders of that\n    great redemption, in which there are so many things beyond our\n    feeble reach, which have been the objects of the studious research\n    and the profound meditation of the prophets, and which the angels\n    have desired to look into. One line on this page will contain our\n    own history, and will develop to our view the why and the how\n    of those calamities, trials, and privations which in this world\n    try the patience of the just man, purify his soul, and enhance\n    his virtues, while they crush and destroy the weak. When we have\n    reached so elevated a degree of knowledge, the origin of physical\n    and moral evil will no longer embarrass us; we shall confront them\n    distinctly at their source, and in their most distant effects, and\n    we shall acknowledge, from the evidence before us, that all which\n    God does is well done.\n\n    \"In this world we see effects only; and we even observe them in\n    a very superficial manner; all the causes are hidden from us:\n    then we shall see effects in their causes, consequences in their\n    principles, the history of the individual in that of the species,\n    the history of the species in that of the globe, the history of the\n    globe in that of the worlds, &c. Now we see things only confusedly,\n    and in a glass darkly; but then we shall see face to face, and\n    shall know in some sort as we have been known; in short, because we\n    shall have an infinitely more complete and distinct knowledge of\n    the work, we shall also acquire an incomparably deeper sense of the\n    perfections of the workman. And this knowledge, the most sublime,\n    the most vast, the most desirable of all, will be incessantly\n    perfected by intimate intercourse with the eternal source of all\n    perfection! I cannot express this sufficiently, I do but stammer\n    over it; words are wanting; would that I could know the language\n    of the angels. If it were possible to a finite intelligence ever\n    to exhaust the universe, it would still find the treasures of\n    truth from eternity to eternity in contemplation of its author;\n    and, after a thousand myriads of ages consumed in such meditation,\n    it would only have touched the edges of that science of which it\n    may be even the highest intelligences possess no more than the\n    rudiments. There is no true reality except in Him who _is_, for\n    all which is, is by Him, before being out of Him; there is but\n    one existence, because there is but one Being whose essence it is\n    to exist; and all which bears the inappropriate name of being had\n    remained shut up in necessary existence as the consequence in the\n    principal.\"[8]\n\nBefore concluding this chapter, let us remark that the deductions\nof science concerning the sovereign part played by the sun in the\ngeneral economy of nature, are in perfect harmony with the religious\nconceptions of the most ancient peoples. The worship of fire has\nreigned from time immemorial in Asia, and especially in ancient Persia.\nFrom the Persian shores sailed the first peoples, the Aryas, or Aryans,\nwho occupied and peopled Europe. Fire worship was the first religion\nof ancient Asia. M. Burnouf dwells on this fact in his _Etudes sur la\nScience des Religions_, from which we quote the following passages:\n\n    \"The men of that time (the Aryas) perceived that all the movements\n    of inanimate things which take place on the earth's surface proceed\n    from heat, which manifests itself, either under the form of fire\n    which burns, or under the form of thunder, or under the form of\n    wind; but the thunder is fire hidden in the cloud, and rises with\n    it into the air;--fire which burns is, before it manifests itself,\n    shut up in the vegetable matters which supply it with aliment; wind\n    is produced when the air is stirred by heat, which rarefies it or\n    condenses it on its withdrawal.\n\n    \"Vegetables, in their turn, derive their combustibility from the\n    sun, which makes them grow, by storing up his heat in them, and\n    the air is warmed by the rays of the sun, the same rays which\n    reduced the terrestrial waters to invisible vapours, and then\n    to thunder-bearing clouds. The clouds spread the rain, make the\n    rivers, feed the sea which the agitated winds trouble. Thus all\n    this mobility which animates nature around us is the work of heat,\n    and heat proceeds from the sun, which is at the same time \"the\n    celestial traveller,\" and the universal motor.\n\n    \"Life also seemed to them to be closely allied to the idea of fire.\n    The grand phenomenon of the accumulation of solar heat in plants, a\n    phenomenon which science has since elucidated, was early perceived\n    by the ancients. It is frequently pointed out in the Veddas in\n    expressive terms. When they lighted the wood on the hearth they\n    knew that they only 'forced' it to give out the fire which it\n    had received from the sun. When their attention was directed to\n    animals, the close bond which exists between heat and life, struck\n    them in all its force; heat maintains life, they found no living\n    animals in whom was life without heat; on the contrary, they saw\n    that vital energy displayed itself in the proportion in which the\n    animals shared in heat, and diminished in the same proportion. Life\n    exists and perpetuates itself on the earth on three conditions\n    only, that fire should penetrate the body under its three forms, of\n    which one resides in the sun's rays, one in the ignited aliments,\n    and the third in respiration, which is air renewed by motion. Now\n    these two latter proceed, each after its own fashion, from the\n    sun (s\u00fbrya); his celestial force is the universal motor, and the\n    father of life: that which he first engendered, is the fire here\n    below (agni) born of his rays, and his second eternal co-operator\n    is air put in motion, which is also called wind, or spirit\n    (v\u00e2yu).\"[9]\n\nThe worship of the sun still exists among all the negro tribes which\ninhabit the interior of Africa; it may even be said that it is the only\nreligion of the African tribes, and this religion has existed among\nthem in all times.\n\nThe ancient inhabitants of the new world had no other worship than\nthat of the sun. This fact is established by the historical archives\nof the Indian races which we possess; such as the Aztecs or ancient\ninhabitants of Mexico, and the _Incas_ or ancient Peruvians. Manco\nCapac, who subjugated Peru, and imposed his own laws upon the country,\npassed for the son of the sun.\n\nDid not all these primitive people, whose customs extend back to the\norigin of humanity, when they rendered religious homage to the sun,\nobey a mysterious intuition, a secret voice of nature? However that may\nbe, it is very remarkable that the religious conceptions of the most\nancient people should be in such complete harmony with the most recent\nand most authoritative deductions of modern science.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[8] \"Paling\u00e9n\u00e9sie Philosophique,\" vol. ii. pp. 427 and following.\n\n[9] \"_Revue des Deux Mondes_,\" 15th April, 1868.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nCHAPTER THE TENTH.\n\nWHAT ARE THE RELATIONS WHICH SUBSIST BETWEEN US, AND SUPERHUMAN BEINGS?\n\n\nHAVING drawn a picture of the transmigrations of souls which, having\nbelonged to men, attain, according to our belief, to the sublime\ndwelling-place of the solar spaces, we will now return to the\nsuperhuman being, and endeavour to find out whether that being, who\nimmediately succeeds to man, who is a resuscitated man, incarnate in\na new body, and living in the plains of ether, can place himself in\nrelation with the inhabitants of the earth, notwithstanding the immense\nspace which divides them. We have already endeavoured (ch. iv.) to\ndiscern the attributes of the superhuman being. Considering the number\nand extent of the faculties with which we believe him to be endowed,\nwe cannot hesitate to accord to this mighty creature the power of\ncommunicating with our earth, and of exerting a certain influence there.\n\nBut how and by what means can such a communication be established?\nWhat is the agency whose existence we must presuppose, in order that\nbeings floating in the ethereal spaces can produce an impression here\nbelow? What transcendent system of electric telegraphy does the\nsuperhuman being employ? On this point we are absolutely ignorant, but\nthe fact that communication does exist between these beings and our\nglobe appears to us to be certain; a conviction which we base upon the\nfollowing grounds.\n\nFirst, let us address ourselves to the popular feeling. As we have\nalready said, we are not afraid of invoking vulgar prejudices and\nopinions, because they are almost always the expression of some great\nmoral truth. Observations repeated thousands of times, traditions\ntransmitted from generation to generation, and which have resisted the\ncontrol of time, without being either altered or destroyed, cannot\ndeceive. Only, when the people amidst whom this tradition has been\nformulated and preserved, are unenlightened, they translate their\nobservations into a coarse form.\n\nLet us inquire into the origin of those ghosts in which many civilized\npeople firmly believe! Take away the absurd white sheet, and the human\nform with which the simple superstition of the peasantry invest them,\nand you will find in ghosts the idea of communication between the souls\nof the dead and the living, you will find the thought which we are\nendeavouring to put before you in a scientific form.\n\nThis popular notion about ghosts has extended to persons who appear to\nbe educated and enlightened, but who are, in reality, as ignorant in\nmatters of philosophy as the simple peasants, and who are, in addition,\naddicted to mysticism, which obscures their reason. We allude to\n_spiritualists_.\n\nThe term _spiritualists_ is applied to the partisans of a new\nsuperstition which sprung up in America and Europe in 1855, as a result\nof the moral malady of _table-turning_. These good people imagine that\nthey can, by their will, and according to their fancy, cause the souls\nof the dead, of great men, or of their own relatives and friends, to\ndescend to the earth. They evoke the soul of Socrates or Confucius,\nas easily as that of a defunct relative, and they are so simple as to\nimagine that these souls come at their call to converse with them. A\nperson who is called a _medium_ is the intermediary between the invoker\nand the soul invoked. The medium, under the influence of an unconscious\nand habitual hallucination, writes down on paper all the answers made\nby the spirit, or rather he writes down everything that comes into\nhis own foolish head, imagining himself to be faithfully transmitting\nmessages from the other world. The people who listen to him take these\nthings, which are simply the thoughts of the ignorant medium, for\nrevelations from beyond the tomb.\n\nIn spiritualism there exists only one true and rational idea; it is the\npossibility of man's placing himself in relation with the souls of the\ndead; but the coarse means resorted to by the partisans of this mystic\ndoctrine, cause every enlightened and educated man to repudiate any\nfellowship with them. We merely mention spiritualism in this place as a\nvulgar and foolish phase of the popular belief in ghosts. It has higher\npretensions, but science and reason alike forbid us to admit them.\n\nThe fact of communication between superhuman beings and the dwellers\nupon the earth being, it seems to us, proved, we shall now consider\nhow those superhuman beings and men who live on the earth or on the\nother planets may be brought into relation with each other. It appears\nto us that this communication is chiefly in action during sleep, and\nthrough the medium of dreams. Sleep, that curious and ill-explained\nstate, is the condition of our being during which a portion of our\nphysiological functions, those which establish our connection with the\nexternal world, are abolished, while the soul preserves a part of its\nactivity. In this condition, the body being seized by a kind of death,\nthe soul, on the contrary, continues to act, to feel, and to manifest\nitself by the phenomena of dreams. Now, in the superhuman being, the\nspiritual portion, the soul, dominates immensely over the material\nportion. The superhuman being is, so to speak, all intelligence. Man,\nwhen he is in the condition of sleep and dreaming, approaches nearer to\nthe superhuman being than when he is in a waking state; there is, then,\nmore resemblance, more natural affinity between them. Consequently\ncommunications can be more easily established between these two beings\nwho are drawn together by analogy of condition.\n\nThere is a saying, the result of repeated observation, which is\nlogical and true. It is, _the night brings counsel_. Is not this as\nmuch as to say that it is during the night we receive the secret\ncommunications and the solitary advice of those beloved invisible\nbeings who watch over us, and inspire us with their supreme wisdom? It\nis certain that when we have to make a decision, to unravel a thought,\nit often happens that we fall asleep in the midst of perplexity and\nuncertainty, and that the next day we awake, having taken our decision,\nunravelled our thought, which explains the phrase, _the night brings\ncounsel_. Ancient times, and the middle ages, accorded an extraordinary\nimportance to dreams. They were considered to be sent by God, as His\nwarnings, hence the importance attached to their interpretation.\n\"During sleep,\" says Tertullian, \"the honours which await men are\nrevealed to us; during sleep, remedies are indicated, thefts revealed,\ntreasures discovered.\"[10]\n\n_Visions_ played a great part among Christians in medi\u00e6val times. It\nwas during sleep that saints, inspired persons, and devotees received\ncommunications of an extraordinary order. We are far from believing\nthat it is during sleep and dreams only that we can feel the presence\nand the influence of superhuman beings. There are few persons who have\nnot felt, while waking, an unaccountable influence of this kind. We\nfeel a soft, gentle impression, a sort of vague, mysterious push, which\nexcites a spontaneous resolution, a sudden inspiration, an unhoped-for\nsuggestion.\n\nWe must observe that all men are not recipients of these mysterious\nimpressions. The superhuman being cannot manifest himself except to\nthose whom he loves, and who remember him; to those whom he wishes to\nprotect against the dangers and difficulties of this terrestrial life.\nA father, or a mother, snatched away from filial love by death, comes\nto speak to the soul which remains and mourns here below. A son,\ntorn in the dawn of life from the tenderness of his parents, comes\nto console them for his loss, to enlighten them with his advice, to\nfurnish them, by the inspiration of his lofty wisdom, with the means of\nsustaining all the trials of this lower life. Two friends are united,\ndespite the barrier of the tomb. Two lovers, whom death has sundered,\nare again brought together. An adored wife, taken by death from her\nhusband, reveals herself to his heart. Then all those sentiments of\nmutual affection which subsisted between them spring up again; death,\nwhich has appeared to sever the ties between these souls, does no more\nthan veil them from the eyes of strangers. Death is conquered; the\nphantom is laid low, and we may cry with the prophet in the Scripture,\n\"Oh, Death! where is thy sting? Oh, Grave, where is thy victory?\"\n\nIn order to receive these communications, a man must possess a pure\nand noble mind, and he must have preserved the cultus of those whom he\nhas lost. A mother who has been indifferent to her child during his\nlife, or has forgotten him after his death, cannot expect to receive\nsecret manifestations from him for whom she has felt but little\ntenderness. The friend from whose heart the image of the friend removed\nby death has been effaced, must renounce such priceless manifestations.\nThe man who is abandoned to low and vicious instincts and perverse\ninclinations, must not flatter himself, however faithfully he may\nhave preserved the memory of the dead, that these messages shall come\nto him. A pure and noble creature only can communicate with these\nprivileged beings.\n\nThere exists in our hearts a moral force which no philosophy has been\nable to explain, which no science has been able to analyze, which is\ncalled _conscience_. Conscience is a sacred light burning within us,\nwhich nothing can obstruct, obscure, or extinguish, and which has the\npower of giving us sure and certain enlightenment on every occasion\nin our lives. Conscience is infallible. Notwithstanding everything,\nin spite of our real or apparent interest, at all times, and in all\nplaces, speaking to the great and the small alike, to the powerful and\nto the weak, it always teaches to discern good from evil, the honest\nfrom the dishonest way. In our belief, conscience is the impression\ntransmitted to us by a beloved being, snatched from us by death. It is\na relative, a friend, who has left the earth, and who deigns to reveal\nhimself to us, that he may guide us in our actions, trace out the path\nof safety for us, and labour for our good. Cowardly, perverse, base,\nand lying men exist, of whom we say that _they have no conscience_.\nThey do not know how to distinguish good from evil; they are entirely\nwanting in moral sense. It is because they have never loved any one,\nand their souls, base and vile, are not worthy to be visited by any of\nthose superior beings, who only manifest themselves to men who resemble\nthem, or who have loved them. A man _without a conscience_ is, then,\none who is rendered unworthy, by the vicious essence of his soul, of\nthe lofty counsels and the protection of those who are no more.\n\nOur readers will have perceived that this idea of a supreme and\ninvisible protector of man, who guides his heart, and enlightens\nhis reason, has already been formulated by the Christian religion,\nwhich has derived it from Holy Scripture. It is the _Guardian Angel_,\na mysterious and poetic type, a seraphic creature, whom God has\ncharged to watch over the Christian, to guard him against snares, and\nconstantly to direct him to the ways of sanctity and virtue. We observe\nthis argument without having sought it. In short, we register our ideas\nas they deduce themselves logically from each other, without any bias.\nAnd when we find ourselves led into agreement with a dogma of the\nChristian religion, we note that concord with pleasure.\n\nWe would ask those persons who have read these pages to question\nthemselves, to summon up their recollections, to reflect upon what\nhas passed around them, and we are convinced that they will discover\nmany facts in harmony with what we advance. The moral phenomenon of\nthe impressions made by the dead on the mind of the living who have\nloved them, and who keep up the cultus of their memory, is one of those\ntruths which every one holds by intuition, and whose entire verity he\nacknowledges when he finds it curtly formulated and put forward. We\nwill not give our readers second-hand information by invoking facts\nof this kind which they may know; we can only recall a few which came\nunder our observation, briefly, as follows:\n\nOne of our friends, an Italian Count, B----, lost his mother nearly\nforty years ago. He has assured us that he has been in communication\nwith her every day since, without intermission. He adds that he owes\nthe wise ordering of his life, his labours, his career, and the good\nfortune which has always accompanied his enterprizes, to the constant\ninfluence and secret counsels of his mother.\n\nDr. V----, a professed materialist, one who, according to the popular\nphrase, _believes in nothing_, believes, nevertheless, in his mother.\nLike Count B----, he lost her early, and has never ceased to feel her\npresence. He told us that he is more frequently with his dead mother,\nthan he used to be when she was living. This professed apostle of\nmedical materialism has, without being aware of it, conversations with\nan emancipated soul.\n\nA celebrated journalist, M. R----, lost a son, twenty years of age, a\ncharming, gentle youth, a writer, and a poet. Every day M. R---- has an\nintimate conversation with this son. A quarter of an hour of solitary\nrecollection admits him to direct communication with the beloved being\nsnatched away from his love.\n\nM. L----, a barrister, maintains constant relations with a sister who,\nwhen living, possessed, according to him, every human perfection, and\nwho never fails to guide her brother in every difficulty of his life,\ngreat or small.\n\nAnother consideration suggests itself in support of the idea which\noccupies us at present. It has been remarked that artists, writers, and\nthinkers, after the loss of one beloved, have found their faculties,\ntalents, and inspirations increased. We might surmise that the\nintellectual faculties of those whom they have loved have been added\nto their own. I know a financier who is remarkable for his business\ncapacities. When he finds himself in a difficulty, he stops, without\ntroubling himself to seek for its solution. He waits, knowing that the\nmissing idea will come to him spontaneously, and, sometimes after days,\nsometimes after hours, the idea comes, just as he has expected. This\nhappy and successful man has experienced one of the deepest sorrows\nthe heart can know; he has lost an only son, aged eighteen years, and\nendowed with all the qualities of maturity, combined with the graces of\nyouth. Our readers may draw the conclusion for themselves.\n\nThis last example may instruct us concerning a peculiarity of the\nsuperior manifestations which we are studying. We have just said\nthat sometimes a certain time, some days for instance, are required\nfor the production of the manifestations. The cause of this is that\nthe superhuman being, to whom they are due, has much difficulty in\nputting himself in relation with the inhabitants of our globe. There\nare many beings on the earth whom he loves, and whom he would fain\nprotect, and he cannot be in two different places at the same time.\nWe may even suppose that the difficulties which human beings feel in\nputting themselves in relation with us, added to the spectacle of the\nsufferings and misfortunes which overwhelm their friends here below,\nare the causes of the only sorrows which trouble their existence, so\nmarvellously happy in other respects. Absolute happiness exists nowhere\nin the world, and destiny has the power to let fall one drop of gall\ninto the cup of happiness quaffed by the dwellers in ether, in their\ncelestial abode.\n\nPersons who receive communications from the dead have remarked that\nthese communications sometimes cease quite suddenly. A celebrated\nactress, now retired from the stage, had manifest communications with\na person whom she had lost by a tragical death. These communications\nabruptly ceased. The soul of the dead friend whom she mourned warned\nher that their intercourse was about to cease. The assigned reason\nserves to explain why such relation cannot be continuously maintained.\nThe superhuman being who was in relations with the terrestrial\nperson had already risen in rank in the celestial hierarchy, he had\naccomplished a new metamorphosis, and he could no longer correspond\nwith the earth.\n\nAmong the French peasantry communication with the dead is a general\nhabit. In the country death does not involve the lugubrious ideas which\naccompany it among the dwellers in cities. People love and cultivate\nthe memory of those whom they have loved, they hold as most happy those\nwhom the favour of Providence has early removed from the misfortunes,\nthe failures, the bitterness of terrestrial life, they call on them,\nthey confide in them, and the dead, grateful for this pious memory of\nthem, respond to the simple prayers of these hearts. All the Orientals\nhave that serene aspiration towards death which in Europe exists\nexclusively among country people. The Mussulmans love to invoke death,\nto spread the idea of death everywhere. Every one knows the melancholy\nproverb of the Arabs, \"It is better to be seated than standing; it\nis better to be lying down than seated; it is better to be dead than\nliving.\"\n\nThe preceding chapter terminated with a quotation from Charles\nBonnet, the first of the naturalists who discerned the doctrine of\nthe plurality of existences above the globe. We shall terminate\nthis chapter with a quotation from another naturalist philosopher,\na contemporary of Charles Bonnet, who defended that doctrine very\ncleverly. Dupont de Nemours, in his _Philosophie de l'Univers_,\nexpresses himself thus, on the subject of the communications which\nmay be established between us, and the superior beings, invisible\ninhabitants of other worlds, whom he calls _angels_, or _genii_.\n\n    \"Why,\" said Dupont, \"have we no evident knowledge of these beings,\n    the necessity, convenience, and analogy of whom strike our\n    reflective faculties which only can indicate them? of those beings\n    who must surpass us in perfections, in faculties, in power, as much\n    as we surpass the lower animals and the plants?--who must have a\n    hierarchy as various, as finely graduated as that which we admire\n    among the living and intelligent beings over which we dominate,\n    and which are subordinate to us?--several others of whom may be\n    our companions on earth, as we are of animals which, destitute\n    of sight, hearing, and the sense of smell, of hands and of feet,\n    do not know what we are even when we are doing them good, or\n    harm?--some of whom are perhaps travelling from globe to globe, or,\n    more excellent still, from one solar system to another, more easily\n    than we go from Brest to Madagascar?\n\n    \"It is because we have neither such organs or such senses as would\n    be necessary to enable our intelligence to communicate with them.\n\n    \"Thus do the worlds embrace the worlds, and thus are classified\n    intelligent beings all composed of matter which God has more or\n    less richly organized and vivified.\n\n    \"Such is the probability, and, speaking to vigorous minds which do\n    not shrink from novel suggestions, I will dare to say that such is\n    the truth.\n\n    \"Man is capable of calculating that it is frequently for his\n    own interest to be useful to other species; and, which is more\n    valuable, more moral, and more amiable, he is capable of rendering\n    them services for his own satisfaction, and without any other\n    motive than the pleasure which it affords him to do so.\n\n    \"That which we do for our lower brethren, we, whose intelligence\n    is circumscribed, and whose goodness is very limited, the genii,\n    the angels,--permit me to employ terms in general use to designate\n    beings whom I only divine but do not know,--these beings who are so\n    much more worthy than we, ought to do, and doubtless do, the same\n    for us, with much more beneficence, frequency, and extent on all\n    occasions which concern them.\n\n    \"We know perfectly well that these intelligences exist, and it is\n    of little importance to us whether they are, as some persons think,\n    formed of a sort of matter, composed of mixed material, or not.\n    Their quota of intelligence is very brilliant, very remarkable,\n    and evident; in strong contrast with the properties of inanimate\n    nature, which can be measured, weighed, calculated, and analyzed.\n\n    \"In order to comprehend what is the action of superhuman\n    intelligences, who can only be known to us by induction, reason,\n    and comparison between what we ourselves are to even the most\n    intelligent animals, which are efficiently served by us, but have\n    not the smallest idea of us, we must pursue analogy farther. These\n    intelligences are above us, and out of the reach of our senses\n    only because they are endowed with a greater number of senses, and\n    with a more developed and more active life. These beings are more\n    worthy than we are, they have many more organs and faculties, they\n    must therefore, in employing their disposable faculties according\n    to their will, just as we employ ours according to our will, be\n    able to dispose, to work, to man\u0153uvre all inanimate matter, and to\n    do all this among themselves, and also with respect to intelligent\n    beings who are their inferiors, with much more energy, rapidity,\n    enlightenment, and wisdom than we possess, we who nevertheless do\n    it for the beasts subordinate to us. It is, then, in harmony with\n    the laws and the ways of nature that the superior intelligences\n    should have power to render us, when it pleases them, most\n    important services of which we are quite ignorant.\n\n    \"These unknown protectors who observe us, unperceived, have not our\n    imperfections, and must prize all that is good and beautiful in\n    itself more highly than we can.\n\n    \"We cannot, therefore, hope to please intelligences of a superior\n    grade by actions which men themselves would condemn as odious.\n    We cannot flatter ourselves with a hope of deceiving them, as we\n    may deceive men, by exterior hypocrisy which only renders crime\n    more despicable. They can behold our most secret actions, they can\n    overhear our soliloquies, they can penetrate our unspoken thoughts.\n    We know not in how many ways they can read what is passing in our\n    hearts, we, whose coarseness, poverty, and unskilfulness limit our\n    means of knowing to touch, sight, hearing, and sometimes analysis\n    and conjecture.\n\n    \"A celebrated Roman wished to have a house built, which should\n    be open to the sight of the citizens. This house exists, and we\n    inhabit it. Our neighbours are the chiefs and the magistrates of\n    the great republic, who are invested with right and power to punish\n    even our intentions, which are no mystery to them. And those who\n    most completely penetrate them in their smallest variations, in\n    their lightest inflections, are the most powerful and the most wise.\n\n    \"Let us then try, in so far as it depends on us, to keep in accord\n    with those in comparison with whom we are so small, and, above all,\n    let us understand our littleness. If it be very important to us\n    to admit to our complete friendship, to our entire confidence, to\n    our constant society, none but men of the first rank of mind and\n    character--if the sweet competition of affection, zeal, goodness,\n    and capacity which is always going on between them and us,\n    contributes to our improvement every day, what shall we not gain by\n    giving them adjuncts, so to speak, higher and more perfect, who are\n    not subject, either to our ignoble interests, our passions, or our\n    errors, and before whom we cannot but blush. They do not vary, they\n    do not abandon us, they never go away, so soon as we are alone we\n    find them. They accompany us in travel, in exile, in prison, in a\n    dungeon; they are always floating above the peaceful and reflecting\n    brain.\n\n    \"We can question them, and every time we do so, we may be sure that\n    they reply. Why should they not do so? Our absent friends render us\n    such service, but only those of their number who inspire us with\n    great respect. We can even experience something of the kind with\n    regard to an imaginary personage, if he presents himself to our\n    minds as uniting several good and heroic qualities. How often, in\n    difficult circumstances and in the midst of the strife of different\n    passages, I have asked myself,--In this case, what would Charles\n    Grandison have done? What would Quesnay have thought? What would\n    Turgot have approved of? What advice would Lavoisier have given me?\n    How shall I gain the approval of the angels? What line of action\n    will be most conformable to the order, the laws and the beneficent\n    views of the wise and majestic King of the universe? For the\n    homage, the aspirations of a soul eager to do good, and careful to\n    avoid debasement, may also be raised to God, in salutary and pious\n    invocation.\"[11]\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[10] \"Liber de anim\u00e2,\" ch. xlvi\n\n[11] Pezzani: \"_Pluralit\u00e9 des Existences de l'\u00e2me_,\" pp. 206-210.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nCHAPTER THE ELEVENTH.\n\nWHAT IS AN ANIMAL?--THE SOULS OF ANIMALS.--MIGRATIONS OF SOULS THROUGH\nTHE BODIES OF ANIMALS.\n\n\nHITHERTO we have left animals out of our plan, although, owing to their\nimmense number, and their influence upon the places which they inhabit,\nthey play a highly important part in the world. It is now time to\ndefine the place in nature which our system assigns to them.\n\nHave animals souls? Yes, in our belief, animals have souls; but among\nanimals of all classes the soul is far from being endowed with an\nequal degree of activity. The activity of the soul is different in\nthe crocodile and in the dog, in the eagle and in the grasshopper.\nIn inferior animals, zoophytes and mollusca, the soul exists only\nin the condition of a germ. This germ develops itself, and becomes\namplified according to the elevation of animals in the series of\norganic perfection. The sponge and the coral are zoophytes (animal\nplants). In these beings, the characteristics of animality, although\nthey exist very positively, are obscure and hardly discernible.\nVoluntary motion, which is the distinctive characteristic formerly\ndemanded for animals, is wanting in them; they are motionless, like the\nplants. Nevertheless, their nutrition is the same as that of animals,\ntherefore they belong to the animal world. We cannot, however, grant\nto them a complete soul, but only the germ, the originating point of\na soul. Among mollusca (such as marine and land shells, the oyster,\nthe snail, &c.), the motions and the conduct of life are dictated by\nthe will, and that suffices, in our belief, to reveal their possession\nof a soul, imperfect and very elementary, but certainly existent.\nAmong articulated animals, the insects especially, will, sensibility,\nacts which denote reason, deliberation, and action resulting from\ndeliberation, are numerous, and recurrent at every moment. They denote\nintelligence already active.\n\nThe smallness of the bodies of these animals is not an argument to\nbe used against the fact of their intelligence. In nature nothing is\ngreat, and nothing is little; the monstrous whale and the invisible\ngnat are equal in the presence of its laws; both one and the other\nhave received as their inheritance the degree of intelligence which is\nsuitable to its need, and it is not by the scale of grandeur that we\nmust measure the degrees of mind among living creatures. Every one is\nfamiliar with the prodigies of intelligence performed by associated\nbees, and by the ants, in their camps and hills. The habits of these\ntwo species of insects, which have been studied and expounded only\nin our age, fill us with wonder, almost with awe. But the bees and\nthe ants do not constitute an exception among the insect class. It\nis very probable that in the entire class intelligence exists to the\nsame degree as in bees and ants, for we do not see why two species of\nhymenopterous insects should exclusively possess this privilege, to\nthe exclusion of other species of the same order, and all the other\norders of the insect class. The fact is, that the bee has been studied\nprofoundly, because that insect is an object of agricultural industry,\nand that, in consequence, it was for man's interest to understand\nits customs. This accounts for the successful surmounting of the\ndifficulties attendant on the study of bees.\n\nWe may add, that the observer to whom our knowledge of bees is due,\nPierre Huber, of Geneva, who published his fine works at the end of the\nlast century, was blind, and that he was obliged to have recourse for\nall his observations to the eyes of an illiterate servant, Fran\u00e7ois\nBurnens, which is a proof that this kind of study was not inordinately\ndifficult.\n\nThe habits of other species of insects, still unknown to us, must,\naccording to this, conceal marvels quite as great as those which the\nHubers have revealed in the case of bees and ants.\n\nLet us conclude that insects have souls, since intelligence is a\nfaculty of the soul.\n\nWe may apply the same reasoning to fishes, reptiles, and birds.\nIn these three classes of animals intelligence progresses towards\nperfection, the faculty of reason is manifest, and the degree of\nintelligence seems to march at a progressive rate from the fish to the\nreptile, and from the reptile to the bird.\n\nIn mammiferous animals we observe a degree of advance in intelligence\nupon the classes of animals we have just named. But, ought we to\ncalculate the degree of intelligence of the different mammifers\naccording to the order in which naturalists have classed these animals?\nOught we to say that the strength of intelligence increases as we\nfollow the zoological distribution of Cuvier, that is to say, that it\nrises from cetacea to carnivora, from carnivora to pachyderms, and from\npachyderms to ruminants, &c.? No, evidently not.\n\nIt would be absurd to apportion the intellect of animals to the place\nwhich they occupy in zoological classification. We do not possess\nany certain method by which to form such an appreciation in detail.