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+Project Gutenberg's Etidorhpa or the End of Earth., by John Uri Lloyd
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Etidorhpa or the End of Earth.
+       The Strange History of a Mysterious Being and The Account
+       of a Remarkable Journey
+
+Author: John Uri Lloyd
+
+Illustrator: J. Augustus Knapp
+
+Release Date: October 16, 2011 [EBook #37775]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ETIDORHPA OR THE END OF EARTH. ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Pat McCoy, Suzanne Shell and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+ETIDORHPA
+
+OR
+
+THE END OF EARTH.
+
+
+THE STRANGE HISTORY OF A MYSTERIOUS BEING
+
+AND
+
+The Account of a Remarkable Journey
+
+
+
+
+AS COMMUNICATED IN MANUSCRIPT TO
+
+LLEWELLYN DRURY
+
+WHO PROMISED TO PRINT THE SAME, BUT FINALLY EVADED THE RESPONSIBILITY
+
+
+WHICH WAS ASSUMED BY
+
+JOHN URI LLOYD
+
+
+
+
+WITH MANY ILLUSTRATIONS BY
+
+J. AUGUSTUS KNAPP
+
+
+SIXTH EDITION
+
+
+CINCINNATI
+
+THE ROBERT CLARKE COMPANY
+
+1896
+
+
+
+
+ASCRIPTION.
+
+To Prof. W. H. Venable, who reviewed the manuscript of this work, I am
+indebted for many valuable suggestions, and I can not speak too kindly
+of him as a critic.
+
+The illustrations, excepting those mechanical and historical, making in
+themselves a beautiful narrative without words, are due to the admirable
+artistic conceptions and touch of Mr. J. Augustus Knapp.
+
+Structural imperfections as well as word selections and phrases that
+break all rules in composition, and that the care even of Prof. Venable
+could not eradicate, I accept as wholly my own. For much, on the one
+hand, that it may seem should have been excluded, and on the other, for
+giving place to ideas nearer to empiricism than to science, I am also
+responsible. For vexing my friends with problems that seemingly do not
+concern in the least men in my position, and for venturing to think,
+superficially, it may be, outside the restricted lines of a science
+bound to the unresponsive crucible and retort, to which my life has been
+given, and amid the problems of which it has nearly worn itself away, I
+have no plausible excuse, and shall seek none.
+
+                                                        JOHN URI LLOYD
+
+
+COPYRIGHT, 1895, BY JOHN URI LLOYD.
+COPYRIGHT, 1896, BY JOHN URI LLOYD.
+
+[_All rights reserved._]
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Books are as tombstones made by the living for the living, but destined
+soon only to remind us of the dead. The preface, like an epitaph, seems
+vainly to "implore the passing tribute" of a moment's interest. No man
+is allured by either a grave-inscription or a preface, unless it be
+accompanied by that ineffable charm which age casts over mortal
+productions. Libraries, in one sense, represent cemeteries, and the rows
+of silent volumes, with their dim titles, suggest burial tablets, many
+of which, alas! mark only cenotaphs--empty tombs. A modern book, no
+matter how talented the author, carries with it a familiar personality
+which may often be treated with neglect or even contempt, but a volume a
+century old demands some reverence; a vellum-bound or hog-skin print, or
+antique yellow parchment, two, three, five hundred years old, regardless
+of its contents, impresses one with an indescribable feeling akin to awe
+and veneration,--as does the wheat from an Egyptian tomb, even though it
+be only wheat. We take such a work from the shelf carefully, and replace
+it gently. While the productions of modern writers are handled
+familiarly, as men living jostle men yet alive; those of authors long
+dead are touched as tho' clutched by a hand from the unseen world; the
+reader feels that a phantom form opposes his own, and that spectral eyes
+scan the pages as he turns them.
+
+[Illustration: "THE STERN FACE, ... ACROSS THE GULF."]
+
+The stern face, the penetrating eye of the personage whose likeness
+forms the frontispiece of the yellowed volume in my hand, speak across
+the gulf of two centuries, and bid me beware. The title page is read
+with reverence, and the great tome is replaced with care, for an almost
+superstitious sensation bids me be cautious and not offend. Let those
+who presume to criticise the intellectual productions of such men be
+careful; in a few days the dead will face their censors--dead.
+
+Standing in a library of antiquated works, one senses the shadows of a
+cemetery. Each volume adds to the oppression, each old tome casts the
+influence of its spirit over the beholder, for have not these old books
+spirits? The earth-grave covers the mind as well as the body of its
+moldering occupant, and while only a strong imagination can assume that
+a spirit hovers over and lingers around inanimate clay, here each title
+is a voice that speaks as though the heart of its creator still
+throbbed, the mind essence of the dead writer envelops the living
+reader. Take down that vellum-bound volume,--it was written in one of
+the centuries long past. The pleasant face of its creator, as fresh as
+if but a print of yesterday, smiles upon you from the exquisitely
+engraved copper-plate frontispiece; the mind of the author rises from
+out the words before you. This man is not dead and his comrades live.
+Turn to the shelves about, before each book stands a guardian
+spirit,--together they form a phantom army that, invisible to mortals,
+encircles the beholder.
+
+[Illustration: "THE PLEASANT FACE OF ITS CREATOR ... SMILES UPON YOU."]
+
+Ah! this antique library is not as is a church graveyard, only a
+cemetery for the dead; it is also a mansion for the living. These
+alcoves are trysting places for elemental shades. Essences of
+disenthralled minds meet here and revel. Thoughts of the past take shape
+and live in this atmosphere,--who can say that pulsations unperceived,
+beyond the reach of physics or of chemistry, are not as ethereal
+mind-seeds which, although unseen, yet, in living brain, exposed to such
+an atmosphere as this, formulate embryotic thought-expressions destined
+to become energetic intellectual forces? I sit in such a weird library
+and meditate. The shades of grim authors whisper in my ear, skeleton
+forms oppose my own, and phantoms possess the gloomy alcoves of the
+library I am building.
+
+[Illustration: "SKELETON FORMS OPPOSE MY OWN."]
+
+With the object of carrying to the future a section of thought current
+from the past, the antiquarian libraries of many nations have been
+culled, and purchases made in every book market of the world. These
+books surround me. Naturally many persons have become interested in the
+movement, and, considering it a worthy one, unite to further the
+project, for the purpose is not personal gain. Thus it is not unusual
+for boxes of old chemical or pharmacal volumes to arrive by freight or
+express, without a word as to the donor. The mail brings manuscripts
+unprinted, and pamphlets recondite, with no word of introduction. They
+come unheralded. The authors or the senders realize that in this unique
+library a place is vacant if any work on connected subjects is missing,
+and thinking men of the world are uniting their contributions to fill
+such vacancies.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Enough has been said concerning the ancient library that has bred these
+reflections, and my own personality does not concern the reader. He can
+now formulate his conclusions as well perhaps as I, regarding the origin
+of the manuscript that is to follow, if he concerns himself at all over
+subjects mysterious or historical, and my connection therewith is of
+minor importance. Whether Mr. Drury brought the strange paper in person,
+or sent it by express or mail,--whether it was slipped into a box of
+books from foreign lands, or whether my hand held the pen that made the
+record,--whether I stood face to face with Mr. Drury in the shadows of
+this room, or have but a fanciful conception of his figure,--whether the
+artist drew upon his imagination for the vivid likeness of the several
+personages figured in the book that follows, or from reliable data has
+given fac-similes authentic,--is immaterial. Sufficient be it to say
+that the manuscript of this book has been in my possession for a period
+of seven years, and my lips must now be sealed concerning all that
+transpired in connection therewith outside the subject-matter recorded
+therein. And yet I can not deny that for these seven years I have
+hesitated concerning my proper course, and more than once have decided
+to cover from sight the fascinating leaflets, hide them among
+surrounding volumes, and let them slumber until chance should bring them
+to the attention of the future student.
+
+These thoughts rise before me this gloomy day of December, 1894, as,
+snatching a moment from the exactions of business, I sit among these old
+volumes devoted to science-lore, and again study over the unique
+manuscript, and meditate; I hesitate again: Shall I, or shall I
+not?--but a duty is a duty. Perhaps the mysterious part of the subject
+will be cleared to me only when my own thought-words come to rest among
+these venerable relics of the past--when books that I have written
+become companions of ancient works about me--for then I can claim
+relationship with the shadows that flit in and out, and can demand that
+they, the ghosts of the library, commune with the shade that guards the
+book that holds this preface.
+
+                                                       JOHN URI LLOYD.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE TO THIS EDITION.
+
+
+The foot-note on page 160, with the connected matter, has awakened
+considerable interest in the life and fate of Professor Daniel Vaughn.
+
+The undersigned has received many letters imparting interesting
+information relating to Professor Vaughn's early history, and asking
+many questions concerning a man of whose memory the writer thinks so
+highly but whose name is generally unknown.
+
+Indeed, as some have even argued that the author of Etidorhpa has no
+personal existence, the words John Uri Lloyd being a _nom de plume_, so
+others have accepted Professor Vaughn to have been a fanciful creation
+of the mystical author.
+
+Professor Daniel Vaughn was one whose life lines ran nearly parallel
+with those of the late Professor C. S. Rafinesque, whose eventful history
+has been so graphically written by Professor R. Ellsworth Call. The cups
+of these two talented men were filled with privation's bitterness, and
+in no other place has this writer known the phrase "The Deadly Parallel"
+so aptly appropriate. Both came to America, scholars, scientists by
+education; both traveled through Kentucky, teachers; both gave freely to
+the world, and both suffered in their old age, dying in
+poverty--Rafinesque perishing in misery in Philadelphia and Vaughn in
+Cincinnati.
+
+Daniel Vaughn was not a myth, and, in order that the reader may know
+something of the life and fate of this eccentric man, an appendix has
+been added to this edition of Etidorhpa, in which a picture of his face
+is shown as the writer knew it in life, and in which brief mention is
+made of his record.
+
+The author here extends his thanks to Professor Richard Nelson and to
+Father Eugene Brady for their kindness to the readers of Etidorhpa and
+himself, for to these gentlemen is due the credit of the appended
+historical note.
+
+                                                                J. U. L.
+
+
+
+
+A VALUABLE AND UNIQUE LIBRARY.
+
+From the Pharmaceutical Era, New York, October, 1894.
+
+
+In Cincinnati is one of the most famous botanical and pharmacal
+libraries in the world, and by scientists it is regarded as an
+invaluable store of knowledge upon those branches of medical science. So
+famous is it that one of the most noted pharmacologists and chemists of
+Germany, on a recent trip to this country, availed himself of its rich
+collection as a necessary means of completing his study in the line of
+special drug history. When it is known that he has devoted a life of
+nearly eighty years to the study of pharmacology, and is an emeritus
+professor in the famous University of Strassburg, the importance of his
+action will be understood and appreciated. We refer to Prof. Frederick
+Flueckiger, who, in connection with Daniel Hanbury, wrote
+Pharmacographia and other standard works. Attached to the library is an
+herbarium, begun by Mr. Curtis Gates Lloyd when a schoolboy, in which
+are to be found over 30,000 specimens of the flora of almost every
+civilized country on the globe. The collections are the work of two
+brothers, begun when in early boyhood. In money they are priceless, yet
+it is the intention of the founders that they shall be placed, either
+before or at their death, in some college or university where all
+students may have access to them without cost or favor, and their wills
+are already made to this end, although the institution to receive the
+bequest is not yet selected. Eager requests have been made that they be
+sent to foreign universities, where only, some persons believe, they can
+receive the appreciation they deserve.
+
+The resting place of this collection is a neat three-story house at 204
+West Court street, rebuilt to serve as a library building. On the door
+is a plate embossed with the name Lloyd, the patronymic of the brothers
+in question. They are John Uri and Curtis Gates Lloyd. Every hour that
+can be spent by these men from business or necessary recreation is spent
+here. Mr. C. G. Lloyd devotes himself entirely to the study of botany and
+connected subjects, while his brother is equally devoted to materia
+medica, pharmacy, and chemistry.
+
+In the botanical department are the best works obtainable in every
+country, and there the study of botany may be carried to any height. In
+point of age, some of them go back almost to the time when the art of
+printing was discovered. Two copies of Aristotle are notable. A Greek
+version bound in vellum was printed in 1584. Another, in parallel
+columns of Greek and Latin, by Pacius, was published in 1607. Both are
+in excellent preservation. A bibliographical rarity (two editions) is
+the "Historia Plantarum," by Pinaeus, which was issued, one in 1561, the
+other in 1567. It appears to have been a first attempt at the production
+of colored plates. Plants that were rare at that time are colored by
+hand, and then have a glossy fixative spread over them, causing the
+colors still to be as bright and fresh as the day that the
+three-hundred-years-dead workmen laid them on. Ranged in their sequence
+are fifty volumes of the famous author, Linn�us. Mr. Lloyd has a very
+complete list of the Linn�an works, and his commissioners in Europe and
+America are looking out for the missing volumes. An extremely odd work
+is the book of Dr. Josselyn, entitled "New England Rarities," in which
+the Puritan author discusses wisely on "byrds, beastes and fishes" of
+the New World. Dr. Carolus Plumierus, a French savant, who flourished in
+1762, contributes an exhaustive work on the "Flora of the Antilles." He
+is antedated many years, however, by Dr. John Clayton, who is termed
+Johannes Claytonus, and Dr. John Frederick Gronovius. These gentlemen
+collated a work entitled the "Flora of Virginia," which is among the
+first descriptions of botany in the United States. Two venerable works
+are those of Mattioli, an Italian writer, who gave his knowledge to the
+world in 1586, and Levinus Lemnius, who wrote "De Miraculis Occultis
+Natur�" in 1628. The father of modern systematized botany is conceded to
+be Mons. J. P. Tournefort, whose comprehensive work was published in
+1719. It is the fortune of Mr. Lloyd to possess an original edition in
+good condition. His "Histoire des Plantes," Paris (1698), is also on the
+shelves. In the modern department of the library are the leading French
+and German works. Spanish and Italian authors are also on the shelves,
+the Lloyd collection of Spanish flora being among the best extant.
+Twenty-two volumes of rice paper, bound in bright yellow and stitched in
+silk, contain the flora of Japan. All the leaves are delicately tinted
+by those unique flower-painters, the Japanese. This rare work was
+presented to the Lloyd library by Dr. Charles Rice, of New York, who
+informed the Lloyds that only one other set could be found in America.
+
+One of the most noted books in the collection of J. U. Lloyd is a Materia
+Medica written by Dr. David Schoepf, a learned German scholar, who
+traveled through this country in 1787. But a limited number of copies
+were printed, and but few are extant. One is in the Erlangen library in
+Germany. This Mr. Lloyd secured, and had it copied verbatim. In later
+years Dr. Charles Rice obtained an original print, and exchanged it for
+that copy. A like work is that of Dr. Jonathan Carver of the provincial
+troops in America, published in London in 1796. It treats largely of
+Canadian materia medica. Manasseh Cutler's work, 1785, also adorns this
+part of the library. In addition to almost every work on this subject,
+Mr. Lloyd possesses complete editions of the leading serials and
+pharmaceutical lists published in the last three quarters of a century.
+Another book, famous in its way, is Barton's "Collections Toward a
+Materia Medica of the United States," published in 1798, 1801, and 1804.
+
+Several noted botanists and chemists have visited the library in recent
+years. Prof. Flueckiger formed the acquaintance of the Lloyds through
+their work, "Drugs and Medicines of North America," being struck by the
+exhaustive references and foot-notes. Students and lovers of the old art
+of copper-plate engraving especially find much in the ornate title pages
+and portraits to please their �sthetic sense. The founders are not
+miserly, and all students and delvers into the medical and botanical
+arts are always welcome. This library of rare books has been collected
+without ostentation and with the sole aim to benefit science and
+humanity. We must not neglect to state that the library is especially
+rich in books pertaining to the American Eclectics and Thomsonians.
+Since it has been learned that this library is at the disposal of
+students and is to pass intact to some worthy institution of learning,
+donations of old or rare books are becoming frequent.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+
+                                                                   PAGE.
+
+PROLOGUE--History of Llewellyn Drury,                                  1
+
+CHAPTER.
+
+      I. Home of Llewellyn Drury--"Never Less Alone than When Alone,"  3
+
+     II. A Friendly Conference with Prof. Chickering,                 16
+
+    III. A Second Interview with the Mysterious Visitor,              23
+
+     IV. A Search for Knowledge--The Alchemistic Letter,              35
+
+      V. The Writing of "My Confession,"                              44
+
+     VI. Kidnapped,                                                   46
+
+    VII. A Wild Night--I am Prematurely Aged,                         55
+
+   VIII. A Lesson in Mind Study,                                      63
+
+     IX. I Can Not Establish My Identity,                             67
+
+      X. My Journey Towards the End of Earth Begins--The Adepts
+           Brotherhood,                                               74
+
+     XI. My Journey Continues--Instinct,                              80
+
+    XII. A Cavern Discovered--Biswell's Hill,                         84
+
+   XIII. The Punch Bowls and Caverns of Kentucky--"Into the Unknown
+           Country,"                                                  89
+
+    XIV. Farewell to God's Sunshine--"The Echo of the Cry,"           99
+
+     XV. A Zone of Light, Deep Within the Earth,                     105
+
+    XVI. Vitalized Darkness--The Narrows in Science,                 109
+
+   XVII. The Fungus Forest--Enchantment,                             119
+
+  XVIII. The Food of Man,                                            123
+
+    XIX. The Cry from a Distance--I Rebel Against Continuing the
+           Journey,                                                  128
+
+
+FIRST INTERLUDE.--THE NARRATIVE INTERRUPTED.
+
+     XX. My Unbidden Guest Proves His Statements, and Refutes
+           My Philosophy,                                            134
+
+
+MY UNBIDDEN GUEST CONTINUES HIS MANUSCRIPT.
+
+    XXI. My Weight Disappearing,                                     142
+
+
+SECOND INTERLUDE.
+
+   XXII. The Story Again Interrupted--My Guest Departs,              149
+
+  XXIII. Scientific Men Questioned--Aristotle's Ether,               151
+
+   XXIV. The Soliloquy of Prof. Daniel Vaughn--"Gravitation is
+           the Beginning and Gravitation is the End:
+           All Earthly Bodies Kneel to Gravitation,"                 156
+
+
+THE UNBIDDEN GUEST RETURNS TO READ HIS MANUSCRIPT,
+CONTINUING THE NARRATIVE.
+
+    XXV. The Mother of a Volcano--"You Can Not Disprove, and You
+           Dare Not Admit,"                                          162
+
+   XXVI. Motion from Inherent Energy--"Lead Me Deeper Into this
+           Expanding Study,"                                         169
+
+  XXVII. Sleep, Dreams, Nightmare--"Strangle the Life from My
+           Body,"                                                    175
+
+
+THIRD INTERLUDE.--THE NARRATIVE AGAIN INTERRUPTED.
+
+ XXVIII. A Challenge--My Unbidden Guest Accepts It,                  179
+
+   XXIX. Beware of Biology--The Science of the Life of Man--The
+           Old Man relates a Story as an Object Lesson,              186
+
+    XXX. Looking Backward--The Living Brain,                         193
+
+
+THE MANUSCRIPT CONTINUED.
+
+   XXXI. A Lesson on Volcanoes--Primary Colors are Capable of
+           Farther Subdivision,                                      204
+
+  XXXII. Matter is Retarded Motion--"A Wail of Sadness
+           Inexpressible,"                                           218
+
+ XXXIII. "A Study of True Science is a Study of God"--Communing
+           with Angels,                                              224
+
+  XXXIV. I Cease to Breathe, and Yet Live,                           226
+
+   XXXV. "A Certain Point Within a Circle"--Men are as Parasites
+           on the Roof of Earth,                                     230
+
+  XXXVI. The Drinks of Man,                                          235
+
+  XXVII. The Drunkard's Voice,                                       238
+
+XXXVIII. The Drunkard's Den,                                         240
+
+  XXXIX. Among the Drunkards,                                        247
+
+     XL. Further Temptation--Etidorhpa Appears,                      252
+
+    XLI. Misery,                                                     262
+
+   XLII. Eternity Without Time,                                      272
+
+
+FOURTH INTERLUDE.
+
+  XLIII. The Last Contest,                                           277
+
+
+THE NARRATIVE CONTINUED.
+
+   XLIV. The Fathomless Abyss--The Edge of the Earth's Shell,        306
+
+    XLV. My Heart-throb is Stilled, and Yet I Live,                  310
+
+   XLVI. The Inner Circle, or the End of Gravitation--In the
+           Bottomless Gulf,                                          317
+
+  XLVII. Hearing Without Ears--"What Will Be the End?"               322
+
+ XLVIII. Why and How--The Straggling Ray of Light from those
+           Farthermost Outreaches,                                   327
+
+   XLIX. Oscillating Through Space--The Earth Shell Above Us,        333
+
+      L. My Weight Annihilated--"Tell me," I cried in alarm,
+           "is this a Living Tomb?"                                  340
+
+     LI. Is That a Mortal?--"The End of Earth,"                      345
+
+
+FIFTH INTERLUDE.
+
+    LII. The Last Farewell,                                          352
+
+
+EPILOGUE--Letter Accompanying the Mysterious Manuscript,             360
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS.
+
+
+FULL-PAGE.
+
+  Likeness of The--Man--Who--Did--It.                      Frontispiece
+
+                                                                   PAGE.
+
+  Preface Introduction--"Here lies the bones," etc.                 iii.
+
+  "And to my amazement, saw a white-haired man."                   7, 8.
+
+  "The same glittering, horrible, mysterious knife."             29, 30.
+
+  "Fac-simile of the mysterious manuscript of I--Am--The--Man--
+            Who--Did--It."                                       35, 36.
+
+  "My arms were firmly grasped by two persons."                      47.
+
+  "Map of Kentucky near entrance to cavern."                     85, 86.
+
+  "Confronted by a singular looking being."                      95, 96.
+
+  "This struggling ray of sunlight is to be your last for
+    years."                                                    101, 102.
+
+  "I was in a forest of colossal fungi."                       117, 118.
+
+  "Monstrous cubical crystals."                                131, 132.
+
+  "Far as the eye could reach the glassy barrier spread as a
+    crystal mirror."                                           147, 148.
+
+  "Soliloquy of Prof. Daniel Vaughn--'Gravitation is the
+    beginning, and gravitation is the end; all earthly bodies
+    kneel to gravitation.'"                                    157, 158.
+
+  "We came to a metal boat."                                   165, 166.
+
+  "Facing the open window he turned the pupils of his eyes
+    upward."                                                   197, 198.
+
+  "We finally reached a precipitous bluff."                    205, 206.
+
+  "The wall descended perpendicularly to seemingly infinite
+    depths."                                                   209, 210.
+
+  Etidorhpa.                                                   255, 256.
+
+  "We passed through caverns filled with creeping reptiles."   297, 298.
+
+  "Flowers and structures beautiful, insects gorgeous."        303, 304.
+
+  "With fear and trembling I crept on my knees to his side."   307, 308.
+
+  Diagram descriptive of journey from the Kentucky cavern to
+    the "End of Earth," showing section of earth's crust.      332, 333.
+
+  "Suspended in vacancy, he seemed to float."                  347, 348.
+
+  "I stood alone in my room holding the mysterious
+    manuscript."                                               357, 358.
+
+  Fac-simile of letter from I--Am--The--Man.                        363.
+
+  Manuscript dedication of Author's Edition.                   364, 365.
+
+
+HALF-PAGE AND TEXT CUTS.
+
+  "The Stern Face." Fac-simile, reduced from copper plate title
+    page of the botanical work (1708), 917 pages, of Simonis
+    Paulli, D., a Danish physician. Original plate 7 � 5-1/2
+    inches.                                                          iv.
+
+  "The Pleasant Face." Fac-simile of the original copper plate
+    frontispiece to the finely illustrated botanical work of
+    Joannes Burmannus, M.D., descriptive of the plants collected
+    by Carolus Plumierus. Antique. Original plate 9 � 13 inches.      v.
+
+  "Skeleton forms oppose my own." Photograph of John Uri Lloyd
+    in the gloomy alcove of the antiquated library.                  vi.
+
+  "Let me have your answer now."                                     12.
+
+  "I espied upon the table a long white hair."                       14.
+
+  "Drew the knife twice across the front of the door-knob."          32.
+
+  "I was taken from the vehicle, and transferred to a
+    block-house."                                                    52.
+
+  "The dead man was thrown overboard."                               54.
+
+  "A mirror was thrust beneath my gaze."                             58.
+
+  "I am the man you seek."                                           70.
+
+  "We approach daylight, I can see your face."                      106.
+
+  "Seated himself on a natural bench of stone."                     108.
+
+  "An endless variety of stony figures."                            129.
+
+  Cuts showing water and brine surfaces.                            136.
+
+  Cuts showing earth chambers in which water rises above brine.     137.
+
+  Cuts showing that if properly connected, water and brine
+    reverse the usual law as to the height of their surfaces.  138, 139.
+
+  "I bounded upward fully six feet."                                143.
+
+  "I fluttered to the earth as a leaf would fall."                  144.
+
+  "We leaped over great inequalities."                              145.
+
+  "The bit of garment fluttered listlessly away to the distance,
+    and then--vacancy."                                             173.
+
+  Cut showing that water may be made to flow from a tube higher
+    than the surface of the water.                                  182.
+
+  Cut showing how an artesian fountain may be made without earth
+    strata.                                                         184.
+
+  "Rising abruptly, he grasped my hand."                            191.
+
+  "A brain, a living brain, my own brain."                          200.
+
+  "Shape of drop of water in the earth cavern."                     211.
+
+  "We would skip several rods, alighting gently."                   227.
+
+  "An uncontrollable, inexpressible desire to flee."                229.
+
+  "I dropped on my knees before him."                               232.
+
+  "Handing me one of the halves, he spoke the single word,
+    'Drink.'"                                                       234.
+
+  "Each finger pointed towards the open way in front."              242.
+
+  "Telescoped energy spheres."                                      280.
+
+  "Space dirt on energy spheres."                                   281.
+
+  "I drew back the bar of iron to smite the apparently
+    defenseless being in the forehead."                             313.
+
+  "He sprung from the edge of the cliff into the abyss below,
+    carrying me with him into its depths."                          315.
+
+  "The Earth and its atmosphere."                                   336.
+
+
+
+
+PROLOGUE.
+
+
+My name was Johannes Llewellyn Llongollyn Drury. I was named Llewellyn
+at my mother's desire, out of respect to her father, Dr. Evan Llewellyn,
+the scientist and speculative philosopher, well known to curious
+students as the author of various rare works on occult subjects. The
+other given names were ancestral also, but when I reached the age of
+appreciation, they naturally became distasteful; so it is that in early
+youth I dropped the first and third of these cumbersome words, and
+retained only the second Christian name. While perhaps the reader of
+these lines may regard this cognomen with less favor than either of the
+others, still I liked it, as it was the favorite of my mother, who
+always used the name in full; the world, however, contracted Llewellyn
+to Lew, much to the distress of my dear mother, who felt aggrieved at
+the liberty. After her death I decided to move to a western city, and
+also determined, out of respect to her memory, to select from and
+rearrange the letters of my several names, and construct therefrom three
+short, terse words, which would convey to myself only, the resemblance
+of my former name. Hence it is that the Cincinnati Directory does not
+record my self-selected name, which I have no reason to bring before the
+public. To the reader my name is Llewellyn Drury. I might add that my
+ancestors were among the early settlers of what is now New York City,
+and were direct descendants of the early Welsh kings; but these matters
+do not concern the reader, and it is not of them that I now choose to
+write. My object in putting down these preliminary paragraphs is simply
+to assure the reader of such facts, and such only, as may give him
+confidence in my personal sincerity and responsibility, in order that he
+may with a right understanding read the remarkable statements that occur
+in the succeeding chapters.
+
+The story I am about to relate is very direct, and some parts of it are
+very strange, not to say marvelous; but not on account of its
+strangeness alone do I ask for the narrative a reading;--that were mere
+trifling. What is here set down happened as recorded, but I shall not
+attempt to explain things which even to myself are enigmatical. Let the
+candid reader read the story as I have told it, and make out of it what
+he can, or let him pass the page by unread--I shall not insist on
+claiming his further attention. Only, if he does read, I beg him to read
+with an open mind, without prejudice and without predilection.
+
+Who or what I am as a participant in this work is of small importance. I
+mention my history only for the sake of frankness and fairness. I have
+nothing to gain by issuing the volume. Neither do I court praise nor
+shun censure. My purpose is to tell the truth.
+
+Early in the fifties I took up my residence in the Queen City, and
+though a very young man, found the employment ready that a friend had
+obtained for me with a manufacturing firm engaged in a large and
+complicated business. My duties were varied and peculiar, of such a
+nature as to tax body and mind to the utmost, and for several years I
+served in the most exacting of business details. Besides the labor which
+my vocation entailed, with its manifold and multiform perplexities, I
+voluntarily imposed upon myself other tasks, which I pursued in the
+privacy of my own bachelor apartments. An inherited love for books on
+abstruse and occult subjects, probably in part the result of my blood
+connection with Dr. Evan Llewellyn, caused me to collect a unique
+library, largely on mystical subjects, in which I took the keenest
+delight. My business and my professional duties by day, and my studies
+at night, made my life a busy one.
+
+In the midst of my work and reading I encountered the character whose
+strange story forms the essential part of the following narrative. I may
+anticipate by saying that the manuscript to follow only incidentally
+concerns myself, and that if possible I would relinquish all connection
+therewith. It recites the physical, mental, and moral adventures of one
+whose life history was abruptly thrust upon my attention, and as
+abruptly interrupted. The vicissitudes of his body and soul,
+circumstances seemed to compel me to learn and to make public.
+
+
+
+
+ETIDORPHA.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+    "NEVER LESS ALONE THAN WHEN ALONE."
+
+
+More than thirty years ago occurred the first of the series of
+remarkable events I am about to relate. The exact date I can not recall;
+but it was in November, and, to those familiar with November weather in
+the Ohio Valley, it is hardly necessary to state that the month is one
+of possibilities. That is to say, it is liable to bring every variety of
+weather, from the delicious, dreamy Indian summer days that linger late
+in the fall, to a combination of rain, hail, snow, sleet,--in short,
+atmospheric conditions sufficiently aggravating to develop a suicidal
+mania in any one the least susceptible to such influences. While the
+general character of the month is much the same the country
+over,--showing dull grey tones of sky, abundant rains that penetrate man
+as they do the earth; cold, shifting winds, that search the very
+marrow,--it is always safe to count more or less upon the probability of
+the unexpected throughout the month.
+
+The particular day which ushered in the event about to be chronicled,
+was one of these possible heterogeneous days presenting a combination of
+sunshine, shower, and snow, with winds that rang all the changes from
+balmy to blustery, a morning air of caloric and an evening of numbing
+cold. The early morning started fair and sunny; later came light showers
+suddenly switched by shifting winds into blinding sleet, until the
+middle of the afternoon found the four winds and all the elements
+commingled in one wild orgy with clashing and roaring as of a great
+organ with all the stops out, and all the storm-fiends dancing over the
+key-boards! Nightfall brought some semblance of order to the sounding
+chaos, but still kept up the wild music of a typical November day, with
+every accompaniment of bleakness, gloom, and desolation.
+
+Thousands of chimneys, exhaling murky clouds of bituminous soot all day,
+had covered the city with the proverbial pall which the winds in their
+sport had shifted hither and yon, but as, thoroughly tired out, they
+subsided into silence, the smoky mesh suddenly settled over the houses
+and into the streets, taking possession of the city and contributing to
+the melancholy wretchedness of such of the inhabitants as had to be out
+of doors. Through this smoke the red sun when visible had dragged his
+downward course in manifest discouragement, and the hastening twilight
+soon gave place to the blackness of darkness. Night reigned supreme.
+
+Thirty years ago electric lighting was not in vogue, and the system of
+street lamps was far less complete than at present, although the gas
+burned in them may not have been any worse. The lamps were much fewer
+and farther between, and the light which they emitted had a feeble,
+sickly aspect, and did not reach any distance into the moist and murky
+atmosphere. And so the night was dismal enough, and the few people upon
+the street were visible only as they passed directly beneath the lamps,
+or in front of lighted windows; seeming at other times like moving
+shadows against a black ground.
+
+As I am like to be conspicuous in these pages, it may be proper to say
+that I am very susceptible to atmospheric influences. I figure among my
+friends as a man of quiet disposition, but I am at times morose,
+although I endeavor to conceal this fact from others. My nervous system
+is a sensitive weather-glass. Sometimes I fancy that I must have been
+born under the planet Saturn, for I find myself unpleasantly influenced
+by moods ascribed to that depressing planet, more especially in its
+disagreeable phases, for I regret to state that I do not find
+corresponding elation, as I should, in its brighter aspects. I have an
+especial dislike for wintry weather, a dislike which I find growing with
+my years, until it has developed almost into positive antipathy and
+dread. On the day I have described, my moods had varied with the
+weather. The fitfulness of the winds had found its way into my
+feelings, and the somber tone of the clouds into my meditations. I was
+restless as the elements, and a deep sense of dissatisfaction with
+myself and everything else, possessed me. I could not content myself in
+any place or position. Reading was distasteful, writing equally so; but
+it occurred to me that a brisk walk, for a few blocks, might afford
+relief. Muffling myself up in my overcoat and fur cap, I took the
+street, only to find the air gusty and raw, and I gave up in still
+greater disgust, and returning home, after drawing the curtains and
+locking the doors, planted myself in front of a glowing grate fire,
+firmly resolved to rid myself of myself by resorting to the oblivion of
+thought, reverie, or dream. To sleep was impossible, and I sat moodily
+in an easy chair, noting the quarter and half-hour strokes as they were
+chimed out sweetly from the spire of St. Peter's Cathedral, a few blocks
+away.
