Part 15 (2/2)

My guide replied:

”You have been accustomed to lakes on the surface of the earth; water that is illuminated from above; now you see by a light that is developed from within and below, as well as from above. There is no outside point of illumination, for the light of this cavern, as you know, is neither transmitted through an overlying atmosphere nor radiated from a luminous center. It is an inherent quality, and as objects above us and within the lake are illuminated alike from all sides, there can be no shadows.”

Musingly, I said:

”That which has occurred before in this journey to the unknown country of which I have been advised, seemed mysterious; but each succeeding step discovers to me another novelty that is more mysterious, with unlooked-for phenomena that are more obscure.”

”This phenomenon is not more of a mystery than is the fact that light radiates from the sun. Man can not explain that, and I shall not now attempt to explain this. Both conditions are attributes of force, but with this distinction--the crude light and heat of the sun, such as men experience on the surface of the earth, is here refined and softened, and the characteristic glare and harshness of the light that is known to those who live on the earth's surface is absent here. The solar ray, after penetrating the earth's crust, is tempered and refined by agencies which man will yet investigate understandingly, but which he can not now comprehend.”

[Ill.u.s.tration: ”WE CAME TO A METAL BOAT.”]

”Am I destined to deal with these problems?”

”Only in part.”

”Are still greater wonders before us?”

”If your courage is sufficient to carry you onward, you have yet to enter the portal of the expanse we approach.”

”Lead on, my friend,” I cried; ”lead on to these undescribed scenes, the occult wonderland that--”

He interrupted me almost rudely, and in a serious manner said:

”Have you not learned that wonder is an exemplification of ignorance?

The child wonders at a goblin story, the savage at a trinket, the man of science at an unexplained manifestation of a previously unperceived natural law; each wonders in ignorance, because of ignorance. Accept now that all you have seen from the day of your birth on the surface of the earth, to the present, and all that you will meet here are wonderful only because the finite mind of man is confused with fragments of evidence, that, from whatever direction we meet them, spring from an unreachable infinity. We will continue our journey.”

Proceeding farther along the edge of the lake we came to a metallic boat. This my guide picked up as easily as though it were of paper, for be it remembered that gravitation had slackened its hold here. Placing it upon the water, he stepped into it, and as directed I seated myself near the stern, my face to the bow, my back to the sh.o.r.e. The guide, directly in front of me, gently and very slowly moved a small lever that rested on a projection before him, and I gazed intently upon him as we sat together in silence. At last I became impatient, and asked him if we would not soon begin our journey.

”We have been on our way since we have been seated,” he answered.

I gazed behind with incredulity: the sh.o.r.e had disappeared, and the diverging wake of the ripples showed that we were rapidly skimming the water.

”This is marvelous,” I said; ”incomprehensible, for without sail or oar, wind or steam, we are fleeing over a lake that has no current.”

”True, but not marvelous. Motion of matter is a result of disturbance of energy connected therewith. Is it not scientifically demonstrated, at least in theory, that if the motion of the spirit that causes the magnetic needle to a.s.sume its familiar position were really arrested in the substance of the needle, either the metal would fuse and vaporize or (if the forces did not appear in some other form such as heat, electricity, magnetism, or other force) the needle would be hurled onward with great speed?”

CHAPTER XXVI.

MOTION FROM INHERENT ENERGY.--”LEAD ME DEEPER INTO THIS EXPANDING STUDY.”

”I partly comprehend that such would be the case,” I said.

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