\nWe remain within the terms of a very acceptable philosophical thesis\nin advancing our belief, in a general manner, that the intellectual\nfaculties of animals augment from the mollusk to the mammifer,\nfollowing almost exactly the progressive scale of zoological\nclassification, but to enter into the peculiarities of these orders\nwould be to expose ourselves to certain contradiction. In zoophytes the\nsoul exists as a germ; this germ develops itself and grows in mollusca,\nand then in articulated creatures and fishes. The soul acquires certain\nfaculties, more or less obscure and dim, when it enters the body of a\nreptile, and these faculties are manifestly augmented in the body of\na bird. The soul is provided with far more perfected faculties when\nit reaches the body of a mammifer. Such is the general outline of our\nsystem.\n\nLet us now follow this system out to the end. In the first pages of\nthis book, we have advanced our theory that the soul of man, at the\nclose of its terrestrial existence, passes into the planetary ether,\nwhere it is lodged in the body of a new being, superior to man in\nintelligence and morality. If this theory be correct, if this migration\nof the soul of man into the body of the superhuman being be real,\nanalogy obliges us to establish the same relation between the animals,\nand then between the animals and man.\n\nWe firmly believe that a transmigration, a transmission of souls, or\nof the germs of souls, throughout the entire series of the classes of\nanimals takes place. The germ of a conscious soul which existed in\nthe zoophyte and the mollusk passes, on the death of those beings,\ninto the body of an articulated animal. In this first stage of its\njourney, the animate germ strengthens and ameliorates itself. The\nnascent soul acquires some rudimentary faculties. When this rudiment of\na conscious soul passes out of the body of an articulated animal into\nthat of a fish or a reptile, it undergoes a new degree of elaboration,\nand its power increases. When, escaping from the body of the reptile\nor the fish, it is lodged in the form of the bird it receives other\nimpressions, which become the origin of new perfections. The bird\ntransmits the spiritual element, already much modified and aggrandized,\nto the mammifer, and then, the soul, having again gained power, and the\nnumber of its faculties being augmented, passes into the body of man.\n\nIt is probable that in the case of the inferior animals many animate\ngerms are united to form the superior being. For instance, the\nprincipal animators of a certain number of little zoophytes, of those\nbeings who live in the waters by millions, may, probably, on quitting\nthe bodies of those beings, be united in one in order to form the soul\nof a single individual of a superior order.\n\nIt would be impossible to specify from what particular mammifer the\nsoul must escape, in order to penetrate a human organism. It would\nbe impossible to decide whether, before reaching man the soul has\nsuccessively traversed the bodies of several mammifers, of more or less\ncomplicated organism; if it has passed through the body of a cetacian,\nthen of a carnivorous creature, then of a quadrumane, the last term of\nthe animal series. A pretension to detail would be a stumbling block to\nsuch a system as ours.\n\nTo maintain, for instance, that our soul is transmitted to us by the\nquadrumane, would be incorrect. The intelligence of the quadrumane is\ninferior to that of many animals more highly placed than he in the\nzoological scale. Apes, which compose only one family in the very\nnumerous order of quadrumana, are animals of middling intelligence.\nThey are malicious, cunning and gross, and possess only a few features\nof the human face, and even these belong to but few species. All the\nother quadrumanes are bestial in the highest degree.\n\nIt is not, therefore, in the quadrumana that we must look for the\nsoul to be transmitted to man. But there are animals endowed with\nintelligence which is both powerful and noble, who would have a\ntitle to be accredited with such an honour. Those animals would vary\naccording to the inhabited parts of the earth. In Asia, it may be\nthat the wise, grave, and noble elephant is the depositary of the\nspiritual principle which is to pass into man. In Africa, the lion,\nthe rhinoceros, the numerous ruminants which fill the forests may,\nperhaps, be the ancestors of the human race. In America, the horse,\nthe wild ranger of the pampas, the dog, the faithful friend, the\ndevoted companion of man, everywhere are, it may be, charged with\nthe elaboration of the spiritual principle, which, transmitted to\nthe child, is destined to develop itself, to increase in that child,\nand become the human soul. A writer in our time has called the dog a\ncandidate for humanity. He little knew how true his definition is.\n\nIt will be urged, in objection, that man cannot have received the soul\nof an animal, because he has not the smallest remembrance of such a\ngenealogy. To this we reply that the faculty of memory is wanting\nin the animal, or is so fugitive that we may consider it _nil_. The\nchild can therefore receive from the animal only a soul unendowed with\nmemory. And, in fact, the child itself is totally destitute of that\nfaculty. At the moment of his birth he differs not at all from the\nanimal as regards the faculties of his soul. It is not until twelve\nmonths have elapsed that the soul makes itself evident in him, and it\nis afterwards perfected by education. How, therefore, should the child\nremember an existence prior to his birth? Have we any memory of the\ntime which we passed in our mother's womb?\n\nLet us observe here that the progressive order which we have indicated\nfor the migration of soul through the bodies of different animals,\nis precisely that which nature followed in the first creation of the\norganized beings which people our globe. It will be seen in ch. xiv.,\npp. 196-200, that plants zoophytes, mollusca, and articulated animals\nare the first living beings which appeared on our globe. After them\ncame the fishes, and then the reptiles. After the reptiles birds, and\nat a later period mammifers appeared. Thus our system responds to the\nroutine which nature has followed in the creation of plants and animals.\n\nSuch is the system which we have conceived as explanatory of the part\nassigned to animals on our globe. The basis of this system, as will be\nseen, is the intelligence accorded to animals. We entirely repel the\ngenerally held opinion, that beasts do not possess intelligence, and\nthat it is replaced by an obscure faculty which is called instinct. But\nthis theory gives no reason, it merely puts a word in the place of an\nexplanation. By a simple phrase people imagine they resolve one of the\ngreat problems of nature. The timid and conventional philosophy of our\ntime has hitherto accommodated itself to this method of eluding great\ndifficulties, but the moment now appears to have come for a deeper\nstudy of the problems of nature, and for no longer remaining content\nwith the substitution of words for things.\n\nThere was no hesitation in ancient times about according intelligence\nto animals. Aristotle and Plato expressed themselves quite clearly\non this point: they admitted no doubt of the reasoning powers of\nbeasts. The most celebrated modern philosophers, Leibnitz, Locke, and\nMontaigne; the most eminent naturalists, Charles Bonnet, Georges Leroy,\nDupont de Nemours, Swammerdam, R\u00e9aumur, &c., granted intelligence\nto animals. Charles Bonnet understood the language of many animals,\nand Dupont de Nemours has given us a translation of the \"_Chansons\ndu Rossignol_\" and the \"_Dictionnaire de la Langue des Corbeaux_.\"\nIt is, therefore, difficult to understand how a contrary thesis\nbecame prevalent in this age, how Descartes and Buffon, the declared\nadversaries of animal intelligence, have succeeded in turning the scale\nin favour of their ideas.\n\nDescartes regarded animals purely as machines, as automata provided\nwith mechanical apparatus. It would be difficult to surpass our great\nphilosopher in absurdity when he treats of these animal machines.[12]\n_Equidem bonus dormitat Descartes._ The systematic errors of Buffon on\nthe same subject are well known.\n\nThe partizans of Descartes and of Buffon have popularized the idea\nof instinct put in the place of intelligence, of the word replacing\nthe thing. But, in simple truth, what difference is there between\nintelligence and instinct? None. These two words only represent two\ndifferent degrees of the same faculty. Instinct is simply a weaker\ndegree of intelligence. If we read the writings of naturalists\nof this country who have studied the question, Frederick Cuvier\n(brother to George Cuvier), and Flourens,[13] who has but commented\nupon Frederick Cuvier's book on the more profound work of a learned\ncontemporary writer, M. F\u00e9e of Strasbourg,[14] we shall easily find\nthat no fundamental distinction between intelligence and instinct\ncan be established, and that the whole secret of our philosophers and\nnaturalists consists in calling the intelligence of animals, which is\nweaker than ours, _instinct_.\n\nIt is, then, the pride of mankind which has attempted to place a\nbarrier, which in reality has no existence, between us and the animal.\nThe intelligence of the animal is less developed than that of the man,\nbecause his wants are fewer, his organs are less highly finished, and\nbecause the sphere of his activity is more limited, but that is all.\nAnd sometimes, even, we must not forget that the animal exceeds the\nman in intelligence. Look at the rude and brutal waggoner, beside\nhis good and docile horse, which he mercilessly beats and abuses,\nwhile his faithful auxiliary fulfils his task with patient exactness,\nand say, is it not the master who is the brute, and the animal who\nis the intelligent being? In kindness--that sweet emanation of the\nsoul--animals often excel men. Every one knows the horrid story of the\nman who carried his dog to a river to drown him, but who fell into the\nwater himself, and was on the point of drowning. The faithful companion\nwhom he had flung in to die was there; he swam to his master, and\ndragged him into safety. Then the dog's master, making his footing sure\nthis time, seized the creature who had just rescued him, and drowned\nhim.\n\nAccording to our system, the human soul comes from an animal belonging\nto the superior orders. After having undergone, in the body of this\nanimal, a suitable degree of perfecting and elaboration, it incarnates\nitself in the body of a newly-born child of the human race.\n\nWe said, in a former chapter, \"Death is not a termination, but a\nchange; we do not die, we experience a metamorphosis.\" We must add to\nthis, \"Birth is not a beginning, it is a consequence. To be born is not\nto begin, it is to continue a prior existence.\"\n\nThere is not, therefore, properly speaking, either birth or death for\nthe human species; there is only a continuous succession of existences,\nextending from the visible world through space, and connecting each\nwith those worlds which are hidden from our view.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[12] This question is specially considered in Descartes' \"_Discours sur\nla M\u00e9thode._\"\n\n[13] \"_De l'Instinct et de l'Intelligence des Animaux_,\" Paris, 1861.\n\n[14] \"_Etudes Philosophiques sur l'Instinct et l'Intelligence des\nAnimaux_,\" Strasbourg, 1853.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nCHAPTER THE TWELFTH.\n\nWHAT IS THE PLANT?--THE PLANT IS SENSIBLE.--HOW DIFFICULT IT IS TO\nDISTINGUISH PLANTS FROM ANIMALS.--THE GENERAL CHAIN OF LIVING BEINGS.\n\n\nLINN\u00c6US has said, \"The plant lives; the animal lives and feels;\nman lives, feels, and thinks.\" This aphorism represented the state\nof science in the times of Linn\u00e6us. But since the year 1778, that\nis to say, since the death of the great botanist, Upsal, natural\nscience has progressed, botany and zoology have been enriched with\ninnumerable facts and fundamental discoveries, so that the Linn\u00e6an\nformula no longer represents the present condition of the sciences\nof organization. We believe that the following proposition may be\ntruthfully substituted: \"The plant lives and feels; the animal and man\nlive, feel, and think.\"\n\nTo accord sensibility to plants, is to transgress the classic laws of\nnatural history, so that the considerations and facts which appear to\nus to justify this proposition ought to be most carefully stated.\n\n1. The plant feels the sensations of pleasure and pain. Cold, for\ninstance, impresses it painfully; it may be seen to contract itself,\nas if shivering, under the influence of a sudden or excessive fall of\nthe temperature. An abnormal excess of temperature evidently causes\nit to suffer; when the heat is very great, leaves may be observed to\nhang down on the stems, curl up, and appear to wither; when the cool of\nthe evening comes, the leaves rise up again, and the plant resumes its\nappearance of placid health. Drought also occasions manifest suffering\nto plants. Those who study nature with loving attention know that when,\nafter a long period of drought, a plant is watered it exhibits signs of\npleasure. On the other hand, a wounded plant, one from which a branch\nhas been cut, appears to experience pain. A pathological liquid exudes\nfrom the wound, like the blood from a hurt animal; the plant is sick,\nand will die, if it do not receive the necessary succour. Thus persons\nwho love plants will not cut flowers off their stems, they prefer to\ninhale their perfume, and contemplate their brilliant colours, on the\nstalk, without inflicting a painful mutilation upon the beautiful\ncreatures which they admire.\n\nThe sensitive plant, if touched by the fingers, or even struck by a\ncurrent of harsh air, folds up its leaves, and contracts itself. The\nbotanist, Desfontaines, saw a sensitive plant, which he was bringing\nhome in a carriage, contract its leaves while the vehicle was in\nmotion, and expand them when it stopped, thus affording a proof that\nthe movement distressed the plant. A drop of acid, or acrid liquid,\nplaced on a leaf of a sensitive plant, will occasion a similar\nconstriction. All vegetables present an analogous phenomenon. Their\ntissues contract when brought in contact with irritant substances. By\nrubbing the tips of a lettuce, the juice may be made to exude.\n\nVegetable sensibility exists by the same right as animal sensibility,\nsince electricity kills plants as it kills animals, since narcotic\npoisons kill or stupefy plants as they kill and stupefy animals. One\ncan narcotize a plant by watering it with opium dissolved in water, and\nMM. Gopport and Macaire have discovered that hydrocyanic acid kills\nplants as rapidly as animals.\n\n2. Plants sleep at night. During the day they develop their vital\nactivity, and when the night comes, or when they are in darkness, their\nleaves assume another position, that of repose; they fold themselves\nup. In the day-time, the upper surface of the leaf is turned to the\nsky, and the under surface towards the earth; this under surface,\npierced with holes, or _stomata_, is the part through which absorption\nand exhalation take place, while the upper surface, in which there\nare no such openings, is only a sort of screen for the protection of\nthe absorbing surface. It is therefore easy to understand that the\nhorizontal attitude of the leaves is a position of vital activity, and\nthat the refolding of those leaves during the night indicates a state\nof repose. It is precisely the same case with ourselves, when during\nthe night we indulge our muscles, kept on the stretch during the day,\nwith complete relaxation.\n\nThe _sleep of plants_, said to have been discovered by Linn\u00e6us, and\nwhich was certainly described for the first time in one of Upsal's\n_Th\u00e8ses de Botanique_, and thoroughly elucidated by Linn\u00e6us, is not a\nphenomenon limited to certain families of plants. There are very few\nvegetables which, during the night, or in darkness, do not fold their\nleaves, and which do not present a different appearance by day and by\nnight. The Sensitive is the classic plant selected for its exhibition\nof this phenomenon in all its intensity; but this small leguminous\ncreature only presents us with an exaggeration of a fact which exists\nin a lesser degree among almost all vegetables with light leaves. We\nmay quote the following passage from a former work on the subject of\nthis phenomenon.\n\n    \"The sleep of plants vaguely resembles that of animals. It is a\n    remarkable circumstance that the slumbering leaf appears to wish\n    to return to the epoch of its infancy. It folds itself almost as\n    it was when in the bud, before it burst out, as it was in the\n    lethargic sleep of winter, sheltered beneath its strong scales, or\n    wrapped up in its warm down. One would think that the plant was\n    trying every night to resume the position which it occupied in its\n    early time, just as the sleeping animal gathers himself together,\n    and folds his limbs as they were folded in his mother's womb.\"[15]\n\nIs it possible to deny the possession of sensibility to creatures\nwhich give us alternate sign of repose and of activity, and who have\nthe power of accommodating themselves to various external impressions?\nFatigue cannot possibly be anything but the consequence of the\nexperience of an impression.\n\n3. Numerous physiological functions are fulfilled by plants as well\nas by animals; and when we consider the number and variety of these\nfunctions, it is difficult to understand how, if animals be, as the\ncommon consent of mankind declares them, possessed of sensibility,\nplants can be destitute of it. An ancient philosopher defined plants\nas _animals with roots_. We shall see, on examining the variety of\nfunctions performed by vegetables, whether this philosopher was not a\nfar-seeing, wise man.\n\nIt would be difficult to name any function with which the animal\nis invested that the vegetable does not possess in a less degree.\n_Respiration_, for instance, is equally a property of plants and of\nanimals. Among the latter, respiration consists in the absorption of\nthe oxygen of the air and the emission of carbonic acid gas and watery\nvapour; among plants it consists in the emission of carbonic acid gas\nand watery vapour during the night, and during the day, under the\ninfluence of sunlight, of the emission of oxygen proceeding from the\ndecomposition of carbonic acid. The function is evidently of the same\nnature in both the natural kingdoms.\n\n_Exhalation_ is a function common to vegetables and to animals. By\nthe stomata of leaves, as by the pores of the skin of animals, watery\nvapour and various gases, according to the vital phenomena which take\nplace in the interior of the tissues, are constantly being disengaged.\n\n_Absorption_ takes place in both kingdoms. If you pour water on the\nlower surface of a leaf, you will see that it will be absorbed with\ngreat rapidity. Sprinkle a bouquet of flowers with water, and the\nfreshness of the withered blossoms will revive. Absorption is even more\nactive in vegetable than in animal tissues.\n\nThe circulation of liquids in the interior of plants is accomplished\nby a complicated system of channels and vessels of every order and of\nevery calibre, absorbent vessels, exhalant vessels.\n\nNothing is more varied than the disposition of these channels in the\ninterior of plants, and their multiplicity indicates a circulatory\nfunction as complicated as that of animals.\n\nIt is then evident that vegetables have the same physiological\nfunctions as animals, but as yet we know those functions very\nimperfectly. It is very strange that while animal physiology is so far\nadvanced in our day, vegetable physiology is almost in its infancy.\nWe know very well how the digestion of food takes place in man and\nanimals, we know how our blood circulates in a double system of\nvessels, called arteries and veins, and we know the central organ, the\nheart, through which the two liquids are carried by this double system.\nWe see and we touch the organs of sensation and motion, that is to say,\nthe nerves. More than this, we distinguish the nerves which produce\nsensation from those which rule motion. We know that the centre of\nnervous action in man and animals is double; that its seat is equally\nin the brain and in the spinal marrow.\n\nBriefly, science has shed its brightest light on all the functions\nbelonging to animal organization, while vegetable physiology remains in\nobscurity. Notwithstanding the labours of naturalists within the last\ntwo centuries, we cannot explain the life of plants with certainty.\nWe cannot positively state how the sap, which is vegetable blood,\ncirculates in their channels. We do not even know with precision\nwhether a tree grows from the outside to the inside, or from the inside\nto the outside. All the physiological functions in the vegetable\nkingdom are hidden from us by a thick veil, and it is only by lifting\na corner of it with great difficulty that we can catch a few gleams\nof light through the obscurity. Nevertheless, all unexplained though\nthey be as yet, physiological functions do exist in plants. Considering\nthese numerous functions, it appears entirely impossible that plants\nshould not have received the gift of sensibility. It is difficult to\nbelieve, as Linn\u00e6us would have us believe, that they possess life, and\nnothing more.\n\nWe shall be told that vegetables have no nerves, and that in the\nabsence of every organ of sensation, we cannot accord them the faculty\nof sensibility. But, we reply, that the imperfect state of vegetable\nanatomy and physiology forbids us to come to any conclusion touching\nthe existence or the absence of nerves in plants. We are convinced that\nthese organs exist, but that botanists do not know how to discern them,\nor have no means of distinguishing between them and other organs.\n\n4. The manner of multiplication and reproduction among plants and\nanimals is so analogous, that it seems impossible, when we consider\nthis extraordinary resemblance in the most important functions, to\nrefuse sensibility to plants, and accord it to animals.\n\nLet us consider the various modes of reproduction proper to vegetables.\nReproduction, or rather the fecundation which precedes it, is executed\nin certain vegetables, by means of an apparatus of the same typical\nform as that of the animal kingdom. It is composed of a male organ,\nthe stamen, which contains the impregnating dust, pollen, and of a\nfemale organ, the ovary, supported by a stalk, the pistil. The pollen\nimpregnates the ovula contained in the grains of pollen in the ovary,\nas the seed of the male impregnates the ovula contained in the egg of\nthe animal. In both cases the fruit of the impregnation develops itself\nafterwards with the aid of warmth and time. The vegetable egg grows and\nripens, just as the animal egg grows and ripens.\n\nWe may add that the analogy between the modes of reproduction, in the\ntwo kingdoms, animal and vegetable, does not limit itself to these\nconditions of likeness; we may observe resemblances in the specialities\nof the function. Particular vitality, a turgid state of the tissues,\naccompanied by elevation of the local temperature, occur in the case\nof certain plants at the moment of impregnation, especially in the\nspecies of the family of Aro\u00efdes. On placing a thermometer, at that\ntime, in the great floral covering of the Arums, an excess of from 1\u00b0\nto 2\u00b0 on the temperature of the surrounding air will be denoted, an\nextraordinary fact in vegetable life, for vegetables are always colder\nthan the external air. How can we believe that the plant in which this\nexcitement takes place has no feeling of its own condition? The plant,\nlike the animal, has its seasons of love, can it be that it has no\nconsciousness of them? Are we to believe that the plant which becomes\nwarm, in which life rises at the moment of impregnation, has no more\nsensation than a stone? Such is not our opinion. We cannot understand\nlife without sensibility--the one appears to us to be the indication of\nthe other.\n\nThe analogy between the plant and the animal in their functions\nof reproduction is nowhere more evident or more curious than in a\nvegetable production which abounds in the waters of the Rh\u00f4ne, and has\nreceived the name of _Vallisneria spiralis_. In this plant the male\nand female organs are placed on different branches of the same plant.\nThe female flowers are fixed to the ground by long, twisted, spiral\nstalks. But, when seeding time comes, the spirals of the stems unroll\nthemselves, and the female flowers come up to the surface of the water\nand spread themselves out. The male flowers, not being placed like the\nfemale on elastic stems, cannot come up to the surface of the water.\nWhat do they do? They burst through their covering, and float around\ntheir females on the surface of the water. After that the current\ncarries away the detached male flowers; and the female stem folds\nitself up again, and sinks to the bottom of the river, there to ripen\nits impregnated ovules.\n\nThe function of reproduction in plants is rich in conclusions in\nsupport of our thesis. The plants called phanerogamous are not\nreproduced only by impregnation by means of the visible sexual organs,\nthe pistil and the stamen, they are also multiplied by grafts, buds,\nand cuttings. Cryptogamous plants, which have no sexual organs,\nare multiplied either by effects which detach themselves from the\nindividual plant at a certain period of its vegetation as we see\nin the case of fungi, alg\u00e6, mushrooms, &c., or by fragments of the\nindividual itself, which, being thrown into the ground, germinate and\nmultiply themselves.\n\nAnimals, in their several classes, represent all these modes of\nreproduction; there is not one which does not exist among them. Animals\nare not reproduced by eggs only, either interior or exterior, and by\nliving young ones, they are equally multiplied, like vegetables, by\noffsets, by cuttings, and by ingraftment.\n\nMultiplication by offsets may be observed in the fresh-water polype.\nLittle buds which grow and lengthen come out of the body of this\nanimal. While the bud is lengthening, he throws off other and smaller\noffsets, which throw off still smaller ones. All these are so many\nlittle polypes, which derive their nourishment from the principal\npolype. Having attained a certain size, these offsets separate\nthemselves from the primitive individual, and constitute so many new\npolypes. Coral multiplies itself in the same manner. From the principal\nbranch spring secondary branches which have originated in a bud or\nshoot, and these branches, inserting themselves into the chief stem,\nform new individuals. Thus the exterior aspect of the coral resembles a\nramified tree rather than an animal.\n\nMadrepores, another kind of zoophytes, resemble trees so closely, that\nfor centuries they were supposed to be marine plants; they too, like\ncoral, are reproduced by offsets.\n\nMultiplication by cuttings is seen in the fresh-water polype. Take a\nfresh-water polype, and cut it into as many fragments as you choose.\nEach of these fragments, left to itself, will become a polype. These\nnew individuals may be in their turn cut into pieces, which will\nproduce as many new ones. This is multiplication by cuttings, exactly\nsimilar to the process in plants, so that the generation of fresh-water\npolypes does not differ from that of one of our fruit-trees. It is not\nonly the entire polype which, thus cut to fragments, furnishes a new\npolype; the skin of this animal can also produce one new individual or\nseveral. Is not this a vegetable ingraftment?\n\nA similar generation by ingraftment is to be observed in another\ninstance, in the case of the fresh-water polype. Take different\nportions of the same polype, or those of different polypes, and join\nthem at the ends, or lay them upon one another, and you will combine\nthem so closely that they reciprocally nourish each other, and\nultimately form only one individual. Here is vegetable ingraftment\ncarried out in an animal.\n\n5. Other points of resemblance exist between plants and animals. If\nthey are not generally remarked, it is because the authors of the\nclassics of natural history do not direct the attention of the reader\nto these facts. We are about to supplement their silence, and to bring\nthe analogies between the two natural kingdoms into view.\n\nFirstly, there exists in both a common and equally astonishing\nfecundity. Among plants, as among animals, one individual can give\nbirth to thousands of individuals like himself. Vegetables are even\nmore fertile than the superior animals. Trees produce every year, and\nsometimes for a century. Mammiferous animals, birds, and reptiles\nproduce infinitely less than trees; their pregnancy is less frequent,\nand takes place during a certain period in the life of the animal only.\nThe elm produces every year more than 300,000 seeds, and this may\ncontinue for a hundred years. Fish and insects approach most nearly to\ntrees in fecundity. A tench spawns 10,000 eggs yearly, a carp 20,000.\nAmong insects, a female bee produces from 40,000 to 50,000 eggs. To\nthese animals we may compare, among vegetables, the poppy, the fern,\nthe mustard plant, which produce incalculable quantities of seeds. We\nmust not forget, besides, that vegetables multiply themselves in many\nways, whereas each animal possesses but one mode of reproduction.\n\nWhat we wish to establish, what is evident, is that among both animals\nand plants fecundity is equal, and equally prodigious. From the point\nof view of this analogy, we may also quote the size of the species,\nwhich is extremely variable in both kingdoms, because both produce at\nthe same time giant species and dwarf species. Among animals, there\nare some of monstrous size, such as the whale, the cachalot, and the\nelephant, such as the gigantic reptiles of the ancient world, the\nichthyosaurus, which was longer than the whale, the megalosaurus and\nthe iguanadon, which were as large as the elephant.\n\nTo these colossi of the animal kingdom, we may oppose the colossi\nof the vegetable kingdom; the monstrous baobab gourd, which covers\nhundreds of square yards with its shade, the elm, whose trunk may\ngrow to the size of a whale's girth, the _Eucalyptus globulus_, an\nAustralian tree which is being acclimatized in Algeria and in the south\nof France, the _Sequio\u0153a gigantea_, the giant of Californian forests.\n\nIf the two kingdoms of nature have their colossi, they have also their\ndwarfs, and their infinitely little. There are cryptogamic vegetables\nwhich are only to be seen with the microscope, and there are animalcul\u00e6\nequally invisible to the naked eye. If the animal kingdom can show,\nin its scale of size, the whale, and the microscopic _acarus_, the\nvegetable kingdom possesses a similar decreasing scale from the baobab\nto the lichens.\n\nThe same places are inhabited or resorted to by plants and animals.\nBoth live on the same soil, as if for mutual aid. The two kingdoms\ncombine at all points of the globe. We might name a number of places in\nwhich certain plants and certain animals thrive together. The chamois\nand the maple tree love the same mountains, the same high places; the\ntruffle and the earth-worm dwell in the same underground region; the\nbirch and the hare are found in the same place; the water-lily grows in\nthe same fresh water with the aquatic worm; and the cod and the alg\u00e6\nprosper in the same submarine depths.\n\nAll vegetables and animals have an original country, but they can\nbe acclimatized under other skies by human industry and skill. The\nchestnut-tree and the Indian cock, the peach-tree and the turkey,\ntransported to Europe, has each forgotten its native land.\n\nAmong both animals and plants there are amphibious creatures. The frog,\nand the other batrachians, live, like the reeds, on the earth and in\nthe water. Both animals and plants can live as parasites. The animal\nworld has the flea, the louse, the acarus; the vegetable world has its\nlichens, and its mushrooms.\n\nThus, equal fecundity, similar variety in the scale of size, analogy\nin habitation, which implies ideality of organization, possibility of\ntransplantation and of acclimatization out of their original country,\npossibility of amphibious existence, parasitical life, all general\nconditions which suppose a great analogy of organization; we establish\nall these things in drawing the parallel between plants and animals.\nHow, then, if we grant sensibility to one of these kingdoms, can we\ndeny it to the other?\n\n6. Plants, like animals, have their maladies. We do not now allude\nto maladies caused by parasites, like the sickness of the vine, due\nto the _o\u00efdium Tuckeri_, the sickness of the petals, caused by other\nsmall mushrooms, that of the rose-tree, the olive-tree, of corn,\n&c., produced by parasitical cryptogams, which fix themselves on the\nplant, and change the normal course of its life; we speak of morbid\naffections, properly so called. The pathological condition and its\nconsequences exist in the plant as in the animal. Stoppage, or febrile\nand abnormal acceleration of the sap in the vegetable, answer to\nstagnation of the blood, or its acceleration during fever, in the\nanimal; various excrescences of the bark, analogous to affections\nof the skin; the abortion of certain organs, and the capricious\ndevelopment of others; the secretion of pathological liquids which flow\noutside. This is a brief catalogue of the maladies to which trees,\nshrubs, and herbaceous vegetables are subject. A plant which passes\ntoo quickly and too often from intense cold to extreme heat, soon\nbecomes ill, and necessarily perishes, like an animal exposed to those\ndangerous alterations. A shrub left in a current of cold air could\nno more live than an animal if kept in a similar place. In a word,\nthe plant exhibits health or sickness, according to its conditions of\nexistence. How can we admit that the being in which such changes take\nplace, can be merely the passive subject of them, that it experiences\nneither pain nor pleasure in passing from health to sickness, or from\nsickness to health?\n\n7. Sicknesses, or other causes, produce anomalies of form, or\nirregularities of structure in plants, as in animals. Just as in the\nanimal kingdom _monstrosities_ exist, there are monstrosities in the\nvegetable kingdom. The science which occupies itself with monstrosities\nin animals is called _teratology_. Geoffrey St. Hilaire has made some\nmost interesting studies of the causes of the productions of monsters\nin the different classes of animals; but it has been perceived of late\nthat an analogous science must be created, for the explanation of\nmonstrosities proper to the vegetable kingdom, and Moquin Tandon has\npublished a book upon _vegetable teratology_.\n\n8. Old age and death are common to both plants and animals. Plants,\nafter having survived the various maladies which threaten them, do\nnot escape a slow old age, and death necessarily follows. With time,\ntheir vessels become hardened, their size becomes reduced, they can\nno longer give passage to the sap, or other liquids which ought to go\nthrough them. Liquids are not aspired with the same regularity, they no\nlonger transude through the vegetable tissue with the same precision;\nthey remain stagnant in the vessels, become corrupt there, and transfer\ntheir decomposition to the vessels which enclose them. Thenceforth\nthe vital functions cease to be performed, and the plant dies. Things\nhappen in a like manner among animals. The thickening of the vessels,\nthe decrease of their power bring on the condition of old age, in\nwhich the functions are disturbed and slackened; then comes death, the\ninevitable end of all, in each kingdom of nature.\n\nThus, when we compare animals and plants, and especially when we\nconsider the inferior beings in both kingdoms, it is impossible\nto establish a precise line of demarcation between them. The\ncharacteristics by which the old naturalists defined the distinction\nbetween plants and animals, are now acknowledged to be without meaning,\nand this distinction becomes more and more difficult in proportion as\nwe make progress in our knowledge of these creatures. Voluntary motion\nwas regarded as the principal distinctive characteristic between the\ntwo kingdoms of nature; but at the present day this characteristic can\nno longer be invoked. Elementary works on botany now tell us about\nthe fly-catching plant, which catches the insect that crawls over its\nleaves, exactly as a spider catches flies, and about the oscillating\nplant, whose leaves are endowed by voluntary motion, more distinct than\nthat belonging to many animals.\n\nApart from these examples, drawn from classical works, we would ask\nwhat becomes of the argument for the immobility of plants, considered\nas a distinctive characteristic of the vegetable kingdom, when we see\nthat zoophytes are fixed to the earth, and when, on the other hand, we\nsee certain young plants, or their germs, such as the germs of alg\u00e6,\nmosses, and ferns, possessing the faculty of motion.\n\nThe _spores_, or reproductive organs of alg\u00e6, and the _impregnating\ncorpuscles_ of the mosses and ferns, possess the fundamental\ncharacteristics of animality, that is to say, they are provided\nwith locomotive organs, and they execute movements which appear to\nbe voluntary. Those singular creatures are seen to go and come in\nthe interior of liquids, to endeavour to penetrate into cavities,\nto withdraw, return, and definitively introduce themselves with an\napparent effort.