+
+Nine o'clock passed with its silver-voiced song of "Home, Sweet Home";
+ten, and then eleven strokes of the ponderous bell which noted the
+hours, roused me to a strenuous effort to shake off the feelings of
+despondency, unrest, and turbulence, that all combined to produce a
+state of mental and physical misery now insufferable. Rising suddenly
+from my chair, without a conscious effort I walked mechanically to a
+book-case, seized a volume at random, reseated myself before the fire,
+and opened the book. It proved to be an odd, neglected volume, "Riley's
+Dictionary of Latin Quotations." At the moment there flashed upon me a
+conscious duality of existence. Had the old book some mesmeric power? I
+seemed to myself two persons, and I quickly said aloud, as if addressing
+my double: "If I can not quiet you, turbulent Spirit, I can at least
+adapt myself to your condition. I will read this book haphazard from
+bottom to top, or backward, if necessary, and if this does not change
+the subject often enough, I will try Noah Webster." Opening the book
+mechanically at page 297, I glanced at the bottom line and read,
+"Nunquam minus solus quam cum solus" (Never less alone than when alone).
+These words arrested my thoughts at once, as, by a singular chance, they
+seemed to fit my mood; was it or was it not some conscious invisible
+intelligence that caused me to select that page, and brought the
+apothegm to my notice?
+
+Again, like a flash, came the consciousness of duality, and I began to
+argue with my other self. "This is arrant nonsense," I cried aloud;
+"even though Cicero did say it, and, it is on a par with many other
+delusive maxims that have for so many years embittered the existence of
+our modern youth by misleading thought. Do you know, Mr. Cicero, that
+this statement is not sound? That it is unworthy the position you occupy
+in history as a thinker and philosopher? That it is a contradiction in
+itself, for if a man is alone he is alone, and that settles it?"
+
+I mused in this vein a few moments, and then resumed aloud: "It won't
+do, it won't do; if one is alone--the word is absolute,--he is single,
+isolated, in short, alone; and there can by no manner of possibility be
+any one else present. Take myself, for instance: I am the sole occupant
+of this apartment; I am alone, and yet you say in so many words that I
+was never less alone than at this instant." It was not without some
+misgiving that I uttered these words, for the strange consciousness of
+my own duality constantly grew stronger, and I could not shake off the
+reflection that even now there were two of myself in the room, and that
+I was not so much alone as I endeavored to convince myself.
+
+This feeling oppressed me like an incubus; I must throw it off, and,
+rising, I tossed the book upon the table, exclaiming: "What folly! I am
+alone,--positively there is no other living thing visible or invisible
+in the room." I hesitated as I spoke, for the strange, undefined
+sensation that I was not alone had become almost a conviction; but the
+sound of my voice encouraged me, and I determined to discuss the
+subject, and I remarked in a full, strong voice: "I am surely alone; I
+know I am! Why, I will wager everything I possess, even to my soul, that
+I am alone." I stood facing the smoldering embers of the fire which I
+had neglected to replenish, uttering these words to settle the
+controversy for good and all with one person of my dual self, but the
+other ego seemed to dissent violently, when a soft, clear voice claimed
+my ear:
+
+"You have lost your wager; you are not alone."
+
+[Illustration: "AND TO MY AMAZEMENT SAW A WHITE-HAIRED MAN."]
+
+I turned instantly towards the direction of the sound, and, to my
+amazement, saw a white-haired man seated on the opposite side of the
+room, gazing at me with the utmost composure. I am not a coward, nor a
+believer in ghosts or illusions, and yet that sight froze me where I
+stood. It had no supernatural appearance--on the contrary, was a plain,
+ordinary, flesh-and-blood man; but the weather, the experiences of
+the day, the weird, inclement night, had all conspired to strain my
+nerves to the highest point of tension, and I trembled from head to
+foot. Noting this, the stranger said pleasantly: "Quiet yourself, my
+dear sir; you have nothing to fear; be seated." I obeyed, mechanically,
+and regaining in a few moments some semblance of composure, took a
+mental inventory of my visitor. Who is he? what is he? how did he enter
+without my notice, and why? what is his business? were all questions
+that flashed into my mind in quick succession, and quickly flashed out
+unanswered.
+
+The stranger sat eying me composedly, even pleasantly, as if waiting for
+me to reach some conclusion regarding himself. At last I surmised: "He
+is a maniac who has found his way here by methods peculiar to the
+insane, and my personal safety demands that I use him discreetly."
+
+"Very good," he remarked, as though reading my thoughts; "as well think
+that as anything else."
+
+"But why are you here? What is your business?" I asked.
+
+"You have made and lost a wager," he said. "You have committed an act of
+folly in making positive statements regarding a matter about which you
+know nothing--a very common failing, by the way, on the part of mankind,
+and concerning which I wish first to set you straight."
+
+The ironical coolness with which he said this provoked me, and I hastily
+rejoined: "You are impertinent; I must ask you to leave my house at
+once."
+
+"Very well," he answered; "but if you insist upon this, I shall, on
+behalf of Cicero, claim the stake of your voluntary wager, which means
+that I must first, by natural though violent means, release your soul
+from your body." So saying he arose, drew from an inner pocket a long,
+keen knife, the blade of which quiveringly glistened as he laid it upon
+the table. Moving his chair so as to be within easy reach of the
+gleaming weapon, he sat down, and again regarded me with the same quiet
+composure I had noted, and which was fast dispelling my first impression
+concerning his sanity.
+
+I was not prepared for his strange action; in truth, I was not prepared
+for anything; my mind was confused concerning the whole night's doings,
+and I was unable to reason clearly or consecutively, or even to satisfy
+myself what I did think, if indeed I thought at all.
+
+The sensation of fear, however, was fast leaving me; there was something
+reassuring in my unbidden guest's perfect ease of manner, and the mild,
+though searching gaze of his eyes, which were wonderful in their
+expression. I began to observe his personal characteristics, which
+impressed me favorably, and yet were extraordinary. He was nearly six
+feet tall, and perfectly straight; well proportioned, with no tendency
+either to leanness or obesity. But his head was an object from which I
+could not take my eyes,--such a head surely I had never before seen on
+mortal shoulders. The chin, as seen through his silver beard, was
+rounded and well developed, the mouth straight, with pleasant lines
+about it, the jaws square and, like the mouth, indicating decision, the
+eyes deep set and arched with heavy eyebrows, and the whole surmounted
+by a forehead so vast, so high, that it was almost a deformity, and yet
+it did not impress me unpleasantly; it was the forehead of a scholar, a
+profound thinker, a deep student. The nose was inclined to aquiline, and
+quite large. The contour of the head and face impressed me as indicating
+a man of learning, one who had given a lifetime to experimental as well
+as speculative thought. His voice was mellow, clear, and distinct,
+always pleasantly modulated and soft, never loud nor unpleasant in the
+least degree. One remarkable feature I must not fail to mention--his
+hair; this, while thin and scant upon the top of his head, was long, and
+reached to his shoulders; his beard was of unusual length, descending
+almost to his waist; his hair, eyebrows, and beard were all of singular
+whiteness and purity, almost transparent, a silvery whiteness that
+seemed an aureolar sheen in the glare of the gaslight. What struck me as
+particularly remarkable was that his skin looked as soft and smooth as
+that of a child; there was not a blemish in it. His age was a puzzle
+none could guess; stripped of his hair, or the color of it changed, he
+might be twenty-five,--given a few wrinkles, he might be ninety. Taken
+altogether, I had never seen his like, nor anything approaching his
+like, and for an instant there was a faint suggestion to my mind that he
+was not of this earth, but belonged to some other planet.
+
+I now fancy he must have read my impressions of him as these ideas
+shaped themselves in my brain, and that he was quietly waiting for me
+to regain a degree of self-possession that would allow him to disclose
+the purpose of his visit.
+
+He was first to break the silence: "I see that you are not disposed to
+pay your wager any more than I am to collect it, so we will not discuss
+that. I admit that my introduction to-night was abrupt, but you can not
+deny that you challenged me to appear." I was not clear upon the point,
+and said so. "Your memory is at fault," he continued, "if you can not
+recall your experiences of the day just past. Did you not attempt to
+interest yourself in modern book lore, to fix your mind in turn upon
+history, chemistry, botany, poetry, and general literature? And all
+these failing, did you not deliberately challenge Cicero to a practical
+demonstration of an old apothegm of his that has survived for centuries,
+and of your own free will did not you make a wager that, as an admirer
+of Cicero's, I am free to accept?" To all this I could but silently
+assent. "Very good, then; we will not pursue this subject further, as it
+is not relevant to my purpose, which is to acquaint you with a narrative
+of unusual interest, upon certain conditions, with which if you comply,
+you will not only serve yourself, but me as well."
+
+"Please name the conditions," I said.
+
+"They are simple enough," he answered. "The narrative I speak of is in
+manuscript. I will produce it in the near future, and my design is to
+read it aloud to you, or to allow you to read it to me, as you may
+select. Further, my wish is that during the reading you shall interpose
+any objection or question that you deem proper. This reading will occupy
+many evenings, and I shall of necessity be with you often. When the
+reading is concluded, we will seal the package securely, and I shall
+leave you forever. You will then deposit the manuscript in some safe
+place, and let it remain for thirty years. When this period has elapsed,
+I wish you to publish this history to the world."
+
+"Your conditions seem easy," I said, after a few seconds' pause.
+
+"They are certainly very simple; do you accept?"
+
+I hesitated, for the prospect of giving myself up to a succession of
+interviews with this extraordinary and mysterious personage seemed to
+require consideration. He evidently divined my thoughts, for, rising
+from his chair, he said abruptly: "Let me have your answer now."
+
+I debated the matter no further, but answered: "I accept,
+conditionally."
+
+"Name your conditions," the guest replied.
+
+"I will either publish the work, or induce some other man to do so."
+
+[Illustration: "LET ME HAVE YOUR ANSWER NOW."]
+
+"Good," he said; "I will see you again," with a polite bow; and turning
+to the door which I had previously locked, he opened it softly, and with
+a quiet "Good night" disappeared in the hall-way.
+
+I looked after him with bewildered senses; but a sudden impulse caused
+me to glance toward the table, when I saw that he had forgotten his
+knife. With the view of returning this, I reached to pick it up, but my
+finger tips no sooner touched the handle than a sudden chill shivered
+along my nerves. Not as an electric shock, but rather as a sensation of
+extreme cold was the current that ran through me in an instant. Rushing
+into the hall-way to the landing of the stairs, I called after the
+mysterious being, "You have forgotten your knife," but beyond the faint
+echo of my voice, I heard no sound. The phantom was gone. A moment later
+I was at the foot of the stairs, and had thrown open the door. A street
+lamp shed an uncertain light in front of the house. I stepped out and
+listened intently for a moment, but not a sound was audible, if indeed I
+except the beating of my own heart, which throbbed so wildly that I
+fancied I heard it. No footfall echoed from the deserted streets; all
+was silent as a churchyard, and I closed and locked the door softly,
+tiptoed my way back to my room, and sank collapsed into an easy chair. I
+was more than exhausted; I quivered from head to foot, not with cold,
+but with a strange nervous chill that found intensest expression in my
+spinal column, and seemed to flash up and down my back vibrating like a
+feverous pulse. This active pain was succeeded by a feeling of frozen
+numbness, and I sat I know not how long, trying to tranquilize myself
+and think temperately of the night's occurrence. By degrees I recovered
+my normal sensations, and directing my will in the channel of sober
+reasoning, I said to myself: "There can be no mistake about his visit,
+for his knife is here as a witness to the fact. So much is sure, and I
+will secure that testimony at all events." With this reflection I turned
+to the table, but to my astonishment I discovered that the knife had
+disappeared. It needed but this miracle to start the perspiration in
+great cold beads from every pore. My brain was in a whirl, and reeling
+into a chair, I covered my face with my hands. How long I sat in this
+posture I do not remember. I only know that I began to doubt my own
+sanity, and wondered if this were not the way people became deranged.
+Had not my peculiar habits of isolation, irregular and intense study,
+erratic living, all conspired to unseat reason? Surely here was every
+ground to believe so; and yet I was able still to think consistently and
+hold steadily to a single line of thought. Insane people can not do
+that, I reflected, and gradually the tremor and excitement wore away.
+When I had become calmer and more collected, and my sober judgment said,
+"Go to bed; sleep just as long as you can; hold your eyelids down, and
+when you awake refreshed, as you will, think out the whole subject at
+your leisure," I arose, threw open the shutters, and found that day was
+breaking. Hastily undressing I went to bed, and closed my eyes, vaguely
+conscious of some soothing guardianship. Perhaps because I was
+physically exhausted, I soon lost myself in the oblivion of sleep.
+
+[Illustration: "I ESPIED UPON THE TABLE A LONG WHITE HAIR."]
+
+I did not dream,--at least I could not afterwards remember my dream if I
+had one, but I recollect thinking that somebody struck ten distinct
+blows on my door, which seemed to me to be of metal and very sonorous.
+These ten blows in my semi-conscious state I counted. I lay very quiet
+for a time collecting my thoughts and noting various objects about the
+room, until my eye caught the dial of a French clock upon the mantel.
+It was a few minutes past ten, and the blows I had heard were the
+strokes of the hammer upon the gong in the clock. The sun was shining
+into the room, which was quite cold, for the fire had gone out. I arose,
+dressed myself quickly, and after thoroughly laving my face and hands in
+ice-cold water, felt considerably refreshed.
+
+Before going out to breakfast, while looking around the room for a few
+things which I wanted to take with me, I espied upon the table a long
+white hair. This was indeed a surprise, for I had about concluded that
+my adventure of the previous night was a species of waking nightmare,
+the result of overworked brain and weakened body. But here was tangible
+evidence to the contrary, an assurance that my mysterious visitor was
+not a fancy or a dream, and his parting words, "I will see you again,"
+recurred to me with singular effect. "He will see me again; very well; I
+will preserve this evidence of his visit for future use." I wound the
+delicate filament into a little coil, folded it carefully in a bit of
+paper, and consigned it to a corner in my pocket-book, though not
+without some misgiving that it too might disappear as did the knife.
+
+The strange experience of that night had a good effect on me; I became
+more regular in all my habits, took abundant sleep and exercise, was
+more methodical in my modes of study and reasoning, and in a short time
+found myself vastly improved in every way, mentally and physically.
+
+The days went fleeting into weeks, the weeks into months, and while the
+form and figure of the white-haired stranger were seldom absent from my
+mind, he came no more.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+    A FRIENDLY CONFERENCE.
+
+
+It is rare, in our present civilization, to find a man who lives alone.
+This remark does not apply to hermits or persons of abnormal or
+perverted mental tendencies, but to the majority of mankind living and
+moving actively among their fellows, and engaged in the ordinary
+occupations of humanity. Every man must have at least one confidant,
+either of his own household, or within the circle of his intimate
+friends. There may possibly be rare exceptions among persons of genius
+in statecraft, war, or commerce, but it is doubtful even in such
+instances if any keep all their thoughts to themselves, hermetically
+sealed from their fellows. As a prevailing rule, either a loving wife or
+very near friend shares the inner thought of the most secretive
+individual, even when secrecy seems an indispensable element to success.
+The tendency to a free interchange of ideas and experiences is almost
+universal, instinct prompting the natural man to unburden his most
+sacred thought, when the proper confidant and the proper time come for
+the disclosure.
+
+For months I kept to myself the events narrated in the preceding
+chapter. And this for several reasons: first, the dread of ridicule that
+would follow the relation of the fantastic occurrences, and the possible
+suspicion of my sanity, that might result from the recital; second, very
+grave doubts as to the reality of my experiences. But by degrees
+self-confidence was restored, as I reasoned the matter over and
+reassured myself by occasional contemplation of the silvery hair I had
+coiled in my pocket-book, and which at first I had expected would vanish
+as did the stranger's knife. There came upon me a feeling that I should
+see my weird visitor again, and at an early day. I resisted this
+impression, for it was a feeling of the idea, rather than a thought, but
+the vague expectation grew upon me in spite of myself, until at length
+it became a conviction which no argument or logic could shake.
+Curiously enough, as the original incident receded into the past, this
+new idea thrust itself into the foreground, and I began in my own mind
+to court another interview. At times, sitting alone after night, I felt
+that I was watched by unseen eyes; these eyes haunted me in my solitude,
+and I was morally sure of the presence of another than myself in the
+room. The sensation was at first unpleasant, and I tried to throw it
+off, with partial success. But only for a little while could I banish
+the intrusive idea, and as the thought took form, and the invisible
+presence became more actual to consciousness, I hoped that the stranger
+would make good his parting promise, "I will see you again."
+
+On one thing I was resolved; I would at least be better informed on the
+subject of hallucinations and apparitions, and not be taken unawares as
+I had been. To this end I decided to confer with my friend, Professor
+Chickering, a quiet, thoughtful man, of varied accomplishments, and
+thoroughly read upon a great number of topics, especially in the
+literature of the marvelous.
+
+So to the Professor I went, after due appointment, and confided to him
+full particulars of my adventure. He listened patiently throughout, and
+when I had finished, assured me in a matter-of-fact way that such
+hallucinations were by no means rare. His remark was provoking, for I
+did not expect from the patient interest he had shown while I was
+telling my story, that the whole matter would be dismissed thus
+summarily. I said with some warmth:
+
+"But this was not a hallucination. I tried at first to persuade myself
+that it was illusory, but the more I have thought the experience over,
+the more real it becomes to me."
+
+"Perhaps you were dreaming," suggested the Professor.
+
+"No," I answered; "I have tried that hypothesis, and it will not do.
+Many things make that view untenable."
+
+"Do not be too sure of that," he said; "you were, by your own account,
+in a highly nervous condition, and physically tired. It is possible,
+perhaps probable, that in this state, as you sat in your chair, you
+dozed off for a short interval, during which the illusion flashed
+through your mind."
+
+"How do you explain the fact that incidents occupying a large portion of
+the night, occurred in an interval which you describe as a flash?"
+
+"Easily enough; in dreams time may not exist: periods embracing weeks or
+months may be reduced to an instant. Long journeys, hours of
+conversation, or a multitude of transactions, may be compressed into a
+term measured by the opening or closing of a door, or the striking of a
+clock. In dreams, ordinary standards of reason find no place, while
+ideas or events chase through the mind more rapidly than thought."
+
+"Conceding all this, why did I, considering the unusual character of the
+incidents, accept them as real, as substantial, as natural as the most
+commonplace events?"
+
+"There is nothing extraordinary in that," he replied. "In dreams all
+sorts of absurdities, impossibilities, discordancies, and violation of
+natural law appear realities, without exciting the least surprise or
+suspicion. Imagination runs riot and is supreme, and reason for the time
+is dormant. We see ghosts, spirits, the forms of persons dead or
+living,--we suffer pain, pleasure, hunger,--and all sensations and
+emotions, without a moment's question of their reality."
+
+"Do any of the subjects of our dreams or visions leave tangible
+evidences of their presence?"
+
+"Assuredly not," he answered, with an incredulous, half-impatient
+gesture; "the idea is absurd."
+
+"Then I was not dreaming," I mused.
+
+Without looking at me, the Professor went on: "These false presentiments
+may have their origin in other ways, as from mental disorders caused by
+indigestion. Nicolai, a noted bookseller of Berlin, was thus afflicted.
+His experiences are interesting and possibly suggestive. Let me read
+some of them to you."
+
+The Professor hereupon glanced over his bookshelf, selected a volume,
+and proceeded to read:[1]
+
+    [1] This work I have found to be Vol. IV. of Chambers' Miscellany,
+    published by Gould and Lincoln, Boston.--J. U. L.
+
+     "I generally saw human forms of both sexes; but they usually
+     seemed not to take the smallest notice of each other, moving as
+     in a market place, where all are eager to press through the
+     crowd; at times, however, they seemed to be transacting business
+     with each other. I also saw several times, people on horseback,
+     dogs, and birds.
+
+     "All these phantasms appeared to me in their natural size, and as
+     distinct as if alive, exhibiting different shades of carnation in
+     the uncovered parts, as well as different colors and fashions in
+     their dresses, though the colors seemed somewhat paler than in
+     real nature. None of the figures appeared particularly terrible,
+     comical, or disgusting, most of them being of indifferent shape,
+     and some presenting a pleasant aspect. The longer these phantasms
+     continued to visit me, the more frequently did they return, while
+     at the same time they increased in number about four weeks after
+     they had first appeared. I also began to hear them talk: these
+     phantoms conversed among themselves, but more frequently
+     addressed their discourse to me; their speeches were uncommonly
+     short, and never of an unpleasant turn. At different times there
+     appeared to me both dear and sensible friends of both sexes,
+     whose addresses tended to appease my grief, which had not yet
+     wholly subsided: their consolatory speeches were in general
+     addressed to me when I was alone. Sometimes, however, I was
+     accosted by these consoling friends while I was engaged in
+     company, and not unfrequently while real persons were speaking to
+     me. These consolatory addresses consisted sometimes of abrupt
+     phrases, and at other times they were regularly executed."
+
+Here I interrupted: "I note, Professor, that Mr. Nicolai knew these
+forms to be illusions."
+
+Without answering my remark, he continued to read:
+
+     "There is in imagination a potency far exceeding the fabled power
+     of Aladdin's lamp. How often does one sit in wintry evening
+     musings, and trace in the glowing embers the features of an
+     absent friend? Imagination, with its magic wand, will there build
+     a city with its countless spires, or marshal contending armies,
+     or drive the tempest-shattered ship upon the ocean. The following
+     story, related by Scott, affords a good illustration of this
+     principle:
+
+     "'Not long after the death of an illustrious poet, who had
+     filled, while living, a great station in the eyes of the public,
+     a literary friend, to whom the deceased had been well known, was
+     engaged during the darkening twilight of an autumn evening, in
+     perusing one of the publications which professed to detail the
+     habits and opinions of the distinguished individual who was now
+     no more. As the reader had enjoyed the intimacy of the deceased
+     to a considerable degree, he was deeply interested in the
+     publication, which contained some particulars relating to himself
+     and other friends. A visitor was sitting in the apartment, who
+     was also engaged in reading. Their sitting-room opened into an
+     entrance hall, rather fantastically fitted up with articles of
+     armor, skins of wild animals, and the like. It was when laying
+     down his book, and passing into this hall, through which the moon
+     was beginning to shine, that the individual of whom I speak saw
+     right before him, in a standing posture, the exact representation
+     of his departed friend, whose recollection had been so strongly
+     brought to his imagination. He stopped for a single moment, so as
+     to notice the wonderful accuracy with which fancy had impressed
+     upon the bodily eye the peculiarities of dress and position of
+     the illustrious poet. Sensible, however, of the delusion, he felt
+     no sentiment save that of wonder at the extraordinary accuracy of
+     the resemblance, and stepped onward to the figure, which resolved
+     itself as he approached into the various materials of which it
+     was composed. These were merely a screen occupied by great coats,
+     shawls, plaids, and such other articles as are usually found in a
+     country entrance hall. The spectator returned to the spot from
+     which he had seen the illusion, and endeavored with all his power
+     to recall the image which had been so singularly vivid. But this
+     he was unable to do. And the person who had witnessed the
+     apparition, or, more properly, whose excited state had been the
+     means of raising it, had only to return to the apartment, and
+     tell his young friend under what a striking hallucination he had
+     for a moment labored.'"
+
+Here I was constrained to call the Professor to a halt. "Your stories
+are very interesting," I said, "but I fail to perceive any analogy in
+either the conditions or the incidents, to my experience. I was fully
+awake and conscious at the time, and the man I saw appeared and moved
+about in the full glare of the gaslight,--"
+
+"Perhaps not," he answered; "I am simply giving you some general
+illustrations of the subject. But here is a case more to the point."
+
+Again he read:
+
+     "A lady was once passing through a wood, in the darkening
+     twilight of a stormy evening, to visit a friend who was watching
+     over a dying child. The clouds were thick--the rain beginning to
+     fall; darkness was increasing; the wind was moaning mournfully
+     through the trees. The lady's heart almost failed her as she saw
+     that she had a mile to walk through the woods in the gathering
+     gloom. But the reflection of the situation of her friend forbade
+     her turning back. Excited and trembling, she called to her aid a
+     nervous resolution, and pressed onward. She had not proceeded far
+     when she beheld in the path before her the movement of some very
+     indistinct object. It appeared to keep a little distance ahead of
+     her, and as she made efforts to get nearer to see what it was, it
+     seemed proportionally to recede. The lady began to feel rather
+     unpleasantly. There was some pale white object certainly
+     discernible before her, and it appeared mysteriously to float
+     along, at a regular distance, without any effort at motion.
+     Notwithstanding the lady's good sense and unusual resolution, a
+     cold chill began to come over her. She made every effort to
+     resist her fears, and soon succeeded in drawing nearer the
+     mysterious object, when she was appalled at beholding the
+     features of her friend's child, cold in death, wrapt in its
+     shroud. She gazed earnestly, and there it remained distinct and
+     clear before her eyes. She considered it a premonition that her
+     friend's child was dead, and that she must hasten to her aid. But
+     there was the apparition directly in her path. She must pass it.
+     Taking up a little stick, she forced herself along to the object,
+     and behold, some little animal scampered away. It was this that
+     her excited imagination had transformed into the corpse of an
+     infant in its winding sheet."
+
+I was a little irritated, and once more interrupted the reader warmly:
+"This is exasperating. Now what resemblance is there between the
+vagaries of a hysterical, weak-minded woman, and my case?"
+
+He smiled, and again read:
+
+     "The numerous stories told of ghosts, or the spirits of persons
+     who are dead, will in most instances be found to have originated
+     in diseased imagination, aggravated by some abnormal defect of
+     mind. We may mention a remarkable case in point, and one which is
+     not mentioned in English works on this subject; it is told by a
+     compiler of Les Causes C�l�bres. Two young noblemen, the
+     Marquises De Rambouillet and De Precy, belonging to two of the
+     first families of France, made an agreement, in the warmth of
+     their friendship, that the one who died first should return to
+     the other with tidings of the world to come. Soon afterwards De
+     Rambouillet went to the wars in Flanders, while De Precy remained
+     at Paris, stricken by a fever. Lying alone in bed, and severely
+     ill, De Precy one day heard a rustling of his bed curtains, and
+     turning round, saw his friend De Rambouillet, in full military
+     attire. The sick man sprung over the bed to welcome his friend,
+     but the other receded, and said that he had come to fulfill his
+     promise, having been killed on that very day. He further said
+     that it behooved De Precy to think more of the afterworld, as all
+     that was said of it was true, and as he himself would die in his
+     first battle. De Precy was then left by the phantom; and it was
+     afterward found that De Rambouillet had fallen on that day."
+
+"Ah," I said, "and so the phantom predicted an event that followed as
+indicated."
+
+"Spiritual illusions," explained the Professor, "are not unusual, and
+well authenticated cases are not wanting in which they have been induced
+in persons of intelligence by functional or organic disorders. In the
+last case cited, the prediction was followed by a fulfillment, but this
+was chance or mere coincidence. It would be strange indeed if in the
+multitude of dreams that come to humanity, some few should not be
+followed by events so similar as to warrant the belief that they were
+prefigured. But here is an illustration that fits your case: let me read
+it:
+
+     "In some instances it may be difficult to decide whether spectral
+     appearances and spectral noises proceed from physical derangement
+     or from an overwrought state of mind. Want of exercise and
+     amusement may also be a prevailing cause. A friend mentions to us
+     the following case: An acquaintance of his, a merchant, in
+     London, who had for years paid very close attention to business,
+     was one day, while alone in his counting house, very much
+     surprised to hear, as he imagined, persons outside the door
+     talking freely about him. Thinking it was some acquaintances who
+     were playing off a trick, he opened the door to request them to
+     come in, when to his amazement, he found that nobody was there.
+     He again sat down to his desk, and in a few minutes the same
+     dialogue recommenced. The language was very alarming. One voice
+     seemed to say: 'We have the scoundrel in his own counting house;
+     let us go in and seize him.' 'Certainly,' replied the other
+     voice, 'it is right to take him; he has been guilty of a great
+     crime, and ought to be brought to condign punishment.' Alarmed
+     at these threats, the bewildered merchant rushed to the door; and
+     there again no person was to be seen. He now locked his door and
+     went home; but the voices, as he thought, followed him through
+     the crowd, and he arrived at his house in a most unenviable state
+     of mind. Inclined to ascribe the voices to derangement in mind,
+     he sent for a medical attendant, and told his case, and a certain
+     kind of treatment was prescribed. This, however, failed; the
+     voices menacing him with punishment for purely imaginary crimes
+     continued, and he was reduced to the brink of despair. At length
+     a friend prescribed entire relaxation from business, and a daily
+     game of cricket, which, to his great relief, proved an effectual
+     remedy. The exercise banished the phantom voices, and they were
+     no more heard."
+
+"So you think that I am in need of out-door exercise?"
+
+"Exactly."
+
+"And that my experience was illusory, the result of vertigo, or some
+temporary calenture of the brain?"
+
+"To be plain with you, yes."
+
+"But I asked you a while ago if specters or phantoms ever leave tangible
+evidence of their presence." The Professor's eyes dilated in
+interrogation. I continued: "Well, this one did. After I had followed
+him out, I found on the table a long, white hair, which I still have,"
+and producing the little coil from my pocket-book, I handed it to him.
+He examined it curiously, eyed me furtively, and handed it back with the
+cautious remark:
+
+"I think you had better commence your exercise at once."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+    A SECOND INTERVIEW WITH THE MYSTERIOUS VISITOR.
+
+
+It is not pleasant to have one's mental responsibility brought in
+question, and the result of my interview with Professor Chickering was,
+to put it mildly, unsatisfactory. Not that he had exactly questioned my
+sanity, but it was all too evident that he was disposed to accept my
+statement of a plain matter-of-fact occurrence with a too liberal
+modicum of salt. I say "matter-of-fact occurrence" in full knowledge of
+the truth that I myself had at first regarded the whole transaction as a
+fantasia or flight of mind, the result of extreme nervous tension; but
+in the interval succeeding I had abundant opportunity to correlate my
+thoughts, and to bring some sort of order out of the mental and physical
+chaos of that strange, eventful night. True, the preliminary events
+leading up to it were extraordinary; the dismal weather, the depression
+of body and spirit under which I labored, the wild whirl of thought
+keeping pace with the elements--in short, a general concatenation of
+events that seemed to be ordered especially for the introduction of some
+abnormal visitor--the night would indeed have been incomplete without a
+ghost! But was it a ghost? There was nothing ghostly about my visitor,
+except the manner of his entrance and exit. In other respects, he seemed
+substantial enough. He was, in his manners, courteous and polished as a
+Chesterfield; learned as a savant in his conversation; human in his
+thoughtful regard of my fears and misgivings; but that tremendous
+forehead, with its crown of silver hair, the long, translucent beard of
+pearly whiteness, and above all the astounding facility with which he
+read my hidden thoughts--these were not natural.
+
+The Professor had been patient with me--I had a right to expect that; he
+was entertaining to the extent of reading such excerpts as he had with
+him on the subject of hallucinations and their supposed causes, but had
+he not spoiled all by assigning me at last to a place with the
+questionable, unbalanced characters he had cited? I thought so, and the
+reflection provoked me; and this thought grew upon me until I came to
+regard his stories and attendant theories as so much literary trash.
+
+My own reflections had been sober and deliberate, and had led me to seek
+a rational explanation of the unusual phenomena. I had gone to Professor
+Chickering for a certain measure of sympathy, and what was more to the
+point, to secure his suggestions and assistance in the further
+unraveling of a profound mystery that might contain a secret of untold
+use to humanity. Repulsed by the mode in which my confidence had been
+received, I decided to do what I should have done from the outset--to
+keep my own counsel, and to follow alone the investigation to the end,
+no matter what the result might be. I could not forget or ignore the
+silver hair I had so religiously preserved. That was genuine; it was as
+tangible, as real, as convincing a witness as would have been the entire
+head of my singular visitant, whatever might be his nature.
+
+I began to feel at ease the moment my course was decided, and the
+feeling was at once renewed within me that the gray head would come
+again, and by degrees that expectation ripened into a desire, only
+intensified as the days sped by. The weeks passed into months; summer
+came and went; autumn was fast fading, but the mysterious unknown did
+not appear. A curious fancy led me now to regard him as my friend, for
+the mixed and indefinite feelings I felt at first towards him had almost
+unaccountably been changed to those of sincere regard. He was not always
+in my thoughts, for I had abundant occupation at all times to keep both
+brain and hands busy, but there were few evenings in which I did not,
+just before retiring, give myself up for a brief period to quiet
+communion with my own thoughts, and I must confess at such times the
+unknown occupied the larger share of attention. The constant
+contemplation of any theme begets a feeling of familiarity or
+acquaintance with the same, and if that subject be an individual, as in
+the present instance, such contemplation lessens the liability to
+surprise from any unexpected development. In fact, I not only
+anticipated a visit, but courted it. The old Latin maxim that I had
+played with, "Never less alone than when alone" had domiciled itself
+within my brain as a permanent lodger--a conviction, a feeling rather
+than a thought defined, and I had but little difficulty in associating
+an easy-chair which I had come to place in a certain position for my
+expected visitor, with his presence.
+
+Indian summer had passed, and the fall was nearly gone when for some
+inexplicable reason the number seven began to haunt me. What had I to do
+with seven, or seven with me? When I sat down at night this persistent
+number mixed itself in my thoughts, to my intense annoyance. Bother take
+the mystic numeral! What was I to do with seven? I found myself asking
+this question audibly one evening, when it suddenly occurred to me that
+I would refer to the date of my friend's visit. I kept no journal, but
+reference to a record of some business transactions that I had
+associated with that event showed that it took place on November
+seventh. That settled the importunate seven! I should look for whomever
+he was on the first anniversary of his visit, which was the seventh, now
+close at hand. The instant I had reached this conclusion the number left
+me, and troubled me no more.
+
+November third had passed, the fourth, and the fifth had come, when a
+stubborn, protesting notion entered my mind that I was yielding to a
+superstitious idea, and that it was time to control my vacillating will.
+Accordingly on this day I sent word to a friend that, if agreeable to
+him, I would call on him on the evening of the seventh for a short
+social chat, but as I expected to be engaged until later than usual,
+would he excuse me if I did not reach his apartments until ten? The
+request was singular, but as I was now accounted somewhat odd, it
+excited no comment, and the answer was returned, requesting me to come.
