Part 22 (2/2)
”Hold,” I interrupted; ”that would be as one quality of matter pa.s.sing through another quality of matter without disturbance to either, and it is a law in physics that two substances can not occupy the same s.p.a.ce at the same time.”
”That law holds good as man understands the subject, but bullets are no longer matter. Motion of ma.s.s was first changed into motion of molecules, and motion of molecule became finally augmented into motion of free force ent.i.ties as the bullets disintegrated into molecular corpuscles, and then were dissociated, atoms resulting. At this last point the sense of vision, and of touch, ceased to be affected by that moving column (neither matter nor force), and at the next jump in velocity the atoms themselves disappeared, and free intangible motion resulted--nothing, vacancy.
”This result is the all-pervading spirit of s.p.a.ce (the ether of mankind), as solid as adamant and as mobile as vacuity. If you can reverse the order of this phenomenon, and imagine an irregular r.e.t.a.r.dation of the rapidity of such atomic motion, you can read the story of the formation of the material universe. Follow the chain backward, and with the decrease of velocity, motion becomes tangible matter again, and in accordance with conditions governing the change of motion into matter, from time to time the various elements successively appear. The planets may grow without and within, and ethereal s.p.a.ce can generate elemental dirt. If you can conceive of an intermediate condition whereby pure s.p.a.ce motion becomes partly tangible, and yet is not gross enough to be earthy matter, you can imagine how such forces as man is acquainted with, light, heat, electricity, magnetism, or gravity even are produced, for these are also disturbances in s.p.a.ce motion. It should be easily understood that, according to the same simple principle, other elements and unknown forces as well, now imperceptible to man's limited faculties, could be and are formed outside and inside his field of perception.”
”I fear that I can not comprehend all this,” I answered.
”So I feared, and perhaps I have given you this lesson too soon, although some time ago you asked me to teach you concerning the a.s.sertion that electricity, light, heat, magnetism, and gravity are disturbances, and you said, 'Disturbances of what?' Think the lesson over, and you will perceive that it is easy. Let us hope that the time will come when we will be able to glance beneath the rough, material, earth surface knowledge that man has acquired, and experience the mind expansion that leads to the blissful insight possessed by superior beings who do not have to contend with the rasping elements that encompa.s.s all who dwell upon the surface of the earth.”
I pondered over these words, and a vague light, an undefined, inexpressible something that I could not put into words broke into my mind; I inferred that we were destined to meet with persons, or existences, possessed of new senses, of a mind development that man had not reached, and I was on the point of questioning my pilot when the motion of the boat was suspended, land appeared ahead, we drew up to it, and disembarked. Lifting the boat from the water my guide placed it on land at the edge of the motionless lake, and we resumed our journey. The scenery seemed but little changed from that of the latter part of our previous line of travel down the inclined plane of the opposite side of the lake that we had crossed. The direction was still downward after leaving the high ridge that bordered the edge of the lake, the floor of the cavern being usually smooth, although occasionally it was rough and covered with stony debris. The mysterious light grew perceptibly brighter as we progressed, the fog-like halo previously mentioned became less dense, and the ring of obscurity widened rapidly. I could distinctly perceive objects at a great distance. I turned to my companion to ask why this was, and he replied:
”Because we are leaving one of the undiscovered conditions of the upper atmosphere that disturbs the sunlight.”
”Do you say that the atmosphere is composed of substances unknown to man?”
”Yes; several of them are gases, and others are qualities of s.p.a.ce condition, neither gas, liquid, nor solid.[11] One particularly interferes with light in its pa.s.sage. It is an ent.i.ty that is not moved by the motion of the air, and is unequally distributed over the earth's surface. As we ascend above the earth it decreases, so it does as we descend into it. It is not vapor of water, is neither smoke, nor a true gas, and is as yet sensible to man only by its power of modifying the intensity of light. It has no color, is chemically inactive, and yet modifies the sun's rays so as to blot objects from view at a comparatively small distance from a person on the face of the earth.
That this fact is known to man is evident from the knowledge he possesses of the difference in the power of his organs of vision at different parts of the earth. His sight is especially acute on the table lands of the Western Territories.”
[11] This has since been partly supported by the discovery of the element Argon. However, the statement has been recorded many years. Miss Ella Burbige, stenographer, Newport, Ky., copied the original in 1887; Mr. S. D. Rouse, attorney, Covington, Ky., read it in 1889; Mr. Russell Errett, editor of the Christian Standard, in 1890, and Mr. H. C. Meader, President of the American Ticket Brokers' a.s.sociation, in 1892. It seems proper to make this explanation in order to absolve the author from any charge of plagiarism, for each of these persons will recall distinctly this improbable [then] a.s.sertion.--J. U. L.
”I have been told,” I answered, ”that vapor of water causes this obscuration, or absorption, of light.”
”Vapor of water, unless in strata of different densities, is absolutely transparent, and presents no obstacle to the pa.s.sage of light,” he said.
”When vapor obstructs light it is owing to impurities contained in it, to currents of varying densities, or wave motions, or to a mechanical mixture of condensed water and air, whereby mult.i.tudes of tiny globular water surfaces are produced. Pure vapor of water, free from motion, is pa.s.sive to the sunlight.”
”I can scarcely believe that a substance such as you describe, or that any const.i.tuent of the air, can have escaped the perception of the chemist,” I replied.
In, as I thought, a facetious manner he repeated after me the word ”chemist,” and continued:
”Have chemists detected the ether of Aristotle, that you have mentioned, and I have defined, which scientists nevertheless accept pervades all s.p.a.ce and every description of matter, and that I have told you is really matter itself changed into ultra atomic motion? Have chemists explained why one object is transparent, and another of equal weight and solidity is opaque? Have chemists told you why vermillion is red and indigo is blue (the statement that they respectively reflect these rays of light is not an explanation of the cause for such action)? Have chemists told you why the prism disarranges or distorts sunlight to produce the abnormal hues that men a.s.sume compose elementary rays of light? Have chemists explained anything concerning the why or wherefore of the attributes of matter, or force, or even proven that the so-called primary forms of matter, or elements, are not compounds? Upon the contrary, does not the evolution that results in the recorded discoveries of the chemist foretell, or at least indicate, the possible future of the art, and promise that surrounding mysteries are yet to be developed and expanded into open truths, thus elaborating hidden forces; and that other forms of matter and unseen force expressions, are destined to spring into existence as the sciences progress? The chemist of to-day is groping in darkness; he is a novice as compared with the elaborated chemist of the near future; the imperfectly seen of the present, the silent and unsuspected, will become distinctly visible in a time that is to come, and a brightening of the intellect by these successively upward steps, up stairs of science, will, if science serves herself best, broaden the mind and give power to the imagination, resulting finally in--”
He hesitated.
”Go on,” I said.
”The pa.s.sage of mortal man, with the faculties of man intact, into communion with the spirit world.”
CHAPTER x.x.xIII.
”A STUDY OF SCIENCE IS A STUDY OF G.o.d.”--COMMUNING WITH ANGELS.
”This is incredible,” I exclaimed.
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