\n\nThe German botanists regard these vegetable germs as belonging to\nthe animal kingdom. Considering that only animals have the organs of\nmotion, and that the spores of alg\u00e6 and the impregnating corpuscles\nof mosses and ferns are provided with organs of motion, they do not\nhesitate to declare that in the commencement of their life, alg\u00e6,\nmosses, and ferns are in truth animals, which become plants when they\nfix themselves, and begin to germinate. French botanists have not yet\nventured to adopt that view; they are content to call the movable\nimpregnating corpuscles of alg\u00e6, mosses, and ferns, _antherozo\u00efdes_,\nbut they do not dare to pronounce upon their animality. M. Pouchet\nsays, in his work _L'Univers_, page 444:\n\n    \"Motion manifests itself spontaneously with extraordinary intensity\n    in the _animalcul\u00e6_ of several plants, which have spinal organs for\n    this purpose, hairs by means of which they swim about in the liquid\n    which contains them.\n\n    \"Some of these, real animalcule plants, have the shape of eels, and\n    move themselves by means of two long filaments attached to their\n    heads; others exactly resemble the tadpoles of frogs, and jump\n    about in the cells of the mosses.\n\n    \"Nevertheless, it is such creatures as these, whose locomotive\n    organs are so plainly to be discerned, and which we can see,\n    under the microscope, jumping about as nimbly as our acrobats,\n    that certain botanists persist in considering, on theory alone,\n    as motionless and insensible. Some philosophers certainly possess\n    eyes, that they may not see!\"\n\nThere are these germs of plants, and young plants which move, and\non the other hand, almost all the adult zoophytes, sponges, corals,\nmadrepores, sea-stars, byssus, &c., &c., to which we may add several\nmollusca (all those in shells), are fixed to the earth. In these cases\nwe must take the plant for the animal, and the animal for the plant,\nif we positively hold by voluntary motion as an absolute distinction\nbetween animals and plants.\n\nOn the borders of the two kingdoms,--when we consider zoophytes in the\nanimal, and cryptogams in the vegetable kingdom,--there is no longer,\nso to speak, either animal or plant; the two seem to be confounded, and\nfused together.\n\nIf, before the discovery of the fresh-water polype, that living\ncreature had been presented to a naturalist, he would have felt puzzled\nhow to class it. Seeing it multiplying itself by buds, by offshoots, by\nengraftment, he would doubtless have declared that this organized being\nwas a plant. But if he had been made to remark that this same creature\nfed on living prey, which it seized and swallowed, that it had long\nand flexible arms, of which it formed a kind of net for the purpose of\nseizing this prey, which it conveyed into the interior of a digestive\ntube, our naturalist would have made haste to place the polype in the\nranks of the animals. He would have been asked to observe that the\npolype may be turned inside out, like a glove, so that his interior\nskin becomes his exterior skin, and that, thus turned inside out, he\nlives, grows, and multiplies himself, precisely as he does before this\ncurious reversal. Our naturalist, much embarrassed in the presence of\nso unheard of a fact, would doubtless immediately have begun to seek\nsome intermediate kingdom between the animal and the vegetable, to\nwhich he might relegate this paradoxical being, which could not, with\nabsolute certainty, be classed either with plants, or with animals.\n\nThe fact is, classifications are products of human science, nature\nknows nothing about them. We descend, by insensible degrees, from one\nkingdom to the other; we go from the man to the polype, and from the\npolype to the rose tree, by infinite gradations, and, on the confines\nof the two kingdoms, there is a whole series of creatures which it is\nvery difficult to range under any system. For how long did naturalists\nhesitate before they regarded infusoria, coral, sponges, star-fish,\ngorgons, sea-anemones, and madrepores as animals? Even in the present\nday micrographers who study the microscopic beings proper to vegetable\nand animal infusions, such as the monads, polypoid worms, and numerous\nothers, find the utmost difficulty in assigning these creatures to such\nor such a kingdom, and they sometimes decide rather arbitrarily upon\nplacing them among animals or plants.\n\nFrom all the considerations, all the facts which we have just advanced,\nwe conclude that the sensibility of plants is not to be contested,\nsince no one can think of denying that privilege to certain zoophytes\nwhich can with difficulty be distinguished from vegetables.\n\nWe see an imposing tree, a stately oak with sturdy branches, growing on\nthe sea coast. Not far off, on the sand of the shore, lies a star-fish\nflung there by the waves. A few yards below, on the surface of the\nwater, floats a sponge, a branch of coral, a madrepore. When the icy\nwind blows, when the hurricane lifts the angry waves, which is it, the\nanimal or the plant that will manifest sensibility to the tempest? The\nsponge, the coral, the madrepore will remain as indifferent to the fury\nof the elements as the rock in which they are incrusted, or as the\npebble on which the star-fish stretches out its four motionless arms.\nBut, the majestic oak will shudder at every gust of the tempest; he\nwill bend his branches and shut up his leaves to shelter himself from\nthe icy blast or the furious storm; and a mere glance at his attitude\nwill indicate to you that an abnormal perturbation reigns in the\natmosphere. Would you seriously say, in that case, that the vegetable\nfeels nothing, and that the animal is sensible? Would you not, on the\ncontrary, be inclined to declare that the tree is the sentient being,\nand that the star-fish, the sponge, the madrepore, are the creatures\nwhich are destitute of feeling?\n\nPause beside still water and seek for the polype or fresh-water hydra\nwhich we have just mentioned. You will find it difficult to disentangle\nthis zoophyte from the reeds and willows which surround it. You will\nfind, at length, a kind of membranous tube, a few centimetres in\nlength. Is that the polype you were looking for? Is it not rather the\nstubble of some reed or grass plant? This living twig, with nothing to\ndistinguish it in appearance from a herbaceous plant, is constantly\nfixed in the same place, like an aquatic vegetable. It makes some\nfaint movements, consisting simply of the opening and shutting of the\norifice of the tube, which solely constitutes its being. Sometimes it\nlengthens, sometimes it contracts itself, by stretching out membranous\narms, as fine as threads, by means of which it seizes and drags towards\nit the water insects which chance to pass near it. This is the one\nsingle characteristic of its animality. At this rate, an a\u00ebrial plant,\nthe _fly-catcher_, would be just as much an animal as our polype, since\nit catches the insects which venture to crawl upon its leaves.\n\nAt the bottom of the sea there is a very curious zoophyte, the\n_actinium_, or sea-anemone. For a long time this creature was\nconfounded with the plants, and held to be an ocean flower. Those\nwho admire the beautiful, bright-coloured actinia, in the Garden\nof Acclimatization, in Paris, who look at them, waving on their\nflexible stem, shaking the coloured appendages and fringes which adorn\ntheir heads, find it hard to regard these charming queens of the\nwaters otherwise than as real flowers. And, in fact, for ages, the\n_sea-anemones_ were held to be marine plants.\n\nIn the last century, coral was held to be a marine shrub, and it was\neven believed that the flowers of the coral had been discovered. An\nacademician of Paris, Count de Marsigli, created a European reputation\nfor himself by this supposed discovery. Peyssonnel, a Proven\u00e7al\nnaturalist, found the utmost difficulty in opposing this idea, and in\nestablishing the fact that these supposed flowers of the coral were\nin reality young corals. He had the whole Academy of Sciences against\nhim; and his opposition to the ideas of the Academy brought him into\nsuch disgrace, that he was obliged to leave France and to go to the\nAntilles, where he died in obscurity as a doctor of medicine. And all\nthis because he maintained that coral is not a plant, and does not\nproduce flowers!\n\nThe famous Genevese naturalist, Charles Bonnet, anticipating the\nknowledge of our day by more than a century, has given a most\ninteresting form to the parallel between animals and plants, in his\nwork entitled _Contemplation de la Nature_. We cannot resist the\npleasure of quoting the following passage, in which Charles Bonnet\nshows in a striking manner what are the difficulties in the way of\ndistinguishing the plant from the animal, and how those difficulties\nare disposed of by those who dispute the sensibility of plants:--\n\n    \"Everything is graduated in nature,\" says Charles Bonnet, \"and, in\n    refusing to admit that plants are sentient, we force nature to make\n    a jump without any assignable reason.\n\n    \"We observe that feeling decreases by degrees from man to the\n    nettle, and to the mussel, and we persuade ourselves that it stops\n    there, because we regard these animals as the least perfect. But\n    there are, perhaps, many degrees between the feeling of the mole\n    and of the plant. There are, perhaps, still more between the most\n    and the least sensible of the plants. The gradations, which we\n    observe, ought to persuade us to this philosophy; the new beauty\n    which it adds to the system of the world, and the pleasure to be\n    derived from the multiplication of sentient creatures ought to\n    contribute to induce us to admit it. I willingly admit that this\n    philosophy is much to my taste. I love to think that those flowers\n    which adorn our fields and our gardens with a brightness constantly\n    renewed, those fruit trees which are so pleasant to our eyes and\n    our palate; those majestic trees that compose the vast forests,\n    which time seems to have respected, are so many sentient creatures\n    partaking after their fashion in the sweetness of existence.\n\n    \"Plants offer some facts to our observation which seem to indicate\n    that they possess feeling, but we are not likely to perceive those\n    facts, because of the strong persuasion that they are insensible,\n    which has prevailed among us for so long. We ought to agree to\n    consider the question _tabula rasa_, and to subject plants to\n    a new, impartial, and unprejudiced examination. An inhabitant\n    of the moon, possessed of intellectual faculties like ours, but\n    without any preconceived ideas about the insensibility of plants,\n    would be the philosopher whom we require. Let us imagine such\n    an observer engaged in studying the productions of our earth,\n    and, after having given his attention to the polypes and other\n    insects multiplied by the process of grafting, passing on to the\n    contemplation of vegetables. He would, doubtless, take them at\n    the period of their birth. With this view, he would sow seed of\n    various species, and he would carefully watch their germination.\n    Let us suppose that some of those seeds have been reversed in the\n    sowing, the sprouting part turned downwards, the stem upwards; and\n    the observer has the skill to distinguish one end of the seed from\n    the other, and knows their functions. After some days, he will\n    remark that the seed has grown into this reversed position, that\n    the stem is turned upward, and the sprouting portion downward. He\n    will feel no surprise; he will attribute a circumstance which is\n    so hurtful to the life of the plant, to the mistake he has made in\n    sowing the seed. But, continuing to observe, he will see the sprout\n    and the stem each bending itself in the opposite direction, and\n    trying to attain the right position. This change of direction will\n    strike him as very remarkable, and he will begin to suspect that\n    the organized being which he is studying is endowed with a certain\n    amount of discernment. Too prudent, however, to pronounce upon\n    these early indications, he will suspend his judgment and pursue\n    his investigations. The plants whose germination our physicist\n    has been observing, have been raised in the neighbourhood of a\n    hedge. Thus favoured, and carefully cultivated, they have made\n    great progress in a very short time. The soil which surrounds them\n    at some distance is of two opposite qualities. That on the right\n    of the plants is rich, damp, and spongy; that on the left is dry,\n    hard, and gravelly. Our observer remarks that the roots, after\n    having begun by extending equally on both sides, have changed their\n    direction, and have spread out towards the rich and humid soil;\n    over which they are stretching, and thus threatening to deprive\n    the plants already there of their due share of nourishment. To\n    prevent this inconvenience, he digs a ditch between the plants\n    which he is observing and those they threaten to starve, and now he\n    thinks he has provided against everything. But the plants, which\n    he believes he has governed, disconcert all his precautions by\n    extending their roots downwards, under the ditch, and gaining the\n    other side.\n\n    \"Surprised at this, he uncovers one of these roots, but without\n    exposing it to heat, and holds a sponge steeped in water towards\n    it. The root turns itself to the sponge, and when he changes its\n    position, the root accommodates itself to each alteration.\n\n    \"While our philosopher is meditating profoundly upon these\n    facts, other facts equally remarkable present themselves almost\n    simultaneously. He observes that all these plants have leaned away\n    from the hedge, and are bending forward as though to present every\n    portion of their bodies to the beneficent smiles of the sun. He\n    sees that all the leaves are so turned that their upper surface is\n    exposed to the sun, or to the fresh air, and that the lower surface\n    is directed towards the hedge, or the ground. Former experience\n    will have taught him that the upper surface of leaves serves\n    chiefly as a defence for the lower surface, and that the latter\n    is principally destined to pump up the moisture rising from the\n    earth, and provide for the evacuation of what is superfluous. The\n    direction of the leaves which he notices appears quite in harmony\n    with his experiences. He studies this portion of the plant with\n    increased attention.\n\n    \"He remarks that the leaves of some species seem to follow the\n    movements of the sun, so that in the morning they turn to the\n    east, in the evening to the west. He sees that some leaves close\n    themselves against the sun, others against the dew. He observes an\n    analogous movement in certain flowers. Afterwards, he observes\n    that no matter what the direction of the plants relative to the\n    horizon has been, the direction of the leaves is always that\n    which he has at first noticed, he bethinks him of changing this\n    direction, and of placing the leaves in a position exactly contrary\n    to their natural one. He has already had recourse to similar\n    means in order to assure himself of the instinct of animals, and\n    to ascertain its bearings. With this view he bends perpendicular\n    plants towards the horizon, and keeps them in that position. Thus,\n    the direction of the leaves is absolutely changed; the upper\n    surface, which previously turned to the sun or to the fresh air,\n    now looks towards the earth or the interior of the plant, and the\n    lower surface, which formerly looked towards the earth or the\n    interior of the plant, now turns to the sun, or the fresh air. But\n    very soon all these leaves begin to move, they turn on their stem\n    as on a pivot, and in an hour they will have resumed their former\n    position. Our observer, wishing to assure himself whether leaves\n    and branches when detached and plunged into water will preserve\n    the inclinations which they manifest when upon the plant of which\n    they formed a portion, subjects them to an experiment whose results\n    leave him no doubt of the fact.\n\n    \"He places wet sponges under the leaves, and he sees the leaves\n    turn towards the sponges and endeavour to adhere to them by their\n    lower surfaces. He also observes that certain plants, which he has\n    shut up in his cabinet and in a cellar, have turned towards the\n    window, or the grating respectively.\n\n    \"Finally, the phenomena of the Sensitive Plant, its varied\n    movements, the promptitude with which it contracts when touched,\n    form the interesting subject which terminates his researches.\n\n    \"Thus plentifully supplied with facts which all seem to tend to the\n    support of belief in the sensibility of plants, which side will\n    our philosopher take? Will he surrender to these proofs? Will he\n    suspend his judgment? I think he will take the first part.\"[16]\n\nCharles Bonnet believes, in short, that the plant, as well as the\nanimal, is endowed with sensibility.\n\nAccording to the system which we have developed, the animal is\npossessed of a soul, which is still very imperfect, and endowed only\nwith faculties corresponding to its needs. But, since the animal,\nin addition to the sensibility enjoyed by the plant, possesses\nintelligence also, we must conclude from thence that the plant has not\na soul, properly so called, but only the rudiment, the commencement, in\nother words, the _germ_ of a soul.\n\nWe know that the sun has the privilege of giving birth to organic life\nupon our globe, his rays have power to produce the formation of living\ntissues, plants or zoophytes, when they fall upon the earth or the\nwaters, and we may draw this conclusion from all that has gone before,\nthat the sun sends down upon the earth _animated germs_ under the form\nof his rays, which emanate from the spiritualized creatures who dwell\nin the king-star.\n\nThus our system of nature completes itself; thus, thanks to solar\nradiation, the two ends of the immense chain of organized beings whose\nplace and part in the vast theatre of the worlds we have attempted to\ndefine are united. Life begins in the waters, its first appearance is\nin plants and zoophytes; for these two classes of living creatures obey\nthe same laws, and appear to have the same origin. The sun, by sending\nhis vivifying rays upon the earth, produces the formation of plants\nand zoophytes, which are the points of departure of organization. The\n_animated germ_ deposited by the sun in plants and zoophytes grows,\npasses from the zoophyte to the mollusc, or articulated animal, and\nthen undergoes a further development, by passing from the mollusc or\narticulated animal to the fish. This germ of a soul thus becomes a\nrudimentary soul, provided with certain faculties. In the zoophyte\nand the mollusc it had only sensibility; in the fish, and then in the\nreptile, and the bird, it has attention and judgment. The faculties\nare augmented in proportion as the animal mounts higher in the\norganic scale. Arrived at its summit, the human being, the soul is in\npossession of all its faculties, and especially of memory, which during\nthe animal stages of the ascent is obscure and uncertain.\n\nTo accord sensibility to plants permits us to unite all the creatures\nof the living creation, and thus to complete our general system of\nterrestrial nature.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[15] \"_Histoire des Plantes_,\" Paris, p. 111.\n\n[16] \"_Contemplation de la Nature_ (_\u0152uvres d'Histoire Naturelle de\nCharles Bonnet._\") Neuch\u00e2tel, 1781.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nCHAPTER THE THIRTEENTH.\n\nDOES MAN EXIST ELSEWHERE THAN ON THE EARTH?--DESCRIPTION OF THE\nPLANETS.--PLURALITY OF INHABITED WORLDS.\n\n\nTHROUGHOUT the preceding chapters we have reasoned as if the earth\nwere the whole universe. Indeed, almost all men believed that such\nwas the case, from the first establishment of society until the last\ncentury. Great mathematical knowledge, profound study, and highly\nperfected optical instruments are requisite to rectify the false\nideas, the errors, and the illusions which are the result of a simple\nview of the earth and the sky. Great efforts of the mind, and a very\ndifficult struggle against the testimony of our senses are necessary to\nthe recognition that the earth moves, and that the sun is motionless.\nIn order to distinguish the place and the office of each of those\nsoftly beaming globes, in the midst of the uniformity of aspect\npresented by the stars which shine during the night, patient and severe\nobservations, transmitted and repeated from age are indispensable, and,\nin addition, an excellent scientific method. Let us therefore not be\nsurprised that men have taken so much time to comprehend the ordering\nof the universe, and that they had only the most childish conception\nof them for thousands of years. The ancients, the Greeks, the Romans,\nthe Egyptians, knew nothing of the universe, except the earth (nor did\nthe Orientals, with the exception of some truly learned men, who had\ndivined the general mechanism of the universe by methods unknown to us,\nbut they concealed their knowledge from the profane). These ancients\ncould speak of only a small portion of the globe: of Europe, Asia, and\nthe North of Africa. The remainder was a dead letter for the peoples\nof antiquity. After them, and following their example, the first\nChristians reduced the universe to what they knew of it; they believed\nthere was but one world, because they saw only one. The earth was for\nthem the universe. In the stars they saw only brilliant spots, like\nsilver nails in the celestial vault, to enhance the azure, and charm\nthe eyes of men in the quiet of the night. The moon was the natural\nbeacon of the earth. In the sky there was a shining track followed by\nthe sun, and the torch of day was no larger than the beacon of night.\nThe celestial region which spread itself above the sun and the moon\nwas the Empyrean of the ancients, the Paradise of the Christians and\nthe Mussulmans. It was at once the sojourn of clouds and of light, the\nhabitation of the elect of God, of the saints and the just. Under the\nearth, and in its interior, were immense abysses, gulfs, and cavities,\nthe dark dwellings of the damned.\n\nThis simple cosmogony, which merely translates what our eyes show\nus, has been that believed by every people in their infancy. Among\nthe savage tribes of the two worlds, in America and in Africa, as\nin the ancient East, among the Romans as among the Egyptians and the\nancient Greeks, this coarse simplicity and absolute ignorance of the\nconstitution of the world prevailed. On this profoundly false basis\nall the ancient religions were founded. The social customs of modern\npeoples are based upon the same errors. Language has consecrated them;\nthe earth is everywhere called the _world_, as the ancients called it\n(_mundus_, \u03ba\u03cc\u03c3\u03bc\u03bf\u03c2); every one says the sun _travels_, or _goes_, from\neast to west, and that the stars _rise_ and _set_.\n\nPoetry has set its eternal seal on this vicious system, and has, so to\nspeak, consecrated it, by clothing it with all the _prestige_ of genius\nand imagination.\n\nModern astronomy has caused the false skies of antiquity to vanish\naway; it has dispersed the pretensions of the celestial vault, sown\nwith brilliant spots, and substituted a simple mass of coloured air.\nIt has revealed the true office of each of those stars which we see\nby day or by night. It has fixed, in an indisputable manner, the real\nplace of the earth in the universe, and, to say the truth, that place\nis singularly small.\n\nWe know now, that the earth, far from being herself the world, is\nonly an imperceptible point of the world. If we only compare it with\nthe sun, we know that our globe is one million three hundred thousand\ntimes smaller than the sun. This takes us far away from the idea of the\nancient Greeks, who thought they ventured much in asserting that the\nsun was as big as the Peloponnesus.\n\nIn addition, the earth has been dispossessed of all privileges. It was\nbelieved formerly to be unique and unrivalled, we now know that there\nare an infinity of other globes similar to the earth, so that she is no\nmore than one individual in a group of other individuals who resemble\nher. We know that the earth figures among the planets, that she is only\na planet of our system.\n\nWhat, then, is a planet? the reader will ask. An attentive gaze\ndirected to the stars of night will make him understand it. Let him\nexamine, on any fine evening, the star which is pointed out to him as\nMars or Jupiter, and to which a certain position is assigned at a given\nhour. Then, a few hours later, let him come and look once more for Mars\nor Jupiter, and he will perceive that the position of Mars or Jupiter,\nwith respect to the other stars, is changed. Or he may do better\nstill. Let him look at Mars or Jupiter through the telescope of an\nobservatory, or the glass of one of those open-air astronomers who are\nto be found in the public ways in Paris and other great cities. Thus he\nmay see Mars or Jupiter change his place under his own eyes. While the\nother stars remain motionless, Jupiter or Mars will pass away from the\nfield of the glass.\n\nThere are, then, fixed stars and movable stars. The movable stars are\nthe planets (\u03c0\u03bb\u03b1\u03bd\u03ae\u03c4\u03b7\u03c2, from \u03c0\u03bb\u03ac\u03bd\u03bf\u03c2, wandering). The fixed stars are\nwhat we _call_ stars. It is not difficult to distinguish the planets\nfrom the stars with the naked eye. The stars emit sparkling light,\nwhence comes their name, from the Latin _stellare_, to shine, and their\nlight twinkles. The planets, on the contrary, shine with a steady,\nmild, unvacillating light. The reason of this difference is, that\nthe light shed by the stars is their own. The stars are so many suns\nresembling ours. They illumine worlds like our world, so prodigiously\ndistant that we cannot even perceive them. The planets do not shine of\nthemselves; they merely reflect, like gigantic mirrors, the light of\nthe sun which illumines them, and renders them visible to us. Thus, the\nplanets are stars which travel. They revolve around the sun. The earth,\nbeing a planet, is a travelling star, which revolves around the sun.\n\nBut the earth is not the only planet of our solar system. There are\nseven others, which do not differ essentially from the earth. The names\nof the eight planets which compose our solar system, are as follows,\narranged according to their distance from the sun: Mercury, Venus,\nthe Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Between Mars\nand Jupiter there is a collection of small bodies, which seem to be\nfragments of broken planets; they are called astero\u00efds. At present,\nin 1871, more than a hundred are known, and it is not yet fifty years\nsince they were first sought for in the sky. These astero\u00efds may be\ncollected together in our fancy, and formed into a separate group,\nwhich would be a ninth planet. Let us glance at the planets which\ncompose our solar system.\n\nPlates 4 and 5, which accompany these pages, will suffice to give an\nidea of the relative dimensions of the planets. In these two plates the\nplanets are arranged according to the order of their distance from the\nsun. In plate 4, Mercury, Venus, the Earth, and Mars are represented;\nin plate 5, the astero\u00efds Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.\nMercury is the nearest planet to the sun, his distance from the central\norb being only fourteen millions of leagues, which, in astronomy, is\nnear neighbourhood. This planet revolves upon its axis with the same\nrapidity as the earth. The day, in Mercury, is only three minutes\nlonger than ours (24h. 3ms.). Being closer to the sun than the earth\nis, Mercury turns more quickly round the sun, so that its year is only\n88 days, whereas ours is 365 days.\n\nWe know that the sole cause of the inequality of the seasons, as well\nas of day and night in the planets, is the inclination of the star on\nits axis of rotation. If the planets, while revolving round the sun,\nretained the verticality of the axis which joins these north and south\npoles, there would be perfect equality in the distribution of the solar\nlight and heat over the same latitudes; along each parallel there would\nbe a complete regularity in the lighting and warming of the planet; the\ndifferences of heat and cold would not depend on anything but their\ngreater or less distance from the sun. But this verticality only exists\nfor two or three planets of our system. The others, and among them\nMercury, Venus, the Earth, and Mars, are strongly inclined on their\naxis of rotation.\n\nThey revolve in a bent position, as if they had received a great blow\non the shoulder, which had caused them to deviate from their primitive\nand regular situation. From this there results a very variable\ndisposition of the duration of the light, and consequently of the\nheat, which these inclined planets receive from the horizontal rays\nof the solar star. Thus the inequality in the length of the days and\nnights, and the diversity of the four seasons on the same parallel, are\naccounted for.[17]\n\n[Illustration:\n\nMercury. Venus. Earth. Mars. Sun.\n\nFig. 4.--Comparative Size of the Planets Mercury, Venus, the Earth, and\nMars.]\n\nThe inclination of the axis of the terrestrial sphere is 23\u00b0 which\nis a considerable deviation, and occasions great differences in the\nduration of days and of seasons on different points of our globe.\nThe inclination of the axis of the planet Mercury is enormous: it is\n70\u00b0. This planet bends over itself as if about to fall. Hence results\nprodigious variation of light and heat on the same parallel, and\nseasons whose abrupt changes must be painful and hard to bear by the\ninhabitants of this planet, if such inhabitants exist.\n\nMercury is five times less than the Earth, as is shown in plate 4.\nVenus comes after Mercury, according to distance from the Sun.\n\nVenus, which is 27,000,000 of leagues from the Sun, receives twice\nas much light and heat as our globe. Its days are of nearly the same\nlength as ours (23 hours, 21 minutes), but its year, necessarily\nshorter than that of the Earth, since it is nearer to the Sun, lasts\nonly 224 days. Its seasons last two months each. Its globe is nearly of\nthe same bulk as that of the Earth. Venus is almost always wrapped in\nclouds, which must fall in rain, forming rivers and seas. These waters\nrefresh the plains, which must be scorched by the heat of the burning\nsun. The seasons are still shorter and more unequal in Venus than in\nMercury; its axis is, in fact, inclined at 75\u00b0.\n\nAfter Venus comes the Earth, which is almost of the same bulk, but\n28,000,000 of leagues from the Sun. Its diameter is nearly 3000\nleagues. It accomplishes its revolution on its axis in 24 hours (23\nhours, 56 minutes, 4 seconds), and in 365 days, 5 hours its revolution\naround the sun.\n\nThe inclination of the Earth's axis is 23\u00b0, which produces the\ndifferences of days and nights, and the inequality of the seasons,\naccording to latitude. The Earth possesses a privilege denied to\nthe planets Mercury, Venus, and Mars; she has a secondary star, or\nsatellite, called the Moon. Placed at a distance of only 90,000 leagues\nfrom the Earth, the Moon accomplishes her revolution around it in 27\ndays. It is not the object of this work to give any description of our\nglobe. We will suppose our readers to be sufficiently acquainted with\nit, and pass on to the planet which comes next to it in the scale of\ndistance from the Sun. This is the planet Mars.\n\nAn extraordinary resemblance exists between Mars and the Earth.\nPhysical, geographical, and climatological conditions, days and nights,\nseasons, celestial perspectives, all are alike in these two planets,\nwith the sole difference that the globe of Mars is half as small again\nas that of the Earth; so that, if a man were transported to Mars, he\nmight believe himself to be, not in a strange planet, but in a little\nknown corner of the Earth, such as Australia or Polynesia.\n\nAs we pursue our journey through the heavens, ever increasing our\ndistance from the Sun, we shall find, after Mars, the group of the\nAstero\u00efds. We shall not linger before this cluster of small stars,\nwhich is no doubt nothing but a collection of the dismembered fragments\nof a planet, which formerly existed in this particular point of space,\nand was dashed to pieces by some formidable accident in the universe.\nThese little stars, like the important planets, have each their names,\nsuch as _Vesta_, _Pallas_, _Circe_, &c., &c. _Maximiliana_, and\n_Feronia_ are placed at the two extremities, with respect to distance\nfrom the Sun. These remains of a broken star continue to circulate\naround the Sun, like the planet which they formerly composed.\n\nAfter the Astero\u00efds comes great Jupiter.\n\nJupiter is the largest planetary sphere in our solar system, being 1400\ntimes greater than the Earth. Its distance from the Sun is 200,000,000\nmiles. In consequence of this distance, its year is as long as twelve\nof our years. Notwithstanding its colossal dimensions, Jupiter turns\nwith such rapidity upon its axis, that it accomplishes an entire\nrevolution in twelve hours, so that its day and night are respectively\nonly ten hours long. The shortness of Jupiter's nights are compensated\nby the existence of four moons, or satellites, which revolve around\nthis planet, and give it permanent light. This illumination by\nreflection, added to very long twilights, must make Jupiter's nights\nnearly equal to the day in brightness.\n\nThough Jupiter suffers under the disadvantage of very short days, it\nhas on the other hand the inappreciable advantage of perfect equality\nin the length of its days and nights, and of that of the four seasons\nover all its parallels. The axis of Jupiter is hardly at all oblique,\nand therefore Jupiter, like the planet Saturn, enjoys a sort of\nperpetual spring, that is to say, an equable distribution of solar\nheat and light along the same degrees of latitude. Jupiter, unlike\nMars and Venus, has no vicissitudes of seasons, no sudden and painful\ntransitions from cold to heat in the same place. The climates are\ninvariable in each latitude, and the seasons are hardly discernible.\n\nThe globe of Saturn is 734 times larger than that of the Earth, and is\n364,000,000 leagues from the Sun. It takes thirty years to perform its\nrevolution around the central star, and its year is therefore thirty\ntimes as long as ours.\n\nSaturn, like Jupiter, has very short days. It revolves on its axis in\nten hours, so that its day and night respectively are but five hours.\nBut it has eight moons, or satellites, which accompany it, and give it\nlight, thus, as in the case of Jupiter, supplementing the shortness of\nits days. There is hardly any obliquity of the axis of Saturn, so that\nits days and nights are always equal. There is a perpetual _equinox_,\nand the climates are invariable, while variation of seasons hardly\nexists. In Saturn, as in Jupiter, perpetual spring reigns. Saturn has\none peculiarity which does not belong to any other body in our solar\nsystem. It is placed in the centre of a ring, of the same nature as its\nown, and which surrounds it on every side. This ring (see plate 5),\nis surrounded by a second, and the second by a third, and the whole\nare called the rings of Saturn. This circular envelope is exceedingly\nthin--only ten leagues in thickness--but very wide; its width is 12,000\nleagues. It is not motionless, but it revolves with the globe which it\nsurrounds.\n\nThe strange disposition of the rings of Saturn affords a proof of the\ninexhaustible riches of nature, and the variety of forms which the\nCreator has called into being in the vast universe. It ought to guard\nus against our constant tendency to model all the worlds which we do\nnot know, upon the type of the earth.\n\nHardly anything is known about the peculiarities of Uranus, a planet\nwhich is only eighty-two times larger than the earth, but which is\n732,000,000 of miles from the sun, and takes eighty-four years to\naccomplish its revolution around the central star.\n\nPlate 5 shows the relative proportions of Uranus and the earth. The\nprodigious distance of Uranus from our globe, added to its small size,\nrenders it almost inaccessible to observation.\n\nFor the same reason, nothing can be ascertained respecting the\nphysical and geographical conditions of Neptune, the last planet of\nour solar system, which was discovered in our time by M. Le Verrier,\nthanks to the simple force of calculation, thereby affording the most\nbrilliant proof ever given of the utility of the mathematical sciences.\nNeptune is so small and so far from us, that it is probable mere\nobservation of the heavens would never have detected its existence. In\nthis case mathematical analysis was more powerful than the telescope.