+The seventh of November came at last. I was nervous during the day,
+which seemed to drag tediously, and several times it was remarked of me
+that I seemed abstracted and ill at ease, but I held my peace. Night
+came cold and clear, and the stars shone brighter than usual, I thought.
+It was a sharp contrast to the night of a year ago. I took an early
+supper, for which I had no appetite, after which I strolled aimlessly
+about the streets, revolving how I should put in the time till ten
+o'clock, when I was to call upon my friend. I decided to go to the
+theater, and to the theater I went. The play was spectacular, "Aladdin;
+or, The Wonderful Lamp." The entertainment, to me, was a flat failure,
+for I was busy with my thoughts, and it was not long until my thoughts
+were busy with me, and I found myself attempting to answer a series of
+questions that finally became embarrassing. "Why did you make an
+appointment for ten o'clock instead of eight, if you wished to keep away
+from your apartments?" I hadn't thought of that before; it was stupid to
+a degree, if not ill-mannered, and I frankly admitted as much. "Why did
+you make an appointment at all, in the face of the fact that you not
+only expected a visitor, but were anxious to meet him?" This was easily
+answered: because I did not wish to yield to what struck me as
+superstition. "But do you expect to extend your call until morning?"
+Well, no, I hadn't thought or arranged to do so. "Well, then, what is to
+prevent your expected guest from awaiting your return? Or, what
+assurance have you that he will not encounter you in the street, under
+circumstances that will provoke or, at the least, embarrass you?" None
+whatever. "Then what have you gained by your stupid perversity?"
+Nothing, beyond the assertion of my own individuality. "Why not go home
+and receive your guest in becoming style?" No; I would not do that. I
+had started on this course, and I would persevere in it. I would be
+consistent. And so I persisted, at least until nine o'clock, when I quit
+the theater in sullen dejection, and went home to make some slight
+preparation for my evening call.
+
+With my latch-key I let myself into the front door of the apartment
+house wherein I lodged, walked through the hall, up the stair-case, and
+paused on the threshold of my room, wondering what I would find inside.
+Opening the door I entered, leaving it open behind me so that the light
+from the hall-way would shine into the room, which was dark, and there
+was no transom above the door. The grate fire had caked into a solid
+mass of charred bituminous coal, which shed no illumination beyond a
+faint red glow at the bottom, showing that it was barely alive, and no
+more. I struck a match on the underside of the mantel shelf, and as I
+lit the gas I heard the click of the door latch. I turned instantly; the
+door had been gently closed by some unknown force if not by unseen
+hands, for there was no breath of air stirring. This preternatural
+interference was not pleasant, for I had hoped in the event of another
+visit from my friend, if friend he was, that he would bring no uncanny
+or ghostly manifestation to disturb me. I looked at the clock; the index
+pointed to half past nine. I glanced about the room; it was orderly,
+everything in proper position, even to the arm-chair that I had been
+wont to place for my nondescript visitor. It was time to be going, so I
+turned to the dressing case, brushed my hair, put on a clean scarf, and
+moved towards the wash-stand, which stood in a little alcove on the
+opposite side of the room. My self-command well-nigh deserted me as I
+did so, for there, in the arm-chair that a moment before was empty, sat
+my guest of a year ago, facing me with placid features! The room began
+to revolve, a faint, sick feeling came over me, and I reeled into the
+first convenient chair, and covered my face with my hands. This
+depression lasted but an instant, however, and as I recovered
+self-possession, I felt or fancied I felt a pair of penetrating eyes
+fixed upon me with the same mild, searching gaze I remembered so well. I
+ventured to look up; sure enough, there they were, the beaming eyes, and
+there was he! Rising from his chair, he towered up to his full height,
+smiled pleasantly, and with a slight inclination of the head, murmured:
+"Permit me to wish you good evening; I am profoundly glad to meet you
+again."
+
+It was full a minute before I could muster courage to answer: "I wish I
+could say as much for myself."
+
+"And why shouldn't you?" he said, gently and courteously; "you have
+realized, for the past six months, that I would return; more than
+that--you have known for some time the very day and almost the exact
+hour of my coming, have even wished for it, and, in the face of all
+this, I find you preparing to evade the requirements of common
+hospitality;--are you doing either me or yourself justice?"
+
+I was nettled at the knowledge he displayed of my movements, and of my
+very thoughts; my old stubbornness asserted itself, and I was rude
+enough to say: "Perhaps it is as you say; at all events, I am obligated
+to keep an engagement, and with your permission will now retire."
+
+It was curious to mark the effect of this speech upon the intruder. He
+immediately became grave, reached quietly into an inner pocket of his
+coat, drew thence the same glittering, horrible, mysterious knife that
+had so terrified and bewildered me a year before, and looking me
+steadily in the eye, said coldly, yet with a certain tone of sadness:
+"Well, I will not grant permission. It is unpleasant to resort to this
+style of argument, but I do it to save time and controversy."
+
+I stepped back in terror, and reached for the old-fashioned bell-cord,
+with the heavy tassel at the end, that depended from the ceiling, and
+was on the point of grasping and giving it a vigorous pull.
+
+"Not so fast, if you please," he said, sternly, as he stepped forward,
+and gave the knife a rapid swish through the air above my head, causing
+the cord to fall in a tangle about my hand, cut cleanly, high above my
+reach!
+
+I gazed in dumb stupor at the rope about my hand, and raised my eyes to
+the remnant above. That was motionless; there was not the slightest
+perceptible vibration, such as would naturally be expected. I turned to
+look at my guest; he had resumed his seat, and had also regained his
+pleasant expression, but he still held the knife in his hand with his
+arm extended, at rest, upon the table, which stood upon his right.
+
+[Illustration: "THE SAME GLITTERING, MYSTERIOUS KNIFE."]
+
+"Let us have an end to this folly," he said; "think a moment, and you
+will see that you are in fault. Your error we will rectify easily, and
+then to business. I will first show you the futility of trying to escape
+this interview, and then we will proceed to work, for time presses, and
+there is much to do." Having delivered this remark, he detached a single
+silvery hair from his head, blew it from his fingers, and let it float
+gently upon the upturned edge of the knife, which was still resting on
+the table. The hair was divided as readily as had been the bell-cord. I
+was transfixed with astonishment, for he had evidently aimed to exhibit
+the quality of the blade, though he made no allusion to the feat, but
+smilingly went on with his discourse: "It is just a year ago to-night
+since we first met. Upon that occasion you made an agreement with me
+which you are in honor bound to keep, and--" here he paused as if to note
+the effect of his words upon me, then added significantly--"will keep. I
+have been at some pains to impress upon your mind the fact that I
+would be here to-night. You responded, and knew that I was coming, and
+yet in obedience to a silly whim, deliberately made a meaningless
+engagement with no other purpose than to violate a solemn obligation. I
+now insist that you keep your prior engagement with me, but I do not
+wish that you should be rude to your friend, so you had better write him
+a polite note excusing yourself, and dispatch it at once."
+
+I saw that he was right, and that there was no shadow of justification
+for my conduct, or at least I was subdued by his presence, so I wrote
+the note without delay, and was casting about for some way to send it,
+when he said: "Fold it, seal it, and address it; you seem to forget what
+is proper." I did as he directed, mechanically, and, without thinking
+what I was doing, handed it to him. He took it naturally, glanced at the
+superscription, went to the door which he opened slightly, and handed
+the billet as if to some messenger who seemed to be in waiting
+outside,--then closed and locked the door. Turning toward me with the
+apparent object of seeing if I was looking, he deftly drew his knife
+twice across the front of the door-knob, making a deep cross, and then
+deposited the knife in his pocket, and resumed his seat.[2]
+
+    [2] I noted afterward that the door-knob, which was of solid
+    metal, was cut deeply, as though made of putty.
+
+As soon as he was comfortably seated, he again began the conversation:
+"Now that we have settled the preliminaries, I will ask if you remember
+what I required of you a year ago?" I thought that I did. "Please repeat
+it; I wish to make sure that you do, then we will start fair."
+
+"In the first place, you were to present me with a manuscript--"
+
+"Hardly correct," he interrupted; "I was to acquaint you with a
+narrative which is already in manuscript, acquaint you with it, read it
+to you, if you preferred not to read it to me--"
+
+"I beg your pardon," I answered; "that is correct. You were to read the
+manuscript to me, and during the reading I was to interpose such
+comments, remarks, or objections, as seemed proper; to embody as
+interludes, in the manuscript, as my own interpolations, however, and
+not as part of the original."
+
+"Very good," he replied, "you have the idea exactly; proceed."
+
+"I agreed that when the reading had been completed, I would seal the
+complete manuscript securely, deposit it in some safe place, there to
+remain for thirty years, when it must be published."
+
+[Illustration: "DREW HIS KNIFE TWICE ACROSS THE FRONT OF THE
+DOOR-KNOB."]
+
+"Just so," he answered; "we understand each other as we should. Before
+we proceed further, however, can you think of any point on which you
+need enlightenment? If so, ask such questions as you choose, and I will
+answer them."
+
+I thought for a moment, but no query occurred to me; after a pause he
+said: "Well, if you think of nothing now, perhaps hereafter questions
+will occur to you which you can ask; but as it is late, and you are
+tired, we will not commence now. I will see you just one week from
+to-night, when we will begin. From that time on, we will follow the
+subject as rapidly as you choose, but see to it that you make no
+engagements that will interfere with our work, for I shall be more
+exacting in the future." I promised, and he rose to go. A sudden impulse
+seized me, and I said: "May I ask one question?"
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"What shall I call you?"
+
+"Why call me aught? It is not necessary in addressing each other that
+any name be used."
+
+"But what are you?" I persisted.
+
+A pained expression for an instant rested upon his face, and he said,
+sadly, pausing between the words: "I--Am--The--Man Who--Did--It."
+
+"Did what?"
+
+"Ask not; the manuscript will tell you. Be content, Llewellyn, and
+remember this, that I--Am--The--Man."
+
+So saying he bade me good night, opened the door, and disappeared down
+the broad stair-case.
+
+One week thereafter he appeared promptly, seated himself, and producing
+a roll of manuscript, handed it to me, saying, "I am listening; you may
+begin to read."
+
+On examination I found each page to be somewhat larger than a sheet of
+letter paper, with the written matter occupying a much smaller space, so
+as to leave a wide white border. One hundred pages were in the package.
+The last sentence ending abruptly indicated that my guest did not expect
+to complete his task in one evening, and, I may anticipate by saying
+that with each successive interview he drew about the same amount of
+writing from his bosom. Upon attempting to read the manuscript I at
+first found myself puzzled by a style of chirography very peculiar and
+characteristic, but execrably bad. Vainly did I attempt to read it; even
+the opening sentence was not deciphered without long inspection and
+great difficulty.
+
+The old man, whom I had promised that I would fulfill the task,
+observing my discomfiture, relieved me of the charge, and without a word
+of introduction, read fluently as follows:
+
+
+
+
+THE MANUSCRIPT OF I--AM--THE--MAN.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+    A SEARCH FOR KNOWLEDGE.--THE ALCHEMISTIC LETTER.
+
+
+I am the man who, unfortunately for my future happiness, was
+dissatisfied with such knowledge as could be derived from ordinary books
+concerning semi-scientific subjects in which I had long been absorbed. I
+studied the current works of my day on philosophy and chemistry, hoping
+therein to find something tangible regarding the relationship that
+exists between matter and spirit, but studied in vain. Astronomy,
+history, philosophy and the mysterious, incoherent works of alchemy and
+occultism were finally appealed to, but likewise failed to satisfy me.
+These studies were pursued in secret, though I am not aware that any
+necessity existed for concealment. Be that as it may, at every
+opportunity I covertly acquainted myself with such alchemical lore as
+could be obtained either by purchase or by correspondence with others
+whom I found to be pursuing investigations in the same direction. A
+translation of Geber's "De Claritate Alchemi�," by chance came into my
+possession, and afterwards an original version from the Latin of
+Boerhaave's "Elementa Chemi�," published and translated in 1753 by
+Peter Shaw. This magnificent production threw a flood of light upon the
+early history of chemistry, being far more elaborate than any modern
+work. It inspired me with the deepest regard for its talented author,
+and ultimately introduced me to a brotherhood of adepts, for in this
+publication, although its author disclaims occultism, is to be found a
+talisman that will enable any earnest searcher after light to become a
+member of the society of secret "Chemical Improvers of Natural
+Philosophy," with which I affiliated as soon as the key was discovered.
+Then followed a systematic investigation of authorities of the
+Alchemical School, including Geber, Morienus, Roger Bacon, George
+Ripley, Raymond Lully, Bernard, Count of Trevise, Isaac Hollandus,
+Arnoldus de la Villanova, Paracelsus, and others, not omitting the
+learned researches of the distinguished scientist, Llewellyn.
+
+[Illustration: FAC-SIMILE OF PAGE OF MANUSCRIPT.]
+
+I discovered that many talented men are still firm believers in the lost
+art of alchemy, and that among the followers of the "thrice-famed
+Hermes" are to be found statesmen, clergymen, lawyers, and scientific
+men who, for various reasons, invariably conceal with great tact their
+connection with the fraternity of adepts. Some of these men had written
+scientific treatises of a very different character from those
+circulating among the members of our brotherhood, and to their
+materialistic readers it would seem scarcely possible that the authors
+could be tainted with hallucinations of any description, while others,
+conspicuous leaders in the church, were seemingly beyond occult
+temptation.
+
+The larger number, it was evident, hoped by studies of the works of the
+alchemists, to find the key to the alkahest of Van Helmont, that is, to
+discover the Philosopher's Stone, or the Elixir of Life, and from their
+writings it is plain that the inner consciousness of thoughtful and
+scientific men rebelled against confinement to the narrow bounds of
+materialistic science, within which they were forced to appear as
+dogmatic pessimists. To them scientific orthodoxy, acting as a weight,
+prohibited intellectual speculation, as rank heresy. A few of my
+co-laborers were expert manipulators, and worked experimentally,
+following in their laboratories the suggestions of those gifted students
+who had pored over precious old manuscripts, and had attempted to solve
+the enigmatical formulas recorded therein, puzzles familiar to students
+of Hermetic lore. It was thus demonstrated,--for what I have related is
+history,--that in this nineteenth century there exists a fraternity, the
+members of which are as earnest in their belief in the truth of Esoteric
+philosophy, as were the followers of Hermes himself; savants who, in
+secret, circulate among themselves a literature that the materialism of
+this selfsame nineteenth century has relegated to the deluded and murky
+periods that produced it.
+
+One day a postal package came to my address, this being the manner in
+which some of our literature circulated, which, on examination, I
+found to be a letter of instruction and advice from some unknown member
+of our circle. I was already becoming disheartened over the mental
+confusion into which my studies were leading me, and the contents of the
+letter, in which I was greatly interested, made a lasting impression
+upon me. It seemed to have been circulating a long time among our
+members in Europe and America, for it bore numerous marginal notes of
+various dates, but each and every one of its readers had for one reason
+or another declined the task therein suggested. From the substance of
+the paper, which, written exquisitely, yet partook of the ambiguous
+alchemistic style, it was evident that the author was well versed in
+alchemy, and, in order that my position may be clearly understood at
+this turning point in a life of remarkable adventure, the letter is
+appended in full:
+
+     THE ALCHEMISTIC LETTER.
+
+     TO THE BROTHER ADEPT WHO DARES TRY TO DISCOVER ZOROASTER'S CAVE,
+     OR THE PHILOSOPHER'S INTELLECTUAL ECHOES, BY MEANS OF WHICH THEY
+     COMMUNICATE TO ONE ANOTHER FROM THEIR CAVES.
+
+     Know thou, that Hermes Trismegistus did not originate, but he
+     gave to our philosophy his name--the Hermetic Art. Evolved in a
+     dim, mystic age, before antiquity began, it endured through the
+     slowly rolling cycles to be bandied about by the ever-ready
+     flippancy of nineteenth century students. It has lived, because
+     it is endowed with that quality which never dies--truth. Modern
+     philosophy, of which chemistry is but a fragment, draws its
+     sustenance from the prime facts which were revealed in ancient
+     Egypt through Hermetic thought, and fixed by the Hermetic stylus.
+
+     "The Hermetic allegories," so various in interpretable
+     susceptibility, led subsequent thinkers into speculations and
+     experimentations, which have resulted profitably to the world. It
+     is not strange that some of the followers of Hermes, especially
+     the more mercurial and imaginative, should have evolved nebulous
+     theories, no longer explainable, and involving recondite
+     spiritual considerations. Know thou that the ultimate on
+     psycho-chemical investigation is the proximate of the infinite.
+     Accordingly, a class came to believe that a projection of natural
+     mental faculties into an advanced state of consciousness called
+     the "wisdom faculty" constitutes the final possibility of
+     Alchemy. The attainment of this exalted condition is still
+     believed practicable by many earnest savants. Once on this lofty
+     plane, the individual would not be trammelled by material
+     obstacles, but would abide in that spiritual placidity which is
+     the exquisite realization of mortal perfection. So exalted, he
+     would be in naked parallelism with Omniscience, and through his
+     illuminated understanding, could feast his soul on those exalted
+     pleasures which are only less than deific.
+
+     Notwithstanding the exploitings of a number of these
+     philosophers, in which, by reason of our inability to comprehend,
+     sense seemed lost in a passage of incohesive dreamery and
+     resonancy of terminology, some of the purest spiritual researches
+     the world has ever known, were made in the dawn of history. The
+     much abused alchemical philosophers existed upon a plane, in some
+     respects above the level of the science of to-day. Many of them
+     lived for the good of the world only, in an atmosphere above the
+     materialistic hordes that people the world, and toiling over
+     their crucibles and alembics, died in their cells "uttering no
+     voice." Take, for example, Eiren�us Philalethes, who, born in
+     1623, lived contemporaneously with Robert Boyle. A fragment from
+     his writings will illustrate the purpose which impelled the
+     searcher for the true light of alchemy to record his discoveries
+     in allegories, and we have no right to question the honesty of
+     his utterances:
+
+     "The Searcher of all hearts knows that I write the truth; nor is
+     there any cause to accuse me of envy. I write with an unterrified
+     quill in an unheard of style, to the honor of God, to the profit
+     of my neighbors, with contempt of the world and its riches,
+     because Elias, the artist, is already born, and now glorious
+     things are declared of the city of God. I dare affirm that I do
+     possess more riches than the whole known world is worth, but I
+     can not make use of it because of the snares of knaves. I
+     disdain, loathe, and detest the idolizing of silver and gold, by
+     which the pomps and vanities of the world are celebrated. Ah!
+     filthy evil! Ah! vain nothingness! Believe ye that I conceal the
+     art out of envy? No, verily, I protest to you; I grieve from the
+     very bottom of my soul that we (alchemists) are driven like
+     vagabonds from the face of the Lord throughout the earth. But
+     what need of many words? The thing that we have seen, taught, and
+     made, which we have, possess, and know, that we do declare; being
+     moved with compassion for the studious, and with indignation of
+     gold, silver, and precious stones. Believe me, the time is at the
+     door, I feel it in spirit, when we, adeptists, shall return from
+     the four corners of the earth, nor shall we fear any snares that
+     are laid against our lives, but we shall give thanks to the Lord
+     our God. I would to God that every ingenious man in the whole
+     earth understood this science; then it would be valued only for
+     its wisdom, and virtue only would be had in honor."
+
+     Of course there was a more worldly class, and a large contingent
+     of mercenary impostors (as science is always encumbered),
+     parasites, whose animus was shamefully unlike the purity of true
+     esoteric psychologists. These men devoted their lives to
+     experimentation for selfish advancement. They constructed
+     alchemical outfits, and carried on a ceaseless inquiry into the
+     nature of solvents, and studied their influences on earthly
+     bodies, their ultimate object being the discovery of the
+     Philosopher's Stone, and the alkahest which Boerhaave asserts
+     was never discovered. Their records were often a verbose melange,
+     purposely so written, no doubt, to cover their tracks, and to
+     make themselves conspicuous. Other Hermetic believers occupied a
+     more elevated position, and connected the intellectual with the
+     material, hoping to gain by their philosophy and science not only
+     gold and silver, which were secondary considerations, but the
+     highest literary achievement, the Magnum Opus. Others still
+     sought to draw from Astrology and Magic the secrets that would
+     lead them to their ambitious goal. Thus there were degrees of
+     fineness in a fraternity, which the science of to-day must
+     recognize and admit.
+
+     Boerhaave, the illustrious, respected Geber, of the alchemistic
+     school, and none need feel compromised in admiring the talented
+     alchemists who, like Geber, wrought in the twilight of morn for
+     the coming world's good. We are now enjoying a fragment of the
+     ultimate results of their genius and industry in the
+     materialistic outcomes of present-day chemistry, to be followed
+     by others more valuable; and at last, when mankind is ripe in the
+     wisdom faculty, by spiritual contentment in the complacent
+     furtherings beyond. Allow me briefly to refer to a few men of the
+     alchemistic type whose records may be considered with advantage.
+
+     Rhasis, a conspicuous alchemist, born in 850, first mentioned
+     orpiment, borax, compounds of iron, copper, arsenic, and other
+     similar substances. It is said, too, that he discovered the art
+     of making brandy. About a century later, Alfarabe (killed in
+     950), a great alchemist, astonished the King of Syria with his
+     profound learning, and excited the admiration of the wise men of
+     the East by his varied accomplishments. Later, Albertus Magnus
+     (born 1205), noted for his talent and skill, believed firmly in
+     the doctrine of transmutation. His beloved pupil, Thomas Aquinas,
+     gave us the word amalgam, and it still serves us.
+     Contemporaneously with these lived Roger Bacon (born 1214), who
+     was a man of most extraordinary ability. There has never been a
+     greater English intellect (not excepting his illustrious
+     namesake, Lord Bacon), and his penetrating mind delved deeper
+     into nature's laws than that of any successor. He told us of
+     facts concerning the sciences, that scientific men can not fully
+     comprehend to-day; he told us of other things that lie beyond the
+     science provings of to-day, that modern philosophers can not
+     grasp. He was an enthusiastic believer in the Hermetic
+     philosophy, and such were his erudition and advanced views, that
+     his brother friars, through jealousy and superstition, had him
+     thrown into prison--a common fate to men who in those days dared
+     to think ahead of their age. Despite (as some would say) of his
+     mighty reasoning power and splendid attainments, he believed the
+     Philosopher's Stone to be a reality; he believed the secret of
+     indefinite prolongation of life abode in alchemy; that the future
+     could be predicted by means of a mirror which he called
+     Almuchese, and that by alchemy an adept could produce pure gold.
+     He asserted that by means of Aristotle's "Secret of Secrets,"
+     pure gold can be made; gold even purer and finer than what men
+     now know as gold. In connection with other predictions he made an
+     assertion that may with other seemingly unreasonable predictions
+     be verified in time to come. He said: "It is equally possible to
+     construct cars which may be set in motion with marvelous
+     rapidity, independently of horses or other animals." He declared
+     that the ancients had done this, and he believed the art might be
+     revived.
+
+     Following came various enthusiasts, such as Raymond, the
+     ephemeral (died 1315), who flared like a meteor into his brief,
+     brilliant career; Arnold de Villanova (1240), a celebrated adept,
+     whose books were burned by the Inquisition on account of the
+     heresy they taught; Nicholas Flamel, of France (1350), loved by
+     the people for his charities, the wonder of his age (our age will
+     not admit the facts) on account of the vast fortune he amassed
+     without visible means or income, outside of alchemical lore;
+     Johannes de Rupecissus, a man of such remarkable daring that he
+     even (1357) reprimanded Pope Innocent VI., for which he was
+     promptly imprisoned; Basil Valentine (1410), the author of many
+     works, and the man who introduced antimony (antimonaches) into
+     medicine; Isaac of Holland who, with his son, skillfully made
+     artificial gems that could not be distinguished from the natural;
+     Bernard Trevison (born 1406), who spent $30,000 in the study of
+     alchemy, out of much of which he was cheated by cruel alchemic
+     pretenders, for even in that day there were plenty of rogues to
+     counterfeit a good thing. Under stress of his strong alchemic
+     convictions, Thomas Dalton placed his head on the block by order
+     of the virtuous (?) and conservative Thomas Herbert, 'squire to
+     King Edward; Jacob Bohme (born 1575), the sweet, pure spirit of
+     Christian mysticism, "The Voice of Heaven," than whom none stood
+     higher in true alchemy, was a Christian, alchemist, theosophist;
+     Robert Boyle, a conspicuous alchemical philosopher, in 1662
+     published his "Defense of the Doctrine touching the Spring and
+     Weight of the Air," and illustrated his arguments by a series of
+     ingenious and beautiful experiments, that stand to-day so high in
+     the estimation of scientific men, that his remarks are copied
+     verbatim by our highest authorities, and his apparatus is the
+     best yet devised for the purpose. Boyle's "Law" was evolved and
+     carefully defined fourteen years before Mariotte's "Discours de
+     la Nature de l'Air" appeared, which did not, however, prevent
+     French and German scientific men from giving the credit to
+     Mariotte, and they still follow the false teacher who boldly
+     pirated not only Boyle's ideas, but stole his apparatus.
+
+     Then appeared such men as Paracelsus (born 1493), the celebrated
+     physician, who taught that occultism (esoteric philosophy) was
+     superior to experimental chemistry in enlightening us concerning
+     the transmutation of baser metals into gold and silver; and
+     Gueppo Francisco (born 1627), who wrote a beautiful treatise on
+     "Elementary Spirits," which was copied without credit by Compte
+     de Gabalis. It seems incredible that the man (Gueppo Francisco),
+     whose sweet spirit-thoughts are revivified and breathe anew in
+     "Undine" and "The Rape of the Lock," should have been thrown into
+     a prison to perish as a Hermetic follower; and this should teach
+     us not to question the earnestness of those who left us as a
+     legacy the beauty and truth so abundantly found in pure alchemy.
+
+     These and many others, cotemporaries, some conspicuous, and
+     others whose names do not shine in written history, contributed
+     incalculably to the grand aggregate of knowledge concerning the
+     divine secret which enriched the world. Compare the benefits of
+     Hermetic philosophy with the result of bloody wars ambitiously
+     waged by self-exacting tyrants--tyrants whom history applauds as
+     heroes, but whom we consider as butchers. Among the workers in
+     alchemy are enumerated nobles, kings, and even popes. Pope John
+     XXII. was an alchemist, which accounts for his bull against
+     impostors, promulgated in order that true students might not be
+     discredited; and King Frederick of Naples sanctioned the art, and
+     protected its devotees.
+
+     At last, Count Cagliostro, the chequered "Joseph Balsamo" (born
+     1743), who combined alchemy, magic, astrology, sleight of hand,
+     mesmerism, Free Masonry, and remarkable personal accomplishments,
+     that altogether have never since been equalled, burst upon the
+     world. Focusing the gaze of the church, kings, and the commons
+     upon himself, in many respects the most audacious pretender that
+     history records, he raised the Hermetic art to a dazzling height,
+     and finally buried it in a blaze of splendor as he passed from
+     existence beneath a mantle of shame. As a meteor streams into
+     view from out the star mists of space, and in corruscating glory
+     sinks into the sea, Cagliostro blazed into the sky of the
+     eighteenth century, from the nebul� of alchemistic speculation,
+     and extinguished both himself and his science in the light of the
+     rising sun of materialism. Cagliostro the visionary, the poet,
+     the inspired, the erratic comet in the universe of intellect,
+     perished in prison as a mountebank, and then the plodding chemist
+     of to-day, with his tedious mechanical methods, and cold,
+     unresponsive, materialistic dogmas, arose from the ashes, and
+     sprang into prominence.
+
+     Read the story backward, and you shall see that in alchemy we
+     behold the beginning of all the sciences of to-day; alchemy is
+     the cradle that rocked them. Fostered with necromancy, astrology,
+     occultism, and all the progeny of mystic dreamery, the infant
+     sciences struggled for existence through the dark ages, in care
+     of the once persecuted and now traduced alchemist. The world owes
+     a monument to-day more to Hermetic heroes, than to all other
+     influences and instrumentalities, religion excepted, combined,
+     for our present civilization is largely a legacy from the
+     alchemist. Begin with Hermes Trismegistus, and close with Joseph
+     Balsamo, and if you are inclined towards science, do not
+     criticise too severely their verbal logorrhea, and their
+     romanticism, for your science is treading backward; it will
+     encroach upon their field again, and you may have to unsay your
+     words of hasty censure. These men fulfilled their mission, and
+     did it well. If they told more than men now think they knew, they
+     also knew more than they told, and more than modern philosophy
+     embraces. They could not live to see all the future they eagerly
+     hoped for, but they started a future for mankind that will far
+     exceed in sweetness and light the most entrancing visions of
+     their most imaginative dreamers. They spoke of the existence of a
+     "red elixir," and while they wrote, the barbarous world about
+     them ran red with blood,--blood of the pure in heart, blood of
+     the saints, blood of a Saviour; and their allegory and wisdom
+     formul� were recorded in blood of their own sacrifices. They
+     dreamed of a "white elixir" that is yet to bless mankind, and a
+     brighter day for man, a period of peace, happiness, long life,
+     contentment, good will and brotherly love, and in the name of
+     this "white elixir" they directed the world towards a vision of
+     divine light. Even pure gold, as they told the materialistic
+     world who worship gold, was penetrated and whelmed by this
+     subtle, superlatively refined spirit of matter. Is not the day of
+     the allegorical "white elixir" nearly at hand? Would that it
+     were!
+
+     I say to you now, brothers of the eighteenth century, as one
+     speaking by authority to you, cease (some of you) to study this
+     entrancing past, look to the future by grasping the present, cast
+     aside (some of you) the alchemical lore of other days, give up
+     your loved allegories; it is a duty, you must relinquish them.
+     There is a richer field. Do not delay. Unlock this mystic door
+     that stands hinged and ready, waiting the touch of men who can
+     interpret the talisman; place before mankind the knowledge that
+     lies behind its rivets. In the secret lodges that have preserved
+     the wisdom of the days of Enoch and Elias of Egypt, who
+     propagated the Egyptian Order, a branch of your ancient
+     brotherhood, is to be found concealed much knowledge that should
+     now be spread before the world, and added to the treasures of our
+     circle of adepts. This cabalistic wisdom is not recorded in books
+     nor in manuscript, but has been purposely preserved from the
+     uninitiated, in the unreadable brains of unresponsive men. Those
+     who are selected to act as carriers thereof, are, as a rule, like
+     dumb water bearers, or the dead sheet of paper that mechanically
+     preserves an inspiration derived from minds unseen: they serve a
+     purpose as a child mechanically commits to memory a blank verse
+     to repeat to others, who in turn commit to repeat again--neither
+     of them speaking understandingly. Search ye these hidden paths,
+     for the day of mental liberation approaches, and publish to the
+     world all that is locked within the doors of that antiquated
+     organization. The world is nearly ripe for the wisdom faculty,
+     and men are ready to unravel the golden threads that mystic
+     wisdom has inwoven in her web of secret knowledge. Look for
+     knowledge where I have indicated, and to gain it do not hesitate
+     to swear allegiance to this sacred order, for so you must do to
+     gain entrance to the brotherhood, and then you must act what men
+     will call the traitor. You will, however, be doing a sacred duty,
+     for the world will profit, humanity will be the gainer, "Peace on
+     Earth, Good Will to Man," will be closer to mankind, and at last,
+     when the sign appears, the "white elixir" will no longer be
+     allegorical; it will become a reality. In the name of the Great
+     Mystic Vase-Man, go thou into these lodges, learn of their
+     secrets, and spread their treasures before those who can
+     interpret them.
+
+Here this letter ended. It was evident that the writer referred to a
+secret society into which I could probably enter; and taking the advice,
+I did not hesitate, but applied at once for membership. I determined,
+regardless of consequence, to follow the suggestion of the unknown
+writer, and by so doing, for I accepted their pledges, I invited my
+destiny.
+
+My guest of the massive forehead paused for a moment, stroked his long,
+white beard, and then, after casting an inquiring glance on me, asked,
+"Shall I read on?"
+
+"Yes," I replied, and The--Man--Who--Did--It, proceeded as follows:
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+    THE WRITING OF MY CONFESSION.
+
+
+Having become a member of the Secret Society as directed by the writer
+of the letter I have just read, and having obtained the secrets hinted
+at in the mystic directions, my next desire was to find a secluded spot
+where, without interruption, I could prepare for publication what I had
+gathered surreptitiously in the lodges of the fraternity I designed to
+betray. This I entitled "My Confession." Alas! why did my evil genius
+prompt me to write it? Why did not some kind angel withhold my hand from
+the rash and wicked deed? All I can urge in defense or palliation is
+that I was infatuated by the fatal words of the letter, "You must act
+what men will call the traitor, but humanity will be the gainer."
+
+In a section of the state in which I resided, a certain creek forms the
+boundary line between two townships, and also between two counties.
+Crossing this creek, a much traveled road stretches east and west,
+uniting the extremes of the great state. Two villages on this road,
+about four miles apart, situated on opposite sides of the creek, also
+present themselves to my memory, and midway between them, on the north
+side of the road, was a substantial farm house. In going west from the
+easternmost of these villages, the traveler begins to descend from the
+very center of the town. In no place is the grade steep, as the road
+lies between the spurs of the hill abutting upon the valley that feeds
+the creek I have mentioned. Having reached the valley, the road winds a
+short distance to the right, then turning to the left, crosses the
+stream, and immediately begins to climb the western hill; here the
+ascent is more difficult, for the road lies diagonally over the edge of
+the hill. A mile of travel, as I recall the scene, sometimes up a steep,
+and again among rich, level farm lands, and then on the very height,
+close to the road, within a few feet of it, appears the square
+structure which was, at the time I mention, known as the Stone Tavern.
+On the opposite side of the road were located extensive stables, and a
+grain barn. In the northeast chamber of that stone building, during a
+summer in the twenties, I wrote for publication the description of the
+mystic work that my oath should have made forever a secret, a sacred
+trust. I am the man who wantonly committed the deplorable act. Under the
+infatuation of that alchemical manuscript, I strove to show the world
+that I could and would do that which might never benefit me in the
+least, but might serve humanity. It was fate. I was not a bad man,
+neither malignity, avarice, nor ambition forming a part of my nature. I
+was a close student, of a rather retiring disposition, a stone-mason by
+trade, careless and indifferent to public honors, and so thriftless that
+many trifling neighborhood debts had accumulated against me.
+
+What I have reluctantly told, for I am forbidden to give the names of
+the localities, comprises an abstract of part of the record of my early
+life, and will introduce the extraordinary narrative which follows. That
+I have spoken the truth, and in no manner overdrawn, will be silently
+evidenced by hundreds of brethren, both of the occult society and the
+fraternal brotherhood, with which I united, who can (if they will)
+testify to the accuracy of the narrative. They know the story of my
+crime and disgrace; only myself and God know the full retribution that
+followed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+    KIDNAPPED.
+
+
+The events just narrated occurred in the prime of my life, and are
+partly matters of publicity. My attempted breach of faith in the way of
+disclosing their secrets was naturally infamous in the eyes of my
+society brethren, who endeavored to prevail upon me to relent of my
+design which, after writing my "Confession," I made no endeavor to
+conceal. Their importunities and threatenings had generally been
+resisted, however, and with an obliquity that can not be easily
+explained, I persisted in my unreasonable design. I was blessed as a
+husband and father, but neither the thought of home, wife, nor child,
+checked me in my inexplicable course. I was certainly irresponsible,
+perhaps a monomaniac, and yet on the subject in which I was absorbed, I
+preserved my mental equipoise, and knowingly followed a course that
+finally brought me into the deepest slough of trouble, and lost to me
+forever all that man loves most dearly. An overruling spirit, perhaps
+the shade of one of the old alchemists, possessed me, and in the face of
+obstacles that would have caused most men to reflect, and retrace their
+steps, I madly rushed onward. The influence that impelled me, whatever
+it may have been, was irresistible. I apparently acted the part of
+agent, subject to an ever-present master essence, and under this
+dominating spirit or demon my mind was powerless in its subjection. My
+soul was driven imperiously by that impelling and indescribable
+something, and was as passive and irresponsible as lycopodium that is
+borne onward in a steady current of air. Methods were vainly sought by
+those who loved me, brethren of the lodge, and others who endeavored to
+induce me to change my headstrong purpose, but I could neither accept
+their counsels nor heed their forebodings. Summons by law were served on
+me in order to disconcert me, and my numerous small debts became the
+pretext for legal warrants, until at last all my papers (excepting my
+"Confession"), and my person also, were seized, upon an execution served
+by a constable. Minor claims were quickly satisfied, but when I regained
+my liberty, the aggression continued. Even arson was resorted to, and
+the printing office that held my manuscript was fired one night, that
+the obnoxious revelation which I persisted in putting into print, might
+be destroyed. Finally I found myself separated by process of law from
+home and friends, an inmate of a jail. My opponents, as I now came to
+consider them, had confined me in prison for a debt of only two dollars,
+a sufficient amount at that time, in that state, for my incarceration.
+Smarting under the humiliation, my spirit became still more rebellious,
+and I now, perhaps justly, came to view myself as a martyr. It had been
+at first asserted that I had stolen a shirt, but I was not afraid of any
+penalty that could be laid on me for this trumped-up charge, believing
+that the imputation and the arrest would be shown to be designed as
+willful oppression. Therefore it was, that when this contemptible
+arraignment had been swept aside, and I was freed before a Justice of
+the Peace, I experienced more than a little surprise at a rearrest, and
+at finding myself again thrown into jail. I knew that it had been
+decreed by my brethren that I must retract and destroy my "Confession,"
+and this fact made me the more determined to prevent its destruction,
+and I persisted sullenly in pursuing my course. On the evening of August
+12th, 1826, my jailer's wife informed me that the debt for which I had
+been incarcerated had been paid by unknown "friends," and that I could
+depart; and I accepted the statement without question. Upon my stepping
+from the door of the jail, however, my arms were firmly grasped by two
+persons, one on each side of me, and before I could realize the fact
+that I was being kidnapped, I was thrust into a closed coach, which
+immediately rolled away, but not until I made an outcry which, if heard
+by anyone, was unheeded.
+
+"For your own sake, be quiet," said one of my companions in confinement,
+for the carriage was draped to exclude the light, and was as dark as a
+dungeon. My spirit rebelled; I felt that I was on the brink of a
+remarkable, perhaps perilous experience, and I indignantly replied by
+asking:
+
+"What have I done that you should presume forcibly to imprison me? Am I
+not a freeman of America?"
+
+"What have you done?" he answered. "Have you not bound yourself by a
+series of vows that are sacred and should be inviolable, and have you
+not broken them as no other man has done before you? Have you not
+betrayed your trust, and merited a severe judgment? Did you not
+voluntarily ask admission into our ancient brotherhood, and in good
+faith were you not initiated into our sacred mysteries? Did you not
+obligate yourself before man, and on your sacred honor promise to
+preserve our secrets?"
+
+"I did," I replied; "but previously I had sworn before a higher tribunal
+to scatter this precious wisdom to the world."
+
+"Yes," he said, "and you know full well the depth of the self-sought
+solemn oath that you took with us--more solemn than that prescribed by
+any open court on earth."
+
+"This I do not deny," I said, "and yet I am glad that I accomplished my
+object, even though you have now, as is evident, the power to pronounce
+my sentence."
+
+"You should look for the death sentence," was the reply, "but it has
+been ordained instead that you are to be given a lengthened life. You
+should expect bodily destruction; but on the contrary, you will pass on
+in consciousness of earth and earthly concerns when we are gone. Your
+name will be known to all lands, and yet from this time you will be
+unknown. For the welfare of future humanity, you will be thrust to a
+height in our order that will annihilate you as a mortal being, and yet
+you will exist, suspended between life and death, and in that
+intermediate state will know that you exist. You have, as you confess,
+merited a severe punishment, but we can only punish in accordance with
+an unwritten law, that instructs the person punished, and elevates the
+human race in consequence. You stand alone among mortals in that you
+have openly attempted to give broadly to those who have not earned it,
+our most sacred property, a property that did not belong to you,
+property that you have only been permitted to handle, that has been
+handed from man to man from before the time of Solomon, and which
+belongs to no one man, and will continue to pass in this way from one to
+another, as a hallowed trust, until there are no men, as men now exist,
+to receive it. You will soon go into the shadows of darkness, and will
+learn many of the mysteries of life, the undeveloped mysteries that are
+withheld from your fellows, but which you, who have been so presumptuous
+and anxious for knowledge, are destined to possess and solve. You will
+find secrets that man, as man is now constituted, can not yet discover,
+and yet which the future man must gain and be instructed in. As you have
+sowed, so shall you reap. You wished to become a distributor of
+knowledge; you shall now by bodily trial and mental suffering obtain
+unsought knowledge to distribute, and in time to come you will be
+commanded to make your discoveries known. As your pathway is surely laid
+out, so must you walk. It is ordained; to rebel is useless."
+
+"Who has pronounced this sentence?" I asked.
+
+"A judge, neither of heaven nor of earth."
+
+"You speak in enigmas."
+
+"No; I speak openly, and the truth. Our brotherhood is linked with the
+past, and clasps hands with the antediluvians; the flood scattered the
+races of earth, but did not disturb our secrets. The great love of
+wisdom has from generation to generation led selected members of our
+organization to depths of study that our open work does not touch upon,
+and behind our highest officers there stand, in the occult shades
+between the here and the hereafter, unknown and unseen agents who are
+initiated into secrets above and beyond those known to the ordinary
+craft. Those who are introduced into these inner recesses acquire
+superhuman conceptions, and do not give an open sign of fellowship; they
+need no talisman. They walk our streets possessed of powers unknown to
+men, they concern themselves as mortals in the affairs of men, and even
+their brethren of the initiated, open order are unaware of their exalted
+condition. The means by which they have been instructed, their several
+individualities as well, have been concealed, because publicity would
+destroy their value, and injure humanity's cause."
+
+Silence followed these vague disclosures, and the carriage rolled on. I
+was mystified and alarmed, and yet I knew that, whatever might be the
+end of this nocturnal ride, I had invited it--yes, merited it--and I
+steeled myself to hear the sentence of my judges, in whose hands I was
+powerless. The persons on the seat opposite me continued their
+conversation in low tones, audible only to themselves. An individual by
+my side neither moved nor spoke. There were four of us in the carriage,
+as I learned intuitively, although we were surrounded by utter darkness.
+At length I addressed the companion beside me, for the silence was
+unbearable. Friend or enemy though he might be, anything rather than
+this long silence. "How long shall we continue in this carriage?"
+
+He made no reply.
+
+After a time I again spoke.
+
+"Can you not tell me, comrade, how long our journey will last? When
+shall we reach our destination?"
+
+Silence only.
+
+Putting out my hand, I ventured to touch my mate, and found that he was
+tightly strapped,--bound upright to the seat and the back of the
+carriage. Leather thongs held him firmly in position; and as I pondered
+over the mystery, I thought to myself, if I make a disturbance, they
+will not hesitate to manacle me as securely. My custodians seemed,
+however, not to exercise a guard over me, and yet I felt that they were
+certain of my inability to escape. If the man on the seat was a
+prisoner, why was he so reticent? Why did he not answer my questions? I
+came to the conclusion that he must be gagged as well as bound. Then I
+determined to find out if this were so. I began to realize more forcibly
+that a terrible sentence must have been meted me, and I half hoped that
+I could get from my partner in captivity some information regarding our
+destination. Sliding my hand cautiously along his chest, and under his
+chin, I intended to remove the gag from his mouth, when I felt my flesh
+creep, for it came in contact with the cold, rigid flesh of a corpse.
+The man was dead, and stiff.
+
+The shock unnerved me. I had begun to experience the results of a severe
+mental strain, partly induced by the recent imprisonment and extended
+previous persecution, and partly by the mysterious significance of the
+language in which I had recently been addressed. The sentence, "You will
+now go into the Valley of the Shadow of Death, and learn the mysteries
+of life," kept ringing through my head, and even then I sat beside a
+corpse. After this discovery I remained for a time in a semi-stupor, in
+a state of profound dejection,--how long I can not say. Then I
+experienced an inexplicable change, such as I imagine comes over a
+condemned man without hope of reprieve, and I became unconcerned as a
+man might who had accepted his destiny, and stoically determined to
+await it. Perhaps moments passed, it may have been hours, and then
+indifference gave place to reviving curiosity. I realized that I could
+die only once, and I coolly and complacently revolved the matter,
+speculating over my possible fate. As I look back on the night in which
+I rode beside that dead man, facing the mysterious agents of an
+all-powerful judge, I marvel over a mental condition that permitted me
+finally to rest in peace, and slumber in unconcern. So I did, however,
+and after a period, the length of which I am not able to estimate, I
+awoke, and soon thereafter the carriage stopped, and our horses were
+changed, after which our journey was resumed, to continue hour after
+hour, and at last I slept again, leaning back in the corner. Suddenly I
+was violently shaken from slumber, and commanded to alight. It was in
+the gray of morning, and before I could realize what was happening, I
+was transferred by my captors to another carriage, and the dead man also
+was rudely hustled along and thrust beside me, my companions speaking to
+him as though he were alive. Indeed, as I look back on these maneuvers,
+I perceive that, to all appearances, I was one of the abducting party,
+and our actions were really such as to induce an observer to believe
+that this dead man was an obstinate prisoner, and myself one of his
+official guards. The drivers of the carriages seemed to give us no
+attention, but they sat upright and unconcerned, and certainly neither
+of them interested himself in our transfer. The second carriage, like
+that other previously described, was securely closed, and our journey
+was continued. The darkness was as of a dungeon. It may have been days,
+I could not tell anything about the passage of time; on and on we rode.
+Occasionally food and drink were handed in, but my captors held to their
+course, and at last I was taken from the vehicle, and transferred to a
+block-house.
+
+I had been carried rapidly and in secret a hundred or more miles,
+perhaps into another state, and probably all traces of my journey were
+effectually lost to outsiders. I was in the hands of men who implicitly
+obeyed the orders of their superiors, masters whom they had never seen,
+and probably did not know. I needed no reminder of the fact that I had
+violated every sacred pledge voluntarily made to the craft, and now
+that they held me powerless, I well knew that, whatever the punishment
+assigned, I had invited it, and could not prevent its fulfillment. That
+it would be severe, I realized; that it would not be in accordance with
+ordinary human law, I accepted.
+
+[Illustration: "I WAS TAKEN FROM THE VEHICLE, AND TRANSFERRED TO A
+BLOCK-HOUSE."]
+
+Had I not in secret, in my little room in that obscure Stone Tavern,
+engrossed on paper the mystic sentences that never before had been
+penned, and were unknown excepting to persons initiated into our sacred
+mysteries? Had I not previously, in the most solemn manner, before these
+words had been imparted to my keeping, sworn to keep them inviolate and
+secret? and had I not deliberately broken that sacred vow, and scattered
+the hoarded sentences broadcast? My part as a brother in this fraternal
+organization was that of the holder only of property that belonged to no
+man, that had been handed from one to another through the ages, sacredly
+cherished, and faithfully protected by men of many tongues, always
+considered a trust, a charge of honor, and never before betrayed. My
+crime was deep and dark. I shuddered.
+
+"Come what may," I mused, reflecting over my perfidy, "I am ready for
+the penalty, and my fate is deserved; it can not but be a righteous
+one."
+
+The words of the occupant of the carriage occurred to me again and
+again; that one sentence kept ringing in my brain; I could not dismiss
+it: "You have been tried, convicted, and we are of those appointed to
+carry out the sentence of the judges."
+
+The black silence of my lonely cell beat against me; I could feel the
+absence of sound, I could feel the dismal weight of nothingness, and in
+my solitude and distraction I cried out in anguish to the invisible
+judge: "I am ready for my sentence, whether it be death or imprisonment
+for life"; and still the further words of the occupant of the carriage
+passed through my mind: "You will now go into the Valley of the Shadow
+of Death, and will learn the mysteries of Life."
+
+Then I slept, to awake and sleep again. I kept no note of time; it may
+have been days or weeks, so far as my record could determine. An
+attendant came at intervals to minister to my wants, always masked
+completely, ever silent.
+
+That I was not entirely separated from mankind, however, I felt assured,
+for occasionally sounds of voices came to me from without. Once I
+ventured to shout aloud, hoping to attract attention; but the persons
+whom I felt assured overheard me, paid no attention to my lonely cry. At
+last one night, my door opened abruptly, and three men entered.
+
+"Do not fear," said their spokesman, "we aim to protect you; keep still,
+and soon you will be a free man."
+
+I consented quietly to accompany them, for to refuse would have been in
+vain; and I was conducted to a boat, which I found contained a
+corpse--the one I had journeyed with, I suppose--and embarking, we were
+silently rowed to the middle of the river, our course being diagonally
+from the shore, and the dead man was thrown overboard. Then our boat
+returned to the desolate bank.
+
+Thrusting me into a carriage, that, on our return to the river bank we
+found awaiting us, my captors gave a signal, and I was driven away in
+the darkness, as silently as before, and our journey was continued I
+believe for fully two days. I was again confined in another log cabin,
+with but one door, and destitute of windows. My attendants were masked,
+they neither spoke to me as they day after day supplied my wants, nor
+did they give me the least information on any subject, until at last I
+abandoned all hope of ever regaining my liberty.
+
+[Illustration: "THE DEAD MAN WAS THROWN OVERBOARD."]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+    A WILD NIGHT.--I AM PREMATURELY AGED.
+
+
+In the depths of night I was awakened by a noise made by the opening of
+a door, and one by one seven masked figures silently stalked into my
+prison. Each bore a lighted torch, and they passed me as I lay on the
+floor in my clothes (for I had no bedding), and ranged themselves in a
+line. I arose, and seated myself as directed to do, upon the only stool
+in the room. Swinging into a semi-circle, the weird line wound about me,
+and from the one seat on which I rested in the center of the room, I
+gazed successively upon seven pairs of gleaming eyes, each pair directed
+at myself; and as I turned from one to another, the black cowl of each
+deepened into darkness, and grew more hideous.
+
+"Men or devils," I cried, "do your worst! Make me, if such is your will,
+as that sunken corpse beside which I was once seated; but cease your
+persecutions. I have atoned for my indiscretions a thousand fold, and
+this suspense is unbearable; I demand to know what is to be my doom, and
+I desire its fulfilment."
+
+Then one stepped forward, facing me squarely,--the others closed
+together around him and me. Raising his forefinger, he pointed it close
+to my face, and as his sharp eyes glittered from behind the black mask,
+piercing through me, he slowly said: "Why do you not say brothers?"
+
+"Horrible," I rejoined; "stop this mockery. Have I not suffered enough
+from your persecutions to make me reject that word as applied to
+yourselves? You can but murder; do your duty to your unseen masters, and
+end this prolonged torture!"
+
+"Brother," said the spokesman, "you well know that the sacred rules of
+our order will not permit us to murder any human being. We exist to
+benefit humanity, to lead the wayward back across the burning desert
+into the pathways of the righteous; not to destroy or persecute a
+brother. Ours is an eleemosynary institution, instructing its members,
+helping them to seek happiness. You are now expiating the crime you have
+committed, and the good in your spirit rightfully revolts against the
+bad, for in divulging to the world our mystic signs and brotherly
+greetings, you have sinned against yourself more than against others.
+The sting of conscience, the bitings of remorse punish you."
+
+"True," I cried, as the full significance of what he said burst upon me,
+"too true; but I bitterly repent my treachery. Others can never know how
+my soul is harrowed by the recollection of the enormity of that breach
+of confidence. In spite of my open, careless, or defiant bearing, my
+heart is humble, and my spirit cries out for mercy. By night and by day
+I have in secret cursed myself for heeding an unhallowed mandate, and I
+have long looked forward to the judgment that I should suffer for my
+perfidy, for I have appreciated that the day of reckoning would surely
+appear. I do not rebel, and I recall my wild language; I recant my
+'Confession,' I renounce myself! I say to you in all sincerity,
+brothers, do your duty, only I beg of you to slay me at once, and end my
+suspense. I await my doom. What might it be?"
+
+Grasping my hand, the leader said: "You are ready as a member of our
+order; we can now judge you as we have been commanded; had you persisted
+in calling us devils in your mistaken frenzy, we should have been forced
+to reason with you until you returned again to us, and became one of us.
+Our judgment is for you only; the world must not now know its nature, at
+least so far as we are concerned. Those you see here, are not your
+judges; we are agents sent to labor with you, to draw you back into our
+ranks, to bring you into a condition that will enable you to carry out
+the sentence that you have drawn upon yourself, for you must be your own
+doomsman. In the first place, we are directed to gain your voluntary
+consent to leave this locality. You can no longer take part in affairs
+that interested you before. To the people of this State, and to your
+home, and kindred, you must become a stranger for all time. Do you
+consent?"
+
+"Yes," I answered, for I knew that I must acquiesce.
+
+"In the next place, you must help us to remove all traces of your
+identity. You must, so far as the world is concerned, leave your body
+where you have apparently been drowned, for a world's benefit, a
+harmless mockery to deceive the people, and also to make an example for
+others that are weak. Are you ready?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Then remove your clothing, and replace it with this suit."
+
+I obeyed, and changed my garments, receiving others in return. One of
+the party then, taking from beneath his gown a box containing several
+bottles of liquids, proceeded artfully to mix and compound them, and
+then to paint my face with the combination, which after being mixed,
+formed a clear solution.
+
+"Do not fear to wash;" said the spokesman, "the effect of this lotion is
+permanent enough to stay until you are well out of this State."
+
+I passed my hand over my face; it was drawn into wrinkles as a film of
+gelatine might have been shrivelled under the influence of a strong
+tannin or astringent liquid; beneath my fingers it felt like the
+furrowed face of a very old man, but I experienced no pain. I vainly
+tried to smooth the wrinkles; immediately upon removing the pressure of
+my hand, the furrows reappeared.
+
+Next, another applied a colorless liquid freely to my hair and beard; he
+rubbed it well, and afterward wiped it dry with a towel. A mirror was
+thrust beneath my gaze. I started back, the transformation was complete.
+My appearance had entirely changed. My face had become aged and
+wrinkled, my hair as white as snow.
+
+I cried aloud in amazement: "Am I sane, is this a dream?"
+
+"It is not a dream; but, under methods that are in exact accordance with
+natural physiological laws, we have been enabled to transform your
+appearance from that of one in the prime of manhood into the semblance
+of an old man, and that, too, without impairment of your vitality."
+Another of the masked men opened a curious little casket that I
+perceived was surmounted by an alembic and other alchemical figures, and
+embossed with an Oriental design. He drew from it a lamp which he
+lighted with a taper; the flame that resulted, first pale blue, then
+yellow, next violet and finally red, seemed to become more weird and
+ghastly with each mutation, as I gazed spell-bound upon its fantastic
+changes. Then, after these transformations, it burned steadily with the
+final strange blood-red hue, and he now held over the blaze a tiny cup,
+which, in a few moments, commenced to sputter and then smoked, exhaling
+a curious, epipolic, semi-luminous vapor. I was commanded to inhale the
+vapor.
+
+[Illustration: "A MIRROR WAS THRUST BENEATH MY GAZE."]
+
+I hesitated; the thought rushed upon me, "Now I am another person, so
+cleverly disguised that even my own friends would perhaps not know me,
+this vapor is designed to suffocate me, and my body, if found, will not
+now be known, and could not be identified when discovered."
+
+"Do not fear," said the spokesman, as if divining my thought, "there is
+no danger," and at once I realized, by quick reasoning, that if my death
+were demanded, my body might long since have been easily destroyed, and
+all this ceremony would have been unnecessary.
+
+I hesitated no longer, but drew into my lungs the vapor that arose from
+the mysterious cup, freely expanding my chest several times, and then
+asked, "Is not that enough?" Despair now overcame me. My voice, no
+longer the full, strong tone of a man in middle life and perfect
+strength, squeaked and quavered, as if impaired by palsy. I had seen my
+image in a mirror, an old man with wrinkled face and white hair; I now
+heard myself speak with the voice of an octogenarian.
+
+"What have you done?" I cried.
+
+"We have obeyed your orders; you told us you were ready to leave your
+own self here, and the work is complete. The man who entered has
+disappeared. If you should now stand in the streets of your village
+home, and cry to your former friends, 'It is I, for whom you seek,' they
+would smile, and call you a madman. Know," continued the voice, "that
+there is in Eastern metaphysical lore, more true philosophy than is
+embodied in the sciences of to-day, and that by means of the
+ramifications of our order it becomes possible, when necessary, for him
+who stands beyond the inner and upper Worshipful Master, to draw these
+treasures from the occult Wisdom possessions of Oriental sages who
+forget nothing and lose nothing. Have we not been permitted to do his
+bidding well?"
+
+"Yes," I squeaked; "and I wish that you had done it better. I would that
+I were dead."
+
+"When the time comes, if necessary, your dead body will be fished from
+the water," was the reply; "witnesses have seen the drowning tragedy,
+and will surely identify the corpse."
+
+"And may I go? am I free now?" I asked.
+
+"Ah," said he, "that is not for us to say; our part of the work is
+fulfilled, and we can return to our native lands, and resume again our
+several studies. So far as we are concerned, you are free, but we have
+been directed to pass you over to the keeping of others who will carry
+forward this judgment--there is another step."
+
+"Tell me," I cried, once more desponding, "tell me the full extent of my
+sentence."
+
+"That is not known to us, and probably is not known to any one man. So
+far as the members of our order are concerned, you have now vanished.
+When you leave our sight this night, we will also separate from one
+another, we shall know no more of you and your future than will those of
+our working order who live in this section of the country. We have no
+personal acquaintance with the guide that has been selected to conduct
+you farther, and who will appear in due season, and we make no surmise
+concerning the result of your journey, only we know that you will not be
+killed, for you have a work to perform, and will continue to exist long
+after others of your age are dead. Farewell, brother; we have discharged
+our duty, and by your consent, now we must return to our various
+pursuits. In a short time all evidence of your unfortunate mistake, the
+crime committed by you in printing our sacred charges, will have
+vanished. Even now, emissaries are ordained to collect and destroy the
+written record that tells of your weakness, and with the destruction of
+that testimony, for every copy will surely be annihilated, and with your
+disappearance from among men, for this also is to follow, our
+responsibility for you will cease."
+
+Each of the seven men advanced, and grasped my hand, giving me the grip
+of brotherhood, and then, without a word, they severally and silently
+departed into the outer darkness. As the last man disappeared, a figure
+entered the door, clad and masked exactly like those who had gone. He
+removed the long black gown in which he was enveloped, threw the mask
+from his face and stood before me, a slender, graceful, bright-looking
+young man. By the light of the candle I saw him distinctly, and was at
+once struck by his amiable, cheerful countenance, and my heart bounded
+with a sudden hope. I had temporarily forgotten the transformation that
+had been made in my person, which, altogether painless, had left no
+physical sensation, and thought of myself as I had formerly existed; my
+soul was still my own, I imagined; my blood seemed unchanged, and must
+flow as rapidly as before; my strength was unaltered, indeed I was in
+self-consciousness still in the prime of life.
+
+"Excuse me, Father," said the stranger, "but my services have been
+sought as a guide for the first part of a journey that I am informed you
+intend to take."
+
+His voice was mild and pleasant, his bearing respectful, but the
+peculiar manner in which he spoke convinced me that he knew that, as a
+guide, he must conduct me to some previously designated spot, and that
+he purposed to do so was evident, with or without my consent.
+
+"Why do you call me Father?" I attempted to say, but as the first few
+words escaped my lips, the recollection of the events of the night
+rushed upon me, for instead of my own, I recognized the piping voice of
+the old man I had now become, and my tongue faltered; the sentence was
+unspoken.
+
+"You would ask me why I called you Father, I perceive; well, because I
+am directed to be a son to you, to care for your wants, to make your
+journey as easy and pleasant as possible, to guide you quietly and
+carefully to the point that will next prove of interest to you."
+
+I stood before him a free man, in the prime of life, full of energy, and
+this stripling alone interposed between myself and liberty. Should I
+permit the slender youth to carry me away as a prisoner? would it not be
+best to thrust him aside, if necessary, crush him to the earth? go forth
+in my freedom? Yet I hesitated, for he might have friends outside;
+probably he was not alone.
+
+"There are no companions near us," said he, reading my mind, "and, as I
+do not seem formidable, it is natural you should weigh in your mind the
+probabilities of escape; but you can not evade your destiny, and you
+must not attempt to deny yourself the pleasure of my company. You must
+leave this locality and leave without a regret. In order that you may
+acquiesce willingly I propose that together we return to your former
+home, which you will, however, find no longer to be a home. I will
+accompany you as a companion, as your son. You may speak, with one
+exception, to whomever you care to address; may call on any of your old
+associates, may assert openly who you are, or whatever and whoever you
+please to represent yourself, only I must also have the privilege of
+joining in the conversation."
+
+"Agreed," I cried, and extended my hand; he grasped it, and then by the
+light of the candle, I saw a peculiar expression flit over his face, as
+he added:
+
+"To one person only, as I have said, and you have promised, you must not
+speak--your wife."
+
+I bowed my head, and a flood of sorrowful reflections swept over me. Of
+all the world the one whom I longed to meet, to clasp in my arms, to
+counsel in my distress, was the wife of my bosom, and I begged him to
+withdraw his cruel injunction.
+
+"You should have thought of her before; now it is too late. To permit
+you to meet, and speak with her would be dangerous; she might pierce
+your disguise. Of all others there is no fear."
+
+"Must I go with you into an unknown future without a farewell kiss from
+my little child or from my babe scarce three months old?"
+
+"It has been so ordained."
+
+I threw myself on the floor and moaned. "This is too hard, too hard for
+human heart to bear. Life has no charm to a man who is thrust from all
+he holds most dear, home, friends, family."
+
+"The men who relinquish such pleasures and such comforts are those who
+do the greatest good to humanity," said the youth. "The multitude exist
+to propagate the race, as animal progenitors of the multitudes that are
+to follow, and the exceptional philanthropist is he who denies himself
+material bliss, and punishes himself in order to work out a problem such
+as it has been ordained that you are to solve. Do not argue further--the
+line is marked, and you must walk direct."
+
+Into the blaze of the old fireplace of that log house, for, although it
+was autumn, the night was chilly, he then cast his black robe and false
+face, and, as they turned to ashes, the last evidences of the vivid acts
+through which I had passed, were destroyed. As I lay moaning in my utter
+misery, I tried to reason with myself that what I experienced was all a
+hallucination. I dozed, and awoke startled, half conscious only, as one
+in a nightmare; I said to myself, "A dream! a dream!" and slept again.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+    A LESSON IN MIND STUDY.
+
+
+The door of the cabin was open when I awoke, the sun shone brightly, and
+my friend, apparently happy and unconcerned, said: "Father, we must soon
+start on our journey; I have taken advantage of your refreshing sleep,
+and have engaged breakfast at yonder farm-house; our meal awaits us."
+
+I arose, washed my wrinkled face, combed my white hair, and shuddered as
+I saw in a pocket mirror the reflection of my figure, an aged,
+apparently decrepit man.
+
+"Do not be disturbed at your feeble condition," said my companion; "your
+infirmities are not real. Few men have ever been permitted to drink of
+the richness of the revelations that await you; and in view of these
+expectations the fact that you are prematurely aged in appearance should
+not unnerve you. Be of good heart, and when you say the word, we will
+start on our journey, which will begin as soon as you have said farewell
+to former friends and acquaintances."
+
+I made no reply, but silently accompanied him, for my thoughts were in
+the past, and my reflections were far from pleasant.
+
+We reached the farm-house, and as I observed the care and attention
+extended me by the pleasant-faced housewife, I realized that, in one
+respect at least, old age brought its compensation. After breakfast a
+man appeared from the farmer's barn, driving a team of horses attached
+to an open spring-wagon which, in obedience to the request of my guide,
+I entered, accompanied by my young friend, who directed that we be
+driven toward the village from which I had been abducted. He seemed to
+know my past life as I knew it; he asked me to select those of my
+friends to whom I first wished to bid farewell, even mentioning their
+names; he seemed all that a patient, faithful son could be, and I began
+to wonder at his audacity, even as much as I admired his
+self-confidence.
+
+As we journeyed onward we engaged in familiar talk. We sat together on
+the back seat of the open spring-wagon, in full sight of passers, no
+attempt being made to conceal my person. Thus we traveled for two days,
+and on our course we passed through a large city with which I was
+acquainted, a city that my abductors had previously carried me through
+and beyond. I found that my "son" possessed fine conversational power,
+and a rich mine of information, and he became increasingly interesting
+as he drew from his fund of knowledge, and poured into my listening ears
+an entrancing strain of historical and metaphysical information. Never
+at a loss for a word or an idea, he appeared to discern my cogitations,
+and as my mind wandered in this or that direction he fell into the
+channel of my fancies, and answered my unspoken thoughts, my
+mind-questions or meditations, as pertinently as though I had spoken
+them.
+
+His accomplishments, for the methods of his perception were
+unaccompanied by any endeavor to draw me into word expression, made me
+aware at least, that, in him, I had to deal with a man unquestionably
+possessed of more than ordinary intellect and education, and as this
+conviction entered my mind he changed his subject and promptly answered
+the silent inquiry, speaking as follows:
+
+"Have you not sometimes felt that in yourself there may exist
+undeveloped senses that await an awakening touch to open to yourself a
+new world, senses that may be fully developed, but which saturate each
+other and neutralize themselves; quiescent, closed circles which you can
+not reach, satisfied circuits slumbering within your body and that defy
+your efforts to utilize them? In your dreams have you not seen sights
+that words are inadequate to describe, that your faculties can not
+retain in waking moments, and which dissolve into intangible
+nothingness, leaving only a vague, shadowy outline as the mind quickens,
+or rather when the senses that possess you in sleep relinquish the body
+to the returning vital functions and spirit? This unconscious conception
+of other planes, a beyond or betwixt, that is neither mental nor
+material, neither here nor located elsewhere, belongs to humanity in
+general, and is made evident from the unsatiable desire of men to pry
+into phenomena latent or recondite that offer no apparent return to
+humanity. This desire has given men the knowledge they now possess of
+the sciences; sciences yet in their infancy. Study in this direction is,
+at present, altogether of the material plane, but in time to come, men
+will gain control of outlying senses which will enable them to step from
+the seen into the consideration of matter or force that is now subtle
+and evasive, which must be accomplished by means of the latent faculties
+that I have indicated. There will be an unconscious development of new
+mind-forces in the student of nature as the rudiments of these so-called
+sciences are elaborated. Step by step, as the ages pass, the faculties
+of men will, under progressive series of evolutions, imperceptibly pass
+into higher phases until that which is even now possible with some
+individuals of the purified esoteric school, but which would seem
+miraculous if practiced openly at this day, will prove feasible to
+humanity generally and be found in exact accord with natural laws. The
+conversational method of men, whereby communion between human beings is
+carried on by disturbing the air by means of vocal organs so as to
+produce mechanical pulsations of that medium, is crude in the extreme.
+Mind craves to meet mind, but can not yet thrust matter aside, and in
+order to communicate one with another, the impression one mind wishes to
+convey to another must be first made on the brain matter that
+accompanies it, which in turn influences the organs of speech, inducing
+a disturbance of the air by the motions of the vocal organs, which, by
+undulations that reach to another being, act on his ear, and secondarily
+on the earthly matter of his brain, and finally by this roundabout
+course, impress the second being's mind. In this transmission of motions
+there is great waste of energy and loss of time, but such methods are a
+necessity of the present slow, much-obstructed method of communication.
+There is, in cultivated man, an innate craving for something more
+facile, and often a partly developed conception, spectral and vague,
+appears, and the being feels that there may be for mortals a richer,
+brighter life, a higher earthly existence that science does not now
+indicate. Such intimation of a deeper play of faculties is now most
+vivid with men during the perfect loss of mental self as experienced in
+dreams, which as yet man in the quick can not grasp, and which fade as
+he awakens. As mental sciences are developed, investigators will find
+that the medium known as air is unnecessary as a means of conveying
+mind conceptions from one person to another; that material sounds and
+word pulsations are cumbersome; that thought force unexpressed may be
+used to accomplish more than speech can do, and that physical exertions
+as exemplified in motion of matter such as I have described will be
+unnecessary for mental communication. As door after door in these
+directions shall open before men, mystery after mystery will be
+disclosed, and vanish as mysteries to reappear as simple facts.