\nIt would be impossible to give particulars analogous to those which we\nhave supplied concerning the foregoing planets, in reference to a star\nonly 105 times larger than the earth, which revolves at the distance of\n_one milliard 150 millions of leagues_ from the sun, and the duration\nof whose year is 164 times that of the terrestrial year, so that if\nthe ages of the Christian era were counted according to the Neptunian\nchronology, instead of being in the 19th century, we should be in the\n12th year of that era. All we can say about Neptune, therefore, is that\nit forms the boundary of the domain of our visible world.\n\nWe cannot, however, state positively that our solar world terminates\nat this limit. No doubt the range of our astronomical glasses goes no\nfarther, but assuredly they do not sweep the boundaries of the empire\nof the sun. It is known, in fact, that comets return to us after having\n(as indicated by their geometrical curve), swept over the depths of\nspace to a distance of thirty-two _milliards of leagues_. Thus the\ndistance of one milliard 150 millions of leagues, which is that of\nNeptune from the sun, by no means represents the confines of our solar\nworld, but simply defines the limits of the range of our telescopes.\n\n[Illustration: Asteroids. Jupiter. Saturn. Uranus. Neptune.\n\nFig. 5.--Size of the Planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune\ncompared with the Earth.]\n\nThis rapid glance at our solar system in its entirety, proves that the\nearth is not in possession of any privilege. The part which she plays\nin the economy of the universe is equally fulfilled by other stars, and\nthere is nothing to justify the pre-eminence assigned to her by the\nancients. She is not the largest, the warmest, or the brightest of the\nplanets. She simply forms a portion of a group of stars, and is but one\nindividual of that group.\n\nThese considerations tend to lead us to a very important deduction.\nSince the earth is in no way distinguished from the other planets of\nour solar system, there must exist in other planets the things which\nare found on our globe; air, water, a hard soil, rivers and seas,\nmountains and valleys. Even vegetation and forests ought to be there,\nregions covered with verdure and with shade. So there surely ought\nto exist in the other planets, animals, and even men, or at least\ncreatures superior to animals, corresponding to our human type.\n\nBut is this possible? is it true? are the planets which, like the\nearth, and together with it, turn round the sun, constituted physically\nas the earth is? Are they covered with vegetable growth? are they\ntenanted by animals and by beings belonging to the human type?\n\nThis grave question has been profoundly discussed by M. Camille\nFlammarion, in a work entitled _Pluralit\u00e9 des Mondes Habit\u00e9s_, and in\na later publication, _Les Mondes Imaginaires et les Mondes R\u00e9els_. It\nwould be outside the province of this book to follow the author through\nthe various scientific considerations, from which he reasons that\nthe planets which form a portion of our solar system, are, like the\nearth, the scene of life, organization, thought, and feeling. In the\n17th century, Fontenelle and Huygens had successfully approached this\nsuccessful problem, which M. Camille Flammarion has lately treated with\nespecial care and development, invoking the lessons of contemporaneous\nastronomy and physics, which refer to the subject. We therefore refer\nthe reader, who wishes to be instructed upon the question of the\npossibility of the planets being inhabited, to M. Flammarion's works.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[17] Milton, in his _Paradise Lost_, says that before the fall of\nour first parents, perpetual spring reigned upon the Earth, but that\nas soon as Adam and Eve had eaten the forbidden fruit, angels, with\nflaming swords, were sent from Heaven to incline the poles of the\nEarth more than 20 degrees. It is well for us that the angels did not\ncause them to incline farther, or our seasons would have been still\nshorter and more defective. Fourier pretends that it would be possible\nfor humanity to produce an effect sufficiently great to set the globe\nstraight upon its axis, and thus restore the equality of the seasons,\nand perpetual spring. This philosopher forgot to indicate one thing\nonly, the mechanical means by which man is to produce this effect. This\ntheory reminds us of the drowning man who fancied he could save himself\nby catching hold of his own hair, while he was struggling in the water.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nCHAPTER THE FOURTEENTH.\n\nTHAT WHICH HAS TAKEN PLACE UPON THE EARTH WITH REGARD TO THE CREATION\nOF ORGANIZED BEINGS HAS PROBABLY ALSO TAKEN PLACE IN THE OTHER\nPLANETS.--THE SUCCESSIVE ORDER OF THE APPEARANCE OF LIVING BEINGS ON\nOUR GLOBE.--THIS SAME SUCCESSION HAS PROBABLY TAKEN PLACE IN EACH OF\nTHE PLANETS.--PLANETARY MAN.--THE PLANETARY, LIKE THE TERRESTRIAL MAN,\nIS TRANSFORMED, AFTER DEATH, INTO A SUPERHUMAN BEING, AND PASSES INTO\nTHE ETHER.\n\n\nWE believe, with M. Camille Flammarion, that organized beings exist in\nall the planets. But are these beings who live in the distant worlds\naccompanied, like terrestrial man, by a superior type? This is the\nsubject which we now propose to examine. In the absence of observation\nanalogy is our only means of investigation, and, guided by analogy, we\nmust admit that the processes which have taken place upon the earth,\nsince the epoch of its formation, must have similarly taken place upon\nall the other planets, the earth's congeners.\n\nWe are now perfectly acquainted with the manner in which the vegetable\nand animal creations have appeared, and succeeded each other upon our\nglobe since its origin. At first the earth was simply a collection\nof gas, and burning vapour which revolved round the sun. This mass of\ngas and vapour grew cold by degrees in its passage through space, and\nfirst becoming liquid, afterwards assumed the consistency of paste,\nand ultimately became solid, by a gradual process of refrigeration.\nConsolidation began on the surface, because the circumference of a\nsphere is more exposed than the remainder of the mass to refrigerating\ninfluences. Then the water and the vapours which still flowed upon the\nconsolidated globe became condensed, and, falling in burning showers\nupon the hard soil, they formed the first seas.\n\nThe proof that the earth's primitive condition was like to a liquid\nor half paste, is, that if we take a plastic sphere, for instance a\nslightly fluid ball of quicksilver, and make it turn rapidly upon its\naxis, we observe that it swells out in the middle, and becomes flat at\nthe two poles, or the extremities of the axis; this is the effect of\nthe centrifugal force engendered by the rotatory motion. Now the earth\nis depressed at the poles, and slightly swelled out at the equator.\n\nThe other planets must have been formed by the same process as the\nearth. They were, no doubt, composed of a collection of gas and\nvapours, which became liquid, pasty, and eventually solid, by a\nprocess of refrigeration. This process, taking effect especially upon\ntheir surface, they began to put forth a skin, or exterior and solid\ncovering, which was the soil of the planet. On this resisting soil fell\nthe liquids resulting from the condensation of the water vapour, and\nthus the first seas of the planets were formed.\n\nWe would remind those who doubt the correctness of this theory that\nthe poles of the globe of Saturn and that of Jupiter are much more\nflat than those of the Earth; which is explained by the greater\nvelocity of the rotation of each upon its axis. Our days are 24 hours\nlong, whereas those of Jupiter and Saturn are only 10 hours. Greater\nrapidity of rotation produces a correspondingly increased depression\nat the extremities of the axis. This geometrical result demonstrates\nthe justice of the assimilation in their respective origin which we\nmaintain between the Earth and the other planets.\n\nIn the warm waters of the basin of the seas the first living beings\nwhich existed upon our globe appeared. Animal life commenced in the\nwaters, in the primitive forms of zoophytes and mollusca, as we know,\nbecause zoophytes and mollusca, with the addition of a few articulates,\ncomposed the animal remains found in the transition strata which come\nafter the primary formations. The first vegetables are found in the\nsame transition strata, they are mosses, alg\u00e6, and ferns.\n\nWhen the earth had become somewhat cooler, phanerogamous vegetables\nappeared upon the continents. Numerous vegetable species were\nsimultaneously created, for the flora of the secondary formations is\nextremely rich and varied.\n\nIt was the same in the case of animals. So the zoophytes, mollusca, and\nfish which existed in the transition period succeeded reptiles, in the\nsecondary formation, which inhabited both land and sea. At this period\nappeared those monstrous saurian reptiles, whose formidable shapes, and\ncolossal dimensions fill us with surprise and almost with dismay. Then\nthe gigantic mosasaurus ravaged the seas, the terrible ichthyosaurus\nspread terror among the inhabitants of the waters, and the gigantic\niguanodon laid waste the forests. The secondary formation, which is\nfilled with their remains, shows us that at that period reptiles held\nthe first rank in creation.\n\nAt a later date, the atmosphere having become purer, birds began to\ntraverse the air. In the tertiary deposit we find the remains of\nseveral kinds of birds, and these remains, which do not exist in the\nearlier formations, sufficiently prove that it was in the tertiary\nperiod that birds made their first appearance upon the terrestrial\nglobe.\n\nStill later, at a more advanced period of the tertiary epoch, mammifers\nappear upon the scene. We must observe that these animal species do not\nreplace each other, that the one does not exclude the other. Several\nof the ancient animal species continue to exist after the appearance\nof entirely novel kinds. We might quote as instances whole groups\nof animals, such as the lingul\u00e6 (mollusca), the coral (zoophyte)\namong animals, and among vegetables, the alg\u00e6, ferns, and lycopodes,\nwhich appeared on our globe in the earliest period of the reign of\norganization, and have never ceased to exist. It was not until the last\nepoch in the history of the Earth, during the quaternary epoch, that\nman appeared, the highest product of living creation, the ultimate term\nof organic, intellectual, and moral progress, the crowning upon our\nearth of the visible edifice of nature.\n\nAt present, man lives together with the animals which began to exist\nduring the quaternary epoch, and a great number of other kinds of\nmammifers which were created during the tertiary epoch.\n\nThe various phases of the development of the animal and vegetable\nkingdoms on our globe, these perfected organized species each\nsucceeding the other, and finally reaching the superior type which we\ncall man, must, in our opinion, have been produced in the selfsame\norder, upon the other planets of our solar world. M. Flammarion\nproves, in the work which we have already quoted, that the physical\nand climatological constitution of the planets is similar to that of\nour globe. There is therefore no reason why things should have taken\nplace otherwise in Mercury, Jupiter, or Venus, than in the Earth,\nin respect to the successive order of the creation and appearance\nof living beings, and, in our belief a precisely similar successive\nappearance of vegetables and animals, has taken place in these planets.\nThe plants and animals of Mercury, Jupiter, Saturn, &c., were certainly\nnot identical with those species which have had existence on the Earth,\nand perhaps no resemblance could be traced between them, but all, in\ntheir successive appearance, obeyed the principle of progress and\nperfecting. Life, commencing in the burning waves of the primitive\nseas, subsequently manifested itself upon the continents. Animals of\na\u00ebrial organization have lived upon these continents, their species\nhave by degrees reached the perfection of their type, at length, and\nfinally, a creature appeared in these planets more complete, superior\nin organization, intelligence, and sensibility to all the animal\ncreation which formed the population of each particular globe.\n\nThis superior being, this last step of the ascending scale of living\ncreation proper to the planetary worlds, the corresponding analogous\ncreature to terrestrial man, we shall take leave to call _planetary\nman_.\n\nIn all the planets, then, there exist _men_, as on the earth, just as\nthere exist animals which are inferior to that noble and privileged\ntype.\n\nAccording to the views which we have explained at the commencement\nof this work, terrestrial man undergoes, after his death, a glorious\nmetamorphosis. Leaving his miserable material covering here below, his\nsoul springs upward into space, and becomes incarnate in a new being,\nwhose type is infinitely superior, by reason of its moral perfection,\nto that of our poor humanity. He becomes that which we have called the\n_superhuman being_. If this be true of the terrestrial man, it must be\nequally true of the planetary man. So that the superhuman being must\nproceed, not only from the earth, but from all the other planets.\n\nSuperhuman beings come from the human souls who have lived either\nupon the Earth, or upon Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn, &c. And\nprecisely as the superhuman being, who comes from the Earth passes into\nthe surrounding ether, so the planetary man, leaving Mars, Mercury,\nJupiter, &c., passes into the ether, which surrounds his own planet,\nbecomes incarnate in a superhuman being, and lives in the ethereal\nplains adjoining the planet which he has quitted.\n\nAll these superhuman beings float in the clouds of ether which, in the\ncase of every planet, succeed to its atmosphere.\n\nThus, the principles upon which we have based terrestrial humanity, are\ngeneral, and apply to all planetary humanity. Not from the Earth only\ndo those souls proceed who are incarnate in new creatures in the bosom\nof the ethereal spaces, these souls proceed from all the globes which,\ntogether with the Earth, form the attendant court of the royal Sun.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nCHAPTER THE FIFTEENTH.\n\nPROOFS OF THE PLURALITY OF HUMAN EXISTENCES, AND OF\nRE-INCARNATIONS.--APART FROM THIS DOCTRINE IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO EXPLAIN\nTHE PRESENCE OF MAN UPON THE EARTH, THE SAD AND UNEQUAL CONDITIONS OF\nHUMAN LIFE, AND THE FATE OF CHILDREN WHO DIE IN INFANCY.\n\n\nTHE doctrine of the plurality of existences, and of re-incarnations,\nwhich bind together, like so many links of the same chain, all living\ncreatures, from the most minute animal, even to those blessed beings\nto whom it is given to behold God in His glory; which gives brethren\nin the different planets to terrestrial humanity; which makes of the\ninhabitants of our globe a nation of the universe; which sees but one\nfamily in all the population of the worlds--a planetary family--whose\nevery member may raise himself by his merits and his struggles,\nin the hierarchy of happiness, is supported by so many proofs. So\nmany, indeed, that we are puzzled to choose among all the methods of\ndemonstration which offer themselves in aid of it. To enumerate them\nall would unduly enlarge the dimensions of this work, so that we shall\ncontent ourselves with bringing forward the most striking.\n\nWhy are we on the earth? We did not ask to be placed there, we did\nnot express a wish to be born. If we had been consulted, we should\nprobably have objected to coming into this world at all, or at least\nwe should have wished to appear there at some other epoch. We should\nprobably have asked to be permitted to sojourn in some other planet\nthan the Earth. Our globe is, indeed, a very disagreeable habitation.\nIn consequence of its inclination on its axis, climate is very\nunpleasantly distributed. Either we must succumb to cold, if we are not\nartificially protected against it, or we must be terribly incommoded\nwith heat. Regarded from the moral point of view, the conditions of\nhumanity are very sad. Evil predominates in the world; vice is held\nalmost everywhere in honour, and virtue is so ill-treated, that to be\nhonest is, in this life, to be tolerably certain of evil fortune. Our\naffections are causes of anguish and tears. If, for a while, we enjoy\nthe happiness of paternity, of love, of friendship, it is only to\nsee the objects of our love torn from us by death, or separated from\nus by the accidents of a miserable life. The organs given us to be\nexercised in this life are heavy, coarse, subject to maladies. We are\nnailed to the earth, and our heavy mass can be moved only by fatiguing\nexertion. If there are men of powerful organization, gifted with a good\nconstitution and robust health, how many are there who are infirm,\nidiots, deaf and dumb, blind from their birth, ricketty, and mad! My\nbrother is handsome and well made, and I am ugly, feeble, ricketty,\nand hump-backed; nevertheless, we are both sons of the same mother.\nSome are born in opulence, others in the most hideous destitution.\nWhy am I not a prince and a great lord, instead of being a poor toiler\nof the rebellious and ungrateful earth? Why was I born in Europe and\nin France, where, by means of art and civilization, life is rendered\neasy and endurable, instead of being born under the burning skies of\nthe tropics, where, with a bestial snout, a black and oily skin, and\nwoolly hair, I should have been exposed to the double torments of a\ndeadly climate and social barbarism? Why is not one of the unfortunate\nAfrican negroes in my place, comfortable and well off? We have done\nnothing, he and I, that our respective places on the earth should have\nbeen assigned to us. I have not merited the favour, he has not incurred\nthe disgrace. What is the cause of this unequal division of frightful\nevils which fall heavily upon certain persons, and spare others? How\nhave they who live in happy countries deserved this partiality of fate,\nwhile so many of their brethren are suffering and weeping in other\nregions of the world?\n\nCertain men are endowed with all the gifts of the intellect; others, on\nthe contrary, are devoid of intelligence, penetration, and memory. They\nstumble at every step in the difficult journey of life. Their narrow\nminds, their incomplete faculties, expose them to every kind of failure\nand misfortune. They cannot succeed in anything, and destiny seems\nto select them for the chosen victims of its most fatal blows. There\nare beings whose whole life, from their birth to their death, is a\nprolonged cry of suffering and despair. What crime have they committed?\nWhy are they upon the earth? They have not asked to be born, and if\nthey had been free, they would have entreated that this bitter cup\nmight be removed from their lips. They are here below in spite of\nthemselves, against their will. This is so true that some, in an excess\nof despair, sever the thread of their own life. They tear themselves\naway with their own hands from an existence which terrible suffering\nhas rendered insupportable to them.\n\nGod would be unjust and wicked to impose so miserable a life upon\nbeings who have done nothing to incur it, and who have not solicited\nit. But God is neither unjust nor wicked; the opposite qualities are\nthe attribute of His perfect essence. Consequently, the presence of man\non certain portions of the earth, and the unequal distribution of evil\nover our globe, are not to be explained. If any of my readers can show\nme a doctrine, a philosophy, a religion by which these difficulties can\nbe resolved, I will tear up this book, and confess myself vanquished.\n\nIf, on the contrary, you admit the plurality of human existences and\n_re-incarnations_, that is to say the passage of the same soul into\nseveral different bodies, everything is wonderfully easily explained.\nOur presence in certain portions of the globe is no longer the effect\nof a caprice of fate, or the result of chance; it is simply a station\nof the long journey which we are taking throughout the worlds. Previous\nto our birth in this world we have lived either in the condition of\nsuperior animals, or that of man. Our actual existence is only the\nconsequence of another, whether it be that we bear within ourselves\nthe soul of a superior animal, which we must purify, perfect, and\nennoble, during our sojourn on earth; or that, having already fulfilled\nan imperfect and evil existence, we are condemned to re-commence it\nunder new obligations. In the latter case, the career of the man\nre-commences, because his soul is not yet sufficiently pure to rise to\nthe rank of a superhuman being.\n\nOur sojourn upon earth is then only a kind of trial, imposed upon\nus by nature, during which we must refine our souls, free them from\nearthly bonds, rid them of the defects which weigh them down, and\nhinder them from rising, in radiance, towards the ethereal spheres.\nEvery ill-fulfilled human existence has to be recommenced. Thus, the\nschool-boy who has worked hard, who has studied well, goes into a\nhigher class at the end of the year; but if he has made no progress\nin his studies, he must go through his class again. Perverse men are,\nin our opinion, vicious beings who have had a previous life, and are\nobliged to live it over again. They must go through it again and again,\nuntil the day comes when their souls shall be fit to take higher rank\nin the hierarchy of creatures, that is to say, until they shall be fit\nto pass, after their death, into the condition of superhuman beings.\n\nIn proportion as the cause of our existence here below is obscure\nand even inexplicable according to ordinary ideas, it is simple and\nluminous in the light of the doctrine of the plurality of existences.\nWe must add that this doctrine is conformable to the justice of God. In\nmaking earthly life a trial for man, God is equitable and good, like an\nearthly father. Is it not better to subject a soul to a trial which\nmay begin over again if it have an unfortunate result, than to bind it\nto one condition, failure in which must involve the condemnation of the\nguilty person? It is better to offer the possibility of rehabilitation\nby his own efforts, by his personal struggles, to a fallen creature,\nthan to utterly crush him, stained by his crimes and imperfections.\nThe justice and the goodness of God are manifest in this paternal\narrangement, much more than in the severe jurisdiction which would\nirretrievably condemn a soul after one single trial had resulted\nunfavourably.\n\nIf human life be a trial, if it be a period during which we are\npreparing for a new and happier existence, there is no need to look\nbeyond that truth for an explanation of why we are on the earth,\nwhy we are living to-day rather than to-morrow, and in one latitude\nof our globe rather than in another; there is no need to ask why we\nare born in the earth, and not in Mercury, Saturn, or Mars. Whether\nwe are living now, or are to live later, whether we have been born\nin the earth, in Mercury, or in Mars, whether we inhabit Europe or\nAfrica,--all these things are utterly unimportant to our destiny. We\nare undergoing a period of preparation indispensably necessary to be\naccomplished before we pass into the superhuman condition; and the\nplace, the moment of our transit, the country in which we sojourn, the\nplanet which is assigned to us as the scene of this trial, are without\nany importance in the part which we have to play in accordance with\nthe intentions of nature. We are making an immense journey through\nthe worlds, and a short sojourn on the Earth makes a part of our vast\nitinerary. Whatever may be the corner of the universe in which we find\nourselves we cannot escape the trial imposed upon us by God, a trial by\nstrife and suffering, a period of moral and physical pain to which we\nmust submit before we can be promoted in the hierarchy of creatures.\nThe time, the place, the good or evil moral conditions ought therefore\nto be indifferent to us. What is needful for us is a brief sojourn\non a planet in which this trial may be accomplished, and it may be\naccomplished on the Earth, or in Mars, or in Mercury, and on any spot\nof the Earth's surface one chooses to think of.\n\nIf, during the course of this trial, we meet with moral evil, if we\nsee vice triumphant and virtue persecuted, if we see the innocent\nvictims of the injustice, the cruelty, or the ignorance of man, we\nhave no right to murmur against Providence, we have no right to utter\nmaledictions against pain, to deplore the scandal of successful and\ntriumphant crime, and of suffering and weeping virtue. We have no right\nto regret our bodily infirmities, the diseases which lay hold upon\nus on the Earth, and which afflict us all our lives, or to complain\nof the weakness of our minds, the decay of our faculties. All these\nconditions, which are inimical to earthly happiness, are a portion of\nthe series of trials which we have to undergo here below. We ought to\nbless those evils, and be grateful to those sufferings, for they are\nthe instruments of our eternal redemption, and the more piercing and\nbitter they are the sooner will come the hour of our deliverance, the\nhappy moment when we shall leave this impure and filthy world which\nour feet have trodden for a while. Besides, justice will speedily be\ndone. With brief delay the wicked shall be punished for his evil deeds\nby having to recommence a new existence here, while the good shall be\nelevated to the upper world, where a new, wide-ranging life awaits him,\nfar more happy and more wise, in truer harmony with the aspirations\nof our nature than his previous and miserable existence here. Then we\nshall be born again, radiant and strong, with our memory, our feelings,\nand our liberty complete.\n\nThus difficulties vanish, and problems are solved: thus uncertainty\nvanishes away, and mysteries which no doctrine, no religion, no\nphilosophy, could dissipate, and which almost made us doubt the justice\nof God, are cleared up. The doctrine of re-incarnations and prior\nexistences explains everything, answers everything.\n\nWe pass on to one of the most interesting questions of the doctrine of\nthe pre-existence of souls, the question of children who have died in\ninfancy. What becomes of children who die at a few days old, or at the\nage of eight or ten months, or at their birth? Until after all these\nperiods the human soul remains quite undeveloped; it is in almost the\nsame rudimentary state as at the hour of its birth. What, then, is the\nfate of young children after their death? The doctrine of the plurality\nof existences simplifies this question. It admits that when an infant\ndies before it has lived one year (the period of dentition), its soul\nremains upon the earth, and does not pass, like that of a grown man,\ninto the state of a superhuman being. The soul of an infant a year\nold is still in a rudimentary condition, almost as much so as at the\nmoment of its birth. The soul of a child who dies at that age has to\nbegin life over again, disengaging itself from the little corpse, it\nincarnates itself in another newly-born body, and after this fresh\nincarnation, it begins a second life.\n\nIf the new incarnation does not last more than a year, there is no\nreason why the soul should not undergo a third incarnation in the body\nof a child, and so on until it shall have accomplished the period of\nadmission to the conditions common to all.\n\nIt is impossible that the soul of a child, which is as yet undeveloped,\nwhich has added nothing to that which it has received, should be\ntreated as perfected souls, purified by the experience of life, by\nphysical and moral sufferings, who have used their sojourn upon earth\nas a period of preparation and training. An infant child cannot\ntherefore be admitted to the super-terrestrial dwellings, he simply\nrecommences an interrupted trial. The mortality of children between the\nday of their birth and the age of one year is so considerable, that\nnature must have reserved to herself the means of annulling this cause\nof disarrangement in the sequence and order of her operations.\n\nThis explanation of the destiny of young children is conformable to the\neconomy which is observed in the operations of nature. Nature wills\nthat nothing which is created should be lost. The soul of a criminal is\nevil, but it is a soul, it exists, and it is eternal: it must not be\nlost. But it must be corrected and perfected, which is done by means\nof the new existences to which nature consigns that imperfect soul, in\norder that it may enjoy the means of restoration. Thus the principle of\nthe soul is preserved, and nothing is lost of that which was created.\nThe soul of the child dying in infancy must not be lost either. A\nsecond incarnation in another child will permit it to resume the course\nof its evolution, accidentally interrupted by death. Thus the soul will\nbe preserved, and nothing will be lost.\n\nChemistry, since Lavoisier's time, has brought to light a great truth:\nit is, that nothing of the elements of matter is lost; bodies change\ntheir form, but the material element, the simple body, is imperishable,\nindestructible, and always to be found intact, notwithstanding its\nnumerous transformations. If it is true that in the material world\nnothing is lost, it is equally certain that neither is anything lost\nin the spiritual world; that only transformation takes place. Thus,\nnothing is lost, either of immaterial or material beings, and we may\nlay down this new principle of moral philosophy by the side of the\nprinciple of chemical philosophy established by the genius of Lavoisier.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nCHAPTER THE SIXTEENTH.\n\nFACULTIES PECULIAR TO CERTAIN CHILDREN, APTITUDES AND VOCATIONS\nAMONG MEN, ARE ADDITIONAL PROOFS OF RE-INCARNATIONS.--EXPLANATION OF\nPHRENOLOGY.--DESCARTES' INNATE IDEAS, AND DUGALD STEWART'S PRINCIPLE\nOF CAUSALITY CAN ONLY BE EXPLAINED BY THE PLURALITY OF LIVES.--VAGUE\nRECOLLECTIONS OF OUR ANTERIOR EXISTENCES.\n\n\nIF there are no re-incarnations, if our actual existence is, as modern\nphilosophy and the ordinary creeds maintain it to be, a solitary fact,\nnot to be repeated, it follows that the soul must be formed at the\nsame time as the body, and that at each birth of a human being, a new\nsoul must be created, to animate this body. We would ask, then, why\nare not all these souls of the same type? Why, when all human bodies\nare alike, is there so great a diversity in souls, that is to say, in\nthe intellectual and moral faculties which constitute them? We would\nask why natural tendencies are so diverse and so strongly marked, that\nthey frequently resist all the efforts of education to reform, or\nrepress them, or to direct them into any other line? Whence come those\ninstincts of vice and virtue which are to be observed in children,\nthose instincts of pride or of baseness, which are often seen in such\nstriking contrast with the social position of their families? Why do\nsome children delight in the contemplation of pain, and take pleasure\nin torturing animals, while others are vehemently moved, turn pale,\nand tremble at the sight or even the thought of a living creature's\npain? Why, if the soul in all men be cast in the same mould, does not\neducation produce an identical effect upon young people? Two brothers\nfollow the same classes at the same school, they have the same masters,\nand the same examples are before their eyes. Nevertheless, the one\nprofits to the utmost by the lessons which he receives, and in manners,\neducation, and conduct, he is irreproachable. His brother, on the\ncontrary, remains ignorant and uncouth. If the same seed sown in these\ntwo soils has produced such different fruit, must it not be that the\nsoil which has received the seed, _i.e._, the soul, is different in the\ncase of each?\n\nNatural dispositions, vocations, manifest themselves from the earliest\nperiod of life. This extreme diversity in natural aptitudes would\nnot exist if souls were all created of the same type. The bodies of\nanimals, the human body, the leaves of trees, are fabricated after the\nsame type, because we can observe but few and slight differences among\nthem. The skeleton of one man is always like the skeleton of another\nman; the heart, the stomach, the ribs, the intestines are formed alike\nin every man. It is otherwise with souls; they differ considerably in\nindividuals. We hear it said every day that such an one's child has a\ntaste for arithmetic, a second for music, a third for drawing. In the\ncase of others evil, violent, even criminal instincts are remarked,\nand these dispositions break out in the earliest years of life.\n\nThat these natural aptitudes are carried to a very high degree and\nunusual extent, we have celebrated examples recorded in history, and\nfrequently cited. We have Pascal, at twelve years old, discovering\nthe greater portion of plane geometry, and without having been taught\nanything whatever of arithmetic, drawing all the figures of the first\nbook of Euclid's geometry on the floor of his room, exactly estimating\nthe mathematical relations of all these figures to each other; that\nis to say, constructing descriptive geometry for himself. We have the\nshepherd, Mangiamelo, calculating as an arithmetical machine, at five\nyears old. We have Mozart executing a sonata with his four-years-old\nfingers, and composing an opera at eight. We have Theresa Milanollo\nplaying the violin with such art and skill, at four years old, that\nBaillot said she must have played the violin before she was born. We\nhave Rembrandt drawing like a master of the art, before he could read.\nEtc., etc.\n\nEvery one remembers these examples, but it must be borne in mind that\nthey do not constitute exceptions. They only represent a general\nfact, which in these particular cases was so prominent as to attract\npublic attention. They are valuable as exponents to the public of a\nfundamental law of nature, the diversity of natural faculties and\naptitudes, and the predominance of particular faculties among certain\nchildren. Children endowed with these extraordinary and precocious\nvocations are called _little prodigies_. This qualification is\nsometimes used in a depreciatory sense, for the little prodigies are\naccused of failing to carry out the promises of their childhood; it is\nobserved that the brilliant abilities of their early years have not\nbeen guarantees of extraordinary success in their careers as grown men.\nA child, whose drawings were wonderful at four years old, has become a\nwretched dauber, as an established artist. A musician, who enchanted\nhis audience at eight years old, has grown up a very mediocre performer.\n\nThis remark is just, and the fact is explicable thus: If the little\nprodigies have not become great men, it is because they have not\ncultivated their faculties; because they have allowed sloth and disuse\nto extinguish their talents. It does not suffice to possess natural\nabilities for a science, or an art, work and study must strengthen\nand develop them. Little prodigies are outstripped in their career by\nhard workers, as is natural. They have come upon earth with remarkable\nfaculties which they had acquired during a previous life, but they have\ndone nothing to develop those faculties, which have remained as they\nwere at the moment of terrestrial birth. The man of genius is the man\nwho unceasingly cultivates and perfects such great natural aptitudes\nand faculties as he has been endowed with at his birth.\n\nThe predominance of particular faculties in certain children is not\nto be explained according to the common philosophy which discerns\nthe creation of a new soul in the birth of every infant. They are,\non the contrary, easily explicable according to the doctrine of\nre-incarnations, indeed they are no more than a corollary of that\ndoctrine. Everything is comprehensible if a life, anterior to the\npresent, be admitted. The individual brings to his life here, the\nintuition which is the result of the knowledge he has acquired during\nhis first existence. Men are of more or less advanced intelligence\nand morality, according to the life which they have led before they\ncome into this world to play the parts which we can see. This is\nself-evident in the case of a man who recommences his life. This man\nhad acquired certain faculties during his first, which are profitable\nto him in his second existence. Perhaps he does not possess all the\nfaculties with which his first life was endowed, in their full and\nperfect integrity, but he has what mathematicians call the _resultant_\nof those faculties, and this resultant is a special aptitude, it\nis _vocation_. He is a calculator, a painter, or a musician by\nvocation, because, in his former human career he has had the faculty\nof calculation, drawing, or music. We believe that it is impossible\nto find any other explanation of our natural aptitudes. It will be\nobjected to this, that it is strange that aptitude and faculties should\nbe the resultant of a prior existence, of which we have, nevertheless,\nno recollection. We reply to this objection that it is quite possible\nto lose all remembrance of events which have happened, and yet to\npreserve certain faculties of the soul which are independent of\nparticular and concrete facts, especially when those faculties are\npowerful. We constantly see old men who have lost all recollection of\nthe events of their life, who no longer know anything of the history of\ntheir time, nor indeed, of their own history, but who, nevertheless,\nhave not lost their faculties, or aptitudes. Linn\u00e6us, in his old age,\ntook pleasure in reading his own works, but forgot that he was their\nauthor, and frequently exclaimed: \"How interesting! How beautiful! I\nwish I had written that!