+Phenomena that are impossible and unrevealed to the scientist of to-day
+will be familiar to the coming multitude, and at last, as by degrees,
+clearer knowledge is evolved, the vocal language of men will disappear,
+and humanity, regardless of nationality, will, in silence and even in
+darkness, converse eloquently together in mind language. That which is
+now esoteric will become exoteric. Then mind will meet mind as my mind
+now impinges on your own, and, in reply to your unuttered question
+regarding my apparently unaccountable powers of perception, I say they
+are perfectly natural, but while I can read your thoughts, because of
+the fact that you can not reciprocate in this direction, I must use my
+voice to impress your mind. You will know more of this, however, at a
+future day, for it has been ordained that you are to be educated with an
+object that is now concealed. At present you are interested mainly in
+the affairs of life as you know them, and can not enter into these purer
+spheres. We are approaching one of your former friends, and it may be
+your pleasure to ask him some questions and to bid him farewell."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+    I CAN NOT ESTABLISH MY IDENTITY.
+
+
+In surprise I perceived coming towards us a light spring wagon, in which
+rode one of my old acquaintances. Pleasure at the discovery led me to
+raise my hat, wave it around my head, and salute him even at the
+considerable distance that then separated us. I was annoyed at the look
+of curiosity that passed over his countenance, and not until the two
+vehicles had stopped side by side did it occur to me that I was
+unrecognized. I had been so engrossed in my companion's revelations,
+that I had forgotten my unfortunate physical condition.
+
+I stretched out my hand, I leaned over almost into the other vehicle,
+and earnestly said:
+
+"Do you not know me? Only a short time ago we sat and conversed side by
+side."
+
+A look of bewilderment came over his features. "I have never seen you
+that I can recall," he answered.
+
+My spirit sank within me. Could it be possible that I was really so
+changed? I begged him to try and recall my former self, giving my name.
+"I am that person," I added; but he, with an expression of countenance
+that told as plainly as words could speak that he considered me
+deranged, touched his horse, and drove on.
+
+My companion broke the awkward silence. "Do you know that I perceived
+between you two men an unconscious display of mind-language, especially
+evident on your part? You wished with all the earnestness of your soul
+to bring yourself as you formerly appeared, before that man, and when it
+proved impossible, without a word from him, his mind exhibited itself to
+your more earnest intellect, and you realized that he said to himself,
+'This person is a poor lunatic.' He told you his thoughts in
+mind-language, as plainly as words could have spoken, because the
+intense earnestness on your part quickened your perceptive faculties,
+but he could not see your mental state, and the pleading voice of the
+apparent stranger before him could not convince the unconcerned
+lethargic mind within him. I observed, however, in addition to what you
+noticed, that he is really looking for you. That is the object of his
+journey, and I learn that in every direction men are now spreading the
+news that you have been kidnapped and carried from your jail. However,
+we shall soon be in the village, and you will then hear more about
+yourself."
+
+We rode in silence while I meditated on my remarkable situation. I could
+not resign myself without a struggle to my approaching fate, and I felt
+even yet a hope, although I seemed powerless in the hands of destiny.
+Could I not, by some method, convince my friends of my identity? I
+determined, forgetting the fact that my guide was even then reading my
+mind, that upon the next opportunity I would pursue a different course.
+
+"It will not avail," my companion replied. "You must do one of two
+things: you will voluntarily go with me, or you will involuntarily go to
+an insane asylum. Neither you nor I could by any method convince others
+that the obviously decrepit old man beside me was but yesterday hale,
+hearty, young and strong. You will find that you can not prove your
+identity, and as a friend, one of the great brotherhood to which you
+belong, a craft that deals charitably with all men and all problems, I
+advise you to accept the situation as soon as possible after it becomes
+evident to your mind that you are lost to former affiliations, and must
+henceforth be a stranger to the people whom you know. Take my advice,
+and cease to regret the past and cheerfully turn your thoughts to the
+future. On one side of you the lunatic asylum is open; on the other, a
+journey into an unknown region, beyond the confines of any known
+country. On the one hand, imprisonment and subjection, perhaps abuse and
+neglect; on the other, liberation of soul, evolution of faculty, and a
+grasping of superior knowledge that is denied most men--yes, withheld
+from all but a few persons of each generation, for only a few, unknown
+to the millions of this world's inhabitants, have passed over the road
+you are to travel. Just now you wished to meet your jailer of a few
+hours ago; it is a wise conclusion, and if he does not recognize you, I
+ask in sincerity, who will be likely to do so? We will drive straight to
+his home; but, here he comes."
+
+Indeed, we were now in the village, where my miserable journey began,
+and perhaps by chance--it seems that it could not have been
+otherwise--my former jailer actually approached us.
+
+"If you please," said my companion, "I will assist you to alight from
+the wagon, and you may privately converse with him."
+
+Our wagon stopped, my guide opened a conversation with the jailer,
+saying that his friend wished to speak with him, and then assisted me to
+alight and retired a distance. I was vexed at my infirmities, which
+embarrassed me most exasperatingly, but which I knew were artificial; my
+body appeared unwilling although my spirit was anxious; but do what I
+could to control my actions, I involuntarily behaved like a decrepit old
+man. However, my mind was made up; this attempt to prove my personality
+should be the last; failure now would prove the turning point, and I
+would go willingly with my companion upon the unknown journey if I could
+not convince the jailer of my identity.
+
+Straightening myself before the expectant jailer, who, with a look of
+inquisitiveness, regarded me as a stranger, I asked if he knew my former
+self, giving my name.
+
+"That I do," he replied, "and if I could find him at this moment I would
+be relieved of a load of worry."
+
+"Would you surely know him if you met him?" I asked.
+
+"Assuredly," he replied; "and if you bring tidings of his whereabouts,
+as your bearing indicates, speak, that I may rid myself of suspicion and
+suspense."
+
+Calling the jailer by name, I asked him if my countenance did not remind
+him of the man he wished to find.
+
+"Not at all."
+
+"Listen, does not my voice resemble that of your escaped prisoner?"
+
+"Not in the least."
+
+[Illustration: "I AM THE MAN YOU SEEK."]
+
+With a violent effort I drew my form as straight as possible, and stood
+upright before him, with every facial muscle strained to its utmost, in
+a vain endeavor to bring my wrinkled countenance to its former
+smoothness, and with the energy that a drowning man might exert to
+grasp a passing object, I tried to control my voice, and preserve my
+identity by so doing, vehemently imploring him, begging him to listen to
+my story. "I am the man you seek; I am the prisoner who, a few days ago,
+stood in the prime of life before you. I have been spirited away from
+you by men who are leagued with occult forces, which extend forward
+among hidden mysteries, into forces which illuminate the present, and
+reach backward into the past unseen. These persons, by artful and
+damnable manipulations under the guidance of a power that has been
+evolved in the secrecy of past ages, and transmitted only to a favored
+few, have changed the strong man you knew into the one apparently
+feeble, who now confronts you. Only a short period has passed since I
+was your unwilling captive, charged with debt, a trifling sum; and then,
+as your sullen prisoner, I longed for freedom. Now I plead before you,
+with all my soul, I beg of you to take me back to my cell. Seal your
+doors, and hold me again, for your dungeon will now be to me a
+paradise."
+
+I felt that I was becoming frantic, for with each word I realized that
+the jailer became more and more impatient and annoyed. I perceived that
+he believed me to be a lunatic. Pleadings and entreaties were of no
+avail, and my eagerness rapidly changed into despair until at last I
+cried: "If you will not believe my words, I will throw myself on the
+mercy of my young companion. I ask you to consider his testimony, and if
+he says that I am not what I assert myself to be, I will leave my home
+and country, and go with him quietly into the unknown future."
+
+He turned to depart, but I threw myself before him, and beckoned the
+young man who, up to this time, had stood aloof in respectful silence.
+He came forward, and addressing the jailer, called him by name, and
+corroborated my story. Yes, strange as it sounded to me, he reiterated
+the substance of my narrative as I had repeated it. "Now, you will
+believe it," I cried in ecstacy; "now you need no longer question the
+facts that I have related."
+
+Instead, however, of accepting the story of the witness, the jailer
+upbraided him.
+
+"This is a preconcerted arrangement to get me into ridicule or further
+trouble. You two have made up an incredible story that on its face is
+fit only to be told to men as crazy or designing as yourselves. This
+young man did not even overhear your conversation with me, and yet he
+repeats his lesson without a question from me as to what I wish to learn
+of him."
+
+"He can see our minds," I cried in despair.
+
+"Crazier than I should have believed from your countenance," the jailer
+replied. "Of all the improbable stories imaginable, you have attempted
+to inveigle me into accepting that which is most unreasonable. If you
+are leagued together intent on some swindling scheme, I give you warning
+now that I am in no mood for trifling. Go your way, and trouble me no
+more with this foolish scheming, which villainy or lunacy of some
+description must underlie." He turned in anger and left us.
+
+"It is as I predicted," said my companion; "you are lost to man. Those
+who know you best will turn from you soonest. I might become as wild as
+you are, in your interest, and only serve to make your story appear more
+extravagant. In human affairs men judge and act according to the limited
+knowledge at command of the multitude. Witnesses who tell the truth are
+often, in our courts of law, stunned, as you have been, by the decisions
+of a narrow-minded jury. Men sit on juries with little conception of the
+facts of the case that is brought before them; the men who manipulate
+them are mere tools in unseen hands that throw their several minds in
+antagonisms unexplainable to man. The judge is unconsciously often a
+tool of his own errors or those of others. One learned judge unties what
+another has fastened, each basing his views on the same testimony, each
+rendering his decision in accordance with law derived from the same
+authority. Your case is that condition of mind that men call lunacy. You
+can see much that is hidden from others because you have become
+acquainted with facts that their narrow education forbids them to
+accept, but, because the majority is against you, they consider you
+mentally unbalanced. The philosophy of men does not yet comprehend the
+conditions that have operated on your person, and as you stand alone,
+although in the right, all men will oppose you, and you must submit to
+the views of a misguided majority. In the eyes of a present generation
+you are crazy. A jury of your former peers could not do else than so
+adjudge you, for you are not on the same mental plane, and I ask, will
+you again attempt to accomplish that which is as impossible as it would
+be for you to drink the waters of Seneca Lake at one draught? Go to
+those men and propose to drain that lake at one gulp, and you will be
+listened to as seriously as when you beg your former comrades to believe
+that you are another person than what you seem. Only lengthened life is
+credited with the production of physical changes that under favorable
+conditions, are possible of accomplishment in a brief period, and such
+testimony as you could bring, in the present state of human knowledge,
+would only add to the proof of your lunacy."
+
+"I see, I see," I said; "and I submit. Lead on, I am ready. Whatever my
+destined career may be, wherever it may be, it can only lead to the
+grave."
+
+"Do not be so sure of that," was the reply.
+
+I shuddered instinctively, for this answer seemed to imply that the
+stillness of the grave would be preferable to my destiny.
+
+We got into the wagon again, and a deep silence followed as we rode
+along, gazing abstractedly on the quiet fields and lonely farm-houses.
+Finally we reached a little village. Here my companion dismissed the
+farmer, our driver, paying him liberally, and secured lodgings in a
+private family (I believe we were expected), and after a hearty supper
+we retired. From the time we left the jailer I never again attempted to
+reveal my identity. I had lost my interest in the past, and found myself
+craving to know what the future had in store for me.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+    MY JOURNEY TOWARDS THE END OF EARTH BEGINS.--THE ADEPTS'
+    BROTHERHOOD.
+
+
+My companion did not attempt to watch over my motions or in any way to
+interfere with my freedom.
+
+"I will for a time necessarily be absent," he said, "arranging for our
+journey, and while I am getting ready you must employ yourself as best
+you can. I ask you, however, now to swear that, as you have promised,
+you will not seek your wife and children."
+
+To this I agreed.
+
+"Hold up your hand," he said, and I repeated after him: "All this I most
+solemnly and sincerely promise and swear, with a firm and steadfast
+resolution to keep and perform my oath, without the least equivocation,
+mental reservation or self-evasion whatever."
+
+"That will answer; see that you keep your oath this time," he said, and
+he departed. Several days were consumed before he returned, and during
+that time I was an inquisitive and silent listener to the various
+conjectures others were making regarding my abduction which event was
+becoming of general interest. Some of the theories advanced were quite
+near the truth, others wild and erratic. How preposterous it seemed to
+me that the actor himself could be in the very seat of the disturbance,
+willing, anxious to testify, ready to prove the truth concerning his
+position, and yet unable even to obtain a respectful hearing from those
+most interested in his recovery. Men gathered together discussing the
+"outrage"; women, children, even, talked of little else, and it was
+evident that the entire country was aroused. New political issues took
+their rise from the event, but the man who was the prime cause of the
+excitement was for a period a willing and unwilling listener, as he had
+been a willing and unwilling actor in the tragedy.
+
+One morning my companion drove up in a light carriage, drawn by a span
+of fine, spirited, black horses.
+
+"We are ready now," he said, and my unprecedented journey began.
+
+Wherever we stopped, I heard my name mentioned. Men combined against
+men, brother was declaiming against brother, neighbor was against
+neighbor, everywhere suspicion was in the air.
+
+"The passage of time alone can quiet these people," said I.
+
+"The usual conception of the term Time--an indescribable something
+flowing at a constant rate--is erroneous," replied my comrade. "Time is
+humanity's best friend, and should be pictured as a ministering angel,
+instead of a skeleton with hour-glass and scythe. Time does not fly, but
+is permanent and quiescent, while restless, force-impelled matter rushes
+onward. Force and matter fly; Time reposes. At our birth we are wound up
+like a machine, to move for a certain number of years, grating against
+Time. We grind against that complacent spirit, and wear not Time but
+ourselves away. We hold within ourselves a certain amount of energy,
+which, an evanescent form of matter, is the opponent of Time. Time has
+no existence with inanimate objects. It is a conception of the human
+intellect. Time is rest, perfect rest, tranquillity such as man never
+realizes unless he becomes a part of the sweet silences toward which
+human life and human mind are drifting. So much for Time. Now for Life.
+Disturbed energy in one of its forms, we call Life; and this Life is the
+great enemy of peace, the opponent of steadfast perfection. Pure energy,
+the soul of the universe, permeates all things with which man is now
+acquainted, but when at rest is imperceptible to man, while disturbed
+energy, according to its condition, is apparent either as matter or as
+force. A substance or material body is a manifestation resulting from a
+disturbance of energy. The agitating cause removed, the manifestations
+disappear, and thus a universe may be extinguished, without unbalancing
+the cosmos that remains. The worlds known to man are conditions of
+abnormal energy moving on separate planes through what men call space.
+They attract to themselves bodies of similar description, and thus
+influence one another--they have each a separate existence, and are
+swayed to and fro under the influence of the various disturbances in
+energy common to their rank or order, which we call forms of forces.
+Unsettled energy also assumes numerous other expressions that are
+unknown to man, but which in all perceptible forms is characterized by
+motion. Pure energy can not be appreciated by the minds of mortals.
+There are invisible worlds besides those perceived by us in our
+planetary system, unreachable centers of ethereal structure about us
+that stand in a higher plane of development than earthly matter which is
+a gross form of disturbed energy. There are also lower planes. Man's
+acquaintance with the forms of energy is the result of his power of
+perceiving the forms of matter of which he is a part. Heat, light,
+gravitation, electricity and magnetism are ever present in all
+perceivable substances, and, although purer than earth, they are still
+manifestations of absolute energy, and for this reason are sensible to
+men, but more evanescent than material bodies. Perhaps you can conceive
+that if these disturbances could be removed, matter or force would be
+resolved back into pure energy, and would vanish. Such a dissociation is
+an ethereal existence, and as pure energy the life spirit of all
+material things is neither cold nor hot, heavy nor light, solid, liquid
+nor gaseous--men can not, as mortals now exist, see, feel, smell, taste,
+or even conceive of it. It moves through space as we do through it, a
+world of itself as transparent to matter as matter is to it, insensible
+but ever present, a reality to higher existences that rest in other
+planes, but not to us an essence subject to scientific test, nor an
+entity. Of these problems and their connection with others in the unseen
+depths beyond, you are not yet in a position properly to judge, but
+before many years a new sense will be given you or a development of
+latent senses by the removal of those more gross, and a partial insight
+into an unsuspected unseen, into a realm to you at present unknown.
+
+"It has been ordained that a select few must from time to time pass over
+the threshold that divides a mortal's present life from the future, and
+your lot has been cast among the favored ones. It is or should be deemed
+a privilege to be permitted to pass farther than human philosophy has
+yet gone, into an investigation of the problems of life; this I say to
+encourage you. We have in our order a handful of persons who have
+received the accumulated fruits of the close attention others have
+given to these subjects which have been handed to them by the
+generations of men who have preceded. You are destined to become as they
+are. This study of semi-occult forces has enabled those selected for the
+work to master some of the concealed truths of being, and by the partial
+development of a new sense or new senses, partly to triumph over death.
+These facts are hidden from ordinary man, and from the earth-bound
+workers of our brotherhood, who can not even interpret the words they
+learn. The methods by which they are elucidated have been locked from
+man because the world is not prepared to receive them, selfishness being
+the ruling passion of debased mankind, and publicity, until the chain of
+evidence is more complete, would embarrass their further evolutions, for
+man as yet lives on the selfish plane."
+
+"Do you mean that, among men, there are a few persons possessed of
+powers such as you have mentioned?"
+
+"Yes; they move here and there through all orders of society, and their
+attainments are unknown, except to one another, or, at most, to but few
+persons. These adepts are scientific men, and may not even be recognized
+as members of our organization; indeed it is often necessary, for
+obvious reasons, that they should not be known as such. These studies
+must constantly be prosecuted in various directions, and some monitors
+must teach others to perform certain duties that are necessary to the
+grand evolution. Hence, when a man has become one of our brotherhood,
+from the promptings that made you one of us, and has been as ready and
+determined to instruct outsiders in our work as you have been, it is
+proper that he should in turn be compelled to serve our people, and
+eventually, mankind."
+
+"Am I to infer from this," I exclaimed, a sudden light breaking upon me,
+"that the alchemistic manuscript that led me to the fraternity to which
+you are related may have been artfully designed to serve the interest of
+that organization?" To this question I received no reply. After an
+interval, I again sought information concerning the order, and with more
+success.
+
+"I understand that you propose that I shall go on a journey of
+investigation for the good of our order and also of humanity."
+
+"True; it is necessary that our discoveries be kept alive, and it is
+essential that the men who do this work accept the trust of their own
+accord. He who will not consent to add to the common stock of knowledge
+and understanding, must be deemed a drone in the hive of nature--but few
+persons, however, are called upon to serve as you must serve. Men are
+scattered over the world with this object in view, and are unknown to
+their families or even to other members of the order; they hold in
+solemn trust our sacred revelations, and impart them to others as is
+ordained, and thus nothing perishes; eventually humanity will profit.
+
+"Others, as you soon will be doing, are now exploring assigned sections
+of this illimitable field, accumulating further knowledge, and they will
+report results to those whose duty it is to retain and formulate the
+collected sum of facts and principles. So it is that, unknown to the
+great body of our brotherhood, a chosen number, under our esoteric
+teachings, are gradually passing the dividing line that separates life
+from death, matter from spirit, for we have members who have mastered
+these problems. We ask, however, no aid of evil forces or of necromancy
+or black art, and your study of alchemy was of no avail, although to
+save the vital truths alchemy is a part of our work. We proceed in exact
+accordance with natural laws, which will yet be known to all men.
+Sorrow, suffering, pain of all descriptions, are enemies to the members
+of our order, as they are to mankind broadly, and we hope in the future
+so to control the now hidden secrets of Nature as to be able to govern
+the antagonistic disturbances in energy with which man now is everywhere
+thwarted, to subdue the physical enemies of the race, to affiliate
+religious and scientific thought, cultivating brotherly love, the
+foundation and capstone, the cement and union of this ancient
+fraternity."
+
+"And am I really to take an important part in this scheme? Have I been
+set apart to explore a section of the unknown for a bit of hidden
+knowledge, and to return again?"
+
+"This I will say," he answered, evading a direct reply, "you have been
+selected for a part that one in a thousand has been required to
+undertake. You are to pass into a field that will carry you beyond the
+present limits of human observation. This much I have been instructed to
+impart to you in order to nerve you for your duty. I seem to be a young
+man; really I am aged. You seem to be infirm and old, but you are
+young. Many years ago, cycles ago as men record time, I was promoted to
+do a certain work because of my zealous nature; like you, I also had to
+do penance for an error. I disappeared, as you are destined to do, from
+the sight of men. I regained my youth; yours has been lost forever, but
+you will regain more than your former strength. We shall both exist
+after this generation of men has passed away, and shall mingle with
+generations yet to be born, for we shall learn how to restore our
+youthful vigor, and will supply it time and again to earthly matter.
+Rest assured also that the object of our labors is of the most laudable
+nature, and we must be upheld under all difficulties by the fact that
+multitudes of men who are yet to come will be benefited thereby."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+    MY JOURNEY CONTINUES.--INSTINCT.
+
+
+It is unnecessary for me to give the details of the first part of my
+long journey. My companion was guided by a perceptive faculty that, like
+the compass, enabled him to keep in the proper course. He did not
+question those whom we met, and made no endeavor to maintain a given
+direction; and yet he was traveling in a part of the country that was
+new to himself. I marveled at the accuracy of his intuitive perception,
+for he seemed never to be at fault. When the road forked, he turned to
+the right or the left in a perfectly careless manner, but the continuity
+of his course was never interrupted. I began mentally to question
+whether he could be guiding us aright, forgetting that he was reading my
+thoughts, and he answered: "There is nothing strange in this
+self-directive faculty. Is not man capable of following where animals
+lead? One of the objects of my special study has been to ascertain the
+nature of the instinct-power of animals, the sagacity of brutes. The
+carrier pigeon will fly to its cote across hundreds of miles of strange
+country. The young pig will often return to its pen by a route unknown
+to it; the sluggish tortoise will find its home without a guide, without
+seeing a familiar object; cats, horses and other animals possess this
+power, which is not an unexplainable instinct, but a natural sense
+better developed in some of the lower creatures than it is in man. The
+power lies dormant in man, but exists, nevertheless. If we develop one
+faculty we lose acuteness in some other power. Men have lost in mental
+development in this particular direction while seeking to gain in
+others. If there were no record of the fact that light brings objects to
+the recognition of the mind through the agency of the eye, the sense of
+sight in an animal would be considered by men devoid of it as
+adaptability to extraordinary circumstances, or instinct. So it is that
+animals often see clearly where to the sense of man there is only
+darkness; such sight is not irresponsive action without consciousness
+of a purpose. Man is not very magnanimous. Instead of giving credit to
+the lower animals for superior perception in many directions, he denies
+to them the conscious possession of powers imperfectly developed in
+mankind. We egotistically aim to raise ourselves, and do so in our own
+estimation by clothing the actions of the lower animals in a garment of
+irresponsibility. Because we can not understand the inwardness of their
+power, we assert that they act by the influence of instinct. The term
+instinct, as I would define it, is an expression applied by men to a
+series of senses which man possesses, but has not developed. The word is
+used by man to characterize the mental superiority of other animals in
+certain directions where his own senses are defective. Instead of
+crediting animals with these, to them, invaluable faculties, man
+conceitedly says they are involuntary actions. Ignorant of their mental
+status, man is too arrogant to admit that lower animals are superior to
+him in any way. But we are not consistent. Is it not true that in the
+direction in which you question my power, some men by cultivation often
+become expert beyond their fellows? and such men have also given very
+little systematic study to subjects connected with these undeniable
+mental qualities. The hunter will hold his course in utter darkness,
+passing inequalities in the ground, and avoiding obstructions he can not
+see. The fact of his superiority in this way, over others, is not
+questioned, although he can not explain his methods nor understand how
+he operates. His quickened sense is often as much entitled to be called
+instinct as is the divining power of the carrier pigeon. If scholars
+would cease to devote their entire energies to the development of the
+material, artistic, or scientific part of modern civilization, and turn
+their attention to other forms of mental culture, many beauties and
+powers of Nature now unknown would be revealed. However, this can not
+be, for under existing conditions, the strife for food and warmth is the
+most important struggle that engages mankind, and controls our actions.
+In a time that is surely to come, however, when the knowledge of all men
+is united into a comprehensive whole, the book of life, illuminated
+thereby, will contain many beautiful pages that may be easily read, but
+which are now not suspected to exist. The power of the magnet is not
+uniform--engineers know that the needle of the compass inexplicably
+deviates from time to time as a line is run over the earth's surface,
+but they also know that aberrations of the needle finally correct
+themselves. The temporary variations of a few degrees that occur in the
+running of a compass line are usually overcome after a time, and without
+a change of course, the disturbed needle swerves back, and again points
+to the calculated direction, as is shown by the vernier. Should I err in
+my course, it would be by a trifle only, and we could not go far astray
+before I would unconsciously discover the true path. I carry my magnet
+in my mind."
+
+Many such dissertations or explanations concerning related questions
+were subsequently made in what I then considered a very impressive,
+though always unsatisfactory, manner. I recall those episodes now, after
+other more remarkable experiences which are yet to be related, and
+record them briefly with little wonderment, because I have gone through
+adventures which demonstrate that there is nothing improbable in the
+statements, and I will not consume time with further details of this
+part of my journey.
+
+We leisurely traversed State after State, crossed rivers, mountains and
+seemingly interminable forests. The ultimate object of our travels, a
+location in Kentucky, I afterward learned, led my companion to guide me
+by a roundabout course to Wheeling, Virginia, by the usual mountain
+roads of that day, instead of going, as he might perhaps have much more
+easily done, via Buffalo and the Lake Shore to Northern Ohio, and then
+southerly across the country. He said in explanation, that the time lost
+at the beginning of our journey by this route, was more than recompensed
+by the ease of the subsequent Ohio River trip. Upon reaching Wheeling,
+he disposed of the team, and we embarked on a keel boat, and journeyed
+down the Ohio to Cincinnati. The river was falling when we started, and
+became very low before Cincinnati was reached, too low for steamers, and
+our trip in that flat-bottomed boat, on the sluggish current of the
+tortuous stream, proved tedious and slow. Arriving at Cincinnati, my
+guide decided to wait for a rise in the river, designing then to
+complete our journey on a steamboat. I spent several days in Cincinnati
+quite pleasantly, expecting to continue our course on the steamer
+"Tecumseh," then in port, and ready for departure. At the last moment my
+guide changed his mind, and instead of embarking on that boat, we took
+passage on the steamer "George Washington," leaving Shipping-Port
+Wednesday, December 13, 1826.
+
+During that entire journey, from the commencement to our final
+destination, my guide paid all the bills, and did not want either for
+money or attention from the people with whom we came in contact. He
+seemed everywhere a stranger, and yet was possessed of a talisman that
+opened every door to which he applied, and which gave us unlimited
+accommodations wherever he asked them. When the boat landed at
+Smithland, Kentucky, a village on the bank of the Ohio, just above
+Paducah, we disembarked, and my guide then for the first time seemed
+mentally disturbed.
+
+"Our journey together is nearly over," he said; "in a few days my
+responsibility for you will cease. Nerve yourself for the future, and
+bear its trials and its pleasures manfully. I may never see you again,
+but as you are even now conspicuous in our history, and will be closely
+connected with the development of the plan in which I am also
+interested, although I am destined to take a different part, I shall
+probably hear of you again."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+    A CAVERN DISCOVERED.--BISWELL'S HILL.
+
+
+We stopped that night at a tavern in Smithland. Leaving this place after
+dinner the next day, on foot, we struck through the country, into the
+bottom lands of the Cumberland River, traveling leisurely, lingering for
+hours in the course of a circuitous tramp of only a few miles. Although
+it was the month of December, the climate was mild and balmy. In my
+former home, a similar time of year would have been marked with snow,
+sleet, and ice, and I could not but draw a contrast between the two
+localities. How different also the scenery from that of my native State.
+Great timber trees, oak, poplar, hickory, were in majestic possession of
+large tracts of territory, in the solitude of which man, so far as
+evidences of his presence were concerned, had never before trodden. From
+time to time we passed little clearings that probably were to be
+enlarged to thrifty plantations in the future, and finally we crossed
+the Cumberland River. That night we rested with Mr. Joseph Watts, a
+wealthy and cultured land owner, who resided on the river's bank. After
+leaving his home the next morning, we journeyed slowly, very slowly, my
+guide seemingly passing with reluctance into the country. He had become
+a very pleasant companion, and his conversation was very entertaining.
+We struck the sharp point of a ridge the morning we left Mr. Watts'
+hospitable house. It was four or five miles distant, but on the opposite
+side of the Cumberland, from Smithland. Here a steep bluff broke through
+the bottom land to the river's edge, the base of the bisected point
+being washed by the Cumberland River, which had probably cut its way
+through the stony mineral of this ridge in ages long passed. We climbed
+to its top and sat upon the pinnacle, and from that point of commanding
+observation I drank in the beauties of the scene around me. The river at
+our feet wound gracefully before us, and disappeared in both
+directions, its extremes dissolving in a bed of forest. A great black
+bluff, far up the stream, rose like a mountain, upon the left side of
+the river; bottom lands were about us, and hills appeared across the
+river in the far distance--towards the Tennessee River. With regret I
+finally drew my eyes from the vision, and we resumed the journey. We
+followed the left bank of the river to the base of the black
+bluff,--"Biswell's Hill," a squatter called it,--and then skirted the
+side of that hill, passing along precipitous stone bluffs and among
+stunted cedars. Above us towered cliff over cliff, almost
+perpendicularly; below us rolled the river.
+
+[Illustration: SECTION OF KENTUCKY, NEAR SMITHLAND, IN WHICH THE
+ENTRANCE TO THE KENTUCKY CAVERN IS SAID TO BE LOCATED.]
+
+I was deeply impressed by the changing beauties of this strange Kentucky
+scenery, but marveled at the fact that while I became light-hearted and
+enthusiastic, my guide grew correspondingly despondent and gloomy. From
+time to time he lapsed into thoughtful silence, and once I caught his
+eye directed toward me in a manner that I inferred to imply either pity
+or envy. We passed Biswell's Bluff, and left the Cumberland River at its
+upper extremity, where another small creek empties into the river.
+Thence, after ascending the creek some distance, we struck across the
+country, finding it undulating and fertile, with here and there a small
+clearing. During this journey we either camped out at night, or stopped
+with a resident, when one was to be found in that sparsely settled
+country. Sometimes there were exasperating intervals between our meals;
+but we did not suffer, for we carried with us supplies of food, such as
+cheese and crackers, purchased in Smithland, for emergencies. We thus
+proceeded a considerable distance into Livingston County, Kentucky.
+
+I observed remarkable sinks in the earth, sometimes cone-shaped, again
+precipitous. These cavities were occasionally of considerable size and
+depth, and they were more numerous in the uplands than in the bottoms.
+They were somewhat like the familiar "sink-holes" of New York State, but
+monstrous in comparison. The first that attracted my attention was near
+the Cumberland River, just before we reached Biswell's Hill. It was
+about forty feet deep and thirty in diameter, with precipitous stone
+sides, shrubbery growing therein in exceptional spots where loose earth
+had collected on shelves of stone that cropped out along its rugged
+sides. The bottom of the depression was flat and fertile, covered with a
+luxuriant mass of vegetation. On one side of the base of the gigantic
+bowl, a cavern struck down into the earth. I stood upon the edge of this
+funnel-like sink, and marveled at its peculiar appearance. A spirit of
+curiosity, such as often influences men when an unusual natural scene
+presents itself, possessed me. I clambered down, swinging from brush to
+brush, and stepping from shelving-rock to shelving-rock, until I reached
+the bottom of the hollow, and placing my hand above the black hole in
+its center, I perceived that a current of cold air was rushing
+therefrom, upward. I probed with a long stick, but the direction of the
+opening was tortuous, and would not admit of examination in that manner.
+I dropped a large pebble-stone into the orifice; the pebble rolled and
+clanked down, down, and at last, the sound died away in the distance.
+
+"I wish that I could go into the cavity as that stone has done, and find
+the secrets of this cave," I reflected, the natural love of exploration
+possessing me as it probably does most men.
+
+My companion above, seated on the brink of the stone wall, replied to my
+thoughts: "Your wish shall be granted. You have requested that which has
+already been laid out for you. You will explore where few men have
+passed before, and will have the privilege of following your destiny
+into a realm of natural wonders. A fertile field of investigation awaits
+you, such as will surpass your most vivid imaginings. Come and seat
+yourself beside me, for it is my duty now to tell you something about
+the land we are approaching, the cavern fields of Kentucky."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+    THE PUNCH-BOWLS AND CAVERNS OF KENTUCKY.--"INTO THE UNKNOWN
+    COUNTRY."
+
+
+"This part of Kentucky borders a field of caverns that reaches from near
+the State of Tennessee to the Ohio River, and from the mouth of the
+Cumberland, eastward to and beyond the center of the State. This great
+area is of irregular outline, and as yet has been little explored.
+Underneath the surface are layers of limestone and sandstone rock, the
+deposits ranging from ten to one hundred and fifty feet in thickness,
+and often great masses of conglomerate appear. This conglomerate
+sometimes caps the ridges, and varies in thickness from a few feet only,
+to sixty, or even a hundred, feet. It is of a diversified character,
+sometimes largely composed of pebbles cemented together by iron ore into
+compact beds, while again it passes abruptly into gritty sandstone, or a
+fine-grained compact rock destitute of pebbles. Sometimes the
+conglomerate rests directly on the limestone, but in the section about
+us, more often argillaceous shales or veins of coal intervene, and
+occasionally inferior and superior layers of conglomerate are separated
+by a bed of coal. In addition, lead-bearing veins now and then crop up,
+the crystals of galena being disseminated through masses of fluor-spar,
+calc-spar, limestone and clay, which fill fissures between tilted walls
+of limestone and hard quartzose sandstone. Valleys, hills, and
+mountains, grow out of this remarkable crust. Rivers and creeks flow
+through and under it in crevices, either directly upon the bedstone or
+over deposits of clay which underlie it. In some places, beds of coal or
+slate alternate with layers of the lime rock; in others, the interspace
+is clay and sand. Sometimes the depth of the several limestone and
+conglomerate deposits is great, and they are often honeycombed by
+innumerable transverse and diagonal spaces. Water drips have here and
+there washed out the more friable earth and stone, forming grottoes
+which are as yet unknown to men, but which will be discovered to be
+wonderful and fantastic beyond anything of a like nature now familiar.