\"\n\nThere is no reason to doubt that a child, after its re-incarnation,\nmay preserve the aptitudes of its previous existence, though it has\nentirely lost the remembrance of the facts which took place and which\nit witnessed during that period. These faculties reappear and become\nactive in the child, just as the half-extinguished flame of a fire\nis rekindled by the breath of the wind. The breath which fans the\nsmouldering flame of human faculties is that of a second existence.\n\nThe absence of memory may be urged as an objection to re-incarnations\nin the body of a child, but this argument does not apply to the\nincarnation of the soul of an animal in a human body. The animal, being\nalmost without the faculty of memory, it is easy to understand that\nits aptitudes only pass into the condition of man. The good or evil,\ngentle or fierce instincts which human souls manifest so early, are\nexplained by the species of the animal through which the soul has been\ntransmitted. A child who has a faculty for music may have received the\nsoul of a nightingale, the sweet songster of our woods. A child who is\nan architect by vocation may have inherited the soul of a beaver, the\narchitect of the woods and waters.\n\nIn short, the various aptitudes, the natural faculties, the vocations\nof human beings, are easily explained by the doctrine of the\ntransmigration of souls. If we reject this system, we must charge God\nwith injustice, because we must believe that He has granted to certain\nmen useful faculties which He has refused to others, and made an\nunequal distribution of intelligence and morality, these foundations\nof the conduct and direction of life.\n\nThis reasoning appears to us to be beyond attack, for it does not rest\nupon an hypothesis, but upon a fact: namely, the inequality of the\nfaculties among men, and of their intelligence and morality. This fact,\ninexplicable by any theory of any received philosophy, is only to be\nexplained by the doctrine of re-incarnations, and forms the basis of\nour reasoning.\n\nDiscussion for and against phrenology has been plentiful, and has\nended in the abandonment of the inquiry, because the ideas of ordinary\nphilosophy do not supply a sound theory on the subject. It has been\nfound more convenient to ignore the labours of Gall than to endeavour\nto explain them. The truth is, that Gall has committed some errors of\ndetail, which is always the case with every founder of a new doctrine,\nwho cannot bring an unprecedented work to perfection by himself alone;\nbut his successors have rectified the errors of the system, and we are\nnow obliged to acknowledge that Gall's theory is correct. It is indeed\nsimply composed of observations which everyone may repeat for himself.\n\nWhen Gall's theory, or _phrenology_, is applied to animals, the\nevidence in its favour is astonishing. In the case of man the facts\nare almost always confirmatory of the theory. It is certain that the\nskull of an assassin does exhibit the abnormal developments indicated\nby Gall, and that, according to the doctrine of the German anatomist,\nthe sentiments of affection, love, cupidity, discernment, &c., may\nbe recognised externally by the bumps in the human skull. It rarely\nhappens that the phrenologist, on examining the skull of a Troppmann,\nor a Papavoine, fails to trace the hideous indications of evil passions\nand brutality.\n\nUnfortunately, many of our moralists find themselves seriously\nembarrassed by philosophy, because their views are limited by the\ncommonplace philosophy of the day. Classic moralists ask themselves\nwhether a man with the bump of murder in his skull is responsible for\nhis crime, whether he is a free agent, whether he is so guilty as he is\nheld to be, when he yields to the cruel instincts with which nature,\nin his case a wicked step-mother, has endowed him. Is it just to be\npitiless towards a man who has only obeyed his physical conformation,\nalmost as a madman obeys the impulses of his diseased mind? It would\nseem that the punishment of assassination is an injustice, and men ask\nthemselves whether the criminal courts and the scaffold ought not to be\nabolished, and whether the judge who condemns to death an individual,\nwho is not responsible for his actions, is not the real criminal?\n\nThe same reasoning, the same uncertainty apply to virtuous deeds. Is\nmuch commendation due to the man who fulfils his duties exactly, to the\nconscientious and faithful citizen, the honest and kindly individual,\nif his wise and respectable conduct be simply obedience to the good\nimpulses communicated to him by his physical organization?\n\nThese results of phrenology were, it is evident, very embarrassing, and\nalmost immoral. Barbarity on the part of society which punishes the\nguilty;--absence of merit in the well-behaved man! these consequences\nwere difficult and painful to admit, so the world got out of the\ndifficulty by rejecting phrenology.\n\nIt is quite unnecessary to reject phrenology; we may retain it,\nand congratulate ourselves on a fresh conquest in the sphere of\nthe sciences of observation, if we hold the doctrine of previous\nexistences. Phrenology is most naturally explained, in fact, by that\ndoctrine. When it enters on the occupation of a human body, the soul\nlends to the cerebral matter, which is the seat of thought, a certain\nmodification, a predominance in harmony with the faculties which that\nsoul possesses at the period of its birth, and which it has acquired in\nan anterior animal or human existence. The brain is moulded by the soul\ninto conformity with its proper aptitudes, its acquired faculties; then\nthe bony covering of the skull, which moulds itself upon the cerebral\nsubstance within its cavity, reproduces and gives expression to our\npredominant faculties. The ancients who said, _Corpus cordis opus_ (the\nbody is the work of the soul, or the soul makes its body), expressed\nthis same idea with energetic conciseness.\n\nThere is, therefore, no need to excuse a murderer, there is no need to\ndeny his free will, there is no need to spare him the just chastisement\nof his crime. It is not because there are certain protuberances on his\nskull that the murderer dips his hands in the blood of his victims.\nThese protuberances are only the external indications of the evil\nand vicious propensities with which he was born, by which he might\nhave been warned and corrected, and which he might have conquered by\nthe strength of his will, by a real and ardent desire to restore his\ndeformed and vicious soul to rectitude. It is always possible, by\nadequate effort, to surmount the evil inclinations of one's nature;\nevery one of us can resist pride, idleness, and envy. The man who has\nnot corrected these bad impulses is guilty, and nothing can render a\ncrime committed in all the plenitude of his free will excusable. Thus,\nneither God nor society is implicated in this question, if we accept\nthe doctrine of the plurality of existences.\n\nDescartes and Leibnitz have demonstrated that the human understanding\npossesses ideas called _innate_, that is to say, ideas which we bring\nwith us to our birth. This fact is certain. In our time, the Scotch\nphilosopher, Dugald Stewart, has put Descartes' theory into a more\nprecise form, by proving that the only real _innate_ idea, that which\nhas universal existence in the human mind after birth, is the idea,\nor the _principle of causality_, a principle which makes us say and\nthink that there is no effect without cause, which is the beginning\nof reason. In France, Laromigui\u00e8re and Damiron have popularized this\ndiscovery of the Scotch philosopher. Thus the classics of philosophy\nrecord this proposition as a truth beyond the reach of doubt. We\nunreservedly admit the principle of causality as the _innate_ idea\n_par excellence_, and we take account of the fact. But we ask the\nfashionable philosophy how it can explain it? In our minds there\nare _innate ideas_, as Descartes has said; and the _principle of\ncausality_, which invincibly obliges us to refer from the effect to\nthe cause, is the most evident of those ideas which seem to make a\npart of ourselves; but why have we innate ideas, where do they come\nfrom, and how did they get into our minds? The classical philosophy,\nthe philosophy of Descartes, which reigns in France, at the Normal\nSchool, and among the professors of the University of Paris, cannot\nteach us that. It will be said, perhaps, to use the favourite argument\nof Descartes, that we have innate ideas because it is the will of God,\nwho has created the soul. But such a reply is at once commonplace and\narbitrary, it may be used on all occasions--it is so used in fact--and\nit is not a logical argument.\n\nInnate ideas and the principle of causality are explained very simply\nby the doctrine of the plurality of existences; they are, indeed,\nmerely deductions from that doctrine. A man's soul, having already\nexisted, either in the body of an animal or that of another man, has\npreserved the trace of the impressions received during that existence.\nIt has lost, it is true, the recollection of actions performed during\nits first incarnation; but the abstract principle of causality, being\nindependent of the particular facts, being only the general result of\nthe practice of life, must remain in the soul at its second incarnation.\n\nThus, the principle of causality, of which French philosophy cannot\noffer any satisfactory theory, is explained in the simplest possible\nmanner, by the hypothesis of re-incarnations and of the plurality of\nexistences.\n\nWe have previously alluded to memory, and explained its relation\nto re-incarnations, and the reasons why we are born without any\nconsciousness of a previous life. We have said, that if we come from\nan animal, we have no memory, because the animal has none, or has\nvery little. We must now add, that if we come from a human soul,\nreopening to the light of life, we are destitute of memory, because it\nwould disturb the trial of our terrestrial life, and even render it\nimpossible, as it is the intention of nature that we should recommence\nthe experience of existence without any trace, present to our minds,\nof previous actions which might limit or embarrass our free will.\n\nWe cannot pass from this portion of our subject without calling\nattention to the fact that the remembrance of a previous existence is\nnot always absolutely wanting to us. Who is there, who, in his hours of\nsolitary contemplation, has not seen a hidden world come forth before\nhis eyes from the far distance of a mysterious past? When, wrapped in\nprofound reverie, we let ourselves float on the stream of imagination,\ninto the ocean of the vague, and the infinite, do we not see magic\npictures which are not absolutely unknown to our eyes? do we not hear\ncelestial harmonies which have already enchanted our ears? These secret\nimaginings, these involuntary contemplations, to which each of us can\ntestify, are they not the real recollections of an existence anterior\nto our life here below?\n\nMight we not also attribute to a vague remembrance, to an unconscious\nsympathy, the real and profound pleasure which we derive from the mere\nsight of plants, flowers, and vegetation? The aspect of a forest, of\na beautiful meadow, of green hills, touches us, moves us, sometimes\neven to tears. Great masses of verdure, and the humble field daisy,\nalike speak to our hearts. Each of us has a favourite plant, the flower\nwhose perfume he loves to inhale, or the tree whose shade he prefers.\nRousseau was moved by the sight of a yew tree, and Alfred de Musset\nloved the willows so much, that he expressed a wish, piously fulfilled,\nthat a willow might over-shadow his grave.\n\nThis love of the vegetable world has a mysterious root in our hearts.\nMay we not recognize in so natural a sentiment, a sort of vague\nremembrance of our original country, a secret and involuntary evocation\nof the scene in which the germ of our soul was first loosed to the\nlight of the sun, the powerful promoter of life?\n\nBesides the undecided and dim remembrance of pictures which seem to\nbelong to our anterior existences upon the globe, we sometimes feel\nkeen aspirations towards a kinder and calmer destiny than that which is\nallotted to us here below. No doubt coarse beings, entirely attached\nto material appetites and interests, do not feel these secret longings\nfor an unknown and happier destiny, but poetical and tender souls,\nthose who suffer from the wretched conditions of which human nature\nis the slave and the martyr, take a vague pleasure in such melancholy\naspirations. In the radiant infinite they foresee celestial dwellings,\nwhere they shall one day reside, and they are impatient to break the\nties which bind them to earth. Read the episode in Goethe's _Mignon_,\nin which Mignon, wandering and exiled, pours out her young soul in\naspirations to heaven, in sublime longings for an unknown and blessed\nfuture, which she feels drawing her towards itself, and ask yourself\nwhether the beautiful verses of the great poet, who was also a great\nnaturalist, do not interpret a truth of nature, _i.e._, the new life\nwhich awaits us in the plains of ether. Why do all men, among all\npeoples, raise their eyes to heaven in solemn moments, in the impulses\nof passion, and the anguish of grief or pain? Does any one, under\nsuch circumstances, contemplate the earth on which he stands? Our\neyes and our hearts turn towards the skies. The dying raise their\nfallen orbs to heaven, and we look towards the celestial spaces in\nthose vague reveries which we have been describing. It is permitted\nto us to believe that this universal tendency is an intuition of that\nwhich awaits us after our terrestrial life, a natural revelation of\nthe domain which shall be ours one day, and which extends over the\ncelestial empyrean, to the bosom of ethereal space.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nCHAPTER THE SEVENTEENTH.\n\nA SUMMARY OF THE SYSTEM OF THE PLURALITY OF LIVES.\n\n\nWE propose now to collect, within a few summary propositions, the\nprincipal features of the system of nature which we have defined.\n\n1. The sun is the primary agent of life and organization.\n\n2. In the primitive time of our globe, life began to appear in aquatic\nand a\u00ebrial plants, as well as in zoophytes. The same order reproduces\nitself at present, in the point of departure, and in the development\nof life and of souls. The solar rays, falling on the earth, and into\nthe waters, produce the formation of plants and that of zoophytes. The\nrays of the sun by depositing in the waters and on the earth, _animated\ngerms_, emanating from the spiritualized beings who inhabit the sun,\nbring about the birth of plants and zoophytes.\n\n3. Plants and zoophytes are endowed with sensation. They enclose an\nanimal germ, just as a seed encloses an embryo.\n\n4. The animal germ contained in the plant and in the zoophyte, passes,\nat the death of each animal, into the body of the animal which comes\nnext to it in the ascending scale of organic perfection. From the\nzoophyte the animated germ passes into the mollusc, from thence into\nthe articulated animal, the fish, or the reptile. From the body of the\nreptile, it passes into that of the bird, and then into the mammifers.\n\nIn the inferior beings, for instance zoophytes, several animated germs\nmay be united to form the soul of a single being of a superior order.\n\n5. In passing through the entire series of animals, this rudimentary\nsoul becomes perfected and acquires the beginnings of faculties.\nConscience, will, and judgment succeed to sensation. When the soul has\nattained the body of a mammifer, it has acquired a certain number of\nfaculties. In addition to feeling, it has the basis of reason, _i.e._,\nthe _principle of causation_. From the body of a mammiferous animal\nbelonging to the superior species, the soul passes into the body of a\nnewly-born infant.\n\n6. The child is born without memory, like the superior animal whence it\nhas proceeded. At a year old it acquires this faculty, and gradually\nobtains others; imagination and thought develop themselves, reason\ngrows strong, memory becomes firm and extensive.\n\n7. If the child dies before the age of twelve months, his soul, still\nvery imperfect, and devoid of active faculties, passes into the body of\nanother newly-born child, and recommences a new existence.\n\n8. When a man dies, his body remains upon the earth, his soul rises\nthrough the atmosphere to the ether which surrounds all the planets,\nand enters into the body of the angel, or _superhuman being_.\n\n9. If, during its sojourn upon the earth, the soul has not undergone\na sufficient amount of purification and ennobling, it recommences a\nsecond existence, passing into the body of a newly-born child, and\nlosing the remembrance of its first life. Only when the soul has\nattained the suitable degree of perfection, and, after having been\nre-incarnate once, or many times, is empowered to leave our globe,\nto assume a new body in the bosom of the ethereal plains, and thus\nbecome a superhuman being, can it recover the recollection of its past\nexistences.\n\n10. That which occurs upon the Earth also takes place in the other\nplanets of our solar system. In these planets vegetables, or beings\nanalogous to vegetables are produced by the action of the sun. By means\nof his rays animated germs are carried into these globes, and plants\nand inferior animals are produced. Then these animated germs contained\nin the plants and inferior animals, passing successively through\nthe whole series of animals, end by producing a being, superior, in\nintelligence and sensibility, to all the other living creatures. This\nsuperior being, the analogue of the human being, we call planetary man.\n\n11. The planetary man, who inhabits Mercury, Mars, Venus, &c., being\ndead, his material form remains upon the planetary globe, and his\nsoul, provided it has acquired the necessary degree of purity, passes\ninto the surrounding ether, is incarnate in a new body, and produces a\nsuperhuman being.\n\n12. Phalanxes of these superhuman beings float in the planetary ether.\nIt witnesses the reunion of all the purified souls, which have come\nfrom our globe and from the other planets. The organic types of these\nbeings is the same, whatever may be their planetary abode.\n\n13. The superhuman being is provided with special attributes, he is\nendowed with mighty faculties which raise him to a height infinitely\nabove terrestrial or planetary humanity. In this being, matter, in\ncomparison with the spiritual principle, is reduced to a much smaller\nproportion than in man. His body is light and vaporous. He possesses\nsenses which are unknown to us, and the senses which he possesses\nin common with us, are prodigiously intensified, subtilised, and\nperfected. He can transport himself, in a short space of time, to any\ndistance, he can travel, without fatigue, from one point in space\nto another. His vision is of immeasurable extent. He has intuitive\nknowledge of many facts of nature which are hidden by an impenetrable\nveil from feeble human perception.\n\n14. The superhuman being who comes from the earth can place himself\nin communication with men who are worthy of the privilege. He\ndirects their conduct, watches over their actions, enlightens their\nunderstanding, inspires their hearts. When, in their turn, they too\nreach the celestial dwellings, he receives them on the threshold of\ntheir new abode, and initiates them into the life of blessedness beyond\nthe tomb.\n\n15. The superhuman being is mortal. When he has terminated the normal\ncourse of his existence in the ethereal spaces, he dies, and his\nspiritual principle enters into a new body, that of the _archangel_,\nor _arch-human being_, in whom the proportion of spiritual principle\npredominates still more strongly, in proportion to matter.\n\n16. These re-incarnations, in the depths of the ethereal spaces, are\nreproduced more frequently than can be defined, and give us a series of\ncreatures of ever-increasing activity and power of thought and action.\nAt each promotion in the hierarchy of space these sublime beings find\nthe energy of their moral and intellectual faculties, their power of\nfeeling, and of loving, and their induction into the most profound\nmysteries of the Universe, undergoing augmentation.\n\n17. When he has arrived at the highest degree of the celestial\nhierarchy, the _spiritualized being_ is absolutely perfect; in strength\nand in intelligence. He is entirely freed from all material alloy, he\nhas no longer a body, he is a pure spirit. In this condition he passes\ninto the sun.\n\n18. The sun, the king-star, is then the final and common sojourn of all\nthe _spiritualized beings_ who have come from the other planets, after\nhaving passed through the long series of existences which have rolled\naway in the plains of ether.\n\n19. The _spiritualized beings_ gathered together in the sun, send down\nupon the earth and upon the planets emanations from their essence, that\nis to say, _animated germs_. These _animated germs_ are carried by the\nsunbeams, which distribute organization, feeling, and life over all the\nplanets, at the same time that they preside at all the great physical\nand mechanical operations which take place on the earth, and on the\nother planets of our solar world.\n\n20. The formation of the a\u00ebrial and aquatic plants, and the birth of\ninferior animals or zoophytes, are, as we have said, the result of the\naction of the sun's rays on our globe. Then commences the series of the\ntransmigrations of souls through the bodies of various animals, which\nresults in man, in the superhuman being, and in all the succession of\ncelestial metempsychoses, whose ultimate term is the spiritualized\nbeing or the dweller in the sun.\n\nThus does the great chain of nature close and complete itself;--that\nuninterrupted chain of vital activity, which has neither beginning nor\nend, and which links all created beings into one family, the universal\nfamily of the worlds.\n\nNature is not a straight line, but a circle, and we cannot say where\nthis wonderful circle begins or ends. The wisdom of the Egyptians,\nwhich represented the world as a serpent coiled around itself, was the\nsymbol of a great truth which the science of our time has once more\nbrought to light.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nCHAPTER THE EIGHTEENTH.\n\nREPLIES TO SOME OBJECTIONS.--FIRST: THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL, WHICH\nIS THE BASIS OF THIS SYSTEM, IS NOT DEMONSTRATED.--SECOND: WE HAVE NOT\nANY RECOLLECTION OF ANTERIOR EXISTENCES.--THIRD: THIS SYSTEM IS NO\nOTHER THAN THE METEMPSYCHOSIS OF THE ANCIENTS.--FOURTH: THIS SYSTEM IS\nCONFOUNDED WITH DARWINISM.\n\n\nHAVING brought into relief, by the preceding summary, the entire\ndoctrine of successive lives and of re-incarnations, we must now meet\nsome objections which will have been provoked by these propositions,\nand reply to them in a way which has the advantage of still more\ndistinctly explaining our ideas on several points.\n\nFirst objection. It will be said: The existence of an immortal soul\nin man forms the basis of all this reasoning. Now, the fact of the\nexistence of an immortal soul is not demonstrated in the course of this\nwork, and, besides, it could not be demonstrated.\n\nThe following is our reply to this first objection.\n\nWe are composed of two elements, or of two substances; one which\nthinks--the soul, or the immaterial substance; the other, which\ndoes not think--the body, or the material substance. This truth is\nself-evident. Thought is a fact, certain in itself; and it is another\nfact, equally certain, that my arms, my nails or beard, do not think.\nHere, then, is the proof of the immortality of the soul, or thinking\nprinciple.\n\nMatter does not perish; observation and science prove that material\nbodies are never annihilated, that they merely change their condition,\ntheir form, and their place; but are always to be found somewhere\nintact as to their substance. Our bodies decompose, and are dissolved,\nbut the matter of which they were formed is never destroyed, it is\ndispersed in the air, the fire, and the water, in which it produces\nnew material combinations, but it is not destroyed for all that. Now,\nif matter does not perish, but only becomes transformed, all the more\ncertainly must the soul be indestructible and imperishable. Like\nmatter, it must be transformed, without being destroyed.\n\nDescartes has said, _I think, therefore I am_. This reasoning, so much\nadmired in the schools, has always appeared to us rather weak. To\ngive force to the syllogism, he should have said, _I think, therefore\nI am immortal_. My soul is immortal, because it exists, and it does\nexist since I think. Thus the fact of the immortality of the spiritual\nprinciple which we bear within us is self-evident, and we do not need\nany of the demonstrations which abound in philosophical works, and have\nbeen put forth from antiquity until our own time; we need no _Treatises\non the Soul_ to establish its existence.\n\nThe difficulty does not consist in proving that a spiritual principle\nexists within us, that is to say, a principle which resists death,\nbecause, in order to contest the existence of this principle, it would\nbe necessary to contest thought. The real problem is to find out\nwhether this spiritual and immortal principle which we bear within\nus, is to live again, after our death, in ourselves or in others. The\nquestion is, whether the immortal soul will be born again in the same\nindividual, physically transformed, in the same person, in the _ego_,\nor whether it will pass into the possession of a being strange to that\nperson.\n\nWe may remark here that on this all the interest of the question for\nus turns. It would be of very little importance to us, in reality,\nwhether the soul were immortal or not, if the soul of each of us,\nbeing really indestructible and immortal, should pass to another than\nourselves, or if, reviving in us, it did not possess the memory of our\npast existence. The resurrection of the soul without the memory of the\npast would be a real annihilation, this would be the nothingness of the\nmaterialists. It must be, then, that the soul lives again after our\ndeath, in ourselves, and that this soul, then, has clear remembrance\nof all the actions which took place in its previous existences. It\nbehoves us, in short, to know, not whether our souls are immortal--that\nfact is self-evident--but whether they will belong to us in the other\nlife, whether, after our death, we shall have identity, individuality,\n_personality_. It is to the study of this question that the present\nwork is devoted. We are endeavouring to prove that the soul of the\nman remains always the same, in spite of its numerous peregrinations,\nnotwithstanding the variety of form of the bodies in which it is\nsuccessively lodged, when it passes from the animal to the man, from\nthe man to the superhuman being, and from the superhuman being, after\nother celestial transmigrations, to the spiritualized being who\ninhabits the sun. We are endeavouring to establish that the soul,\nnotwithstanding all its journeys, in the midst of its incarnations and\nvarious metamorphoses, remains always identical with itself, doing\nnothing more in each metempsychosis, in each metamorphosis of the\nexterior being, than perfect and purify itself, growing in power and in\nintellectual grasp. We are endeavouring to prove, that, notwithstanding\nthe shadows of death, our individuality is never destroyed, and that\nwe shall be born again in the heavens, with the same moral personality\nwhich was ours here below; in other words, that the human _person_ is\nimperishable. It is for the reader to say whether we have attained\nour object, whether we have established the truth of this doctrine\nconformably with the laws of reasoning and the facts of science.\n\nIf an absolute demonstration of the existence of an immaterial\nprinciple in us be insisted upon, we must reply, that philosophy,\nlike geometry, has its axioms, that is to say, its self-evident\ntruths, which need not, or, if we choose to say so, which cannot be\nmathematically demonstrated. The existence of the soul is one of those\naxioms of philosophy. Diogenes answered a rhetorician who denied\nmovement by walking in his presence. By expressing any thought, by\nsaying \"yes,\" or \"no,\" we may prove the existence of the immortal soul\nto the sophists who would attempt to contest it.\n\nWe have just said that geometry has its axioms. Let us remember that\nan entire school of geometricians amused themselves by disputing the\naxioms, under the pretext that it was impossible to demonstrate them.\nWe were present, in December, 1866, at a curious sitting of the\nInstitute, during which M. Lionville, a celebrated mathematician, and\nprofessor at the Sorbonne, explained this strange polemic with great\nskill.\n\nIn attempting to demonstrate the propositions of geometry, certain\naxioms, _i.e._, self-evident truths, must be admitted in the first\nplace. Otherwise, the primary reasoning will have no basis. But, among\nthe numerous propositions of this kind which present themselves to the\nmind, and which result from the admission of one of their number, which\nis the most evident? That depends on the nature of the mind of each of\nus, and therefore it is that there is not, and that there never will\nbe, an argument on this question.\n\nThere is a school of geometry which pretends to demonstrate everything.\nThere is another, the true and good school, which, recognizing that the\nhuman mind has limits, and that everything is not accessible by our\nthoughts, lays down, under the name of axioms, certain truths which do\nnot require proof, or, which is often the same thing, are incapable of\nproof.\n\nAmong the number of self-evident truths, or truths difficult of\ndemonstration, we find the question of parallel lines. What are two\nparallels? Two lines which never meet each other. But how can we prove\nthis property of two lines by reasoning? That is not, exactly speaking,\npossible, since the notion of the infinite is not admitted, or not\nunderstood by everybody, and cannot, therefore, serve as the basis of\nan absolutely rigorous argument.\n\nIt was for this reason that Euclid, the founder of geometry in ancient\ntimes, laid down this truth as a simple axiom, requiring (hence the\n_postulates_ of Euclid, from the Latin verb _postulare_, to demand),\nthat the truth of this principle, which he acknowledged himself unable\nto prove by logical demonstration, should be granted.\n\nA hundred geometricians, since Euclid, who renounced the attempt to\ndemonstrate it, have tried to prove this theory of parallels, but\nnot one has succeeded. It was on the occasion of a fresh attempt at\ndemonstration by a mathematician in the provinces, that M. Lionville\nspoke before the Academy, to recall the principles almost unanimously\nprofessed by geometricians on this subject.\n\nThe question is, in reality, thoroughly understood; it is treated on\nall works on geometry, and has been for a long time a settled matter.\nBut certain minds are tempted by the subtlety of certain subjects,\nand the question of the _postulatum_ turns up periodically before the\nlearned societies, as it does in the conversations between the teachers\nof mathematics.\n\nM. Lionville reminded his audience that many demonstrations of this\ncelebrated proposition had been attempted, but had not succeeded,\nbecause there are limits within which human reason ceases to be\naccepted by all. M. Lionville even proposed that the question of\nthe _postulatum_ should be classed among those whose examination is\ninterdicted by the Academy, such as the quadrature of the circle, and\nthe trisection of the angle. On this point M. Lionville quoted an\nanecdote relative to Lagrange. That great mathematician, believing that\nhe had found an absolute solution of the _postulatum_, went to the\nAcademy to read his demonstration, but on reflection, he changed his\nmind, and decided that it would be better not to publish it. He put his\nmanuscript in his pocket, and it never came out.\n\nSeveral geometricians spoke on this occasion, and confirmed the views\nof M. Lionville; and when the demonstration submitted by the professor\nwas examined, it was found to be false. We must therefore recognize and\nproclaim that, in geometry, the axioms cannot be demonstrated.\n\nMany people endeavour to derive an argument from that discussion\nagainst the certainty of geometry. Among them is M. Bouillaud, a\nlearned physician and member of the Institute, who declared that he\ncould not get over his astonishment at hearing it said that there\nwere several geometries, and that even the bases of that science were\ndoubtful. Reassure yourself, great and good physician, geometry has\nnothing to lose and nothing to hide, and the certainty of its methods\nis not imperilled in this question. That which really was at stake\nwas the methodical, classical teaching of geometry. That which was\ndiscussed was the best means of instilling the principles of science\ninto the mind. But, as to the truths of geometry, as to the facts\nthemselves, they are secure from all uncertainty, all these disputes\nupon the truth which must be recognized as axioms, or demonstrated as\ntheorems, are only fancies of the rhetoricians, as vain as they are\nsubtle. No trace of them remains when they are transported into the\npractice of facts and of mathematical deductions. Ask the astronomers\nwho calculate the orbit of the stars, who fix the moment of an eclipse\nwith unerring precision, ask those who have calculated the parallaxes,\nwhether they trouble themselves by inquiring how it may be demonstrated\nthat the angles of a triangle are equal to two right angles. All the\nscholastic subtleties are gotten rid of in the course of practical\nwork.\n\nIf we may lay aside, without occupying ourselves with them, the\nmathematicians who amuse themselves by disputing the axioms of\ngeometry, we may do the same with the few sophists who desire to\ndispute the axioms of philosophy and reason, and especially the\nprinciple of the existence of an immortal soul in man. Let us leave\nthem to their disputations, and go on our way.\n\nSecond objection:--We have no recollection of having existed prior to\nour entrance into this world.\n\nThis is, we acknowledge the greatest and most serious argument against\nour system. But we must hasten to add, that if this difficulty did not\nexist, if the remembrance of a life anterior to our present existence\nwere always before us, the doctrine of plurality of lives would need\nno reinforcement from the proofs for which we appeal to argument, to\nthe facts of observation, and to logical induction. It would be plain\nbefore our eyes, it would be self-evident. All our merit, all our task\nin this work, is to endeavour to procure admission of the plurality of\nexistences, though we have no remembrance of our past lives.\n\nWe have already treated this question incidentally, and we will now\nsummarize all that has been advanced in former chapters to explain the\nabsence of recollection of our past existences.\n\nThe soul in its first human incarnation, if it proceeds from a superior\nanimal, could not possess memory, because in animals that faculty has a\nsmall range, and brief duration. If a second or third human incarnation\nis in question, the difficulty is serious, because it implies that the\nman who has lived and who is born again, has forgotten his previous\nlife.\n\nBut, in the first place, this forgetfulness is not absolute. We have\nremarked before that in the human soul certain results of impressions\nreceived prior to the terrestrial life always linger. Natural\naptitudes, special faculties, vocations, are the traces of impressions\nformerly received, of knowledge already acquired, and, being revealed\nfrom the cradle, cannot be explained otherwise than by a life gone by.\nWe have lost the remembrance of the facts, but there remains the moral\nconsequence, the _resultant_, the philosophy, so to speak, and thus\nthe _innate ideas_ indicated by Descartes, which exist in the soul\nfrom its birth, and also the _principle of causality_, which teaches\nus that every effect has a cause, are explained. This principle can\nonly be derived from facts, because an abstraction can only be based\nupon concrete facts, upon accomplished events, and this abstraction, or\nthis metaphysical idea, which we have from our birth, implies anterior\nfacts, which must belong to a past life.\n\nWe have already said that when the soul gives free course to reverie,\nit beholds mysterious and undefined spectacles, which seem to belong\nto worlds which are not quite unknown to us, but in no wise resembling\nthis earth. In this vague contemplation there is something like a\nconfused remembrance of an anterior life. The love which we bear to\nflowers, plants, and all vegetation, may be as we have already pointed\nout, a grateful recollection of our first origin.\n\nIf, however, these considerations be not accepted as valid, there\nis another, which, to our mind, perfectly explains the absence of\na remembrance of our former existences. It is, we believe, by a\npremeditated decree of nature, that the memory of our past lives is\ndenied to us while we are on the earth. M. Andr\u00e9 Pezzani, the author of\nan excellent book called \"_Pluralit\u00e9 des existences de l'\u00e2me_,\" replies\nto the argument of oblivion, thus:\n\n    \"Our terrestrial sojourn is only a new trial, as Dupont de Nemours,\n    that wonderful writer of the eighteenth century, who outstripped\n    all modern beliefs, has said. If this be so, can we not perceive\n    that the remembrance of past lives would embarrass these trials\n    by removing the greater part of their difficulties, and, in\n    proportion, of their merit, and destroying their spontaneity? We\n    live in a world in which free-will is all powerful, the inviolable\n    law of the advancement and the progressive initiation of men. If\n    past existences were known, the soul would know the meaning and\n    the bearing of the trials reserved for it here below; indolent and\n    idle, it would harden itself against the designs of Providence,\n    and would be either paralyzed by its despair of overcoming them,\n    or, if better disposed and more virile, it would accept and\n    accomplish them unfailingly. But neither one nor the other of\n    these positions is fitting. Our efforts must be free, voluntary,\n    sheltered from the influences of the past; the field of strife must\n    be seemingly untrodden, so that the athlete shall show and exercise\n    his virtue. Previously gained experience, the energies which he\n    has acquired, help him in the new strife, but in a latent way of\n    which he is unconscious, for the imperfect soul undergoes these\n    re-incarnations, in order to develop its previously manifested\n    qualities, and to strip itself of those vices and defects which\n    oppose themselves to the law of its ascension. What would happen\n    if all men remembered their previous lives? The order of the earth\n    would be overturned, or at least, it would not remain in its\n    present condition. _L\u00e9th\u00e9_, like free-will, is a law of the world\n    as it is.\"[18]\n\nTo this it will be objected that there is destruction of identity where\nmemory does not exist, and that expiation, in order to be profitable\nto the guilty soul, must co-exist with the remembrance of faults\ncommitted in the previous existence, for the man is not punished who\ndoes not know that he is punished. We may remark here that we do not\nuse the word \"expiation\" precisely as theologians employ it, but\nrather as a new dwelling conferred on the soul, in order that it may\nresume the interrupted course of its advance towards perfection. We\nbelieve that the remembrance of our previous life, forbidden to us\nduring our terrestrial sojourn, will come back when we shall have\nattained the happy realms of ether, in which we shall pass through\nthe existences which are to succeed our life on earth. Among the\nnumber of the perfections and moral faculties forming the attributes\nof the superhuman being, the memory of his anterior lives will be\nincluded. Identity will be born again for him. Having suffered a\nmomentary collapse, his individuality will be restored to him, with his\nconscience and his liberty.\n\nLet us hearken awhile to Jean Reynaud, as he tells us in his fine book,\n_Terre et Ciel_, the marvels of that memory which shall be restored to\nman after his being shall have undergone a series of changes.\n\n    \"The integral restitution of our recollections,\" says Jean Reynaud,\n    \"seems to us one of the inherent principal conditions of our future\n    happiness. We cannot fully enjoy life, until we become, like Janus,\n    kings of time, until we know how to concentrate in us, not only\n    the sentiment of the present, but that of the future and the past.\n    Then, if perfect life be one day given to us, perfect memory must\n    also be given to us. And now, let us try to think of the infinite\n    treasures of a mind enriched by the recollections of an innumerable\n    series of existences, entirely different from each other, and\n    yet admirably linked together by a continual dependence. To this\n    marvellous garland of metempsychoses, encircling the universe,\n    let us add, if the perspective seem worthy of our ambition, a\n    clear perception of the particular influence of our life upon\n    the ulterior changes of each of the worlds which we shall have\n    successively inhabited; let us aggrandize our life in immortalizing\n    it, and wed our history grandly with the history of the heavens.\n    Let us confidently collect together every material of happiness,\n    since thus the all-powerful bounty of the Creator wills it, and\n    let us construct the existence which the future reserves for\n    virtuous souls; let us plunge into the past by our faith, while we\n    are waiting for more light, even as by our faith we plunge into\n    the future. Let us banish the idea of disorder from the earth, by\n    opening the gates of time beyond our birth, as we have banished\n    the idea of injustice by opening other gates beyond the tomb; let\n    us stretch duration in every direction, and, notwithstanding the\n    obscurity which rests upon our two horizons, let us glorify the\n    Creator in glorifying ourselves, who are God's ministers on earth,\n    let us remember, with pious pride, that we are the younger brethren\n    of the angels.\"\n\nUnder what condition does the soul regain the remembrance of its entire\npast? Jean Reynaud specifies two periods. 1. That which is fulfilled,\nas the Druids hold, in the world of journeys and trials, of which the\nearth forms a part. 2. The period during which the soul, set free from\nthe miseries and vicissitudes of the terrestrial life, pursues its\ndestinies in the ever widening and progressive circle of happiness; a\nperiod which passes outside of the earth. In the first period there\nis an eclipse of the memory at each passage into a new sphere; in the\nsecond period, whatever may be the displacements and transfigurations\nof the person, the memory is preserved full and entire. This theory of\nReynaud's is admitted by M. Pezzani.\n\nWith the exception of that _eclipse of the memory at each passage into\na new sphere_, which seems to us incomprehensible and useless, we\nthink, with Jean Reynaud, that the complete remembrance of our previous\nexistences will return to the soul when it shall inhabit the ethereal\nregions, the sojourn of the superhuman being. In this manner only, in\nour opinion, can the defect of man's memory, concerning his previous\nexistences, be explained. Thus, the argument from that defect of memory\ndoes not remain without reply. Writers who have preceded us, and have\nmeditated on this question, had already found the solution which we\noffer. This objection is not, then, of a nature to throw doubt on the\ndoctrine of plurality of existences. Let us conclude, with M. Pezzani,\nthat it is by a design of nature, that man, during this life, loses the\nremembrance of what he formerly was. If we retained the recollection\nof our anterior existences, if we had before our eyes, as if seen in a\nmirror, all that we had done during our former lives, we should be much\ntroubled by the remembrance, which would harass the greater part of our\nactions, and deprive us of our complete free will.\n\nWhy is an invincible dread of death common to all men? Death is not,\nin reality, very dreadful, since it is not a termination, but a simple\nchange of condition. If man feels terror of death to such an extent,\nwe may be sure that nature imposes that sentiment upon him, in the\ninterests of the preservation of his species. Thus, in our belief,\nthe fear of death and the absence of memory of our former lives are\nreferable to the same cause. The first is a salutary illusion imposed\nby God upon the weakness of humanity; the second is a means of securing\nto man full liberty of action.\n\nAnother objection will be made to our doctrine. It will be said: The\nre-incarnation of souls is not a new idea; it is, on the contrary, an\nidea as old as humanity itself. It is the metempsychosis, which from\nthe Indians passed to the Egyptians, from the Egyptians to the Greeks,\nand which was afterwards professed by the Druids.\n\nThe metempsychosis is, in fact, the most ancient of philosophical\nconceptions; it is the first theory imagined by men, in order to\nexplain the origin and the destiny of our race. We do not recognize an\nargument against our system of nature in this remark, but rather indeed\na confirmation of it. An idea does not pass down from age to age, and\nfind acceptance during five or six centuries, by the picked men of\nsuccessive generations, unless it rests upon some serious foundation.\nWe are not called upon to defend ourselves because our opinions\nharmonize with the philosophical ideas which date from the most distant\ntime in the history of the peoples. The first observers, and the\noriental philosophers in particular, who are the most ancient thinkers\nof all whose writings we possess, had not, like us, their minds warped,\nprejudiced, turned aside by routine, or trammelled by the words of\nteachers. They were placed very close to nature, and they beheld its\nrealities, without any preconceived ideas, derived from education in\nparticular schools. We cannot, therefore, but applaud ourselves when\nwe find that the logical deduction of our ideas has led us back to the\nantique conception of Indian wisdom.\n\nThere is, however, a profound difference between our system of the\nplurality of lives, and the oriental dogma of the metempsychosis. The\nIndian philosophers, the Egyptians, and the Greeks, who inherited the\nmaxims of Pythagoras, admitted that the soul, on leaving a human body,\nenters into that of an animal, to undergo punishment. We entirely\nreject this useless step backward. Our metempsychosis is upward and\nonward, it never steps down, or back.\n\nA brief sketch of the dogma of the animal metempsychosis, such as it\nwas professed by the different philosophical sects of antiquity will\nnot be out of place here. We shall explain in what particulars the\noriental dogma differs from our system, and show, at the same time,\nhow popular the metempsychosis was among the peoples of antiquity, in\nEurope as well as in Asia.\n\nThe most ancient known book is that of the _V\u00e9das_, which contains\nthe religious principles of the Indians or Hindoos. In this code of\nthe primary religions of Asia is found the general dogma of the final\nabsorption of souls in God. But, before it reaches its final fusion\nwith the great All, it is necessary that the human soul should have\ntraversed all the active orders of life. The soul, therefore, performed\na series of transmigrations and journeys, in various places, in\ndifferent worlds, and passed through the bodies of several different\nanimals. Men who had not done good works went into the moon or the\nsun; or else they came back to the earth, and assumed the bodies of\ncertain animals, such as dogs, butterflies, adders, &c. There were\nalso intermediary places between the earth and the sun, whither souls\nwho had only been partly faulty, went to pass a period of expiation. We\nfind the following in the _V\u00e9das_:--\n\n    \"If a man has done works which lead to the world of the sun, his\n    soul repairs to the world of the sun; if he has done works which\n    lead to the world of the Creator, his soul goes to the world of the\n    Creator.\"\n\nThe book of the _V\u00e9das_ says, very distinctly, that the animal, as well\nas the man, has the right of passing to other worlds, as a recompense\nfor his good works. The oriental wisdom felt none of that uncalled-for\ncontempt for animals which is characteristic of modern philosophy and\nreligion.\n\n    \"All animals, according to the degree of knowledge and intelligence\n    which they have had in this world, go into other worlds. The man\n    whose object was the recompense of his good works, being dead,\n    goes into the world of the moon. There he is at the service of the\n    overseers of the half of the moon in its crescent. They welcome\n    him joyfully, but he is not tranquil, he is not happy; all his\n    recompense is to have attained for a while to the world of the\n    moon. On the expiration of this time, the servant of the overseers\n    of the moon descends again into hell; and is born as a worm, a\n    butterfly, lion, fish, dog, or under any other form (even under a\n    human form).\"[19]\n\n    \"At the last stages of his descent, if one asks, who are you? he\n    replies: I come from the world of the moon, the wages of the deeds\n    done during my life merely for the sake of reward. I am again\n    invested with a body; I have suffered in the womb of my mother,\n    and in leaving it; I hope finally to acquire the knowledge of Him\n    who is all things, to enter into the right way of worship and of\n    meditation without any consideration of reward.\n\n    \"In the world of the moon, one receives the reward of good works\n    which are done without renunciation of their fruits, of their\n    merits; but this reward has only a fixed time, after which one is\n    born again in an inferior world, a wicked world, a world which is\n    the recompense of evil.\n\n    \"By the renunciation of all pleasure, and of all reward by seeking\n    God only, with unshaken faith, we reach the sun which has no end,\n    the great world, whence we return no more to a world which is the\n    recompense of evil.\"[20]\n\nThe Egyptians, having borrowed this doctrine from the Hindoos, made\nit the basis of their religious worship. Herodotus informs us,[21]\nthat, according to the Egyptians, the human soul, on issuing from a\ncompletely decomposed body, enters into that of some animal. The soul\ntakes three thousand years to pass from this body through a series of\nothers, and at the conclusion of this interval, the same soul returns\nto the human species, entering the form of a newly-born infant.\n\nThe Egyptians employed excessive caution in the preservation of human\nbodies. They embalmed the corpses of their relatives or of personages\nof importance to the state, and thus prepared the mummies which are\nto be seen in all our museums. The universal practice of embalming\nwas not intended, as has been supposed, to keep the human body ready\nto receive the soul, returning at the end of three thousand years,\nto seek its primitive abode. It had another object. It was supposed\nthat the soul did not commence its migrations after the death of the\nhuman body, while any portion of the corpse remained entire. Hence the\nefforts made by the Egyptians, to retard the moment of separation by\nthe preservation of the corpse as long as possible. Servius says:\n\n    \"The Egyptians, renowned for their wisdom, prolonged the duration\n    of corpses, that the existence of the soul, attached to that of\n    the body, might be preserved, and might not pass away quickly to\n    others. The Romans, on the contrary, burn corpses, so that the\n    soul, resuming its liberty, might immediately re-enter nature.\"\n\nThe most ancient and remarkable of the Greek philosophers, Pythagoras,\nfound out the doctrine of the metempsychosis, in his travels in Egypt.\nHe adopted it in his school, and the whole of the Greek philosophy\nheld, with Pythagoras, that the souls of the wicked pass into the\nbodies of animals. Hence the abstinence from flesh meat, prescribed\nby Pythagoras to his disciples, a precept which he also derived from\nEgypt, where respect for animals was due to the general persuasion that\nthe bodies of beasts were tenanted by human souls, and, consequently,\nthat by ill-treating animals, one ran the risk of injuring one's own\nancestors. Empedocles, the philosopher, adopted the Pythagorean system.\nHe says, in lines quoted by Clement of Alexandria:--\n\n    \"I, too, have been a young maiden,\n    A tree, a bird, a mute fish in the seas.\"\n\nPlato, the most illustrious of the philosophers of Greece, accords a\nlarge place to the views of Pythagoras, even amid his most sublime\nconceptions of the soul, and of immortality. He held that the human\nsoul passes into the body of animals, in expiation of its crimes. Plato\nsaid that on earth we remember what we have done during our previous\nexistences, and that to learn is to remember one's self.\n\n    \"Cowards,\" he says, \"are changed into women, vain and frivolous\n    men into birds, the ignorant into wild beasts, lower in kind and\n    crawling upon the earth, in proportion as their idleness has\n    been more degrading; stained and corrupt souls animate fishes\n    and aquatic reptiles.\" Again, he says: \"Those who have abandoned\n    themselves to intemperance and gluttony enter into the bodies of\n    animals with like propensities. They who have loved injustice,\n    cruelty, and rapine assume the bodies of wolves, hawks, and\n    falcons. The destiny of souls has relation to the lives which they\n    have led.\"\n\nPlato held that the soul took only one thousand years to complete\nits journey through the bodies of animals; but he believed that this\njourney repeated itself ten times over, which gives a total of 10,000\nyears for the completion of the entire circle of existences. Between\neach of these periods the soul made a brief sojourn in Hades. During\nthis sojourn it drank of the waters of the river Lethe, in order to\nlose the recollection of its previous existence, before re-commencing\nits new life.\n\nPlato exalted the dogma of the animal metempsychosis by his grand\nviews upon spiritual immortality and the liberty of man, ideas which\neven at the present time are quoted with admiration, but for whose\nrecapitulation we have not space.\n\nThe metempsychosis holds less rank in the Platonic doctrine than in\nthe Pythagorean and Egyptian systems. All its importance was resumed\namong the philosophers of the Alexandrian school, who continued, in\nEgypt, the traditions of the Platonic philosophy, and revived the\ndays of the schools of Athens on the soil of the Pharaohs. Plotinus,\nthe commentator of Plato, says, concerning the doctrine of the\ntransmigration of souls:\n\n    \"It is a dogma recognized from the utmost antiquity, that if the\n    soul commits errors, it is condemned to expiate them by undergoing\n    punishment in the Shades, and then it passes into new bodies to\n    begin its trials over again.\"\n\nThis passage proves that the ancients held the sojourn of the soul in\nhell to be only temporary, and that it was always followed by fresh\ntrials, terrible and painful in proportion to the errors which were to\nbe repaired.\n\n    \"When,\" says Plotinus, \"we have gone astray in the multiplicity\n    of our corporal passions, we are punished, first by the straying\n    itself, and afterwards, when we resume a body, by finding ourselves\n    in worse conditions. The soul, on leaving the body, becomes that\n    power which it has most developed. Let us, then, fly from base\n    things here below, and raise ourselves to the intelligent world, so\n    that we may not fall into the purely sensational life, by following\n    images which are merely of the senses, or into the vegetative life,\n    by indulging in mere physical pleasure and gluttony; let us raise\n    ourselves to the intelligent world, to intelligence, to God.\n\n    \"Those who have exercised human faculties are born again as men.\n    Those who have used their senses only pass into the bodies of\n    brutes, and especially into the bodies of wild beasts, if they\n    have been accustomed to yield to violent impulses of anger; so\n    that the different bodies which they animate are conformable to\n    their various propensities. Those who have done nothing but indulge\n    their appetites pass into the bodies of luxurious and gluttonous\n    animals. Others, who, instead of indulging concupiscence or anger,\n    have degraded their senses by sloth, are reduced to vegetate in the\n    plants, because in their previous existences they have exercised\n    nothing but vegetative power, and have only worked to become trees.\n    Those who have loved the enjoyment of music over much, but have\n    led lives otherwise pure, pass into the bodies of melodious birds.\n    Those who have governed tyrannically, but have no other vice,\n    become eagles. Those who have spoken lightly of celestial things\n    are changed into birds which fly towards the higher regions of the\n    air. He who has acquired civil virtues becomes a man again, but\n    if he does not possess these virtues to a sufficient extent, he\n    is transformed into a sociable creature, such as the bee, or some\n    other being of that species.\"\n\nEvery one knows that among our own ancestors, and the Druids or\nhigh-priests of the Gauls, the metempsychosis was held almost in the\nsame sense as among the Egyptians and the Greeks. It is, so to speak,\na national faith to us, for it has been held in honour, its dogmas\nhave flourished, in the same countries in which we now dwell. We\nhave recalled these facts, and collected these passages from ancient\nwriters, only in order to define the manner in which the Egyptians,\nas well as the Greeks, and, in later times, the Gauls, understood the\nmetempsychosis. Our system differs from the old oriental conception,\nwhich was embraced by the Egyptians, the Greeks, and the Druids, in our\ndenial that the human soul can ever return to the body of an animal. We\nbelieve that the human soul has already passed through this probation,\nand that it never can be renewed. In nature, in fact, the animal has a\npart inferior to that of man; it is below our species in its degree of\nintelligence, and it cannot have either merit or demerit. Its faculties\ndo not invest it with the entire responsibility of its actions. It is\nbut an intermediate link between the plant and man; it has certain\nfaculties, but we cannot pretend that those faculties assimilate it to\nmoral man.\n\nThus, we reject this doctrine of the return of the human soul to\nconditions through which it has already passed. Retrogression has no\nplace in our system. The soul, in its progressive march, may pause for\nan instant, but it never turns back. We admit that man is condemned to\nre-commence an ill-fulfilled existence, but this new experience is made\nin a human body, in a new covering of the same living type, and not in\nthe form of an inferior being. The oriental dogma of the metempsychosis\nmisapprehended the great law of progress, which is, on the contrary,\nthe foundation of our doctrine.\n\nFourth objection. It will be said to us: You maintain that our souls\nhave already existed in the bodies of animals; do you, then, share the\nbelief of those naturalists who derive man from the monkey?\n\nNo, certainly not. The French and German naturalists, who, applying\nDarwin's theory of the transformation of species to man, have declared\nman to be derived from the monkey, rely entirely on anatomical\nconsiderations. Vogt, Bruchner, Huxley, and Broca compare the skeleton\nof the monkey with that of primitive man; they study the form of the\nskull of each respectively, they measure the width and the prominence\nof the jaws, &c., &c. From the results, they draw the conclusion that\nman is anatomically derived from a species of quadrumane. The soul is\nnot taken into any consideration by these men of science, who argue\nprecisely as if nothing of the thinking kind existed in the anatomical\ncavities which they explore and measure. It is, on the contrary, by\ncomparing the faculties of the human soul with the faculties of animals\nthat we arrive at our conclusion. The animal forms signify nothing to\nus; the spirit, in its various manifestations, is our chief object.\nWhy, indeed, should we seek to derive man from the monkey, rather than\nfrom any other mammiferous animal, rather than from the wolf, or the\nfox? Is there much difference between the skeleton of the monkey and\nthat of the wolf, the fox, or any other carnivorous beast? Put three\nor four of those skeletons together, and you will not find it easy to\ndistinguish one from the other, if, instead of selecting a monkey of a\nsuperior species, you take an inferior quadrumane, a striated monkey, a\nlemur, or a macao.\n\nInterrogate the physiological functions of the monkey. You will find\nthem, and the organs which serve those functions, perfectly similar\nin all animals, and those organs identical in their structure. Why,\nthen, should you derive man from the monkey, rather than from the\nwolf or the fox? Is it because the monkeys in our menageries have a\ndistant resemblance to man, in their occasional vertical attitude,\nand in certain features which are caricatures of those of the human\nface? How many of the species among the immense simial family of the\ntwo hemispheres present this resemblance? Hardly five or six. All the\nothers have the bestial snout in its fullest development, and are\nvery inferior in intelligence to most of the other mammifers. If it be\nfrom the organic point of view that you derive man from the monkey,\nbecause certain species of quadrumanes are caricatures of men in their\nphysiognomy, why may he not be derived as reasonably from the parrot,\nwhich emits articulate sounds, the caricature of the human voice, or\neven the nightingale, because that melodious songster of the woods\nmodulates his notes like our singers?\n\nThe consideration of animal forms is of very little importance in our\nestimation, when the matter in hand is to determine the place occupied\nby a living being in the scale of creation, for these forms are similar\nin type among all the superior animals, the body varying very slightly\nin structure in all the great class of mammifers; and also because the\nphysiological functions are discharged in a similar manner by all.\nThe basis on which we ground our researches is quite different, it is\nthe spiritual basis; we ask the faculties of the mind to supply our\nmaterials of comparison.\n\nIt must not be supposed, therefore, that we espouse the doctrines of\nDarwin and those who agree with him, because we hold that the soul has\na previous dwelling in the bodies of several animals, before it reaches\nthe human body; because we admit that the spiritual principle begins\nin the germ of plants, and that this germ grows and develops itself in\npassing through the bodies of a progressive series of animal species,\nto issue at length in man, the end of its elaboration and perfection.\nThe Darwinists take into consideration only the anatomical structure,\nand put aside the soul. We consider its faculties only. We are guided,\nnot by the materialistic idea which directs and inspires these men of\nscience, but on the contrary, on a reasoned-out spiritualism.\n\nOur system of nature may be criticised, or rejected. We offer it merely\nas a personal view, and would not impose it on any reader. The merit of\nthis philosophical and scientific conception, if it has any, consists\nin the vast synthesis by which it binds together all the living\ncreatures which people the solar world, from the minute plant in which\nthe germ of organization first appears, to the animal; from the animal\nto the man; and from the man to the series of superhuman and archhuman\nbeings who inhabit the ethereal spheres; and finally, from them to the\nradiant dwellers in the solar star. In collecting together, on the\none hand, all that modern chemistry has learned of the composition of\nplants, and the physical phenomena of their respiration, and on the\nother hand, everything which is known of the physical and chemical\nproperties of solar light, the idea struck us that the rays of the sun\nform the vehicle by whose means the animated germs are placed in the\nplants. While meditating upon what has been written by the philosophers\nCharles Bonnet, Dupont de Nemours, and Jean Reynaud, upon the physical\ncondition of resuscitated human beings, and dwelling upon the destiny\nof men beyond the formidable barrier of the tomb, in short, while\ndrinking at the most various springs of philosophical and scientific\nknowledge, we have composed this attempt at a new philosophy of the\nuniverse.\n\nThis system may be erroneous, and another, more logical and more\nlearned, may be substituted for it. But there will remain, we may hope,\nthe synthesis which we have established from all the facts of the\nphysical and moral order which we have collected together, the links\nby which we attach all the beings of creation one to another, which\ncomprehends both the moral and organic attributes of these beings;--a\nvast ladder of nature, on whose steps we place everything that has\nlife; the endless circle, in which we link all the rings of the chain\nof living beings. The theoretic explanation of all these facts, thus\ngrouped, may not perhaps be accepted, but we believe that they are\ncorrectly placed in juxtaposition, and that any theory which pretends\nto explain the universe must be established upon the basis of that\ngrouping. If our explanation be contested, we hope that our synthesis\nof facts will remain.\n\nBesides it is only thus, _i.e._, by creating a system, that the\nsciences, exact as well as moral, are made to progress. Chemistry was\nnot, as some have pretended, created by Lavoisier; it was founded by\nStahl, it was not the pneumatic theory of Lavoisier, but really the\n_system of phlogiston_ devised by Stahl, which instituted chemistry\nin the last century. Stahl, it is well known, had the immense merit\nof collecting all the facts known up to his time, into a general\ntheoretical explanation of composing a summary of them, and of creating\nthe _system of phlogiston_. This system was, undeniably, incorrect,\nbut the facts which had been collected towards its construction had\nbeen perfectly well selected, and included every useful element of\ninformation or research. Thus, when ten years later than Stahl,\ncame Lavoisier, he had only, so to speak, to turn the system of his\npredecessor inside out, as one turns a coat. For phlogiston Lavoisier\nsubstituted oxygen; he preserved all the facts, and changed only the\nexplanation. Thus chemistry was founded.\n\nA well constructed synthesis must necessarily precede every theory\nof nature. Descartes, when working out his system of whirlwinds,\nformulated a conception which was certainly very inexact; but the facts\nupon which this theory rested were so well selected, they responded\nso exactly to the requirements of science, that when Newton came,\nwith his _system of attraction_, it only remained to apply the new\nhypothesis to the facts collected by Descartes for his _whirlwinds_,\nand there was real astronomy, the true physics. When Linn\u00e6us created\nhis _system of botany_, he made an undeniably artificial distribution\nof the vegetables, and Linn\u00e6us himself perfectly understood the defects\nof his system. But, owing to this artificial method, he succeeded in\ngrouping all the plants into a methodical catalogue. If the principle\nof classification was bad, the service rendered to botany by this\ncatalogue was immense. It was not, in fact, until after Linn\u00e6us' time\nthat the immense mass of facts which he collected could be put in\norder, and the study of the vegetable world made to progress from those\ndata. Botany dates from the publication of the _systema natur\u00e6_ of the\nimmortal botanist of Upsal.\n\nWe do not pretend to put forward an irreproachable theory of the\nuniverse in this work, but simply to collect together and methodically\ngroup the facts upon which such a theory ought to rest, facts physical,\nmetaphysical, and moral.\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[18] \"_La Pluralit\u00e9 des existences de l'\u00e2me_,\" Paris, p. 450.\n\n[19] \"_La Religion des Hindous selon les V\u00e9das_,\" par Lanjuinais,\nParis, p. 286.\n\n[20] \"_La Religion des Hindous selon les V\u00e9das_,\" pp. 324, 325.\n\n[21] \"_Histoires_,\" Vol. II. ch. cxxiii. (translated by M. Larcher.)\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nCHAPTER THE NINETEENTH.\n\nSEQUEL TO OBJECTIONS.--IT IS INCOMPREHENSIBLE HOW THE RAYS OF THE\nSUN, BEING MATERIAL SUBSTANCES, CAN BE THE GERMS OF SOULS, WHICH ARE\nIMMATERIAL SUBSTANCES.\n\n\nOUR system of nature may be met with the following final objection.\nIt will be said, how can the rays of the sun, being material bodies,\nconvey animated germs which are immaterial substances? These terms\nexclude each other.\n\nWe find, in the Scriptures, a magnificent comparison, of which we shall\navail ourselves in order to answer this objection, or rather, this\nquestion.\n\nSaint Matthew speaks of a grain of mustard seed, that is to say, of a\ntree germ, which, cast into the earth, produces a herbaceous plant,\nthen a tree with majestic branches, and he is astonished to behold the\nimposing lord of the forests, which, laden with flowers and fruit,\ntowers aloft in majestic beauty, and gives shelter under its shadow\nto the weary birds, springing from a humble little seed. Not only,\nsays the evangelist, is there no resemblance between the tree and its\noriginal seed, but there does not exist in the tree a single atom of\nthe matter of which the seed was primarily composed.\n\nTo our mind, this grain of mustard-seed is an image of the sun, which,\nfalling upon the earth, sows animated germs in its bosom, which produce\nplants that afterwards give birth to animals, and later still to man,\nand thus to the entire series of creatures, invisible to us, which\nsucceed him in the domain of the heavens.\n\nThe little cold, colourless, scentless seed is nothing to look at,\nnothing distinguishes it apparently from the neighbouring dust.\nNevertheless, it contains that mysterious leaven, that sacred being,\nso to speak, which we call a germ. And what wonderful things are to\nbe born from that sacred being! In the obscurity of the cold, damp\nearth the germ transforms itself, it becomes a new body without any\nresemblance to the seed which contained it. It produces a plantlet, a\nsubterranean, but perfectly organized creature, possessing a root which\nfastens itself into the soil, and a stalk which takes the opposite\ndirection. Between the two portions lies the seed, split, gutted,\nhaving allowed the germ to escape, its part in the matter ended.\n\nThe subterranean plantlet is a new being; it has no longer anything\nin common with the seed from whence it came. The plantlet is dull and\ncolourless, but it breathes, it has channels, in which liquids and\ngases are circulating.\n\nIn a little while the plantlet comes up above the earth, it greets the\ndaylight, it appears to our eyes, and then it is a very different being\nfrom the subterranean creature. The new-born vegetable is no longer as\nit was when in the bosom of the earth, dull and grey; it is green, it\nbreathes like other vegetables, producing oxygen under the influence\nof life, whereas in the bosom of the earth it gave out carbonic acid.\nInstead of the dull and sombre subterranean plantlet, you have a green\nand tender shoot, provided with special organs. Where is the grain of\nmustard seed?\n\nPresently our shoot grows, and becomes a young plant. It is still\nweak and hidden under the grass, but nevertheless the young plant has\nits complete individuality. It resembles neither the shoot nor the\nplantlet, its subterranean ancestor.\n\nThe shoot grows, and becomes a twig, that is to say, the adolescent\nof the vegetable kingdom, with the ardour and the energy of the young\namong herbaceous creatures.\n\nIn this state the plant has already renewed its substance several\ntimes, and nothing remains of the organic and mineral elements which\nexisted in the different beings that have preceded it on the same\nlittle corner of the earth which have witnessed the changing phases\nof its curious metamorphoses. Wait a while, and you will see the twig\ngrowing long and large. Its respiration becomes active, its leaves\nspread out, and vigorously exhale the carbonic acid gas of the air.\nThe exhalation of watery vapour over all the surface takes place, and\na young and vigorous tree is there, which day by day grows more robust\nand more beautiful.\n\nDuring this growth, during this transition from the shrub to the young\ntree, with a separate and upright stem, a new being has been formed.\nOrgans which it had not have come to it, and have made it a separate\nindividual. It has flowers, it has branches, it has new vessels for\nthe circulation of the sap, and the juices which were not previously\nelaborated. The structure of the surface of its leaves has been\nchanged, so that absorption may be more successfully accomplished.\n\nWhere is the shoot, from which our vigorous young shrub sprung? What\nrelation, what resemblance is there between these two beings? We can\nonly discern differences. One individual has succeeded to another\nindividual. The vegetable has been renewed, not only in matter, which\nis changed, but in the form of its organs. A series of new forms have\nsucceeded each other in the shrub, since it was a simple shoot, just\npeeping above the soil.\n\nIt is still the history of change, when the young tree has become\nadult, when, in the progress of years, its trunk has grown hard, and\nbecome incrusted with layers of accumulated bark, when its branches\nhave multiplied, and flowering and fruitage have modified all its\ninternal and external parts. It is then a grand cedar tree, whose\nmajestic and imposing shade covers a considerable extent of the soil;\nor a superb oak, whose robust and gnarled branches spread far and wide;\nor a flexible chestnut, which flings about its polished and shining\narms. The organs of these luxuriant vegetables, the pride of our\nforests, have no relation to those which belonged to them in the first\nyears of their life. Their flowery crowns in spring-tide, the fruits\nwhich succeed to them, the seeds shut up in the protecting shelter of\nthose fruits, these are all peculiarities of organization, belonging to\nthese noble trees, without any analogy in nature.