+In other places cavities exist between shelves of rock that lie one
+above the other--monstrous openings caused by the erosive action of
+rivers now lost, but that have flowed during unnumbered ages past; great
+parallel valleys and gigantic chambers, one over the other, remaining to
+tell the story of these former torrents. Occasionally the weight of a
+portion of the disintegrating rock above becomes too great for its
+tensile strength and the material crumbles and falls, producing caverns
+sometimes reaching so near to the earth's surface, as to cause sinks in
+its crust. These sinks, when first formed, as a rule, present clear rock
+fractures, and immediately after their formation there is usually a
+water-way beneath. In the course of time soil collects on their sides,
+they become cone-shaped hollows from the down-slidings of earth, and
+then vegetation appears on the living soil; trees grow within them, and
+in many places the sloping sides of great earth bowls of this nature
+are, after untold years, covered with the virgin forest; magnificent
+timber trees growing on soil that has been stratified over and upon
+decayed monarchs of the forest whose remains, imbedded in the earth,
+speak of the ages that have passed since the convulsions that made the
+depressions which, notwithstanding the accumulated debris, are still a
+hundred feet or more in depth. If the drain or exit at the vortex of one
+of these sinks becomes clogged, which often occurs, the entire cavity
+fills with water, and a pond results. Again, a slight orifice reaching
+far beneath the earth's surface may permit the soil to be gradually
+washed into a subterranean creek, and thus are formed great bowls, like
+funnels sunk in the earth--Kentucky punch-bowls.
+
+"Take the country about us, especially towards the Mammoth Cave, and for
+miles beyond, the landscape in certain localities is pitted with this
+description of sinks, some recent, others very old. Many are small, but
+deep; others are large and shallow. Ponds often of great depth,
+curiously enough overflowing and giving rise to a creek, are to be found
+on a ridge, telling of underground supply springs, not outlets, beneath.
+Chains of such sinks, like a row of huge funnels, often appear; the soil
+between them is slowly washed through their exit into the river,
+flowing in the depths below, and as the earth that separates them is
+carried away by the subterranean streams, the bowls coalesce and a
+ravine, closed at both ends, results. Along the bottom of such a ravine,
+a creek may flow, rushing from its natural tunnel at one end of the
+line, and disappearing in a gulf at the other. The stream begins in
+mystery, and ends in unfathomed darkness. Near Marion, Hurricane Creek
+thus disappears, and, so far as men know, is lost to sight forever. Near
+Cridersville, in this neighborhood, a valley such as I have described,
+takes in the surface floods of a large tract of country. The waters that
+run down its sides, during a storm form a torrent, and fence-rails,
+timbers, and other objects are gulped into the chasm where the creek
+plunges into the earth, and they never appear again. This part of
+Kentucky is the most remarkable portion of the known world, and although
+now neglected, in a time to come is surely destined to an extended
+distinction. I have referred only to the surface, the skin formation of
+this honeycombed labyrinth, the entrance to the future wonderland of the
+world. Portions of such a superficial cavern maze have been traversed by
+man in the ramifications known as the Mammoth Cave, but deeper than man
+has yet explored, the subcutaneous structure of that series of caverns
+is yet to be investigated. The Mammoth Cave as now traversed is simply a
+superficial series of grottoes and passages overlying the deeper cavern
+field that I have described. The explored chain of passages is of great
+interest to men, it is true, but of minor importance compared to others
+yet unknown, being in fact, the result of mere surface erosion. The
+river that bisects the cave, just beneath the surface of the earth, and
+known as Echo River, is a miniature stream: there are others more
+magnificent that flow majestically far, far beneath it. As we descend
+into the earth in that locality, caverns multiply in number and increase
+in size, retaining the general configuration of those I have described.
+The layers of rock are thicker, the intervening spaces broader; and the
+spaces stretch in increasingly expanded chambers for miles, while high
+above each series of caverns the solid ceilings of stone arch and
+interarch. Sheltered under these subterrene alcoves are streams, lakes,
+rivers and water-falls. Near the surface of the earth such waters often
+teem with aquatic life, and some of the caves are inhabited by species
+of birds, reptiles and mammals as yet unknown to men, creatures
+possessed of senses and organs that are different from any we find with
+surface animals, and also apparently defective in particulars that would
+startle persons acquainted only with creatures that live in the
+sunshine. It is a world beneath a world, a world within a world--" My
+guide abruptly stopped.
+
+I sat entranced, marveling at the young-old adept's knowledge, admiring
+his accomplishments. I gazed into the cavity that yawned beneath me, and
+imagined its possible but to me invisible secrets, enraptured with the
+thought of searching into them. Who would not feel elated at the
+prospect of an exploration, such as I foresaw might be pursued in my
+immediate future? I had often been charmed with narrative descriptions
+of discoveries, and book accounts of scientific investigations, but I
+had never pictured myself as a participant in such fascinating
+enterprises.
+
+"Indeed, indeed," I cried exultingly; "lead me to this Wonderland, show
+me the entrance to this Subterranean World, and I promise willingly to
+do as you bid."
+
+"Bravo!" he replied, "your heart is right, your courage sufficient; I
+have not disclosed a thousandth part of the wonders which I have
+knowledge of, and which await your research, and probably I have not
+gained even an insight into the mysteries that, if your courage permits,
+you will be privileged to comprehend. Your destiny lies beyond, far
+beyond that which I have pictured or experienced; and I, notwithstanding
+my opportunities, have no conception of its end, for at the critical
+moment my heart faltered--I can therefore only describe the beginning."
+
+Thus at the lower extremity of Biswell's Hill, I was made aware of the
+fact that, within a short time, I should be separated from my
+sympathetic guide, and that it was to be my duty to explore alone, or in
+other company, some portion of these Kentucky cavern deeps, and I longed
+for the beginning of my underground journey. Heavens! how different
+would have been my future life could I then have realized my position!
+Would that I could have seen the end. After a few days of uneventful
+travel, we rested, one afternoon, in a hilly country that before us
+appeared to be more rugged, even mountainous. We had wandered leisurely,
+and were now at a considerable distance from the Cumberland River, the
+aim of my guide being, as I surmised, to evade a direct approach to some
+object of interest which I must not locate exactly, and yet which I
+shall try to describe accurately enough for identification by a person
+familiar with the topography of that section. We stood on the side of a
+stony, sloping hill, back of which spread a wooded, undulating valley.
+
+"I remember to have passed along a creek in that valley," I remarked,
+looking back over our pathway. "It appeared to rise from this direction,
+but the source ends abruptly in this chain of hills."
+
+"The stream is beneath us," he answered. Advancing a few paces, he
+brought to my attention, on the hillside, an opening in the earth. This
+aperture was irregular in form, about the diameter of a well, and
+descended perpendicularly into the stony crust. I leaned far over the
+orifice, and heard the gurgle of rushing water beneath. The guide
+dropped a heavy stone into the gloomy shaft, and in some seconds a dull
+splash announced its plunge into underground water. Then he leaned over
+the stony edge, and--could I be mistaken?--seemed to signal to some one
+beneath; but it must be imagination on my part, I argued to myself, even
+against my very sense of sight. Rising, and taking me by the hand, my
+guardian spoke:
+
+"Brother, we approach the spot where you and I must separate. I serve my
+masters and am destined to go where I shall next be commanded; you will
+descend into the earth, as you have recently desired to do. Here we
+part, most likely forever. This rocky fissure will admit the last ray of
+sunlight on your path."
+
+My heart failed. How often are we courageous in daylight and timid by
+night? Men unflinchingly face in sunshine dangers at which they shudder
+in the darkness.
+
+"How am I to descend into that abyss?" I gasped. "The sides are
+perpendicular, the depth is unknown!" Then I cried in alarm, the sense
+of distrust deepening: "Do you mean to drown me; is it for this you have
+led me away from my native State, from friends, home and kindred? You
+have enticed me into this wilderness. I have been decoyed, and, like a
+foolish child, have willingly accompanied my destroyer. You feared to
+murder me in my distant home; the earth could not have hidden me;
+Niagara even might have given up my body to dismay the murderers! In
+this underground river in the wilds of Kentucky, all trace of my
+existence will disappear forever."
+
+I was growing furious. My frenzied eyes searched the ground for some
+missile of defense. By strange chance some one had left, on that
+solitary spot, a rude weapon, providentially dropped for my use, I
+thought. It was a small iron bolt or bar, somewhat rusted. I threw
+myself upon the earth, and, as I did so, picked this up quickly, and
+secreted it within my bosom. Then I arose and resumed my stormy
+denunciation:
+
+"You have played your part well, you have led your unresisting victim to
+the sacrifice, but if I am compelled to plunge into this black grave,
+you shall go with me!" I shrieked in desperation, and suddenly threw my
+arms around the gentle adept, intending to hurl him into the chasm. At
+this point I felt my hands seized from behind in a cold, clammy,
+irresistible embrace, my fingers were loosed by a strong grasp, and I
+turned, to find myself confronted by a singular looking being, who
+quietly said:
+
+"You are not to be destroyed; we wish only to do your bidding."
+
+The speaker stood in a stooping position, with his face towards the
+earth as if to shelter it from the sunshine. He was less than five feet
+in height. His arms and legs were bare, and his skin, the color of light
+blue putty, glistened in the sunlight like the slimy hide of a water
+dog. He raised his head, and I shuddered in affright as I beheld that
+his face was not that of a human. His forehead extended in an unbroken
+plane from crown to cheek bone, and the chubby tip of an abortive nose
+without nostrils formed a short projection near the center of the level
+ridge which represented a countenance. There was no semblance of an eye,
+for there were no sockets. Yet his voice was singularly perfect. His
+face, if face it could be called, was wet, and water dripped from all
+parts of his slippery person. Yet, repulsive as he looked, I shuddered
+more at the remembrance of the touch of that cold, clammy hand than at
+the sight of his figure, for a dead man could not have chilled me as he
+had done, with his sappy skin, from which the moisture seemed to ooze as
+from the hide of a water lizard.
+
+[Illustration: "CONFRONTED BY A SINGULAR LOOKING BEING."]
+
+Turning to my guide, this freak of nature said, softly:
+
+"I have come in obedience to the signal."
+
+I realized at once that alone with these two I was powerless, and that
+to resist would be suicidal. Instantly my effervescing passion subsided,
+and I expressed no further surprise at this sudden and remarkable
+apparition, but mentally acquiesced. I was alone and helpless; rage gave
+place to inertia in the despondency that followed the realization of my
+hopeless condition. The grotesque newcomer who, though sightless,
+possessed a strange instinct, led us to the base of the hill a few
+hundred feet away, and there, gushing into the light from the rocky
+bluff, I saw a magnificent stream issuing many feet in width. This was
+the head-waters of the mysterious brook that I had previously noticed.
+It flowed from an archway in the solid stone, springing directly out of
+the rock-bound cliff; beautiful and picturesque in its surroundings. The
+limpid water, clear and sparkling, issued from the unknown source that
+was typical of darkness, but the brook of crystal leaped into a world of
+sunshine, light and freedom.
+
+"Brother," said my companion, "this spring emerging from this prison of
+earth images to us what humanity will be when the prisoning walls of
+ignorance that now enthrall him are removed. Man has heretofore relied
+chiefly for his advancement, both mental and physical, on knowledge
+gained from so-called scientific explorations and researches with
+matter, from material studies rather than spiritual, all his
+investigations having been confined to the crude, coarse substance of
+the surface of the globe. Spiritualistic investigations, unfortunately,
+are considered by scientific men too often as reaching backward only.
+The religions of the world clasp hands with, and lean upon, the dead
+past, it is true, but point to a living future. Man must yet search by
+the agency of senses and spirit, the unfathomed mysteries that lie
+beneath his feet and over his head, and he who refuses to bow to the
+Creator and honor his handiwork discredits himself. When this work is
+accomplished, as it yet will be, the future man, able then to comprehend
+the problem of life in its broader significance, drawing from all
+directions the facts necessary to his mental advancement, will have
+reached a state in which he can enjoy bodily comfort and supreme
+spiritual perfection, while he is yet an earth-bound mortal. In
+hastening this consummation, it is necessary that an occasional human
+life should be lost to the world, but such sacrifices are noble--yes,
+sublime, because contributing to the future exaltation of our race. The
+secret workers in the sacred order of which you are still a member, have
+ever taken an important part in furthering such a system of evolution.
+This feature of our work is unknown to brethren of the ordinary
+fraternity, and the individual research of each secret messenger is
+unguessed, by the craft at large. Hence it is that the open workers of
+our order, those initiated by degrees only, who in lodge rooms carry on
+their beneficent labors among men, have had no hand other than as agents
+in your removal, and no knowledge of your present or future movements.
+Their function is to keep together our organization on earth, and from
+them only an occasional member is selected, as you have been, to perform
+special duties in certain adventurous studies. Are you willing to go on
+this journey of exploration? and are you brave enough to meet the trials
+you have invited?"
+
+Again my enthusiasm arose, and I felt the thrill experienced by an
+investigator who stands on the brink of an important discovery, and
+needs but courage to advance, and I answered, "Yes."
+
+"Then, farewell; this archway is the entrance that will admit you into
+your arcanum of usefulness. This mystic Brother, though a stranger to
+you, has long been apprised of our coming, and it was he who sped me on
+my journey to seek you, and who has since been waiting for us, and is to
+be your guide during the first stages of your subterrene progress. He is
+a Friend, and, if you trust him, will protect you from harm. You will
+find the necessaries of life supplied, for I have traversed part of your
+coming road; that part I therefore know, but, as I have said, you are to
+go deeper into the unexplored,--yes, into and beyond the Beyond, until
+finally you will come to the gateway that leads into the 'Unknown
+Country.'"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+    FAREWELL TO GOD'S SUNSHINE.--THE ECHO OF THE CRY.
+
+
+Thus speaking, my quiet leader, who had so long been as a shepherd to my
+wandering feet, on the upper earth, grasped my hands tightly, and placed
+them in those of my new companion, whose clammy fingers closed over them
+as with a grip of iron. The mysterious being, now my custodian, turned
+towards the creek, drawing me after him, and together we silently and
+solemnly waded beneath the stone archway. As I passed under the shadow
+of that dismal, yawning cliff, I turned my head to take one last glimpse
+of the world I had known--that "warm precinct of the cheerful day,"--and
+tears sprang to my eyes. I thought of life, family, friends,--of all for
+which men live--and a melancholy vision arose, that of my lost, lost
+home. My dear companion of the journey that had just ended stood in the
+sunlight on the banks of the rippling stream, gazing at us intently, and
+waved an affectionate farewell. My uncouth new associate (guide or
+master, whichever he might be), of the journey to come, clasped me
+firmly by the arms, and waded slowly onward, thrusting me steadily
+against the cold current, and with irresistible force pressed me into
+the thickening darkness. The daylight disappeared, the pathway
+contracted, the water deepened and became more chilly. We were
+constrained to bow our heads in order to avoid the overhanging vault of
+stone; the water reached to my chin, and now the down-jutting roof
+touched the crown of my head; then I shuddered convulsively as the last
+ray of daylight disappeared.
+
+Had it not been for my companion, I know that I should have sunk in
+despair, and drowned; but with a firm hand he held my head above the
+water, and steadily pushed me onward. I had reached the extreme of
+despondency: I neither feared nor cared for life nor death, and I
+realized that, powerless to control my own acts, my fate, the future, my
+existence depended on the strange being beside me. I was mysteriously
+sustained, however, by a sense of bodily security, such as comes over us
+as when in the hands of an experienced guide we journey through a
+wilderness, for I felt that my pilot of the underworld did not purpose
+to destroy me. We halted a moment, and then, as a faint light overspread
+us, my eyeless guide directed me to look upward.
+
+"We now stand beneath the crevice which you were told by your former
+guide would admit the last ray of sunlight on your path. I also say to
+you, this struggling ray of sunlight is to be your last for years."
+
+I gazed above me, feeling all the wretchedness of a dying man who, with
+faculties intact, might stand on the dark edge of the hillside of
+eternity, glancing back into the bright world; and that small opening
+far, far overhead, seemed as the gate to Paradise Lost. Many a person,
+assured of ascending at will, has stood at the bottom of a deep well or
+shaft to a mine, and even then felt the undescribable sensation of
+dread, often terror, that is produced by such a situation. Awe, mystery,
+uncertainty of life and future superadded, may express my sensation. I
+trembled, shrinking in horror from my captor and struggled violently.
+
+"Hold, hold," I begged, as one involuntarily prays a surgeon to delay
+the incision of the amputating knife, "just one moment." My companion,
+unheeding, moved on, the light vanished instantly, and we were
+surrounded by total darkness. God's sunshine was blotted out.
+
+[Illustration: "THIS STRUGGLING RAY OF SUNLIGHT IS TO BE YOUR LAST FOR
+YEARS."]
+
+Then I again became unconcerned; I was not now responsible for my own
+existence, and the feeling that I experienced when a prisoner in the
+closed carriage returned. I grew careless as to my fate, and with stolid
+indifference struggled onward as we progressed slowly against the
+current of water. I began to interest myself in speculations regarding
+our surroundings, and the object or outcome of our journey. In places
+the water was shallow, scarce reaching to our ankles; again it was so
+deep that we could wade only with exertion, and at times the passage up
+which we toiled was so narrow, that it would scarcely admit us. After a
+long, laborious stemming of the unseen brook, my companion directed me
+to close my mouth, hold my nostrils with my fingers, and stoop; almost
+diving with me beneath the water, he drew me through the submerged
+crevice, and we ascended into an open chamber, and left the creek behind
+us. I fancied that we were in a large room, and as I shouted aloud to
+test my hypothesis, echo after echo answered, until at last the cry
+reverberated and died away in distant murmurs. We were evidently in a
+great pocket or cavern, through which my guide now walked rapidly;
+indeed, he passed along with unerring footsteps, as certain of his
+course as I might be on familiar ground in full daylight. I perceived
+that he systematically evaded inequalities that I could not anticipate
+nor see. He would tell me to step up or down, as the surroundings
+required, and we ascended or descended accordingly. Our path turned to
+the right or the left from time to time, but my eyeless guide passed
+through what were evidently the most tortuous windings without a mishap.
+I wondered much at this gift of knowledge, and at last overcame my
+reserve sufficiently to ask how we could thus unerringly proceed in
+utter darkness. The reply was:
+
+"The path is plainly visible to me; I see as clearly in pitch darkness
+as you can in sunshine."
+
+"Explain yourself further," I requested.
+
+He replied, "Not yet;" and continued, "you are weary, we will rest."
+
+He conducted me to a seat on a ledge, and left me for a time. Returning
+soon, he placed in my hands food which I ate with novel relish. The
+pabulum seemed to be of vegetable origin, though varieties of it had a
+peculiar flesh-like flavor. Several separate and distinct substances
+were contained in the queer viands, some portions savoring of wholesome
+flesh, while others possessed the delicate flavors of various fruits,
+such as the strawberry and the pineapple. The strange edibles were of a
+pulpy texture, homogeneous in consistence, parts being juicy and acid
+like grateful fruits. Some portions were in slices or films that I could
+hold in my hand like sections of a velvet melon, and yet were in many
+respects unlike any other food that I had ever tasted. There was neither
+rind nor seed; it seemed as though I were eating the gills of a fish,
+and in answer to my question the guide remarked:
+
+"Yes; it is the gill, but not the gill of a fish. You will be instructed
+in due time." I will add that after this, whenever necessary, we were
+supplied with food, but both thirst and hunger disappeared altogether
+before our underground journey was finished.
+
+After a while we again began our journey, which we continued in what was
+to me absolute darkness. My strength seemed to endure the fatigue to a
+wonderful degree, notwithstanding that we must have been walking hour
+after hour, and I expressed a curiosity about the fact. My guide replied
+that the atmosphere of the cavern possessed an intrinsic vitalizing
+power that neutralized fatigue, "or," he said, "there is here an
+inherent constitutional energy derived from an active gaseous substance
+that belongs to cavern air at this depth, and sustains the life force by
+contributing directly to its conservation, taking the place of food and
+drink."
+
+"I do not understand," I said.
+
+"No; and you do not comprehend how ordinary air supports mind and
+vitalizes muscle, and at the same time wears out both muscle and all
+other tissues. These are facts which are not satisfactorily explained by
+scientific statements concerning oxygenation of the blood. As we descend
+into the earth we find an increase in the life force of the cavern air."
+
+This reference to surface earth recalled my former life, and led me to
+contrast my present situation with that I had forfeited. I was seized
+with an uncontrollable longing for home, and a painful craving for the
+past took possession of my heart, but with a strong effort I shook off
+the sensations. We traveled on and on in silence and in darkness, and I
+thought again of the strange remark of my former guide who had said:
+"You are destined to go deeper into the unknown; yes, into and beyond
+the Beyond."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+    A ZONE OF LIGHT DEEP WITHIN THE EARTH.
+
+
+"Oh! for one glimpse of light, a ray of sunshine!"
+
+In reply to this my mental ejaculation, my guide said: "Can not you
+perceive that the darkness is becoming less intense?"
+
+"No," I answered, "I can not; night is absolute."
+
+"Are you sure?" he asked. "Cover your eyes with your hands, then uncover
+and open them." I did so and fancied that by contrast a faint gray hue
+was apparent.
+
+"This must be imagination."
+
+"No; we now approach a zone of earth light; let us hasten on."
+
+"A zone of light deep in the earth! Incomprehensible! Incredible!" I
+muttered, and yet as we went onward and time passed the darkness was
+less intense. The barely perceptible hue became gray and somber, and
+then of a pearly translucence, and although I could not distinguish the
+outline of objects, yet I unquestionably perceived light.
+
+"I am amazed! What can be the cause of this phenomenon? What is the
+nature of this mysterious halo that surrounds us?" I held my open hand
+before my eyes, and perceived the darkness of my spread fingers.
+
+"It is light, it is light," I shouted, "it is really light!" and from
+near and from far the echoes of that subterranean cavern answered back
+joyfully, "It is light, it is light!"
+
+I wept in joy, and threw my arms about my guide, forgetting in the
+ecstasy his clammy cuticle, and danced in hysterical glee and
+alternately laughed and cried. How vividly I realized then that the
+imprisoned miner would give a world of gold, his former god, for a ray
+of light.
+
+"Compose yourself; this emotional exhibition is an evidence of weakness;
+an investigator should neither become depressed over a reverse, nor
+unduly enthusiastic over a fortunate discovery."
+
+"But we approach the earth's surface? Soon I will be back in the
+sunshine again."
+
+"Upon the contrary, we have been continually descending into the earth,
+and we are now ten miles or more beneath the level of the ocean."
+
+[Illustration: "WE APPROACH DAYLIGHT, I CAN SEE YOUR FORM."]
+
+I shrank back, hesitated, and in despondency gazed at his hazy outline,
+then, as if palsied, sank upon the stony floor; but as I saw the light
+before me, I leaped up and shouted:
+
+"What you say is not true; we approach daylight, I can see your form."
+
+"Listen to me," he said. "Can not you understand that I have led you
+continually down a steep descent, and that for hours there has been no
+step upward? With but little exertion you have walked this distance
+without becoming wearied, and you could not, without great fatigue, have
+ascended for so long a period. You are entering a zone of inner earth
+light; we are in the surface, the upper edge of it. Let us hasten on,
+for when this cavern darkness is at an end--and I will say we have
+nearly passed that limit--your courage will return, and then we will
+rest."
+
+"You surely do not speak the truth; science and philosophy, and I am
+somewhat versed in both, have never told me of such a light."
+
+"Can philosophers more than speculate about that which they have not
+experienced if they have no data from which to calculate? Name the
+student in science who has reached this depth in earth, or has seen a
+man to tell him of these facts?"
+
+"I can not."
+
+"Then why should you have expected any of them to describe our
+surroundings? Misguided men will torture science by refuting facts with
+theories; but a fact is no less a fact when science opposes."
+
+[Illustration: "SEATED HIMSELF ON A NATURAL BENCH OF STONE."]
+
+I recognized the force of his arguments, and cordially grasped his hand
+in indication of submission. We continued our journey, and rapidly
+traveled downward and onward. The light gradually increased in
+intensity, until at length the cavern near about us seemed to be as
+bright as diffused daylight could have made it. There was apparently no
+central point of radiation; the light was such as to pervade and exist
+in the surrounding space, somewhat as the vapor of phosphorus spreads a
+self-luminous haze throughout the bubble into which it is blown. The
+visual agent surrounding us had a permanent, self-existing luminosity,
+and was a pervading, bright, unreachable essence that, without an
+obvious origin, diffused itself equally in all directions. It reminded
+me of the form of light that in previous years I had seen described as
+epipolic dispersion, and as I refer to the matter I am of the opinion
+that man will yet find that the same cause produces both phenomena. I
+was informed now by the sense of sight, that we were in a cavern room of
+considerable size. The apartment presented somewhat the appearance of
+the usual underground caverns that I had seen pictured in books, and yet
+was different. Stalactites, stalagmites, saline incrustations,
+occurring occasionally reminded me of travelers' stories, but these
+objects were not so abundant as might be supposed. Such accretions or
+deposits of saline substances as I noticed were also disappointing, in
+that, instead of having a dazzling brilliancy, like frosted snow
+crystals, they were of a uniform gray or brown hue. Indeed, my former
+imaginative mental creations regarding underground caverns were
+dispelled in this somber stone temple, for even the floor and the
+fragments of stone that, in considerable quantities, strewed the floor,
+were of the usual rock formations of upper earth. The glittering
+crystals of snowy white or rainbow tints (fairy caverns) pictured by
+travelers, and described as inexpressibly grand and beautiful in other
+cavern labyrinths, were wanting here, and I saw only occasional small
+clusters of quartz crystals that were other than of a dull gray color.
+Finally, after hours or perhaps days of travel, interspersed with
+restings, conversations, and arguments, amid which I could form no idea
+of the flight of time, my companion seated himself on a natural bench of
+stone, and directed me to rest likewise. He broke the silence, and spoke
+as follows:
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+    VITALIZED DARKNESS.--THE NARROWS IN SCIENCE.
+
+
+"In studying any branch of science men begin and end with an unknown.
+The chemist accepts as data such conditions of matter as he finds about
+him, and connects ponderable matter with the displays of energy that
+have impressed his senses, building therefrom a span of theoretical
+science, but he can not formulate as yet an explanation regarding the
+origin or the end of either mind, matter, or energy. The piers
+supporting his fabric stand in a profound invisible gulf, into which
+even his imagination can not look to form a theory concerning basic
+formations--corner-stones.
+
+"The geologist, in a like manner, grasps feebly the lessons left in the
+superficial fragments of earth strata, impressions that remain to bear
+imperfect record of a few of the disturbances that have affected the
+earth's crust, and he endeavors to formulate a story of the world's
+life, but he is neither able to antedate the records shown by the meager
+testimony at his command, scraps of a leaf out of God's great book of
+history, nor to anticipate coming events. The birth, as well as the
+death, of this planet is beyond his page.
+
+"The astronomer directs his telescope to the heavens, records the
+position of the planets, and hopes to discover the influences worlds
+exert upon one another. He explores space to obtain data to enable him
+to delineate a map of the visible solar universe, but the instruments he
+has at command are so imperfect, and mind is so feeble that, like
+mockery seems his attempt to study behind the facts connected with the
+motions and conditions of the nearest heavenly bodies, and he can not
+offer an explanation of the beginning or cessation of their movements.
+He can neither account for their existence, nor foretell their end."
+
+"Are you not mistaken?" I interrupted; "does not the astronomer foretell
+eclipses, and calculate the orbits of the planets, and has he not
+verified predictions concerning their several motions?"
+
+"Yes; but this is simply a study of passing events. The astronomer is no
+more capable of grasping an idea that reaches into an explanation of the
+origin of motion, than the chemist or physicist, from exact scientific
+data, can account for the creation of matter. Give him any amount of
+material at rest, and he can not conceive of any method by which motion
+can disturb any part of it, unless such motion be mass motion
+communicated from without, or molecular motion, already existing within.
+He accounts for the phases of present motion in heavenly bodies, not for
+the primal cause of the actual movements or intrinsic properties they
+possess. He can neither originate a theory that will permit of motion
+creating itself, and imparting itself to quiescent matter, nor imagine
+how an atom of quiescent matter can be moved, unless motion from without
+be communicated thereto. The astronomer, I assert, can neither from any
+data at his command postulate nor prove the beginning nor the end of the
+reverberating motion that exists in his solar system, which is itself
+the fragment of a system that is circulating and revolving in and about
+itself, and in which, since the birth of man, the universe he knows has
+not passed the first milestone in the road that universe is traveling in
+space immensity.
+
+"The mathematician starts a line from an imaginary point that he informs
+us exists theoretically without occupying any space, which is a
+contradiction of terms according to his human acceptation of knowledge
+derived from scientific experiment, if science is based on verified
+facts. He assumes that straight lines exist, which is a necessity for
+his calculation; but such a line he has never made. Even the beam of
+sunshine, radiating through a clear atmosphere or a cloud bank, widens
+and contracts again as it progresses through the various mediums of air
+and vapor currents, and if it is ever spreading and deflecting can it be
+straight? He begins his study in the unknown, it ends with the
+unknowable.
+
+"The biologist can conceive of no rational, scientific beginning to life
+of plant or animal, and men of science must admit the fact. Whenever we
+turn our attention to nature's laws and nature's substance, we find man
+surrounded by the infinity that obscures the origin and covers the
+end. But perseverance, study of nature's forces, and comparison of the
+past with the present, will yet clarify human knowledge and make plain
+much of this seemingly mysterious, but never will man reach the
+beginning or the end. The course of human education, to this day, has
+been mostly materialistic, although, together with the study of matter,
+there has been more or less attention given to its moving spirit. Newton
+was the dividing light in scientific thought; he stepped between the
+reasonings of the past and the provings of the present, and introduced
+problems that gave birth to a new scientific tendency, a change from the
+study of matter from the material side to that of force and matter, but
+his thought has since been carried out in a mode too realistic by far.
+The study of material bodies has given way, it is true, in a few cases
+to the study of the spirit of matter, and evolution is beginning to
+teach men that matter is crude. As a result, thought will in its
+sequence yet show that modifications of energy expression are paramount.
+This work is not lost, however, for the consideration of the nature of
+sensible material, is preliminary and necessary to progression (as the
+life of the savage prepares the way for that of the cultivated student),
+and is a meager and primitive child's effort, compared with the richness
+of the study in unseen energy expressions that are linked with matter,
+of which men will yet learn."
+
+"I comprehend some of this," I replied; "but I am neither prepared to
+assent to nor dissent from your conclusions, and my mind is not clear as
+to whether your logic is good or bad. I am more ready to speak plainly
+about my own peculiar situation than to become absorbed in abstruse
+arguments in science, and I marvel more at the soft light that is here
+surrounding us than at the metaphysical reasoning in which you indulge."
+
+"The child ignorant of letters wonders at the resources of those who can
+spell and read, and, in like manner, many obscure natural phenomena are
+marvelous to man only because of his ignorance. You do not comprehend
+the fact that sunlight is simply a matter-bred expression, an outburst
+of interrupted energy, and that the modification this energy undergoes
+makes it visible or sensible to man. What, think you, becomes of the
+flood of light energy that unceasingly flows from the sun? For ages,
+for an eternity, it has bathed this earth and seemingly streamed into
+space, and space it would seem must have long since have been filled
+with it, if, as men believe, space contains energy of any description.
+Man may say the earth casts the amount intercepted by it back into
+space, and yet does not your science teach that the great bulk of the
+earth is an absorber, and a poor radiator of light and heat? What think
+you, I repeat, becomes of the torrent of light and heat and other forces
+that radiate from the sun, the flood that strikes the earth? It
+disappears, and, in the economy of nature, is not replaced by any known
+force or any known motion of matter. Think you that earth substance
+really presents an obstacle to the passage of the sun's energy? Is it
+not probable that most of this light producing essence, as a subtle
+fluid, passes through the surface of the earth and into its interior, as
+light does through space, and returns thence to the sun again, in a
+condition not discernible by man?" He grasped my arm and squeezed it as
+though to emphasize the words to follow. "You have used the term
+sunshine freely; tell me what is sunshine? Ah! you do not reply; well,
+what evidence have you to show that sunshine (heat and light) is not
+earth-bred, a condition that exists locally only, the result of contact
+between matter and some unknown force expression? What reason have you
+for accepting that, to other forms unknown and yet transparent to this
+energy, your sunshine may not be as intangible as the ether of space is
+to man? What reason have you to believe that a force torrent is not
+circulating to and from the sun and earth, inappreciable to man,
+excepting the mere trace of this force which, modified by contact action
+with matter appears as heat, light, and other force expressions? How can
+I, if this is true, in consideration of your ignorance, enter into
+details explanatory of the action that takes place between matter and a
+portion of this force, whereby in the earth, first at the surface,
+darkness is produced, and then deeper down an earth light that man can
+perceive by the sense of sight, as you now realize? I will only say that
+this luminous appearance about us is produced by a natural law, whereby
+the flood of energy, invisible to man, a something clothed now under the
+name of darkness, after streaming into the crust substance of the earth,
+is at this depth, revivified, and then is made apparent to mortal eye,
+to be modified again as it emerges from the opposite earth crust, but
+not annihilated. For my vision, however, this central light is not a
+necessity; my physical and mental development is such that the energy of
+darkness is communicable; I can respond to its touches on my nerves, and
+hence I can guide you in this dark cavern. I am all eye."
+
+"Ah!" I exclaimed, "that reminds me of a remark made by my former guide
+who, referring to the instinct of animals, spoke of that as a natural
+power undeveloped in man. Is it true that by mental cultivation a new
+sense can be evolved whereby darkness may become as light?"
+
+"Yes; that which you call light is a form of sensible energy to which
+the faculties of animals who live on the surface of the earth have
+become adapted, through their organs of sight. The sun's energy is
+modified when it strikes the surface of the earth; part is reflected,
+but most of it passes onward into the earth's substance, in an altered
+or disturbed condition. Animal organisms within the earth must possess a
+peculiar development to utilize it under its new form, but such a sense
+is really possessed in a degree by some creatures known to men. There is
+consciousness behind consciousness; there are grades and depths of
+consciousness. Earth worms, and some fishes and reptiles in underground
+streams (lower organizations, men call them) do not use the organ of
+sight, but recognize objects, seek their food, and flee from their
+enemies."
+
+"They have no eyes," I exclaimed, forgetting that I spoke to an eyeless
+being; "how can they see?"
+
+"You should reflect that man can not offer a satisfactory explanation of
+the fact that he can see with his eyes. In one respect, these so-called
+lower creatures are higher in the scale of life than man is, for they
+see (appreciate) without eyes. The surfaces of their bodies really are
+sources of perception, and seats of consciousness. Man must yet learn to
+see with his skin, taste with his fingers, and hear with the surface of
+his body. The dissected nerve, or the pupil of man's eye, offers to the
+physiologist no explanation of its intrinsic power. Is not man
+unfortunate in having to risk so much on so frail an organ? The
+physiologist can not tell why or how the nerve of the tongue can
+distinguish between bitter and sweet, or convey any impression of
+taste, or why the nerve of the ear communicates sound, or the nerve of
+the eye communicates the impression of sight. There is an impassable
+barrier behind all forms of nerve impressions, that neither the
+microscope nor other methods of investigation can help the reasoning
+senses of man to remove. The void that separates the pulp of the
+material nerve from consciousness is broader than the solar universe,
+for even from the most distant known star we can imagine the
+never-ending flight of a ray of light, that has once started on its
+travels into space. Can any man outline the bridge that connects the
+intellect with nerve or brain, mind, or with any form of matter? The
+fact that the surface of the bodies of some animals is capable of
+performing the same functions for these animals that the eye of man
+performs for him, is not more mysterious than is the function of that
+eye itself. The term darkness is an expression used to denote the fact
+that to the brain which governs the eye of man, what man calls the
+absence of light, is unrecognizable. If men were more magnanimous and
+less egotistical, they would open their minds to the fact that some
+animals really possess certain senses that are better developed than
+they are in man. The teachers of men too often tell the little they know
+and neglect the great unseen. The cat tribe, some night birds, and many
+reptiles can see better in darkness than in daylight. Let man compare
+with the nerve expanse of his own eye that of the highly developed eye
+of any such creature, and he will understand that the difference is one
+of brain or intellect, and not altogether one of optical vision surface.
+When men are able to explain how light can affect the nerves of their
+own eyes and produce such an effect on distant brain tissues as to bring
+to his senses objects that he is not touching, he may be able to explain
+how the energy in darkness can affect the nerve of the eye in the owl
+and impress vision on the brain of that creature. Should not man's
+inferior sense of light lead him to question if, instead of deficient
+visual power, there be not a deficiency of the brain capacity of man?
+Instead of accepting that the eye of man is incapable of receiving the
+impression of night energy, and making no endeavor to improve himself in
+the direction of his imperfection, man should reflect whether or not his
+brain may, by proper cultivation or artificial stimulus, be yet
+developed so as to receive yet deeper nerve impressions, thereby
+changing darkness into daylight. Until man can explain the modus
+operandi of the senses he now possesses, he can not consistently
+question the existence of a different sight power in other beings, and
+unquestioned existing conditions should lead him to hope for a yet
+higher development in himself."
+
+"This dissertation is interesting, very," I said. "Although inclined
+toward agnosticism, my ideas of a possible future in consciousness that
+lies before mankind are broadened. I therefore accept your reasoning,
+perhaps because I can not refute it, neither do I wish to do so. And now
+I ask again, can not you explain to me how darkness, as deep as that of
+midnight, has been revivified so as to bring this great cavern to my
+view?"
+
+"That may be made plain at a future time," he answered; "let us proceed
+with our journey."
+
+We passed through a dry, well ventilated apartment. Stalactite
+formations still existed, indicative of former periods of water
+drippings, but as we journeyed onward I saw no evidence of present
+percolations, and the developing and erosive agencies that had worked in
+ages past must long ago have been suspended. The floor was of solid
+stone, entirely free from loose earth and fallen rocky fragments. It was
+smooth upon the surface, but generally disposed in gentle undulations.
+The peculiar, soft, radiant light to which my guide referred as
+"vitalized darkness" or "revivified sunshine," pervaded all the space
+about me, but I could not by its agency distinguish the sides of the
+vast cavern. The brightness was of a species that while it brought into
+distinctness objects that were near at hand, lost its unfolding power or
+vigor a short distance beyond. I would compare the effect to that of a
+bright light shining through a dense fog, were it not that the medium
+about us was transparent--not milky. The light shrunk into nothingness.
+It passed from existence behind and about me as if it were annihilated,
+without wasting away in the opalescent appearance once familiar as that
+of a spreading fog. Moreover, it seemed to detail such objects as were
+within the compass of a certain area close about me, but to lose in
+intensity beyond. The buttons on my coat appeared as distinct as they
+ever did when I stood in the sunlight, and fully one-half larger than I
+formerly knew them to be. The corrugations on the palms of my hands
+stood out in bold serpentine relief that I observed clearly when I held
+my hands near my eye, my fingers appeared clumsy, and all parts of my
+person were magnified in proportion. The region at the limits of my
+range of perception reminded me of nothingness, but not of darkness. A
+circle of obliteration defined the border of the luminous belt which
+advanced as we proceeded, and closed in behind us. This line, or rather
+zone of demarkation, that separated the seen from the unseen, appeared
+to be about two hundred feet away, but it might have been more or less,
+as I had no method of measuring distances.
+
+[Illustration: "I WAS IN A FOREST OF COLOSSAL FUNGI."]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+    THE FUNGUS FOREST.--ENCHANTMENT.
+
+
+Along the chamber through which we now passed I saw by the mellow light
+great pillars, capped with umbrella-like covers, some of them reminding
+me of the common toadstool of upper earth, on a magnificent scale.
+Instead, however, of the gray or somber shades to which I had been
+accustomed, these objects were of various hues and combined the
+brilliancy of the primary prismatic colors, with the purity of clean
+snow. Now they would stand solitary, like gigantic sentinels; again they
+would be arranged in rows, the alignment as true as if established by
+the hair of a transit, forming columnar avenues, and in other situations
+they were wedged together so as to produce masses, acres in extent, in
+which the stems became hexagonal by compression. The columnar stems,
+larger than my body, were often spiral; again they were marked with
+diamond-shaped figures, or other regular geometrical forms in relief,
+beautifully exact, drawn as by a master's hand in rich and delicately
+blended colors, on pillars of pure alabaster. Not a few of the stems
+showed deep crimson, blue, or green, together with other rich colors
+combined; over which, as delicate as the rarest of lace, would be
+thrown, in white, an enamel-like intricate tracery, far surpassing in
+beauty of execution the most exquisite needle-work I had ever seen.
+There could be no doubt that I was in a forest of colossal fungi, the
+species of which are more numerous than those of upper earth cryptomatic
+vegetation. The expanded heads of these great thallogens were as varied
+as the stems I have described, and more so. Far above our path they
+spread like beautiful umbrellas, decorated as if by masters from whom
+the great painters of upper earth might humbly learn the art of mixing
+colors. Their under surfaces were of many different designs, and were of
+as many shapes as it is conceivable could be made of combinations of the
+circle and hyperbola. Stately and picturesque, silent and immovable as
+the sphinx, they studded the great cavern singly or in groups, reminding
+me of a grown child's wild imagination of fairy land. I stopped beside a
+group that was of unusual conspicuity and gazed in admiration on the
+huge and yet graceful, beautiful spectacle. I placed my hand on the stem
+of one plant, and found it soft and impressible; but instead of being
+moist, cold, and clammy as the repulsive toadstool of upper earth, I
+discovered, to my surprise, that it was pleasantly warm, and soft as
+velvet.
+
+"Smell your hand," said my guide.
+
+I did so, and breathed in an aroma like that of fresh strawberries. My
+guide observed (I had learned to judge of his emotions by his facial
+expressions) my surprised countenance with indifference.
+
+"Try the next one," he said.
+
+This being of a different species, when rubbed by my hand exhaled the
+odor of the pineapple.
+
+"Extraordinary," I mused.
+
+"Not at all. Should productions of surface earth have a monopoly of
+nature's methods, all the flavors, all the perfumes? You may with equal
+consistency express astonishment at the odors of the fruits of upper
+earth if you do so at the fragrance of these vegetables, for they are
+also created of odorless elements."
+
+"But toadstools are foul structures of low organization.[3] They are
+neither animals nor true vegetables, but occupy a station below that of
+plants proper," I said.
+
+
+    [3] The fungus Polyporus graveolens was neglected by the guide.
+    This fungus exhales a delicate odor, and is used in Kentucky to
+    perfume a room. Being quite large, it is employed to hold a door
+    open, thus being useful as well as fragrant.--J. U. L.
+
+"You are acquainted with this order of vegetation under the most
+unfavorable conditions; out of their native elements these plants
+degenerate and become then abnormal, often evolving into the poisonous
+earth fungi known to your woods and fields. Here they grow to
+perfection. This is their chosen habitat. They absorb from a pure
+atmosphere the combined foods of plants and animals, and during their
+existence meet no scorching sunrise. They flourish in a region of
+perfect tranquillity, and without a tremor, without experiencing the
+change of a fraction of a degree in temperature, exist for ages. Many of
+these specimens are probably thousands of years old, and are still
+growing; why should they ever die? They have never been disturbed by a
+breath of moving air, and, balanced exactly on their succulent,
+pedestal-like stems, surrounded by an atmosphere of dead nitrogen,
+vapor, and other gases, with their roots imbedded in carbonates and
+minerals, they have food at command, nutrition inexhaustible."
+
+"Still I do not see why they grow to such mammoth proportions."
+
+"Plants adapt themselves to surrounding conditions," he remarked. "The
+oak tree in its proper latitude is tall and stately; trace it toward the
+Arctic circle, and it becomes knotted, gnarled, rheumatic, and dwindles
+to a shrub. The castor plant in the tropics is twenty or thirty feet in
+height, in the temperate zone it is an herbaceous plant, farther north
+it has no existence. Indian corn in Kentucky is luxuriant, tall, and
+graceful, and each stalk is supplied with roots to the second and third
+joint, while in the northland it scarcely reaches to the shoulder of a
+man, and, in order to escape the early northern frost, arrives at
+maturity before the more southern variety begins to tassel. The common
+jimson weed (datura stramonium) planted in early spring, in rich soil,
+grows luxuriantly, covers a broad expanse and bears an abundance of
+fruit; planted in midsummer it blossoms when but a few inches in height,
+and between two terminal leaves hastens to produce a single capsule on
+the apex of the short stem, in order to ripen its seed before the frost
+appears. These and other familiar examples might be cited concerning the
+difference some species of vegetation of your former lands undergo under
+climatic conditions less marked than between those that govern the
+growth of fungi here and on surface earth. Such specimens of fungi as
+grow in your former home have escaped from these underground regions,
+and are as much out of place as are the tropical plants transplanted to
+the edge of eternal snow. Indeed, more so, for on the earth the ordinary
+fungus, as a rule, germinates after sunset, and often dies when the sun
+rises, while here they may grow in peace eternally. These meandering
+caverns comprise thousands of miles of surface covered by these growths
+which shall yet fulfill a grand purpose in the economy of nature, for
+they are destined to feed tramping multitudes when the day appears in
+which the nations of men will desert the surface of the earth and pass
+as a single people through these caverns on their way to the immaculate
+existence to be found in the inner sphere."
+
+"I can not disprove your statement," I again repeated; "neither do I
+accept it. However, it still seems to me unnatural to find such
+delicious flavors and delicate odors connected with objects associated
+in memory with things insipid, or so disagreeable as toadstools and the
+rank forest fungi which I abhorred on earth."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+    THE FOOD OF MAN.
+
+
+"This leads me to remark," answered the eyeless seer, "that you speak
+without due consideration of previous experience. You are, or should be,
+aware of other and as marked differences in food products of upper
+earth, induced by climate, soil and cultivation. The potato which, next
+to wheat, rice, or corn, you know supplies nations of men with starchy
+food, originated as a wild weed in South America and Mexico, where it
+yet exists as a small, watery, marble-like tuber, and its nearest
+kindred, botanically, is still poisonous. The luscious apple reached its
+present excellence by slow stages from knotty, wild, astringent fruit,
+to which it again returns when escaped from cultivation. The cucumber is
+a near cousin of the griping, medicinal cathartic bitter-apple, or
+colocynth, and occasionally partakes yet of the properties that result
+from that unfortunate alliance, as too often exemplified to persons who
+do not peel it deep enough to remove the bitter, cathartic principle
+that exists near the surface. Oranges, in their wild condition, are
+bitter, and are used principally as medicinal agents. Asparagus was once
+a weed, native to the salty edges of the sea, and as this weed has
+become a food, so it is possible for other wild weeds yet to do.
+Buckwheat is a weed proper, and not a cereal, and birds have learned
+that the seeds of many other weeds are even preferable to wheat. The
+wild parsnip is a poison, and the parsnip of cultivation relapses
+quickly into its natural condition if allowed to escape and roam again.
+The root of the tapioca plant contains a volatile poison, and is deadly;
+but when that same root is properly prepared, it becomes the wholesome
+food, tapioca. The nut of the African anacardium (cachew nut) contains a
+nourishing kernel that is eaten as food by the natives, and yet a drop
+of the juice of the oily shell placed on the skin will blister and
+produce terrible inflammations; only those expert in the removal of the
+kernel dare partake of the food. The berry of the berberis vulgaris is
+a pleasant acid fruit; the bough that bears it is intensely bitter. Such
+examples might be multiplied indefinitely, but I have cited enough to
+illustrate the fact that neither the difference in size and structure of
+the species in the mushroom forest through which we are passing, nor the
+conditions of these bodies, as compared with those you formerly knew,
+need excite your astonishment. Cultivate a potato in your former home so
+that the growing tuber is exposed to sunshine, and it becomes green and
+acrid, and strongly virulent. Cultivate the spores of the intra-earth
+fungi about us, on the face of the earth, and although now all parts of
+the plants are edible, the species will degenerate, and may even become
+poisonous. They lose their flavor under such unfavorable conditions, and
+although some species still retain vitality enough to resist poisonous
+degeneration, they dwindle in size, and adapt themselves to new and
+unnatural conditions. They have all degenerated. Here they live on
+water, pure nitrogen and its modifications, grasping with their roots
+the carbon of the disintegrated limestone, affiliating these substances,
+and evolving from these bodies rich and delicate flavors, far superior
+to the flavor of earth surface foods. On the surface of the earth, after
+they become abnormal, they live only on dead and devitalized organic
+matter, having lost the power of assimilating elementary matter. They
+then partake of the nature of animals, breathe oxygen and exhale
+carbonic acid, as animals do, being the reverse of other plant
+existences. Here they breathe oxygen, nitrogen, and the vapor of water;
+but exhale some of the carbon in combination with hydrogen, thus
+evolving these delicate ethereal essences instead of the poisonous gas,
+carbonic acid. Their substance is here made up of all the elements
+necessary for the support of animal life; nitrogen to make muscle,
+carbon and hydrogen for fat, lime for bone. This fungoid forest could
+feed a multitude. It is probable that in the time to come when man
+deserts the bleak earth surface, as he will some day be forced to do, as
+has been the case in frozen planets that are not now inhabited on the
+outer crust; nations will march through these spaces on their way from
+the dreary outside earth to the delights of the salubrious inner sphere.
+Here then, when that day of necessity appears, as it surely will come
+under inflexible climatic changes that will control the destiny of
+outer earth life, these constantly increasing stores adapted to nourish
+humanity, will be found accumulated and ready for food. You have already
+eaten of them, for the variety of food with which I supplied you has
+been selected from different portions of these nourishing products
+which, flavored and salted, ready for use as food, stand intermediate
+between animal and vegetable, supplying the place of both."
+
+My instructor placed both hands on my shoulders, and in silence I stood
+gazing intently into his face. Then, in a smooth, captivating,
+entrancing manner, he continued:
+
+"Can you not see that food is not matter? The material part of bread is
+carbon, water, gas, and earth; the material part of fat is charcoal and
+gas; the material part of flesh is water and gas; the material part of
+fruits is mostly water with a little charcoal and gas.[4] The material
+constituents of all foods are plentiful, they abound everywhere, and yet
+amid the unlimited, unorganized materials that go to form foods man
+would starve.
+
+    [4] By the term gas, it is evident that hydrogen and nitrogen were
+    designated, and yet, since the instructor insists that other gases
+    form part of the atmosphere, so he may consistently imply that
+    unknown gases are parts of food.--J. U. L.
+
+"Give a healthy man a diet of charcoal, water, lime salts, and air; say
+to him, 'Bread contains no other substance, here is bread, the material
+food of man, live on this food,' and yet the man, if he eat of these,
+will die with his stomach distended. So with all other foods; give man
+the unorganized materialistic constituents of food in unlimited amounts,
+and starvation results. No! matter is not food, but a carrier of food."
+
+"What is food?"
+
+"Sunshine. The grain of wheat is a food by virtue of the sunshine fixed
+within it. The flesh of animals, the food of living creatures, are
+simply carriers of sunshine energy. Break out the sunshine and you
+destroy the food, although the material remains. The growing plant locks
+the sunshine in its cells, and the living animal takes it out again.
+Hence it is that after the sunshine of any food is liberated during the
+metamorphosis of the tissues of an animal although the material part of
+the food remains, it is no longer a food, but becomes a poison, and
+then, if it is not promptly eliminated from the animal, it will destroy
+the life of the animal. This material becomes then injurious, but it
+is still material.
+
+"The farmer plants a seed in the soil, the sunshine sprouts it,
+nourishes the growing plant, and during the season locks itself to and
+within its tissues, binding the otherwise dead materials of that tissue
+together into an organized structure. Animals eat these structures,
+break them from higher to lower compounds, and in doing so live on the
+stored up sunshine and then excrete the worthless material side of the
+food. The farmer spreads these excluded substances over the earth again
+to once more take up the sunshine in the coming plant organization, but
+not until it does once more lock in its cells the energy of sunshine can
+it be a food for that animal."
+
+"Is manure a food?" he abruptly asked.
+
+"No."
+
+"Is not manure matter?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"May it not become a food again, as the part of another plant, when
+another season passes?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"In what else than energy (sunshine) does it differ from food?"
+
+"Water is a necessity," I said.
+
+"And locked in each molecule of water there is a mine of sunshine.
+Liberate suddenly the sun energy from the gases of the ocean held in
+subjection thereby, and the earth would disappear in an explosion that
+would reverberate throughout the universe. The water that you truly
+claim to be necessary to the life of man, is itself water by the grace
+of this same sun, for without its heat water would be ice, dry as dust.
+'Tis the sun that gives life and motion to creatures animate and
+substances inanimate; he who doubts distrusts his Creator. Food and
+drink are only carriers of bits of assimilable sunshine. When the fire
+worshipers kneeled to their god, the sun, they worshiped the great food
+reservoir of man. When they drew the quivering entrails from the body of
+a sacrificed victim they gave back to their God a spark of sunshine--it
+was due sooner or later. They builded well in thus recognizing the
+source of all life, and yet they acted badly, for their God asked no
+premature sacrifice, the inevitable must soon occur, and as all
+organic life comes from that Sun-God, so back to that Creator the
+sun-spark must fly."
+
+"But they are heathen; there is a God beyond their narrow conception of
+God."
+
+"As there is also a God in the Beyond, past your idea of God. Perhaps to
+beings of higher mentalities, we may be heathen; but even if this is so,
+duty demands that we revere the God within our intellectual sphere. Let
+us not digress further; the subject now is food, not the Supreme
+Creator, and I say to you the food of man and the organic life of man is
+sunshine."
+
+He ceased, and I reflected upon his words. All he had said seemed so
+consistent that I could not deny its plausibility, and yet it still
+appeared altogether unlikely as viewed in the light of my previous earth
+knowledge. I did not quite comprehend all the semi-scientific
+expressions, but was at least certain that I could neither disprove nor
+verify his propositions. My thoughts wandered aimlessly, and I found
+myself questioning whether man could be prevailed upon to live
+contentedly in situations such as I was now passing through. In company
+with my learned and philosophical but fantastically created guardian and
+monitor, I moved on.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+    THE CRY FROM A DISTANCE.--I REBEL AGAINST CONTINUING THE JOURNEY.
+
+
+As we paced along, meditating, I became more sensibly impressed with the
+fact that our progress was down a rapid declination. The saline
+incrustations, fungi and stalagmites, rapidly changed in appearance, an
+endless variety of stony figures and vegetable cryptogams recurring
+successively before my eyes. They bore the shape of trees, shrubs, or
+animals, fixed and silent as statues: at least in my distorted condition
+of mind I could make out resemblances to many such familiar objects; the
+floor of the cavern became increasingly steeper, as was shown by the
+stalactites, which, hanging here and there from the invisible ceiling,
+made a decided angle with the floor, corresponding with a similar angle
+of the stalagmites below. Like an accompanying and encircling halo the
+ever present earth-light enveloped us, opening in front as we advanced,
+and vanishing in the rear. The sound of our footsteps gave back a
+peculiar, indescribable hollow echo, and our voices sounded ghost-like
+and unearthly, as if their origin was outside of our bodies, and at a
+distance. The peculiar resonance reminded me of noises reverberating in
+an empty cask or cistern. I was oppressed by an indescribable feeling of
+mystery and awe that grew deep and intense, until at last I could no
+longer bear the mental strain.
+
+"Hold, hold," I shouted, or tried to shout, and stopped suddenly, for
+although I had cried aloud, no sound escaped my lips. Then from a
+distance--could I believe my senses?--from a distance as an echo, the
+cry came back in the tones of my own voice, "Hold, hold."
+
+"Speak lower," said my guide, "speak very low, for now an effort such as
+you have made projects your voice far outside your body; the greater the
+exertion the farther away it appears."
+
+I grasped him by the arm and said slowly, determinedly, and in a
+suppressed tone: "I have come far enough into the secret caverns of the
+earth, without knowing our destination; acquaint me now with the object
+of this mysterious journey, I demand, and at once relieve this sense of
+uncertainty; otherwise I shall go no farther."
+
+[Illustration: "AN ENDLESS VARIETY OF STONY FIGURES."]
+
+"You are to proceed to the Sphere of Rest with me," he replied, "and in
+safety. Beyond that an Unknown Country lies, into which I have never
+ventured."
+
+"You speak in enigmas; what is this Sphere of Rest? Where is it?"
+
+"Your eyes have never seen anything similar; human philosophy has no
+conception of it, and I can not describe it," he said. "It is located in
+the body of the earth, and we will meet it about one thousand miles
+beyond the North Pole."
+
+"But I am in Kentucky," I replied; "do you think that I propose to walk
+to the North Pole, man--if man you be; that unreached goal is thousands
+of miles away."
+
+"True," he answered, "as you measure distance on the surface of the
+earth, and you could not walk it in years of time; but you are now
+twenty-five miles below the surface, and you must be aware that instead
+of becoming more weary as we proceed, you are now and have for some time
+been gaining strength. I would also call to your attention that you
+neither hunger nor thirst."
+
+"Proceed," I said, "'tis useless to rebel; I am wholly in your power,"
+and we resumed our journey, and rapidly went forward amid silences that
+were to me painful beyond description. We abruptly entered a cavern of
+crystal, every portion of which was of sparkling brilliancy, and as
+white as snow. The stalactites, stalagmites and fungi disappeared. I
+picked up a fragment of the bright material, tasted it, and found that
+it resembled pure salt. Monstrous, cubical crystals, a foot or more in
+diameter, stood out in bold relief, accumulations of them, as
+conglomerated masses, banked up here and there, making parts of great
+columnar cliffs, while in other formations the crystals were small,
+resembling in the aggregate masses of white sandstone.
+
+"Is not this salt?" I asked.
+
+"Yes; we are now in the dried bed of an underground lake."
+
+"Dried bed?" I exclaimed; "a body of water sealed in the earth can not
+evaporate."
+
+"It has not evaporated; at some remote period the water has been
+abstracted from the salt, and probably has escaped upon the surface of
+the earth as a fresh water spring."
+
+"You contradict all laws of hydrostatics, as I understand that subject,"
+I replied, "when you speak of abstracting water from a dissolved
+substance that is part of a liquid, and thus leaving the solids."
+
+"Nevertheless this is a constant act of nature," said he; "how else can
+you rationally account for the great salt beds and other deposits of
+saline materials that exist hermetically sealed beneath the earth's
+surface?"
+
+[Illustration: "MONSTROUS CUBICAL CRYSTALS."]
+
+"I will confess that I have not given the subject much thought; I simply
+accept the usual explanation to the effect that salty seas have lost
+their water by evaporation, and afterward the salt formations, by some
+convulsions of nature, have been covered with earth, perhaps
+sinking by earthquake convulsions bodily into the earth."
+
+"These explanations are examples of some of the erroneous views of
+scientific writers," he replied; "they are true only to a limited
+extent. The great beds of salt, deep in the earth, are usually
+accumulations left there by water that is drawn from brine lakes, from
+which the liberated water often escaped as pure spring water at the
+surface of the earth. It does not escape by evaporation, at least not
+until it reaches the earth's surface."
+
+
+
+
+INTERLUDE--THE STORY INTERRUPTED.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+    MY UNBIDDEN GUEST PROVES HIS STATEMENT AND REFUTES MY PHILOSOPHY.
+
+
+Let the reader who has followed this strange story which I am directed
+to title "The End of Earth," and who, in imagination, has traversed the
+cavernous passages of the underworld and listened to the conversation of
+those two personages who journeyed towards the secrets of the Beyond,
+return now to upper earth, and once more enter my secluded lodgings, the
+home of Llewellen Drury, him who listened to the aged guest and who
+claims your present attention. Remember that I relate a story within a
+story. That importunate guest of mine, of the glittering knife and the
+silvery hair, like another Ancient Mariner, had constrained me to listen
+to his narrative, as he read it aloud to me from the manuscript. I
+patiently heard chapter after chapter, generally with pleasure, often
+with surprise, sometimes with incredulity, or downright dissent. Much of
+the narrative, I must say,--yes, most of it, appeared possible, if not
+probable, as taken in its connected sequence. The scientific sections
+were not uninteresting; the marvels of the fungus groves, the properties
+of the inner light, I was not disinclined to accept as true to natural
+laws; but when The-Man-Who-Did-It came to tell of the intra-earth salt
+deposits, and to explain the cause of the disappearance of lakes that
+formerly existed underground, and their simultaneous replacement by beds
+of salt, my credulity was overstrained.
+
+"Permit me to interrupt your narrative," I remarked, and then in
+response to my request the venerable guest laid down his paper.
+
+"Well?" he said, interrogatively.
+
+"I do not believe that last statement concerning the salt lake, and, to
+speak plainly, I would not have accepted it as you did, even had I been
+in your situation."
+
+"To what do you allude?" he asked.
+
+"The physical abstraction of water from the salt of a solution of salt;
+I do not believe it possible unless by evaporation of the water."
+
+"You seem to accept as conclusive the statements of men who have never
+investigated beneath the surface in these directions, and you question
+the evidence of a man who has seen the phenomenon. I presume you accept
+the prevailing notions about salt beds, as you do the assertion that
+liquids seek a common level, which your scientific authorities also
+teach as a law of nature?"
+
+"Yes; I do believe that liquids seek a common level, and I am willing to
+credit your other improbable statements if you can demonstrate the
+principle of liquid equilibrium to be untrue."
+
+"Then," said he, "to-morrow evening I will show you that fluids seek
+different levels, and also explain to you how liquids may leave the
+solids they hold in solution without evaporating from them."
+
+He arose and abruptly departed. It was near morning, and yet I sat in my
+room alone pondering the story of my unique guest until I slept to dream
+of caverns and seances until daylight, when I was awakened by their
+vividness. The fire was out, the room was cold, and, shivering in
+nervous exhaustion, I crept into bed to sleep and dream again of
+horrible things I can not describe, but which made me shudder in
+affright at their recollection. Late in the day I awoke.
+
+On the following evening my persevering teacher appeared punctually, and
+displayed a few glass tubes and some blotting or bibulous paper.
+
+"I will first show you that liquids may change their levels in
+opposition to the accepted laws of men, not contrary to nature's laws;
+however, let me lead to the experiments by a statement of facts, that,
+if you question, you can investigate at any time. If two vessels of
+water be connected by a channel from the bottom of each, the water
+surfaces will come to a common level."
+
+He selected a curved glass tube, and poured water into it. The water
+assumed the position shown in Figure 11.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 11.--A A, water in tube seeks a level.]
+
+"You have not shown me anything new," I said; "my text-books taught me
+this."
+
+"True, I have but exhibited that which is the foundation of your
+philosophy regarding the surface of liquids. Let me proceed:
+
+"If we pour a solution of common salt into such a U tube, as I do now,
+you perceive that it also rises to the same level in both ends."
+
+"Of course it does."
+
+"Do not interrupt me. Into one arm of the tube containing the brine I
+now carefully pour pure water. You observe that the surfaces do not seek
+the same level." (Figure 12.)
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 12.--A, surface of water. B, surface of brine.]
+
+"Certainly not," I said; "the weight of the liquid in each arm is the
+same, however; the columns balance each other."
+
+"Exactly; and on this assumption you base your assertion that connected
+liquids of the same gravity must always seek a common level, but you see
+from this test that if two liquids of different gravities be connected
+from beneath, the surface of the lighter one will assume a higher level
+than the surface of the heavier."
+
+"Agreed; however tortuous the channel that connects them, such must be
+the case."
+
+"Is it not supposable," said he, "that there might be two pockets in the
+earth, one containing salt water, the other fresh water, which, if
+joined together, might be represented by such a figure as this, wherein
+the water surface would be raised above that of the brine?" And he drew
+upon the paper the accompanying diagram. (Figure 13.)
+
+"Yes," I admitted; "providing, of course, there was an equal pressure of
+air on the surface of each."
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 13.--B, surface of brine. W, surface of water. S,
+sand strata connecting them.]
+
+"Now I will draw a figure in which one pocket is above the other, and
+ask you to imagine that in the lower pocket we have pure water, in the
+upper pocket brine (Figure 14); can you bring any theory of your law to
+bear upon these liquids so that by connecting them together the water
+will rise and run into the brine?"
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 14.--B, brine. W, water. S, sand stratum. (The
+difference in altitude is somewhat exaggerated to make the phenomenon
+clear. A syphon may result under such circumstances.--L.)]
+
+"No," I replied; "connect them, and then the brine will flow into the
+water."
+
+"Upon the contrary," he said; "connect them, as innumerable cavities in
+the earth are joined, and the water will flow into the brine."
+
+"The assertion is opposed to applied philosophy and common sense," I
+said.
+
+"Where ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise, you know to be a maxim
+with mortals," he replied; "but I must pardon you; your dogmatic
+education narrows your judgment. I now will prove you in error."
+
+He took from his pocket two slender glass tubes, about an eighth of an
+inch in bore and four inches in length, each closed at one end, and
+stood them in a perforated cork that he placed upon the table.
+
+Into one tube he poured water, and then dissolving some salt in a cup,
+poured brine into the other, filling both nearly to the top (Figure 15).
+Next he produced a short curved glass tube, to each end of which was
+attached a strip of flexible rubber tubing. Then, from a piece of
+blotting paper such as is used to blot ink, he cut a narrow strip and
+passed it through the arrangement, forming the apparatus represented by
+Figure 16.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 15. A A, glass tubes. F, brine surface. E, water
+surface.]
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 16. B, curved glass tube. C C, rubber tubes. D D D,
+bibulous paper.]
+
+Then he inserted the two tubes (Figure 15) into the rubber, the
+extremities of the paper being submerged in the liquids, producing a
+combination that rested upright in the cork as shown by Figure 17.
+
+The surfaces of both liquids were at once lowered by reason of the
+suction of the bibulous paper, the water decreasing most rapidly, and
+soon the creeping liquids met by absorption in the paper, the point of
+contact, as the liquids met, being plainly discernible. Now the old man
+gently slid the tubes upon each other, raising one a little, so as to
+bring the surfaces of the two liquids exactly on a plane; he then marked
+the glass at the surface of each with a pen.
+
+"Observe the result," he remarked as he replaced the tubes in the cork
+with their liquid surfaces on a line.
+
+Together we sat and watched, and soon it became apparent that the
+surface of the water had decreased in height as compared with that of
+the brine. By fixing my gaze on the ink mark on the glass I also
+observed that the brine in the opposing tube was rising.
+
+"I will call to-morrow evening," he said, "and we shall then discover
+which is true, man's theory or nature's practice."
+
+Within a short time enough of the water in the tube had been transferred
+to the brine to raise its surface considerably above its former level,
+the surface of the water being lowered to a greater degree. (Figure 18.)
+I was discomfited at the result, and upon his appearance next evening
+peevishly said to the experimenter:
+
+"I do not know that this is fair."
+
+"Have I not demonstrated that, by properly connecting the liquids, the
+lighter flows into the heavier, and raises itself above the former
+surface?"
+
+"Yes; but there is no porous paper in the earth."
+
+"True; I used this medium because it was convenient. There are, however,
+vast subterranean beds of porous materials, stone, sand, clay, various
+other earths, many of which will answer the same purpose. By perfectly
+natural laws, on a large scale, such molecular transfer of liquids is
+constantly taking place within the earth, and in these phenomena the law
+of gravitation seems ignored, and the rule which man believes from
+narrow experience, governs the flow of liquids, is reversed. The arched
+porous medium always transfers the lighter liquid into the heavier one
+until its surface is raised considerably above that of the light one. In
+the same way you can demonstrate that alcohol passes into water,
+sulphuric ether into alcohol, and other miscible light liquids into
+those heavier."