\n\nWhere is the grain of mustard seed which formerly sucked the juice of\nthe earth in darkness? Everything is changed; the place of habitation,\nwhich is no longer the earth, but the air; the form, and the\nphysiological functions. Not only has all this changed, but it has\nchanged a great number of times. Not only does nothing remain of the\nmatter of which the tree was composed in the earlier stages of its\nlife, but nothing has been retained of the organic forms which were\nproper to the infancy of the vegetable.\n\nNevertheless, O great mystery of Nature, in the midst of all these\nchanges, notwithstanding this continual succession of beings, which\nmutually replace each other, there is something which remains\nimmovable, which has never changed, which has preserved a constant\nindividuality,--it is the secret force which produced all these\nchanges, which presided over all these organic mutations. In our\nbelief, this force is the animated germ which the young plant has\nreceived from the seed, whence it has proceeded. In the midst of all\nthe transformations which the vegetable creature has undergone, in\nspite of the numerous phases through which it has passed, and which\nhave produced a series of different beings succeeding each other in its\nmaterial substance, the spiritual principle, cause and agent of all\nthis long activity, has remained the same. This animated germ which now\nexists in the adult vegetable is the same which was there during its\ngrowth, the same which was there when it was a shoot, the same which\nslept in the seed which was thrown into the bosom of the cold and humid\nearth. In that majestic tree which, coming forth from an imperceptibly\nminute seed, has had a whole genealogy of successive beings, replacing\neach other, differing in form and size, and has preserved, throughout\nits incessant development, the sole and immutable principle of\nits activity, we behold the faithful image of the persistent,\nindestructible soul, in the midst of the beings or different bodies\nwhich it has animated in succession. Issuing from a germ, it has never\nceased to grow, to develop, to become amplified, still remaining itself.\n\nThe grain of mustard seed, or the seed of the tree, is according to\nus, the plant or inferior animal into which the sun has thrown the\nanimated germ. The subterranean plantlet corresponds to the animal\nwhose mission it is to perfect the germ transmitted by the plant, and\nwhich develops and amplifies this germ; for example, to the fish or the\nreptile, perfecting the spiritual principle which they have received\nfrom the zoophyte or the mollusc. The shoot which, having burst out\nof the earth, grows in the shade of the grass, and tries its air\norgans, corresponds to the animal somewhat more elevated in the organic\nscale, such as the bird, in which the animating principle--derived\nfrom the reptile or the fish--increases in intellectual power. The\nyoung vegetable, arrived at the condition of the twig, which lives a\ncompletely a\u00ebrial life, corresponds to the mammifer. The tree, grown\ntall, and pushing out its young boughs, corresponds to man, perfecting\nthe soul which he has received from a mammifer. Finally, the powerful\nand vigorous forest lord, over-topping all the neighbouring trees in\nsize and majesty, with mighty girth of stem, and noble crest, with\nwide-spreading branches and splendid flowers, this grand creature\ncorresponds to the superhuman being who lives in the bosom of the\nethereal fluid, and who is himself destined to be replaced by a series\nof superior creatures, who shall climb from stage to stage, from\nheight to height, even to the radiant kingdom of the sun, where those\nabsolutely spiritual beings, whose essence is entire and perfect\nimmateriality are enthroned.\n\nThus, the animating principle remains immutable and identical with\nitself, during all the transformations undergone by the beings who\nare successively charged to receive this precious deposit. From the\nvegetable, in which it had its first domicile as a germ, and through\nthe whole series of living creatures, from the plant and the zoophyte\nto the man and the superhuman being, the same spiritual principle is\npreserved in its identity, perfecting and amplifying itself without\ncessation.\n\nLet us complete the comparison. When the forest tree has ripened its\nfruits, the fruits burst open, the seeds escape from it, and fall into\nthe soil, or are dispersed by the caprice of the winds. If the seeds\nfall into damp earth, they germinate, and, according to the laws of\nnature, young vegetables are produced, as we have previously explained.\nMultitudes of similar vegetables are produced by a single oak, a single\ncedar, a single chestnut tree. Just as the majestic adult tree lets\nfall from its thousand branches upon the soil the countless seeds\nwhich are to germinate there, so the spiritualized beings who dwell in\nthe sun shed their emanations, their _animated germs_, upon all the\nplanets. These germs, carried to the earth by the sunbeams, and falling\nupon our globe, produce the vegetables which afterwards give birth to\nthe various animals, by the effect of the successive transmigrations of\nthe same soul into the bodies of these creatures.\n\nWe can now reply to the objection which we have placed at the\nbeginning of this chapter: \"How can the solar rays, being material\nsubstances, convey animated germs, which are immaterial substances?\"\n\nWhen the physicists professed Newton's theory of the nature of light,\nin the theory of _emission_, it was necessary to regard light, and,\nconsequently the solar rays, which produce it, as material bodies.\n\nBut science has now rejected this theory, and replaced it by the\ntheory of _undulation_, founded by Malus, Fresnel, Amp\u00e8re, and all\nthe constellation of great physicists and mathematicians of the\ncommencement of this century. Facts, collected on every side, prove\nthat the solar rays are not matter which transports itself from the\nsun to the earth, but that light, like heat, results from a primitive\ndisturbance produced by the sun upon the ether, which is spread\nover all space. This disturbance communicates itself from molecule\nto molecule, from the planetary ether down to us, and produces the\nphenomena of light and heat. We cannot here develop at greater length,\nor explain more scientifically, the theory of undulations, which will\nbe found sufficiently demonstrated in works on physics. We merely\ndesire to prove that, according to the principles of modern science,\nthe solar rays are not material bodies, but that they result from a\nsimple vibration of the planetary ether. If, then, the rays of the sun\nare not material substances, there can be no difficulty in admitting\nthat these rays (immaterial substance) are the bearers of the animated\ngerms, which are immaterial substance.\n\nIf we be driven to a closer definition of the problem, if we be\nasked to explain with greater precision how these immaterial germs\njourney through space, we reply that we must guard against the mania\nfor insisting on everything being explained. Absolute explanation is\nforbidden to the limit of our intelligence. We are forced to confess\nour powerlessness whenever we try to explain the phenomena of nature\nrigorously. What is the true cause of the fall of bodies, of the\ngravitation of the stars, of electricity, of heat? What is the cause\nof the circulation of our blood, of the beating of our hearts? The\ndeepest obscurity veils the primary causes of these phenomena, which\nwe all behold every day; and the more earnestly we desire to penetrate\nthe secret essence, the more the darkness deepens in our minds. Since\nthe time of Newton, the physicists have laid down a wise and excellent\nprinciple. They have agreed to study the laws of physical phenomena\nwith sedulous care, to measure with exactness the effects of heat,\nweight, electricity, or light, but, also, never to disquiet themselves\nby researches into the causes of these phenomena. The more we learn,\nthe further we advance in the knowledge of the universe and its laws,\nthe more we become convinced that man knows absolutely nothing about\nfirst causes, that he ought to esteem himself happy in knowing the\nlaws according to which the effects of these first causes manifest\nthemselves; that is to say, the physical and vital actions which are\nvisible to us, but that he ought, in the interests of his own peace of\nmind, to lay down a rule that he would never seek to know the wherefore\nof things. Pliny, speaking of first causes, said: \"_Latent in majestate\nmundi_,\" (\"They are hidden in the majesty of the world.\") The thought\nis as fine as the phrase is eloquent. Let us, then, leave to nature her\nsecrets, and, if we are led to believe that the sun sheds animated\ngerms upon the earth and the planets, let us not try to penetrate\nfurther into the essence of this mysterious phenomenon. Let us not\nask of the earth why she turns, the stone why it falls, the tree why\nit grows, our hearts why they beat--nor the rays of the sun why they\nproduce life on earth, and immortality in the heavens.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nCHAPTER THE TWENTIETH.\n\nPRACTICAL RULES RESULTING FROM THE FACTS AND PRINCIPLES DEVELOPED IN\nTHIS WORK.--THE ENNOBLING OF THE SOUL BY THE PRACTICE OF VIRTUE, BY\nSEEKING TO KNOW, THROUGH SCIENCE, NATURE AND ITS LAWS.--THE RENDERING\nOF PUBLIC WORSHIP TO THE DIVINITY.--THE MEMORY OF THE DEAD TO BE\nRETAINED.--WE OUGHT NOT TO FEAR DEATH.--DEATH IS ONLY AN UNFELT\nTRANSITION FROM ONE STATE TO ANOTHER, IT IS NOT A TERMINATION, BUT A\nMETAMORPHOSIS.--THE IMPRESSIONS OF THE DYING.--THEY WHOM THE GODS LOVE\nDIE YOUNG.--REUNION WITH THOSE WHO HAVE GONE BEFORE.\n\n\nWE will conclude our work by laying down certain practical rules which\nresult from the facts and the principles that have been explained in\nits course.\n\nSince man can raise himself to the range of a superhuman being only\nwhen his soul has acquired the necessary degree of purification in this\nlife, it is evidently his interest to apply himself to the culture of\nhis soul, to preserve it from every stain, to keep it from falling. Be\ngood, generous, and compassionate; grateful for benefits, accessible to\nthe suffering, the friend of the oppressed. Console those who suffer\nand who weep. Practise every form of charity. Endeavour to raise\nyour thoughts above terrestrial things. Strive against those material\ninstincts, which are the stigmata of human existence. Aspire to the\ngood and the beautiful. Live in the most elevated spheres, those which\nare the least bound to lower things. It is only thus that you can\nelevate and ennoble your soul, and render it fit to enjoy the higher\nexistence which awaits it in the ethereal spheres. For, if your soul\nbe vicious and corrupt, if, during all your terrestrial life, you\nhave been sunk in material interests, exclusively given up to purely\nphysical occupations and enjoyments, which make you the fellow of\nthe animals; if your heart has been hard, your conscience dumb, your\ninstincts low and evil, you will be condemned to recommence a second\nexistence on the earth. Once, or many times again you will have to\nbear the burthen of life on this disinherited globe, where physical\nsuffering and moral evil have taken up their abode, where happiness is\nunknown, and unhappiness is the universal law.\n\nThere is another motive for our careful cultivation of the faculties of\nthe soul, and for our constantly purifying ourselves by the practice of\ngood. Noble and generous persons, elect souls, are, as we have said,\nthe only ones capable of communicating with the dead, with the beloved\nbeings whom they have lost. If, therefore, we be stained with moral\nevil, we shall not receive any communication, any succour from the\nbeings who have left us, and whom we loved. This is a powerful motive\nfor our constant striving towards perfection.\n\nOne of the most effectual means of perfecting and ennobling the soul,\nof raising it above terrestrial conditions, and bringing it near\nthe higher spheres, is science. Study, labour to learn of nature, to\ncomprehend the plans and the phenomena which surround you, to explain\nto yourselves the universe of which you form a portion, and your soul\nwill grow in strength and wisdom. It is very sad to contemplate the\nshameful ignorance in which almost all humanity is sunk. The population\nof our globe numbers 1,300,000,000, and of all this multitude hardly\n10,000,000 can be said to have studied the sciences, and really\ncultivated their minds. All the rest of mankind are abandoned to an\nintellectual passiveness, which almost reduces them to the level of\nthe animals. The earth is but a vast field of ignorance. As far as\nknowledge is concerned, almost all men die as they were born, they have\nnot added a single idea, a single branch of knowledge to those which\ntheir parents--themselves ignorant--have inculcated in their youth.\nNevertheless, thanks to the labours of some few men of uncommon mind\nand energy, the knowledge we possess at the present time is immense, we\nhave made great progress in the study of nature and its laws.\n\nWe understand the mechanism and the regulation of the universe, we\nhave learned to reject the fallacious testimony of our senses, we have\ndiscerned the courses of the different stars, which look so much alike,\nwhen they shine in the firmament by night. We know that the sun is\nmotionless in the centre of our world, and that a company of planets,\namong which the earth figures, revolve around him, in an orbit whose\nmathematical curve has been precisely fixed. We know the cause of the\ndays and nights, as well as that of the seasons; we can predict almost\nto a second the return of the stars to a certain point of their orbit,\ntheir meetings, eclipses, and occultations. The globe which we inhabit\nhas been surveyed and explored with care which has hardly missed a nook\nof it. We know the causes of the winds and of the rains, we can point\nout the exact course of the sea-currents, and foretell the hour and\nthe height of the tides all over the globe. We know why glaciers exist\nat the northern and southern extremities of the earth, and why other\nglaciers crown the great mountain heights. The movements of the earth,\nwhich formerly produced chains of mountains, and which at present\noccasion volcanic eruptions and earthquakes, are quite comprehensible\nto us. The composition of all the bodies which exist on the surface, or\nare hidden in the depths of the earth, has been fixed with certainty.\n\nWe know what air contains, and what water is composed of. There is\nnot a mineral, not a particle of earth to which we cannot assign its\ncomposition. More than that, we can tell what is the composition of\nthe soil of the planets, and of their satellites, those stars which\nroll at incalculable distances above our heads, and which we can reach\nonly with our eyes. Science has performed this miracle, the chemical\nanalysis of bodies which it cannot touch, and which it can only see\nacross millions of miles in space.\n\nWe have studied, classified, demonstrated all the living beings,\nanimals and plants which people the earth. There is not an insect\nhidden in the grass of the fields which has not been described, which\nhas not had its just place in creation assigned to it; there is not\na blade of grass which has not been reproduced by the pencil of the\nnaturalist.\n\nBeyond all this, science has penetrated far beyond the reach of our\nvision. It has invented a marvellous instrument which has unveiled an\nentire world to our astonished gaze, a world whose existence we never\nshould have suspected without its aid. The world thus revealed to us\nis that of infinitely little things. We know that myriads of living\ncreatures, both animals and plants, exist in a drop of water; that\nthose creatures, in all their prodigious littleness, have a complete\nexistence, and are as well organized as those of great size which are\nanalogous to them, and that the physiological functions of all these\nimperceptible beings are fulfilled as perfectly as our own.\n\nJust as we have penetrated into the life of infinite littleness, so we\nhave pierced the depths of celestial space, and scrutinized with our\neyes the magnified image of the stars which revolve at an incalculable\ndistance above us. The telescope shows us the surface of the moon, the\ndepths of its ravines, and the rough serrated edges of its enormous\nmountains, furrowed with deep circular crevasses. We can cast our eyes\nover the lunar disc as if it were a distant landscape of our own globe.\nWe can even, thanks to the magnifying powers of the telescope, form an\nidea of the aspect of the surfaces of those planets which are almost\nlost in the infinite distances of the heavens.\n\nAfter this faint and incomplete sketch of that which human science has\nbeen able to accomplish, it might be supposed that every inhabitant of\nthe earth is impatient to make all this knowledge his own, that every\none must desire to fill his mind with its treasures. Alas! the great\nmajority of the human species is ignorant of even the elements of\nall this. Take away the ten millions of individuals, to whom we have\nalready alluded, and who, numerically, are hardly to be counted in\nconsidering the population of the globe, all people imagine that the\nearth is a flat surface which extends to the limits of the horizon, and\nis covered with a blue cupola, called _heaven_. If you assert that the\nearth revolves, they laugh, and point to the motionless earth, and the\nsun which _rises_ on the right hand and _sets_ on the left, a manifest\nproof that the sun comes and goes. The poets will have it that the sun\nrises from his bed in the morning, and returns to it in the evening.\nPeople believe that the stars which shine by night, in the celestial\nvault, are simply ornaments, an agreeable spectacle, made to please our\neyes, and that the moon is a beacon. Nobody inquires into the causes\nof the rain or fine weather, of heat or cold, of the winds or the\ntides. Every one shuts his eyes to natural phenomena, so as to avoid\nthe trouble of explaining them. Nature is a shut book for the majority\nof mankind, who live in the midst of the most curious and various\nphenomena, but who occupy themselves in eating and drinking, and trying\nto harm their fellows.\n\nIt is a sorrowful spectacle to behold humanity thus preoccupied by\nits more material necessities, and utterly without interest in any\nmental exertion, and one grieves to think that such is the condition\nof almost all the inhabitants of the globe. How far is he superior to\nthe great mass of his fellows, who has cultivated his mind, enriched\nit with various and useful ideas, and appropriated to himself at least\none branch of the varied tree of the exact sciences. What breadth and\npower must be acquired by a mind thus fortified! Strive, O my reader,\nto study and to learn. Initiate yourself into the secrets of nature,\ntry to understand all that surrounds you, the universe and its infinite\nproductions, admire the power of God in learning the wonders of His\nworks. Then shall you not approach the tomb with your soul void as on\nthe day of your birth. At the supreme hour of death you will be wise,\ninstructed, and, finding yourself nearer to the sublime essence of\nsuperhuman beings, you will be eager to follow them into the ethereal\nspheres.\n\nIn order to elevate and perfect the soul, it is not sufficient only\nto apply ourselves to the practice of moral virtues and to learning;\nwe must also endeavour to understand God, the Author of the universe.\nTherefore, let men enter into the temples, and prostrate themselves\nbefore God according to the forms and rites of worship in which they\nhave been reared. All religions are good, and ought to be respected,\nbecause they permit us to pay the homage of gratitude and heartfelt\nsubmission to the Author of nature.\n\nThe Christian religion is good, because it is a religion. The religion\nof Mahomet is good, because it is a religion. For the same reason\nBuddhism and Judaism are good, and the religion of the wild Indians who\nworship the sun in the depths of their forests.\n\nThe fourth practical rule which we derive from the principles and\ntheories which we have laid down, is that the remembrance and\ncommemoration of the dead should be preserved. Let us not efface from\nour hearts the memory of those whom death has snatched from us. To\nforget them is to cause them the most cruel anguish, and to deprive\nourselves of the aid and guidance which they can give us here below.\n\nThe ancients sedulously kept up the memory of the dead. They did not\nput the idea of death away from them with terror, like the modern\npeoples; on the contrary, they loved to invoke it. Among the Greeks and\nRomans the cemeteries were places of meeting, used for festivals and\npromenades. The Orientals of our days preserve this ancient tradition.\nTheir cemeteries are perfectly kept gardens, whither festive crowds\nresort on festal occasions. They visit the relatives and friends who\nare buried in the shrubberies and the flower-beds, and revel in the\npleasures of life amid the pretty dwelling-places of the dead.\n\nIn Europe we know nothing of this wholesome philosophy. But we may\nremark, that peasants, unlike dwellers in cities, who are not brought\ninto familiar daily contact with nature, are far from shunning the idea\nof death, or avoiding the cemeteries where their relatives and friends\nrest. They recall the remembrance of their dead, they speak to them,\nthey question them, they consult them, as though they were still seated\nby the family fireside.\n\nThe custom of funeral repasts, which dates from the time of primitive\nman, is still observed in several countries. On returning from the\ncemetery the company seat themselves before a well-spread table, in\nthe house of the deceased, and wish him a happy journey to the land\nof shadows. In our cities, it is \"_the people_\" who hold it a duty\nto carry flowers to the graves of their relatives. Among the higher\nclasses of society people hold themselves exempt, in general, from\nthis pious care, and they are wrong. Piety towards the dead, and\nreverent commemoration of them, are prescribed by the laws of nature.\n\nFinally, we would impress upon the reader, as a consequence and a\npractical rule resulting from all that has gone before, that he ought\nnot to fear death. Let him regard with firm heart and tranquil eye that\nmoment which all men dread so much. We have said that death is not a\nconclusion, but a change, we do not perish, we are transformed. The\ngrub which seems to die, enclosed within a cold shell, does not die,\nbut is born again, a brilliant butterfly, to flutter joyously in the\nair. Thus it shall be with us. Though our miserable frames remain on\nearth, and restore their elements to the common reservoir of universal\nmatter, our souls shall not perish. They shall be born again, brilliant\ncreatures of the celestial ether. They shall leave a world in which\npain and evil are the constant law, for a blessed domain where every\ncondition of happiness shall be realized. Why, then, should we dread\ndeath? If we do not desire it, we ought at least to await it with\nhope and tranquillity. Death must unite us to those beings whom we\nhave loved, whom we do love, and whom we shall love for ever. What an\nimmense source of consolation during the remainder of our life! What a\nstore of courage for the terrible moment of our own end! The beloved\ndead, who have never ceased to be present to our memory, have done us\nthe sad, supreme service of softening the anguish of death to us. The\nsadness of our last moments will be calmed by the thought that they\nare awaiting our coming, that they are ready to receive us on the\nthreshold of the other life, that they are gone before to lead us into\nthe new domain of existence beyond the tomb!\n\nThe fear of death, which is so prevalent among men generally, loses\nits intensity when the last hour has come. Those who are accustomed to\nwitness death know that the last agony is rarely severe. He who dies\nafter a long and honourable existence knows at that solemn moment that\nhe is going to a new and better world. He is happy, and his words and\nlooks express happiness. The only thought which makes him sorrowful is\nthe grief which his loss must occasion to those whom he loves and is\nabout to leave.\n\nThe observations which follow have been made by persons accustomed to\nobserve the dying. But deaths occasioned by maladies which destroy\nconsciousness, or reason, or speech, must not be included in these\nobservations. In order to judge of the thoughts which occupy the dying\nwe must consider those who preserve the integrity of their intellectual\nfaculties until their latest breath. They always die calmly.\nConsumptive patients, the wounded, those who die from an affection\nof the stomach or of the intestinal tube, of those slow fevers which\nconsume the strength without impairing the intellectual faculties,\nthese generally remain in the full possession of their intelligence to\nthe last, and die with great tranquillity, even satisfaction. In almost\nall these cases death is preceded by a gradual decline of strength and\nsensation, so that the individual has hardly any consciousness of the\nchange he is about to undergo, and looks forward to the moment of death\nwith perfect indifference.\n\nThere is a period, which frequently lasts for several hours, during\nwhich, life having completely left the body, it is already a corpse\nwhich is under the eyes of the spectators, and yet that corpse still\nmoves and speaks. But the soul which survives in the body, really dead,\nis not the soul of the terrestrial man, but of the superhuman being.\nThe dying person has the consciousness, and perhaps even the prevision\nof the ineffable happiness which awaits him in that new world upon\nwhose threshold he is standing, and he expresses his happiness by his\nwords and looks. In a sigh of supreme joy he exhales his last breath.\nThis extraordinary state, in which the dying are partly on earth,\nand partly in the new world to which they are destined, explains the\ntouching eloquence, the sublime words which sometimes come from their\nfeeble lips. An uneducated poor man will express himself upon his\ndeath-bed with eloquence incomprehensible to those who are listening\nto him. It also explains the prophecies, justified by subsequent\nevents, which have been uttered by the dying. They have a knowledge of\nthings of which, in their ordinary condition as belonging to the human\nspecies, they could not possibly have had any notion. Therefore, we\nought to treasure up their last words with pious care, and scrupulously\nfulfil the wishes which they express.\n\nIn Moldavia, when a peasant has escaped death in a severe illness,\nafter having been on the brink of the grave, his friends press around\nhis bed to ask him what he had seen in the other world, and what news\nhe has for them from their dead relatives. Then the poor invalid\ninterprets his visions for them as well as he can.\n\nA modern writer, who has left some small books on spiritualist\nphilosophy, M. Constant Savy, relates in his \"_Pens\u00e9es et\nM\u00e9ditations_,\" an extraordinary dream which he had when he was,\napparently, at the point of death. We transcribe this curious and\ninteresting document from M. Pezzani's work:--\n\n    \"I felt very ill,\" writes Constant Savy, \"I had no strength, it\n    seemed to me that my life was making efforts to resist death, but\n    in vain, and that it was about to escape. My soul detached itself\n    little by little from the matter spread all over my frame; I felt\n    it retiring from all those parts with which it is so intimately\n    united, and, as it were, concentrating itself upon one single\n    point, the heart, and a thousand obscure, cloudy thoughts about my\n    future life occupied me. Little by little nature faded from before\n    me, taking irregular and strange forms, I almost lost the faculty\n    of thinking, I only retained that of feeling, and this feeling was\n    all love, love of God and of the beings whom I had most cherished\n    in Him; but I could not manifest this love; my soul, withdrawn to\n    one single point in my body, had almost ceased to have any relation\n    with it, and could no longer command it. My soul experienced some\n    distractions still, caused by the pain of the body, and the grief\n    of those who surrounded me, but these distractions were slight,\n    like the pains and the perceptions which caused them. My life was\n    now attached to matter by one only of the thousand links which had\n    formerly bound it, and I was about to expire.\n\n    \"Suddenly, no doubt to mark the passage from this life to the\n    other, there came a thick darkness, to which succeeded a brilliant\n    light. Then, O my God! I saw Thy day, that daylight I had so much\n    desired! I saw them, all assembled together, those beings whom I\n    had so dearly loved, who had inspired me during my life in this\n    world after they had left me, and who had seemed to me to dwell\n    in my soul, or float about me. They were all there, full of joy\n    and happiness. They were waiting for me, they welcomed me with\n    delight. It seemed to me that I completed their life and that they\n    completed mine! But what a difference was there in the happiness I\n    now felt from the sensations of the world I left! I cannot describe\n    them! They were penetrating without being impetuous; they were\n    mild, calm, full, unmixed, and yet they admitted the hope of a yet\n    greater happiness!\n\n    \"I did not see Thee, my God! Who can see Thee? But I loved Thee\n    more than I had loved Thee in this world! I comprehended Thee\n    better, felt Thee more strongly, the traces of Thee which are\n    everywhere, and on everything, appeared more plain and bright to\n    me, I experienced such admiration and astonishment as I had never\n    hitherto known, I saw more distinctly a portion of the wonders of\n    Thy creation. The bowels of the earth hid no more secrets from me,\n    I saw their depths, I saw the insects and other creatures which\n    dwell in them, the mines known to men, and undiscovered by them,\n    the secret ways and channels of the earth. I reckoned its age in\n    its bosom as one counts that of a tree in the heart of its trunk;\n    I saw all the water-courses which feed the seas; I saw the reflux\n    of these waters, and it was like the motion of the blood in a man's\n    body; from the heart to the extremities, from the extremities to\n    the heart; I saw the depths of the volcanoes; I understood the\n    motions of the earth and its relations with the stars, and, just\n    as if the earth had been turned round before my eyes that I might\n    be made to admire Thy greatness, O my God! I saw all countries\n    with their various inhabitants, and their different customs, I saw\n    every variety of my species, and a voice said to me: 'Like thyself,\n    all these men are the image of the Creator; like thyself, they are\n    ever journeying towards God, and conscious of their progress!' The\n    thickness of the forests, the depth of the seas could not hide\n    anything from my eyes; I had power to see everything, to admire\n    all, and I was happy in my happiness, in the happiness of the\n    dear objects of my tender love. Our joys were in common. We felt\n    ourselves united by our former affections which had now become\n    much more deep, and by the love of God: we drew happiness from one\n    and the same source; we were but one, we each and all enjoyed this\n    happiness, which was far too great to be expressed. I am silent\n    now, that I may feel it more deeply.\"[22]\n\nIt is easy for us to verify to ourselves the fact that men who\nare condemned by nature to a premature death, are endowed with a\ngreat serenity of mind. This moral condition is, in our opinion, an\nindication that they have the presentiment or even the anticipated\npossession of the new life which awaits them after death. Why are\nconsumptive people so gentle and sensitive? We believe it is because,\nbeing already half out of this world, they are partially endowed with\nthe moral attributes of superhuman beings. They are, as it is well\nknown, always confident in their destinies, they make projects of\nhappiness, and for the future, when their last hour is striking, they\nfeel hope and joy when the by-standers are thinking of their burial.\nIt is customary to explain this anomaly by saying that persons in\nconsumption do not understand the gravity of their illness, but we\nbelieve that they have, on the contrary, a confused notion of their\nstate, that nature reveals to them the approach of an existence of\ncloudless happiness, and that it is this secret conviction which gives\nthem hope and confidence in the future. The future which they foresee\nis not of this world, but the future of the heavens. This applies not\nto consumptive persons only. Every man destined to die young seems\nto be marked with that inner stamp of the soul which lends him now a\ngentle and charming melancholy, anon vivacity or sensibility which his\nparents admire, and which is too often only an indication that he is\nnot to remain with them. The charming qualities of many young people\nare often only the precursors of their death.\n\n\"When they have so much intellect, children have brief lives,\" says\nCasimir Delavigne. \"Whom the gods love, die young,\" said the Greeks.\n\nLet us, then, not fear death; but await it, not as the end of our\nexistence, but as its transformation. Let us learn by the purity of\nour life, by our virtues, by the culture of our faculties, by our\nknowledge, by the exercise of the religion of our ancestors, to prepare\nourselves for the critical moment of that natural revolution which\nshall usher us into a blessed sojourn in the ethereal spheres on the\nday after death.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[22] Quoted by M. Pezzani, in his \"_Pluralit\u00e9 des Existences de\nl'\u00e2me_,\" pp. 261-263.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nEPILOGUE.\n\nIN WHICH WE SEEK FOR GOD, AND IN OUR SEARCH, DESCRIBE THE UNIVERSE.\n\n\nTHE author now asks his reader's leave to relate a conversation which\ntook place between himself, and a friend named Theophilus, to whom\nhe had confided the manuscript of \"The Day After Death,\" in order to\nobtain his opinion and impressions of the work. He will allow the\ninterlocutors to express themselves in the ordinary form of dialogue.\n\n_Theophilus_, (who comes into the Author's study, and lays the\nmanuscript upon the table). I have read your work, and I will tell you\npresently my impressions of the details, but I must in the first place\npoint out the great deficiency of the book.\n\n_The Author._ What is wanting in it?\n\n_Theophilus._ God.\n\n_The Author._ But----\n\n_Theophilus._ (Interrupts him.) You are going to remind me that you\nfrequently mention the sacred name, that Providence, the Author of\nnature, the Creator of the worlds, and so on, are words you constantly\nemploy. That is true, but it is equally true that you restrict yourself\nto these vague expressions, that you say nothing about the person of\nGod, that you assign to Him no place in the world which you range over\nin company with more or less spiritualized souls. Why this reserve?\nSince you tell us that entirely spiritualized souls inhabit the sun,\nwhy do you not tell us where your system places God, the sovereign\nmaster of those souls! What is your motive for leaving aside a question\nof such great importance?\n\n_The Author._ I have several. In the first place, I have everybody's\nmotive. The idea of God which must be formed in order to place Him in\nharmony with the boundless immensity of this universe which is His\nwork, so far surpasses the limit of the human intellect, it is so\noverwhelming to our mind, that we stop, powerless and even frightened\nat our boldness, when we venture to ask ourselves, _what is God?_\n\n_Theophilus._ Nevertheless, I am surprised at your hesitation. When a\nsystem of the universe is to be constructed, one does not pause in the\ntask, and I can hardly believe that when you venture, as you do, to\nplace on the ladder-steps of your theory all the elements of the solar\nworld--the planets and their satellites, stars and astero\u00efds, plants,\nmen and animals, creatures visible and invisible, bodies and souls,\nmatter and spirit--you have not assigned a place to the Creator. Have\nyou classified everything in this immense edifice of the worlds, except\nits Sovereign Architect?\n\n_The Author._ No, my friend, you are not mistaken; God has His place in\nmy system.\n\n_Theophilus._ Why, then, have you not said so! Why have you kept\nsilence on this point?\n\n_The Author._ My book contains so many daring assertions, I have\nalready exposed myself so fully to the animosity of both the learned\nand the ignorant, that I feared to furnish an additional pretext to\ntheir diatribes.\n\n_Theophilus._ That is not a reason. If you dread discussion and fear\ndetraction, why do you take up your pen at all? You were at liberty to\nkeep your ideas on the origin and the destiny of man to yourself, but,\nwhen you decided on submitting them to the public, you became bound to\nexplain all your mind on the subject. If you believe in your system,\nyou must explain it without any reserve.\n\n_The Author._ Your words are wise, and I ought therefore to bow to\nthem, and follow your imperative advice. Nevertheless I cannot make up\nmy mind to do so, absolutely. I am going to propose a middle course\nto you. In confidence, and between ourselves, I will explain my ideas\nabout God to you, I will tell you in what part of the immense universe\nI place this dazzling personality. If the idea seems to you absurd,\nuntenable, or even too hazardous, you will frankly tell me so, and thus\nduly warned, I will keep my theory to myself; if not----\n\n_Theophilus._ (Interrupting him.) An excellent plan. There can be no\nobjection to that. Go on, I am listening.\n\n(At this point, Theophilus seats himself, his elbow resting on a\nbook, and a cigar in his mouth, and composes himself to listen, with\nan expression of grave attention, dashed with suspicious severity,\nsuitable to the arbitrator in a literary and philosophical matter.)\n\n_The Author._ You want to know, my dear Theophilus, where I place God?\nI place Him at the centre of the universe, or, I had better say, at\nthe central focus, which must exist somewhere, of all the stars which\ncompose the universe, and which, carried along by a common motion,\ncirculate in concert around this central focus.\n\n_Theophilus._ Forgive me, but I do not seize your meaning exactly.\n\n_The Author._ You will understand it presently. Remember, to start\nfrom, that I place God at the common focus of the actual motion of\nthe entire universe. But, where is the common focus? In order to know\nthat, we must first of all know the universe, and all the order of its\nmovements.\n\n_Theophilus._ All that is explained in the course of your work.\n\n_The Author._ No, my friend, you are mistaken. In my work I have spoken\nof the solar system only, and a very incomplete and insufficient idea\nwould be gained of the universe by contemplating that system alone.\nWe must not, as is too often done, confound the _world_ and the\n_universe_. The _world_ is our world, that is to say, the solar system,\nof which we form a part; the _universe_ is the agglomeration of all\nthe worlds or systems similar to our world, or solar system. In the\nmanuscript which you have just read, I have only been able to expound\none little corner, one insignificant fraction of the universe.\n\n_Theophilus._ You call the solar world a little corner.\n\n_The Author._ Yes. Our whole solar system, the sun, with its immense\nfollowing of planets and astero\u00efds, with the satellites of those\nplanets, with the comets which from time to time come sweeping on, to\nfall into the burning furnace of the radiant star, all that, compared\nwith the universe, is no more than an ear of corn in a huge granary,\nthan a grain of sand upon the shore, than a drop of water in the ocean.\nThe terrible vastness of the universe is such that it is absolutely\ninaccessible to our measurement, and it is for us the image of the\ninfinite, or the infinite itself. Now, my friend, attend to me. Most\ncertainly God, as to His nature, is absolutely inconceivable by our\nminds. His essence escapes us, and always must escape us. We can\nonly affirm that He is infinite in His moral perfections, and in His\nintellectual power. But if, on the one hand, God is _The Infinite_\nin the moral order, and if, on the other hand, the universe is _The\nInfinite_ in the physical order; if one is _The Infinite_ in spirit,\nand the other is _The Infinite_ in extent, these two ideas, although\nin themselves inaccessible to human intelligence, are nevertheless of\nthe same order, and may be regarded in contiguity. It is then possible,\nwithout laying one's self open to the charge of presumption or\nabsurdity, to place the Infinite, which is called God, in the Infinite\nwhich is called the Universe, in other words, to locate the person of\nGod at the common focus of the worlds which compose the Universe.\n\n_Theophilus._ Your reasoning is just. But you must prove, or, if you\nprefer the phrase, you must teach me that the universe is truly _The\nInfinite_ by its extent. I could not admit that assertion without very\nconvincing evidence.\n\n_The Author._ Very well. Lend me your best attention, and excuse me if\nmy demonstration resembles a lecture on astronomy. I have said that our\nsolar system is only a little corner of the universe. When you look at\nthe vault of the sky on a bright clear night, you see it thickly strewn\nwith stars, which, you will at once acknowledge, it would be impossible\nto count. But all that you see with the naked eye is next to nothing.\nTake a good telescope, and direct it to any part of the sky. There\nwhere a moment before you saw nothing, you will now discern legions\nof stars, bright spots will come out upon the darkness of space, like\ndiamonds upon the velvet lining of a casket, each of them a star,\nexactly like those which we see at night in the sky. And now, let me\nask you, do you know what a star is?\n\n_Theophilus._ Yes, I know from your manuscript, and I had already\nknown, that the stars which we see by night, but which the greater\nlight of the sun hides from us in the day-time, are self-luminous orbs,\neach the centre of attraction and the lamp to the particular world it\nlights, and which revolves around it. As a whole company of planets,\nsatellites, astero\u00efds, and comets revolve round our sun, receiving\nheat, motion, and light from that great central orb, so, the stars\ndispersed throughout space, communicate motion and activity to a vast\naggregate of planets and satellites. These planets, which revolve round\nthe stars, constitute _stellar worlds_, analogous to our solar world.\nWe cannot see the planets, which accompany these stars, by reason of\ntheir smallness, and the prodigious distance between us and them,\nbeyond the reach of the most powerful telescopes; we only see the suns\nwhich govern them, _i.e._, the stars. But the existence of the fixed\nstars, like our sun, implies the existence of planets revolving around\nthem.\n\n_The Author._ Perfectly correct. Thus, our solar world is not unique,\nit is only one member of the family of stellar worlds, which resemble\nour world in the disposition and the motions of the stars within them.\nThe universe is composed of the agglomeration of them all. You know\nall this, but there is one fact which, as it is the result of recent\ndiscoveries, you may not be aware of; it is, the great variety of\ndisposition or of physical aspect presented by certain stars, in which\na kind of overturn of that which constitutes nature on our globe has\ntaken place. While they remain similar to our world in the order of\ntheir movements, certain stars differ widely in the forces which govern\nnature in them.\n\n_Theophilus._ Pray explain your meaning.\n\n_The Author._ While our solar system is governed by a single central\nstar, there are stellar systems which are governed by two, three,\nand even four suns. It is evident that worlds which have two or\nthree centres of light and heat must present physical and mechanical\npeculiarities of which we have no idea. There are also other\ndifferences proper to many of the stellar worlds. The light of our sun\nand of the greater number of the stars is constant: it never undergoes\neither augmentation or diminution. But this is not the case with\nmany of those distant suns which we call stars. We see their light\nalternately fade and revive; sometimes they shine brightly, then become\nalmost imperceptible, and anon brilliant again. Some of them become\naltogether extinct. The decrease in lustre of several stars has been\nnoted by different astronomers.[23]\n\nStars which have been observed in other times no longer exist.[24]\nOthers have suddenly appeared, shone with excessive lustre, and at the\nend of some years have been seen no more.\n\nThese successive augmentations and diminutions of luminous brilliance\nare not uncommon in the stars with which we are acquainted. According\nto M. Flammarion,[25] star \u03bf of the _Whale_ varies very much in\nluminous intensity and the constellation itself frequently disappears.\nStar \u03c7 of the _Swan_ passes from the fifth to the tenth size under\nour eyes, the thirtieth star of the _Hydra_, which is of the fourth\nsize, almost always disappears at intervals of 500 days. These\nvariations must, as M. Flammarion observes, produce strange results.\nTo-day, the radiant star is shedding floods of light and fire upon the\nplanets which it governs, and the soul of that planet is warmed by\nits burning rays. A few months later, without the least cloud in the\nsky, the shining of the sun becomes fainter, and then, by degrees, the\nobscurity increases, until at length the planet is plunged into thick\ndarkness. When the diminution of the light of the sun is periodical,\nthis universal night lasts for a fixed time, at the end of which the\nlight returns, if not, the darkness is dispersed after varying periods.\nThe light grows, little by little, until at length the radiant star\nreappears in all its primitive brightness. The fine days, the glorious\nlight returns, until the moment when the same fading recommences and\nthe darkness sets in once more.\n\nCan we picture to ourselves the strange alterations which nature\nundergoes in regions which are subjected to torrid heat and glacial\ncold by turns? I am convinced that the _glacial period_ which\ngeologists have defined in the history of our globe, during which an\nextraordinary and sudden lowering of the temperature caused the death\nof multitudes of living beings, and covered Europe with glaciers from\nthe mountains--was caused by a momentary weakening of the intensity\nof the sun's light. When it resumed its ordinary brightness, the sun\ndispersed the ice which had covered the earth with a death mantle.[26]\n\nI have said that there are double stars, that is to say, worlds\nilluminated by two suns, and sometimes even by three or four. It is a\nstrange fact that in almost every instance one of these suns is white,\nlike ours, but the second is coloured, blue, red, or green. In the\nconstellation _Perseus_ for example, a double star can be distinctly\nseen by the aid of a good telescope. The star \u03b7 is in fact accompanied\nby a second, which makes part of the same solar system. Now, this\nsecond star is blue. In the constellation _Ophiochus_ there is a\nsimilar system of double stars, one of which is red and the other blue.\nThe same peculiarity exists in the constellation of the _Dragon_. In a\ndouble star of the constellation of the _Bull_, there is a red sun, and\na blue sun. There are double solar systems red and blue; such are the\nconstellations _Hercules_ and _Cassiop\u0153ia_. Other double solar systems\nare yellow and green, and sometimes yellow and blue. In all the worlds\nwhich are illuminated by these coloured suns, the effect of light must\nbe very strange. No painter could represent them, and indeed we, who\nknow only the white light of our own sun, cannot form any idea of them.\n\n_Theophilus._ These features of the stellar worlds are very\ninteresting, and I am glad to learn them. But are we not straying from\nour subject?\n\n_The Author._ No. After having made you understand that the solar\nsystem which we inhabit is only a member of an immense family of other\nsolar worlds, only a small fraction of the universe, I wished to show\nyou by the diversity of those worlds, the facility with which nature\nvaries the forces and the physical conditions proper to the stellar\nworlds, and consequently the living and inanimate types which make a\nportion of these different stellar worlds. Now that you understand the\nprodigious diversity of the solar worlds which compose the universe,\nI will go on to our principal object. I have not lost sight of my\nintention of proving to you that the universe has no limits, that in\nits extent it is really the Infinite. I am now approaching this great\nquestion. By the consideration of the stars, I am going to bring out\ninto relief the immeasurable vastness of the universe. Let me speak,\nfirst, of the appalling distances which separate the stars from the\nearth, and the figures will show you that on that side we fall into\nthe Infinite, and then I will speak of the numbers of the stars which\npeople space; and on this side also the abyss of the Infinite will yawn\nbefore us. First, as to the distances which separate the stars from the\nearth, from whence we may logically infer the distances which separate\nthese stars from one another. The distance between the earth and the\nsun is 38,000,000 leagues, and this shall be our unit, our standard of\nmeasurement, by which to estimate the distance of the stars.\n\nI do not know, my dear Theophilus, whether you have formed an exact\nidea of this extent of 38,000,000 leagues, which lie between us and\nthe sun. In general, we can only conceive prodigious distances such\nas astronomy deals with, by representing them by the interval of time\nwhich certain movable bodies known to us would consume in traversing\nthem. Let us then have recourse to comparisons of this kind. A\ncannon-ball weighing 12 kilogrammes, exploded by 6 kilogrammes of\npowder, proceeding at a uniform rate of 500 metres a second, would take\n10 years to travel from the earth to the sun.\n\nSupposing sound to travel at the same rate as on the surface of the\nair, and at a uniform rate, it would take 15 years to accomplish this\njourney. If a railway were laid through space between the earth and\nthe sun, a train travelling at express speed, 12\u00bd leagues an hour,\nwould not arrive at its destination until the end of 338 years. This\nimaginary train, if dispatched from the earth in January, 1872, would\narrive at the sun in the year 2210. The light from the sun, which\ntravels 77,000 leagues in a second, takes 7 minutes 13 seconds to reach\nthe earth.\n\n_Theophilus._ The distance between the earth and the sun is, then,\n38,000,000 miles--that is our unit of measurement for the distances of\nthe stars. Now let us hear about these distances.\n\n_The Author._ I will deal first with those stars which are nearest to\nus. One of these is a star in the constellation of the _Swan_. This\nstar is distant from the earth 551,000 times our unit of measurement,\nthat is to say, that we must multiply 551,000 times the distance of\nthe earth from the sun to represent the distance of the star which we\nare considering, and yet it is one of the nearest to the earth. If we\nwish to represent this distance by the time occupied in the transit of\nlight, supposing this light to travel, like that of our sun, 77,000\nleagues a second, it would take 9\u00bd years to travel from the star to us.\n\nNow, if you wish to know the distance of other stars, and remember that\nI only speak of the nearest, look at this table, which I found in an\nastronomical treatise:\n\nDISTANCE OF CERTAIN STARS FROM THE EARTH.\n\n  _Names of the         _Distances from      _Time of transit\n     Stars._              the Earth._            of light._\n\n  \u03b1 Of the Swan          551,000 times     9 years and a half.\n  \u03b1 Of the Lyre        1,330,700          21 years.\n  \u03b1 Of the Great Dog   1,375,000          22 years.\n  \u03b1 Of the Great Bear  1,550,800          25 years.\n      Polar Star       3,678,000          50 years.\n\nThus, the star \u03b1 of the Lyre is distant from us more than 1,330,000\ntimes as far as the earth is from the sun, and its light takes 21 years\nto reach us. If, by any celestial catastrophe, star \u03b1 of the Lyre were\nto disappear, to be annihilated, we should still see it for 21 years,\nas its light takes that time to reach us.\n\n_Theophilus._ It is then possible that our astronomers are now\nobserving stars which no longer exist, and are only visible to us\nbecause the light which they omitted is still travelling towards the\nearth.\n\n_The Author._ Just so. But to continue. I have begun with the stars\nwhich are nearest to the earth. There are the stars of first and second\nmagnitude. You know, I suppose, the signification of those terms first,\nsecond, and third magnitude in astronomy?\n\n_Theophilus._ Yes, I know that the word magnitude is only applied to\nthe luminous appearance of the star, and not to its real bulk. A star\nof the first magnitude is one which forms part of the group of the most\nluminous stars; a star of the second magnitude is one which comes next\nin point of brilliancy.\n\n_The Author._ You must bear in mind that the word _magnitude_\nsignifies in astronomy the opposite of that which it expresses. The\nmore luminous a star appears to us, the nearer it is to us; the paler\nand less visible, the farther it is away. The brilliance diminishes\nin proportion as the figure increases. This is an introversion of\nterms, sufficiently exceptional to be taken note of, and it ought\nto be remembered, for fear of mistakes. Hitherto we have considered\nonly stars of the first and second magnitudes. Those of the third,\nfourth, fifth, and sixth, lead us to the contemplation of such immense\ndistances, that the unit which we have adopted, enormous as it is,\nis no longer of use. The instruments of celestial observation which\nmay be applied to the examination and measurement of stars of the\nfirst and second magnitudes, do not serve for stars of the third and\nfollowing magnitudes, and, because the small visible diameter of those\nstars make them appear mere specks of light, measuring instruments\nare equally inapplicable to them. In estimating the distances of the\nstars after the third magnitude, a method of comparison, based on the\namplifying power of the telescopes successively used, is employed. I\ncannot enter into details of this method, which we owe to Sir William\nHerschel, but must content myself with explaining its results, which\nare as follows in the case of stars of the sixth magnitude. From\ncertain stars of that class, light would take 1042 years to reach us:\nfrom others it would take 2700. After the sixth magnitude, the stars\ncan only be discerned by the aid of the telescope, and their distances\nbecome perfectly stupefying in immensity. Certain of these telescopic\nstars are so far from the earth, that their light can only reach us in\n5000, and even 10,000 years after it leaves the luminous centre. From\nthe stars of the last category (fourteenth magnitude), light would take\n100,000 years to reach the earth, supposing it to travel at the same\nrate as the light of our sun, _i.e._, 77,000 leagues per second.\n\n_Theophilus._ But, if we are to accept the results of the labours of\nrecent naturalists, man exists on the earth only within 100,000 years,\nand some of those stars may have been extinct during all that time,\nso that the human race may have been contemplating stars no longer\nin being for 100,000 years. To what strange consequences does such a\nscience lead us!\n\n_The Author._ Yes, the luminous rays which these stars send us from the\ndeepest depths of space may perhaps be emanations from solar systems no\nlonger in existence. The present shows us only the past. There may be\nstars so profoundly lost in immensity, that their light has not yet had\ntime to reach us. They exist, but we cannot see them, not because the\ntelescope could not discover them, but because thousands of centuries\nare required for the journey of their luminous rays to our earth,\nand those thousands of centuries have not yet elapsed; so that this\ngrand spectacle is reserved, in that awfully remote future, for our\ndescendants.\n\nAnd now, my friend, will you not acknowledge with me, that the\nuniverse, considered merely by the distances which separate us from the\nstars, and the stars from each other, is truly the Infinite?\n\n_Theophilus._ Yes, it is the Infinite which unfolds itself before my\neyes. Let me breathe a moment.\n\n_The Author._ If we contemplate the number of the stars, we shall also\nhave the perspective of the Infinite. It is easy to reckon those of the\nfirst magnitude, _i.e._, the nearest to us. They are 20. Those of the\nsecond magnitude are 65; of the third, 170. The number of the stars\nincreases as their visibility diminishes, in a very rapid proportion.\nThe number of stars of each class of visibility, in apparent magnitude,\nis three times greater than that of the stars of the preceding class.\nThere are 500 stars of the fourth, 1500 of the fifth, 4500 of the sixth\nmagnitudes. The stars visible by the naked eye are 6000 in number.\nA practised eye can succeed in counting the 6000 stars in the two\nhemispheres.\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 6.--A Corner of the Constellation of Gemini.]\n\nBut the telescope enables us to push the numbering of the suns much\nfarther: it opens up to us the depths of the heavens. Instead of the\nsmall number of stars which our eyes can see, it shows us a myriad\nof others, so thickly thronged together that they seem to cover the\nsky with fine silver sand. Here, for instance (fig. 6), is the aspect\nwhich one corner of the constellation of Gemini presents to the naked\neye. And here is the same portion of the sky seen by the telescope.\nBy the aid of this wonderful instrument stars of the thirteenth and\nfourteenth magnitudes have been distinguished. The number of stars of\nthe twelfth magnitude is 9,556,000, which, joined to the number of the\nsame stars proper to the preceding categories, gives a total of more\nthan 14,000,000. In the third magnitude, a total number of 42,000,000\nof stars is counted. Thus, reckoning those visible to the naked eye,\nand by the telescope, we have 56,000,000 of suns, and we stop at this\nnumber only because the telescope does not enable us to see smaller\nstars than those of the fourteenth magnitude. But, let the telescope be\nbrought to greater perfection, and the whole region of the sky will be\nseen to be covered with this silver sand, with this diamond dust, of\nwhich each grain is a sun. And such will be the accumulation of these\nsuns, in the depths of space, that nothing will be seen on the field of\nthe telescope but a luminous network, formed by the agglomeration of\nthe suns, which will appear to touch each other.\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 7.--A Corner of the Constellation of Gemini, seen\nthrough the telescope.]\n\n_Theophilus._ The Infinite is beginning again. Let me shut my eyes.\n\n_The Author._ Wait, I have not said all, I have only begun. I am\ncoming to the nebul\u00e6. Here, indeed, you may expect to grow giddy.\nThe telescope has dispersed all the theories on which the different\nexplanations of the nebul\u00e6 were built, and has shown us that they\nare collections of stars, which, in consequence of their excessive\nnumber, and their closeness to each other, appear to form a whole, a\nsingle vague and continuous brightness. But, when their dimensions\nand distances are amplified by the telescope, this diffused light\ntransforms itself into a brilliant point, analogous to that presented\nby the sky, tapestried with small stars, in the same telescope. These\nnebul\u00e6 are groups of enormous numbers of stars, and even their nearness\nto each other is only in appearance. They are, in reality, separated by\nenormous distances, and it must not be supposed that they are all in\nthe same plane; they belong, on the contrary, to very unequal depths in\nspace, and it is only an optical effect which gathers them together on\nthe field of the telescope in the same apparent plane.\n\nThe nebula of the _Centaur_ is one of the most wonderful. To the naked\neye it is but a dimly-lighted point in the sky; but, looked at through\na good telescope, it takes the aspect represented by figure 8.\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 8.--The Nebula of the Centaur.]\n\nOn examination of this figure, it will be seen that a nebula is not\nthe result of a collection of stars simply spread out upon a level in\nspace, but of that of an assemblage of stars all placed at unequal\ndistances, and forming almost a sphere. In fact the stars are crowded\ntowards the centre, and are, on the contrary, more and more distant\nfrom one another as the outer edge is approached. If a spherical\nassemblage of stars were observed from a distance, it would present\na similar aspect. This leads us to believe that the nebula of the\n_Centaur_, like the greater number of agglomerations of this kind, is\nspherical.\n\nIs it possible to reckon the stars which form a nebula? Only\napproximately. Arago estimates the number of stars which form a nebula\nno larger than the tenth part of the apparent disc of the moon, at\ntwenty thousand, at least. This result may give us an idea of the\nswarms of suns contained in the nebul\u00e6, for these stellar masses\nare very numerous in the sky. In the depths of the nebul\u00e6 there are\nluminous points whose nature is as yet unrevealed by the telescope,\nwhich cannot be resolved into stars; but analogy leads us to believe\nthat they are other and still more distant nebul\u00e6, which, by reason of\ntheir apparent littleness, elude the scope of our instruments. But the\ntime will come, when, thanks to the perfection which our telescopes\nshall have attained, this theory will be confirmed, and we shall thus\nsee deeper and farther into immensity.\n\nThe stars which form the nebul\u00e6 are sometimes grouped so as to form\nregular shapes, spheres, or more or less lengthened ellipses. Sometimes\nthe sphere is hollow in the centre, and so forms a ring. Nothing more\nvaried, nothing more strange can be imagined than the forms of those\nnebul\u00e6 which have hitherto been examined, and which already number more\nthan a million, of which no two are precisely alike. Certain nebul\u00e6\nseem to be double, or joined. Others are lengthened out, like serpents,\nas in that of the _Shield of Sobieski_, represented in figure 9.\n\nLord Rosse was the first to discover that curious disposition of the\nnebul\u00e6 called _spiral_.\n\nSuch a form is inexplicable, but it is certain that the suns which\ncompose the nebul\u00e6 are often grouped, not around a centre, not in\nshapeless heaps, but in regular curves, on a system which seems to\nreveal the existence of some mysterious force acting upon those stars,\nwhich are distributed along lines representing spirals of different\ndiameter.\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 9.--The Shield of Sobieski.]\n\nIn speaking of the stars, I have said that there are coloured stars or\nsuns. I will add here that nebul\u00e6 are observed coloured red, green, and\nyellow, which is an additional proof that they are only agglomerations\nof stars. That immense semi-luminous band which traverses the celestial\nvault, girding it with a silver belt, is not, as it was long supposed\nto be, a diffused quantity of luminous matter. The telescopic analysis\nof the Milky Way shows that it consists of a long series of nebul\u00e6.\nThe length of the Milky Way is from 700 to 800 times the distance from\nSirius to the sun, a distance which is 1,373,000 times that from the\nearth to the sun.[27]\n\n_Theophilus._ Can any idea be formed of the number of stars comprised\nin the Milky Way?\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 10.--The Milky Way.]\n\n_The Author._ Herschel, having examined the sky of the southern\nhemisphere from the Cape of Good Hope, in applying his observations\nto the whole extent of the Milky Way, estimated the number of suns\ncomprised in that immense nebul\u00e6 at 18 millions. I have just told you\nthe length of the Milky Way. A ray of light emitted from a star at one\nof its extremities, and reaching the other, would take 15,000 years\nto accomplish the transit. So that, when we are looking through the\ntelescope at one of the suns of this nebula, we receive the impression\nof a ray of light emitted from that star 7000 or 8000 years ago,\n_i.e._, long before the dawn of the historic ages.[28] The measurement\nof the Milky Way enables us therefore to measure the extent of other\nnebul\u00e6, still more distant from us. There are, as I have already said,\nmasses of diffused light in the midst of nebul\u00e6 which telescopic\nanalysis has resolved into stars, which are probably much more distant\nnebul\u00e6. The real distance of these luminous masses can be fixed. If it\nwere asked, to what distance the Milky Way should be removed in order\nto offer us the aspect of an ordinary nebula, Arago would answer that\naccording to his researches, the Milky Way ought to be removed to a\ndistance equal to 334 times its length. According to this the Milky\nWay would be seen from the earth at an angle of 10\u00b0, and its light\nwould take 5,010,000 years to travel that distance. Thus, light would\ntake _more than five millions of years_ to travel from one of the\ntelescopic nebul\u00e6 to our earth. Such are the intervals which exist in\nthe universe, and which our instruments can appreciate. It seems to me\nthat we are now on the borders of the Infinite.\n\n_Theophilus._ We are indeed.\n\n_The Author._ When we know that those terrible distances, which appal\nthe imagination, are only the results of observations made by our\ntelescopes, and capable of any amount of extension; when we reflect\nthat the innumerable worlds thus revealed to us continue farther and\nfarther, that ever new agglomerations of suns, planetary earths and\ntheir satellites add themselves to those which we can measure, without\nlimit and without end, that the imagination cannot err in following\nthem to the uttermost limits of its powers; then, my dear Theophilus,\nwe comprehend that the universe is truly infinite. And if you consider\nthat these endless ranks of solar systems have all their following of\nplanets and satellites, filled with living beings, plants, animals,\nmen, and superhuman creatures, that flaming comets traverse the orbit\nof each world at intervals and plunge into the burning furnace of its\nsun; that these milliards of suns are endlessly various, and that all\nthe complicated motions of these different systems are accomplished\nwith perfect order, without any mutual disturbance, you will find that\nthe universe is not only the infinite in extent, but, also in order,\nharmony, equilibrium of motion, and laws!\n\n_Theophilus._ The mind loses itself in such thoughts; for the idea of\nthe infinite is not made for our feeble intelligence. Let us go no\nfarther, or our reason will fail us.\n\n_The Author._ Nevertheless, I must pursue my long argument to the\nend. I must add that in the midst of this boundless space, above this\nimmense cort\u00e9ge of stars, which are the dwelling places of living\ncreatures and sentient souls, there exists the Supreme Author, the\nSovereign Ordainer, from Whom, as their sacred source, all that our\neyes behold, our souls feel, and our intelligence admires, is derived.\nHe, whom I bless with all the gratitude of my heart--God!\n\n_Theophilus._ Thus, then, you have reached the true object of your\ndiscourse. This journey through space is undertaken to prove that God,\nbeing infinite in moral perfections, may be placed in that infinitude\nin extent, called the universe. It only remains now to say in what\nprecise spot you place the sojourn of the Divinity, for I do not see\nhow there can be a centre to the Infinite, seeing it has neither\nbeginning nor end.\n\n_The Author._ I am about to explain myself on this point. The absolute\nfixity of the sun and the stars was an astronomical principle, which,\nin the time of Newton, appeared to be indubitable. But science never\nstands still. Observations made in the present century have proved that\nthe fixity, the immobility of the sun is only relative. The truth is\nthat the sun, and with him the entire system of planets, astero\u00efds,\nsatellites, and comets, which he carries, in his train, change their\nplaces, very slightly no doubt, but still appreciably. Our sun appears\nto advance slowly, with all the planetary family, towards that part of\nthe sky in which the constellation of _Hercules_ is situated, at the\nrate of 62,000,000 of leagues each year, or two leagues each second,\ndescribing an orbit which comprehends millions of centuries. That which\nis the case with our sun is equally the case with the other suns, that\nis to say, the stars. This general motion of translation must be common\nto all the stellar systems, and it is indubitable that the countless\nmillions of solar systems suspended in infinite space, are moving more\nor less quickly towards an unknown point in the sky. Now, there is\nnothing to forbid the supposition that all these circles or ellipses\ntraced by myriads of solar systems, have a common centre of attraction,\ntowards which our system and all the others gravitate. Thus, all these\ncelestial bodies, without exception, all this ant-hill of worlds which\nwe have enumerated, may be turning round one point, one centre of\nattraction. What forbids us to believe that God dwells at this centre\nof attraction for all the worlds which fill infinite space?\n\n_Theophilus._ Now I understand your thought, and I am struck by its\ngrandeur. This God, placed at the mathematical centre of the worlds\nwhich compose the universe, this infinite intelligence, throned in the\ncentre of the infinite universe, and presiding over the movements of\nall the innumerable phalanxes of heavenly bodies which our imagination\ncan conceive, responds to the idea which we form of God, if we venture\nto face the awful personality of His Omnipotence. You have done well\nto develop this theory in your work. It will be in harmony with the\nkind of religious spirit which animates it, and which is, besides, the\nexpression of the desires, and the aspirations of the men of our time.\n\nIn the present day a deep and profound need of belief in Providence\nmakes itself felt. Men want to render homage to God, in whom they feel\nthere is truth, peace, and safety for the present and in the future.\nBut the established religions leave many minds in cruel uncertainty. In\n\"The Day after Death\" you have endeavoured to lay the foundations of\n_the religion of science and of nature_. These principles respond, as\nI believe, to the prevalent wishes of mankind. They satisfy the mind\nand the heart, sentiment and reason; they console and strengthen; in\nshort, they consecrate the idea of God, without laying aside either the\nuniverse or nature.\n\n_The Author._ So be it!\n\n\nTHE END.\n\n\nBILLING AND SONS, LTD., PRINTERS, GUILDFORD\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[23] Arago. \"_Astronomie Populaire_,\" Vol. I., pp. 372-376.\n\n[24] Arago. \"_Astronomie Populaire_,\" Vol. I., pp. 376-380.\n\n[25] Flammarion. \"_Pluralit\u00e9 des Mondes habit\u00e9s_,\" page 195.\n\n[26] See the Author's work: \"_The Earth before the Deluge_,\" pp.\n402-440.\n\n[27] Flammarion. \"_Pluralit\u00e9 des Mondes Habit\u00e9s_,\" page 203.\n\n[28] Flammarion. \"_Pluralit\u00e9 des Mondes Habit\u00e9s_,\" page 203.\n\n\n\n\nMACMILLAN'S LIBRARY OF ENGLISH CLASSICS\n\nEDITED BY A. W. 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BRADLEY.\n\n\n=Twelve English Statesmen.=\n\nCrown 8vo. 2s. 6d. each.\n\n\u2042 _A Series of Short Biographies, not designed to be a complete roll of\nfamous Statesmen, but to present in historic order the lives and work\nof those leading actors in our affairs who by their direct influence\nhave left an abiding mark on the policy, the institutions, and the\nposition of Great Britain among States._\n\n=WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.= By EDWARD A. FREEMAN, D.C.L., LL.D., late\nRegius Professor of Modern History in the University of Oxford.\n\n=HENRY II.= By Mrs. J. R. GREEN.\n\n=EDWARD I.= By T. F. TOUT, M.A., Professor of History, The Owens\nCollege, Manchester.\n\n=HENRY VII.= By JAMES GAIRDNER.\n\n=CARDINAL WOLSEY.= By Bishop CREIGHTON, D.D., late Dixie Professor of\nEcclesiastical History in the University of Cambridge.\n\n=ELIZABETH.= By E. S. BEESLY, M.A., Professor of Modern History,\nUniversity College, London.\n\n=OLIVER CROMWELL.= By FREDERIC HARRISON.\n\n=WILLIAM III.= By H. D. TRAILL.\n\n=WALPOLE.= By JOHN MORLEY.\n\n=CHATHAM.= [_In preparation._ By FREDERIC HARRISON.\n\n=PITT.= By Lord ROSEBERY.\n\n=PEEL.= By J. R. THURSFIELD, M.A., late Fellow of Jesus College, Oxford.\n\n\nMACMILLAN AND CO., LTD., LONDON.\n\n\n\n\nTranscriber's Note.\n\nVariable spelling and hyphenation have been retained. Minor punctuation\ninconsistencies have been silently repaired.\n\nCorrections.\n\nThe first line indicates the original, the second the correction.\n\np. 84:\n\n  we maintain that heat tranforms\n  we maintain that heat transforms\n\np. 110:\n\n  The fall of these asteriods\n  The fall of these asteroids\n\np. 112:\n\n  it has been calculated that a dimunition\n  it has been calculated that a diminution\n\np. 121:\n\n  authoritative duductions of modern science.\n  authoritative deductions of modern science.\n\np. 125:\n\n  itself by the phemonena of dreams.\n  itself by the phenomena of dreams.\n\np. 150:\n\n  and the plant resumes it appearance of placid health\n  and the plant resumes its appearance of placid health\n\np. 159:\n\n  that they reciprocately nourish\n  that they reciprocally nourish\n\np. 187:\n\n  whose formidable shapes, and collossal dimensions\n  whose formidable shapes, and colossal dimensions\n\np. 198:\n\n  the gigantic mososaurus\n  the gigantic mosasaurus\n\np. 205:\n\n  and in one latitute of our globe\n  and in one latitude of our globe\n\np. 215:\n\n  they have not cuitivated their faculties\n  they have not cultivated their faculties\n\np. 288:\n\n  that He is infinite in his moral perfections, and in His intellectual\n  power\n  that He is infinite in His moral perfections, and in His intellectual\n  power","title":"The Day After Death; Or, Our Future Life According to Science (New Edition)","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":80838}