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 17. A A, glass tubes. B, curved glass tube. C C,
+rubber tubes. D, bibulous paper. E, water surface. F, brine surface.]
+
+"I have seen you exemplify the statement on a small scale, with water
+and brine, and can not question but that it is true on a large one," I
+replied.
+
+"So you admit that the assertion governing the surfaces of liquids is
+true only when the liquids are connected from beneath. In other words,
+your thought is one-sided, as science thought often is."
+
+"Yes."
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 18. E, water surface. F, brine surface.]
+
+"Now as to the beds of salt deep within the earth. You are also mistaken
+concerning their origin. The water of the ocean that runs through an
+open channel from the one side may flow into an underground lake, that
+by means of the contact action (suction) of the overlying and
+surrounding strata is being continually emptied of its water, but not
+its salt. Thus by absorption of water the brine of the lake becomes in
+time saturated, starting crystallization regularly over the floor and
+sides of the basin. Eventually the entire cavity is filled with salt,
+and a solid mass of rock salt remains. If, however, before the lake
+becomes solid, the brine supply is shut off by some natural cause as by
+salt crystals closing the passage thereto, the underground lake is at
+last drained of its water, the salt crystallizing over the bottom, and
+upon the cliffs, leaving great crevices through the saline deposits, as
+chances to have been the case with the salt formations through which I
+passed with my guide, and have recently described to you."
+
+"Even now I have my doubts as to the correctness of your explanations,
+especially concerning the liquid surfaces."
+
+"They are facts, however; liquids capable of being mixed, if connected
+by porous arches (bibulous paper is convenient for illustrating by
+experiment) reverse the rule men have accepted to explain the phenomena
+of liquid equilibrium, for I repeat, the lighter one rushes into that
+which is heavier, and the surface of the heavier liquid rises. You can
+try the experiment with alcohol and water, taking precautions to prevent
+evaporation, or you can vary the experiment with solutions of various
+salts of different densities; the greater the difference in gravity
+between the two liquids, the more rapid will be the flow of the lighter
+one into the heavier, and after equilibrium, the greater will be the
+contrast in the final height of the resultant liquid surfaces."
+
+"Men will yet explain this effect by natural laws," I said.
+
+"Yes," he answered; "when they learn the facts; and they will then be
+able to solve certain phenomena connected with diffusion processes that
+they can not now understand. Did I not tell you that after the fact had
+been made plain it was easy to see how Columbus stood the egg on its
+end? What I have demonstrated by experiment is perhaps no new principle
+in hydrostatics. But I have applied it in a natural manner to the
+explanation of obscure natural phenomena, that men now seek unreasonable
+methods to explain."
+
+"You may proceed with your narrative. I accept that when certain liquids
+are connected, as you have shown, by means of porous substances, one
+will pass into the other, and the surface of the lighter liquid in this
+case will assume a position below that of the heavier."
+
+"You must also accept," said he, "that when solutions of salt are
+subjected to earth attraction, under proper conditions, the solids may
+by capillary attraction be left behind, and pure water finally pass
+through the porous medium. Were it not for this law, the only natural
+surface spring water on earth would be brine, for the superficial crust
+of the earth is filled with saline solutions. All the spring-fed
+rivers and lakes would also be salty and fetid with sulphur compounds,
+for at great depths brine and foul water are always present. Even in
+countries where all the water below the immediate surface of the earth
+is briny, the running springs, if of capillary origin, are pure and
+fresh. You may imagine how different this would be were it not for the
+law I have cited, for the whole earth's crust is permeated by brine and
+saline waters. Did your 'philosophy' never lead you to think of this?"
+
+Continuing, my guest argued as follows: "Do not lakes exist on the
+earth's surface into which rivers and streams flow, but which have no
+visible outlet? Are not such lakes saline, even though the source of
+supply is comparatively fresh? Has it never occurred to you to question
+whether capillarity assisted by surface evaporation (not evaporation
+only as men assert) is not separating the water of these lakes from the
+saline substances carried into them by the streams, thus producing brine
+lakes? Will not this action after a great length of time result in
+crystalline deposits over portions of the bottoms of such lakes, and
+ultimately produce a salt bed?"
+
+"It is possible," I replied.
+
+"Not only possible, but probable. Not only probable, but true. Across
+the intervening brine strata above the salt crystals the surface rivers
+may flow, indeed, owing to differences in specific gravity the surface
+of the lake may be comparatively fresh, while in the quiet depths below,
+beds of salt crystals are forming, and between these extremes may rest
+strata after strata of saline solutions, decreasing in gravity towards
+the top."
+
+Then he took his manuscript, and continued to read in a clear, musical
+voice, while I sat a more contented listener than I had been previously.
+I was not only confuted, but convinced. And I recalled the saying of
+Socrates, that no better fortune can happen a man than to be confuted in
+an error.
+
+
+
+
+MY UNBIDDEN GUEST CONTINUES READING HIS MANUSCRIPT.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+    MY WEIGHT DISAPPEARING.
+
+
+We halted suddenly, for we came unexpectedly to the edge of a precipice,
+twenty feet at least in depth.
+
+"Let us jump down," said my guide.
+
+"That would be dangerous," I answered; "can not we descend at some point
+where it is not so deep?"
+
+"No; the chasm stretches for miles across our path, and at this point we
+will meet with the least difficulty; besides, there is no danger. The
+specific gravity of our bodies is now so little that we could jump twice
+that distance with impunity."
+
+"I can not comprehend you; we are in the flesh, our bodies are possessed
+of weight, the concussion will be violent."
+
+"You reason again from the condition of your former life, and, as usual,
+are mistaken; there will be little shock, for, as I have said, our
+bodies are comparatively light now. Have you forgotten that your motion
+is continuously accelerated, and that without perceptible exertion you
+move rapidly? This is partly because of the loss of weight. Your weight
+would now be only about fifty pounds if tested by a spring balance."
+
+I stood incredulous.
+
+"You trifle with me; I weigh over one hundred and fifty pounds; how have
+I lost weight? It is true that I have noticed the ease with which we
+have recently progressed on our journey, especially the latter part of
+it, but I attribute this, in part, to the fact that our course is down
+an incline, and also to the vitalizing power of this cavern air."
+
+"This explains part of the matter," he said; "it answered at the time,
+and I stated a fact; but were it not that you are really consuming a
+comparatively small amount of energy, you would long before this have
+been completely exhausted. You have been gaining strength for some
+hours; have really been growing younger. Your wrinkled face has become
+more smooth, and your voice is again natural. You were prematurely aged
+by your brothers on the surface of the earth, in order that when you
+pass the line of gravity, you might be vigorous and enjoying manhood
+again. Had this aging process not been accomplished you would now have
+become as a child in many respects."
+
+[Illustration: "I BOUNDED UPWARD FULLY SIX FEET."]
+
+He halted before me. "Jump up," he said. I promptly obeyed the
+unexpected command, and sprung upward with sufficient force to carry me,
+as I supposed, six inches from the earth; however I bounded upward fully
+six feet. My look of surprise as I gently alighted, for there was no
+concussion on my return, seemed lost on my guide, and he quietly said:
+
+"If you can leap six feet upward without excessive exertion, or return
+shock, can not you jump twenty feet down? Look!"
+
+[Illustration: "I FLUTTERED TO THE EARTH AS A LEAF WOULD FALL."]
+
+And he leaped lightly over the precipice and stood unharmed on the stony
+floor below.
+
+Even then I hesitated, observing which, he cried:
+
+"Hang by your hands from the edge then, and drop."
+
+I did so, and the fourteen feet of fall seemed to affect me as though I
+had become as light as cork. I fluttered to the earth as a leaf would
+fall, and leaned against the precipice in surprised meditation.
+
+"Others have been through your experience," he remarked, "and I
+therefore can overlook your incredulity; but experiences such as you now
+meet, remove distrust. Doing is believing." He smiled benignantly.
+
+[Illustration: "WE LEAPED OVER GREAT INEQUALITIES."]
+
+I pondered, revolving in my mind the fact that persons had in mental
+abstraction, passed through unusual experiences in ignorance of
+conditions about them, until their attention had been called to the seen
+and yet unnoticed surroundings, and they had then beheld the facts
+plainly. The puzzle picture (see p. 129) stares the eye and impresses
+the retina, but is devoid of character until the hidden form is
+developed in the mind, and then that form is always prominent to the
+eye. My remarkably light step, now that my attention had been directed
+thereto, was constantly in my mind, and I found myself suddenly
+possessed of the strength of a man, but with the weight of an infant. I
+raised my feet without an effort; they seemed destitute of weight; I
+leaped about, tumbled, and rolled over and over on the smooth stone
+floor without injury. It appeared that I had become the airy similitude
+of my former self, my material substance having wasted away without a
+corresponding impairment of strength.I pinched my flesh to be assured
+that all was not a dream, and then endeavored to convince myself that I
+was the victim of delirium; but in vain. Too sternly my self-existence
+confronted me as a reality, a cruel reality. A species of intoxication
+possessed me once more, and I now hoped for the end, whatever it might
+be. We resumed our journey, and rushed on with increasing rapidity,
+galloping hand in hand, down, down, ever downward into the illuminated
+crevice of the earth. The spectral light by which we were aureoled
+increased in intensity, as by arithmetical progression, and I could now
+distinguish objects at a considerable distance before us. My spirits
+rose as if I were under the influence of a potent stimulant; a
+liveliness that was the opposite of my recent despondency had gained
+control, and I was again possessed of a delicious mental sensation, to
+which I can only refer as a most rapturous exhilaration. My guide
+grasped my hand firmly, and his touch, instead of revolting me as
+formerly it had done, gave pleasure. We together leaped over great
+inequalities in the floor, performing these aerial feats almost as
+easily as a bird flies. Indeed, I felt that I possessed the power of
+flight, for we bounded fearlessly down great declivities and over
+abysses that were often perpendicular, and many times our height. A very
+slight muscular exertion was sufficient to carry us rods of distance,
+and almost tiptoeing we skimmed with ever-increasing speed down the
+steeps of that unknown declivity. At length my guide held back; we
+gradually lessened our velocity, and, after a time, rested beside a
+horizontal substance that lay before us, apparently a sheet of glass,
+rigid, immovable, immeasurably great, that stretched as a level surface
+before us, vividly distinct in the brightness of an earth light, that
+now proved to be superior to sunshine. Far as the eye could reach, the
+glassy barrier to our further progress spread as a crystal mirror in
+front, and vanishing in the distance, shut off the beyond.
+
+[Illustration: "FAR AS THE EYE COULD REACH THE GLASSY BARRIER
+SPREAD AS A CRYSTAL MIRROR."]
+
+
+
+
+INTERLUDE.--THE STORY AGAIN INTERRUPTED.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+    MY UNBIDDEN GUEST DEPARTS.
+
+
+Once more I must presume to interrupt this narrative, and call back the
+reader's thoughts from those mysterious caverns through which we have
+been tracing the rapid footsteps of the man who was abducted, and his
+uncouth pilot of the lower realms. Let us now see and hear what took
+place in my room, in Cincinnati, just after my visitor, known to us as
+The-Man-Who-Did-It, had finished reading to me, Lewellyn Drury, the
+custodian of this manuscript, the curious chapter relating how the
+underground explorers lost weight as they descended in the hollows of
+the earth. My French clock struck twelve of its clear silvery notes
+before the gray-bearded reader finished his stint for the occasion, and
+folded his manuscript preparatory to placing it within his bosom.
+
+"It is past midnight," he said, "and it is time for me to depart; but I
+will come to you again within a year.
+
+"Meanwhile, during my absence, search the records, question authorities,
+and note such objections as rise therefrom concerning the statements I
+have made. Establish or disprove historically, or scientifically, any
+portion of the life history that I have given, and when I return I will
+hear what you have to say, and meet your argument. If there is a doubt
+concerning the authenticity of any part of the history, investigate; but
+make no mention to others of the details of our meetings."
+
+I sat some time in thought, then said: "I decline to concern myself in
+verifying the historical part of your narrative. The localities you
+mention may be true to name, and it is possible that you have related a
+personal history; but I can not perceive that I am interested in either
+proving or disproving it. I will say, however, that it does not seem
+probable that at any time a man can disappear from a community, as you
+claim to have done, and have been the means of creating a commotion in
+his neighborhood that affected political parties, or even led to an
+unusual local excitement, outside his immediate circle of acquaintances,
+for a man is not of sufficient importance unless he is very conspicuous.
+By your own admission, you were simply a studious mechanic, a credulous
+believer in alchemistic vagaries, and as I revolve the matter over, I am
+afraid that you are now trying to impose on my credulity. The story of a
+forcible abduction, in the manner you related, seems to me incredible,
+and not worthy of investigation, even had I the inclination to concern
+myself in your personal affairs. The statements, however, that you make
+regarding the nature of the crust of the earth, gravitation, light,
+instinct, and human senses are highly interesting, and even plausible as
+you artfully present the subjects, I candidly admit, and I shall take
+some pains to make inquiries concerning the recorded researches of
+experts who have investigated in that direction."
+
+"Collect your evidence," said he, "and I shall listen to your views when
+I return."
+
+He opened the door, glided away, and I was alone again.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+    I QUESTION SCIENTIFIC MEN.--ARISTOTLE'S ETHER.
+
+
+Days and weeks passed. When the opportunity presented, I consulted Dr.
+W. B. Chapman, the druggist and student of science, regarding the nature
+of light and earth, who in turn referred me to Prof. Daniel Vaughn. This
+learned man, in reply to my question concerning gravitation, declared
+that there was much that men wished to understand in regard to this
+mighty force, that might yet be explained, but which may never become
+known to mortal man.
+
+"The correlation of forces," said he, "was prominently introduced and
+considered by a painstaking scientific writer named Joule, in several
+papers that appeared between 1843 and 1850, and he was followed by
+others, who engaged themselves in experimenting and theorizing, and I
+may add that Joule was indeed preceded in such thought by Mayer. This
+department of scientific study just now appears of unusual interest to
+scientists, and your questions embrace problems connected with some
+phases of its phenomena. We believe that light, heat, and electricity
+are mutually convertible, in fact, the evidences recently opened up to
+us show that such must be the case. These agencies or manifestations are
+now known to be so related that whenever one disappears others spring
+into existence. Study the beautiful experiments and remarkable
+investigations of Sir William Thomson in these directions."
+
+"And what of gravitation?" I asked, observing that Prof. Vaughn
+neglected to include gravitation among his numerous enumerated forces,
+and recollecting that the force gravitation was more closely connected
+with my visitor's story than perhaps were any of the others, excepting
+the mysterious mid-earth illumination.
+
+"Of that force we are in greater ignorance than of the others," he
+replied. "It affects bodies terrestrial and celestial, drawing a
+material substance, or pressing to the earth; also holds, we believe,
+the earth and all other bodies in position in the heavens, thus
+maintaining the equilibrium of the planets. Seemingly gravitation is not
+derived from, or sustained by, an external force, or supply reservoir,
+but is an intrinsic entity, a characteristic of matter that decreases in
+intensity at the rate of the square of the increasing distance, as
+bodies recede from each other, or from the surface of the earth.
+However, gravitation neither escapes by radiation from bodies nor needs
+to be replenished, so far as we know, from without. It may be compared
+to an elastic band, but there is no intermediate tangible substance to
+influence bodies that are affected by it, and it remains in undying
+tension, unlike all elastic material substances known, neither losing
+nor acquiring energy as time passes. Unlike cohesion, or chemical
+attraction, it exerts its influence upon bodies that are out of contact,
+and have no material connection, and this necessitates a purely fanciful
+explanation concerning the medium that conducts such influences,
+bringing into existence the illogical, hypothetical, fifth ether, made
+conspicuous by Aristotle."
+
+"What of this ether?" I queried.
+
+"It is a necessity in science, but intangible, undemonstrated, unknown,
+and wholly theoretical. It is accepted as an existing fluid by
+scientists, because human theory can not conceive of a substance capable
+of, or explain how a substance can be capable of affecting a separate
+body unless there is an intermediate medium to convey force impressions.
+Hence to material substances Aristotle added (or at least made
+conspicuous) a speculative ether that, he assumed, pervades all space,
+and all material bodies as well, in order to account for the passage of
+heat and light to and from the sun, stars, and planets."
+
+"Explain further," I requested.
+
+"To conceive of such an entity we must imagine a material that is more
+evanescent than any known gas, even in its most diffused condition. It
+must combine the solidity of the most perfect conductor of heat
+(exceeding any known body in this respect to an infinite degree), with
+the transparency of an absolute vacuum. It must neither create friction
+by contact with any substance, nor possess attraction for matter; must
+neither possess weight (and yet carry the force that produces weight),
+nor respond to the influence of any chemical agent, or exhibit itself to
+any optical instrument. It must be invisible, and yet carry the force
+that produces the sensation of sight. It must be of such a nature that
+it can not, according to our philosophy, affect the corpuscles of
+earthly substances while permeating them without contact or friction,
+and yet, as a scientific incongruity, it must act so readily on physical
+bodies as to convey to the material eye the sensation of sight, and from
+the sun to creatures on distant planets it must carry the heat force,
+thus giving rise to the sensation of warmth. Through this medium, yet
+without sensible contact with it, worlds must move, and planetary
+systems revolve, cutting and piercing it in every direction, without
+loss of momentum. And yet, as I have said, this ether must be in such
+close contact as to convey to them the essence that warms the universe,
+lights the universe, and must supply the attractive bonds that hold the
+stellar worlds in position. A nothing in itself, so far as man's senses
+indicate, the ether of space must be denser than iridium, more mobile
+than any known liquid, and stronger than the finest steel."
+
+"I can not conceive of such an entity," I replied.
+
+"No; neither can any man, for the theory is irrational, and can not be
+supported by comparison with laws known to man, but the conception is
+nevertheless a primary necessity in scientific study. Can man, by any
+rational theory, combine a vacuum and a substance, and create a result
+that is neither material nor vacuity, neither something nor nothing, and
+yet an intensified all; being more attenuated than the most perfect of
+known vacuums, and a conductor better than the densest metal? This we do
+when we attempt to describe the scientists' all-pervading ether of
+space, and to account for its influence on matter. This hypothetical
+ether is, for want of a better theory of causes, as supreme in
+philosophy to-day as the alkahest of the talented old alchemist Van
+Helmont was in former times, a universal spirit that exists in
+conception, and yet does not exist in perception, and of which modern
+science knows as little as its speculative promulgator, Aristotle, did.
+We who pride ourselves on our exact science, smile at some of
+Aristotle's statements in other directions, for science has disproved
+them, and yet necessity forces us to accept this illogical ether
+speculation, which is, perhaps, the most unreasonable of all theories.
+Did not this Greek philosopher also gravely assert that the lion has but
+one vertebra in his neck; that the breath of man enters the heart; that
+the back of the head is empty, and that man has but eight ribs?"
+
+"Aristotle must have been a careless observer," I said.
+
+"Yes," he answered; "it would seem so, and science, to-day, bases its
+teachings concerning the passage of all forces from planet to planet,
+and sun to sun, on dicta such as I have cited, and no more reasonable in
+applied experiment."
+
+"And I have been referred to you as a conscientious scientific teacher,"
+I said; "why do you speak so facetiously?"
+
+"I am well enough versed in what we call science, to have no fear of
+injuring the cause by telling the truth, and you asked a direct
+question. If your questions carry you farther in the direction of force
+studies, accept at once, that, of the intrinsic constitution of force
+itself, nothing is known. Heat, light, magnetism, electricity, galvanism
+(until recently known as imponderable bodies) are now considered as
+modifications of force; but, in my opinion, the time will come when they
+will be known as disturbances."
+
+"Disturbances of what?"
+
+"I do not know precisely; but of something that lies behind them all,
+perhaps creates them all, but yet is in essence unknown to men."
+
+"Give me a clearer idea of your meaning."
+
+"It seems impossible," he replied; "I can not find words in which to
+express myself; I do not believe that forces, as we know them
+(imponderable bodies), are as modern physics defines them. I am tempted
+to say that, in my opinion, forces are disturbance expressions of a
+something with which we are not acquainted, and yet in which we are
+submerged and permeated. Aristotle's ether perhaps. It seems to me,
+that, behind all material substances, including forces, there is an
+unknown spirit, which, by certain influences, may be ruffled into the
+exhibition of an expression, which exhibition of temper we call a force.
+From this spirit these force expressions (wavelets or disturbances)
+arise, and yet they may become again quiescent, and again rest in its
+absorbing unity. The water from the outlet of a calm lake flows over a
+gentle decline in ripples, or quiet undulations, over the rapids in
+musical laughings, over a precipice in thunder tones,--always water,
+each a different phase, however, to become quiet in another lake (as
+ripples in this universe may awaken to our perception, to repose again),
+and still be water."
+
+He hesitated.
+
+"Go on," I said.
+
+"So I sometimes have dared to dream that gravitation may be the
+reservoir that conserves the energy for all mundane forces, and that
+what we call modifications of force are intermediate conditions,
+ripples, rapids, or cascades, in gravitation."
+
+"Continue," I said, eagerly, as he hesitated.
+
+He shook his head.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+    THE SOLILOQUY OF PROF. DANIEL VAUGHN.--"GRAVITATION IS THE
+    BEGINNING AND GRAVITATION IS THE END: ALL EARTHLY BODIES KNEEL TO
+    GRAVITATION."
+
+
+"Please continue, I am intensely interested; I wish that I could give
+you my reasons for the desire; I can not do so, but I beg you to
+continue."
+
+"I should add," continued Vaughn, ignoring my remarks, "that we have
+established rules to measure the force of gravitation, and have
+estimated the decrease of attraction as we leave the surfaces of the
+planets. We have made comparative estimates of the weight of the earth
+and planets, and have reason to believe that the force expression of
+gravitation attains a maximum at about one-sixth the distance toward the
+center of the earth, then decreases, until at the very center of our
+planet, matter has no weight. This, together with the rule I repeated a
+few moments ago, is about all we know, or think we know, of gravitation.
+Gravitation is the beginning and gravitation is the end; all earthly
+bodies kneel to gravitation. I can not imagine a Beyond, and yet
+gravitation," mused the rapt philosopher, "may also be an expression
+of--" he hesitated again, forgetting me completely, and leaned his shaggy
+head upon his hands. I realized that his mind was lost in conjecture,
+and that he was absorbed in the mysteries of the scientific immensity.
+Would he speak again? I could not think of disturbing his reverie, and
+minutes passed in silence. Then he slowly, softly, reverently murmured:
+"Gravitation, Gravitation, thou art seemingly the one permanent, ever
+present earth-bound expression of Omnipotence. Heat and light come and
+go, as vapors of water condense into rain and dissolve into vapor to
+return again to the atmosphere. Electricity and magnetism appear and
+disappear; like summer storms they move in diversified channels, or even
+turn and fly from contact with some bodies, seemingly forbidden to
+appear, but thou, Gravitation, art omnipresent and omnipotent. Thou
+createst motion, and yet maintainest the equilibrium of all things
+mundane and celestial. An attempt to imagine a body destitute of thy
+potency, would be to bankrupt and deaden the material universe. O!
+Gravitation, art thou a voice out of the Beyond, and are other forces
+but echoes--tremulous reverberations that start into life to vibrate for
+a spell and die in the space caverns of the universe while thou
+continuest supreme?"
+
+[Illustration: "SOLILOQUY OF PROF. DANIEL VAUGHN.
+
+'GRAVITATION IS THE BEGINNING, AND GRAVITATION IS THE END; ALL EARTHLY
+BODIES KNEEL TO GRAVITATION.'"]
+
+His bowed head and rounded shoulders stooped yet lower; he unconsciously
+brushed his shaggy locks with his hand, and seemed to confer with a
+familiar Being whom others could not see.
+
+"A voice from without," he repeated; "from beyond our realm! Shall the
+subtle ears of future scientists catch yet lighter echoes? Will the
+brighter thoughts of more gifted men, under such furtherings as the
+future may bring, perchance commune with beings who people immensity,
+distance disappearing before thy ever-reaching spirit? For with thee,
+who holdest the universe together, space is not space, and there is no
+word expressing time. Art thou a voice that carriest the history of the
+past from the past unto and into the present, and for which there is no
+future, all conditions of time being as one to thee, thy self covering
+all and connecting all together? Art thou, Gravitation, a voice? If so,
+there must be a something farther out in those fathomless caverns,
+beyond mind imaginings, from which thou comest, for how could
+nothingness have formulated itself into a voice? The suns and universe
+of suns about us, may be only vacant points in the depths of an
+all-pervading entity in which even thyself dost exist as a momentary
+echo, linked to substances ponderous, destined to fade away in the
+inter-stellar expanse outside, where disturbances disappear, and matter
+and gravitation together die; where all is pure, quiescent, peaceful and
+dark. Gravitation, Gravitation, imperishable Gravitation; thou seemingly
+art the ever-pervading, unalterable, but yet moving spirit of a cosmos
+of solemn mysteries. Art thou now, in unperceived force expressions,
+speaking to dumb humanity of other universes; of suns and vortices of
+suns; bringing tidings from the solar planets, or even infinitely
+distant star mists, the silent unresolved nebul�, and spreading before
+earth-bound mortal minds, each instant, fresh tidings from without,
+that, in ignorance, we can not read? May not beings, perhaps like
+ourselves but higher in the scale of intelligence, those who people some
+of the planets about us, even now beckon and try to converse with us
+through thy subtle, ever-present self? And may not their efforts at
+communication fail because of our ignorance of a language they can read?
+Are not light and heat, electricity and magnetism plodding, vacillating
+agents compared with thy steady existence, and is it even further
+possible?--"
+
+His voice had gradually lowered, and now it became inaudible; he was
+oblivious to my presence, and had gone forth from his own self; he was
+lost in matters celestial, and abstractedly continued unintelligibly to
+mutter to himself as, brushing his hair from his forehead, he picked up
+his well-worn felt hat, and placed it awkwardly on his shaggy head, and
+then shuffled away without bidding me farewell. The bent form,
+prematurely shattered by privation; uncouth, unkempt, typical of
+suffering and neglect, impressed me with the fact that in him man's life
+essence, the immortal mind, had forgotten the material part of man. The
+physical half of man, even of his own being, in Daniel Vaughn's
+estimation, was an encumbrance unworthy of serious attention, his spirit
+communed with the pure in nature, and to him science was a study of the
+great Beyond.[5]
+
+    [5] Mr. Drury can not claim to have recorded verbatim Prof.
+    Vaughn's remarks, but has endeavored to give the substance. His
+    language was faultless, his word selections beautiful, his
+    soliloquy impressive beyond description. Perhaps Drury even
+    misstated an idea, or more than one, evolved then by the great
+    mind of that patient man. Prof. Daniel Vaughn was fitted for a
+    scientific throne, a position of the highest honor; but, neglected
+    by man, proud as a king, he bore uncomplainingly privations most
+    bitter, and suffered alone until finally he died from starvation
+    and neglect in the city of his adoption. Some persons are ready to
+    cry, "Shame! Shame!" at wealthy Cincinnati; others assert that men
+    could not give to Daniel Vaughn, and since the first edition of
+    ETIDORHPA appeared, the undersigned has learned of one vain
+    attempt to serve the interests of this peculiar man. He would not
+    beg, and knowing his capacities, if he could not procure a
+    position in which to earn a living, he preferred to starve. The
+    only bitterness of his nature, it is said, went out against those
+    who, in his opinion, kept from him such employment as returns a
+    livelihood to scientific men; for he well knew his intellect
+    earned for him such a right in Cincinnati. Will the spirit of that
+    great man, talented Daniel Vaughn, bear malice against the people
+    of the city in which none who knew him will deny that he perished
+    from cold and privation? Commemorated is he not by a bust of
+    bronze that distorts the facts in that the garments are not seedy
+    and unkempt, the figure stooping, the cheek hollow and the eye
+    pitifully expressive of an empty stomach? That bust modestly rests
+    in the public library he loved so well, in which he suffered so
+    uncomplainingly, and starved so patiently. J. U. L.
+
+I embraced the first opportunity that presented itself to read the
+works that Prof. Vaughn suggested, and sought him more than once to
+question further. However, he would not commit himself in regard to the
+possible existence of other forces than those with which we are
+acquainted, and when I interrogated him as to possibilities in the study
+of obscure force expressions, he declined to express an opinion
+concerning the subject. Indeed, I fancied that he believed it probable,
+or at least not impossible, that a closer acquaintance with conditions
+of matter and energy might be the heirloom of future scientific
+students. At last I gave up the subject, convinced that all the
+information I was able to obtain from other persons whom I questioned,
+and whose answers were prompt and positive, was evolved largely from
+ignorance and self-conceit, and such information was insufficient to
+satisfy my understanding, or to command my attention. After hearing
+Vaughn, all other voices sounded empty.
+
+I therefore applied myself to my daily tasks, and awaited the promised
+return of the interesting, though inscrutable being whose subterranean
+sojourneying was possibly fraught with so much potential value to
+science and to man.
+
+
+
+
+
+THE UNBIDDEN GUEST RETURNS TO READ HIS MANUSCRIPT. CONTINUING HIS
+NARRATIVE.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+    THE MOTHER OF A VOLCANO.--"YOU CAN NOT DISPROVE, AND YOU DARE NOT
+    ADMIT."
+
+
+A year from the evening of the departure of the old man, found me in my
+room, expecting his presence; and I was not surprised when he opened the
+door, and seated himself in his accustomed chair.
+
+"Are you ready to challenge my statements?" he said, taking up the
+subject as though our conversation had not been interrupted.
+
+"No."
+
+"Do you accept my history?"
+
+"No."
+
+"You can not disprove, and you dare not admit. Is not that your
+predicament?" he asked. "You have failed in every endeavor to discredit
+the truth, and your would-be scientists, much as they would like to do
+so, can not serve you. Now we will continue the narrative, and I shall
+await your next attempt to cast a shadow over the facts."
+
+Then with his usual pleasant smile, he read from his manuscript a
+continuation of the intra-earth journey as follows:
+
+"Be seated," said my eyeless guide, "and I will explain some facts that
+may prove of interest in connection with the nature of the superficial
+crust of the earth. This crystal liquid spreading before us is a placid
+sheet of water, and is the feeder of the volcano, Mount Epomeo."
+
+"Can that be a surface of water?" I interrogated. "I find it hard to
+realize that water can be so immovable. I supposed the substance before
+us to be a rigid material, like glass, perhaps."
+
+"There is no wind to ruffle this aqueous surface,--why should it not be
+quiescent? This is the only perfectly smooth sheet of water that you
+have ever seen. It is in absolute rest, and thus appears a rigid level
+plane."
+
+"Grant that your explanation is correct," I said, "yet I can not
+understand how a quiet lake of water can give rise to a convulsion such
+as the eruption of a volcano."
+
+"Not only is this possible," he responded, "but water usually causes the
+exhibition of phenomena known as volcanic action. The Island of Ischia,
+in which the volcanic crater Epomeo is situated, is connected by a
+tortuous crevice with the peaceful pool by which we now stand, and at
+periods, separated by great intervals of time, the lake is partly
+emptied by a simple natural process, and a part of its water is expelled
+above the earth's surface in the form of super-heated steam, which
+escapes through that distant crater."
+
+"But I see no evidence of heat or even motion of any kind."
+
+"Not here," he replied; "in this place there is none. The energy is
+developed thousands of miles away, but since the phenomena of volcanic
+action are to be partially explained to you at a future day, I will
+leave that matter for the present. We shall cross this lake."
+
+I observed as we walked along its edge that the shore of the lake was
+precipitous in places, again formed a gradually descending beach, and
+the dead silence of the space about us, in connection with the
+death-like stillness of that rigid mass of water and its surroundings,
+became increasingly impressive and awe-inspiring. Never before had I
+seen such a perfectly quiet glass-like surface. Not a vibration or
+undulation appeared in any direction. The solidity of steel was
+exemplified in its steady, apparently inflexible contour, and yet the
+pure element was so transparent that the bottom of the pool was as
+clearly defined as the top of the cavern above me. The lights and shades
+of the familiar lakes of Western New York were wanting here, and it
+suddenly came to my mind that there were surface reflections, but no
+shadows, and musing on this extraordinary fact, I stood motionless on a
+jutting cliff absorbed in meditation, abstractedly gazing down into that
+transparent depth. Without sun or moon, without apparent source of
+light, and yet perfectly illuminated, the lofty caverns seemed cut by
+that aqueous plane into two sections, one above and one below a
+transparent, rigid surface line. The dividing line, or horizontal plane,
+appeared as much a surface of air as a surface of water, and the
+material above that plane seemed no more nor less a gas, or liquid, than
+that beneath it. If two limpid, transparent liquids, immiscible, but of
+different gravities, be poured into the same vessel, the line of
+demarkation will be as a brilliant mirror, such as I now beheld parting
+and yet uniting the surfaces of air and water.
+
+Lost in contemplation, I unconsciously asked the mental question:
+
+"Where are the shadows?"
+
+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."
+
+[Illustration: "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 shore. 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 shore 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 assume 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.
+
+"If a series of knife blades on pivot ends be set in a frame, and turned
+edgewise to a rapid current of water, the swiftly moving stream flows
+through this sieve of metallic edges about as easily as if there were no
+obstructions. Slowly turn the blades so as to present their oblique
+sides to the current, and an immediate pressure is apparent upon the
+frame that holds them; turn the blades so as to shut up the space, and
+they will be torn from their sockets, or the entire frame will be
+shattered into pieces."
+
+"I understand; go on."
+
+"The ethereal current that generates the magnetic force passes through
+material bodies with inconceivable rapidity, and the molecules of a few
+substances only, present to it the least obstruction. Material molecules
+are edgewise in it, and meet no retardation in the subtle flood. This
+force is a disturbance of space energy that is rushing into the earth in
+one form, and out of it in another. But your mind is not yet in a
+condition to grasp the subject, for at best there is no method of
+explaining to men that which their experimental education has failed to
+prepare them to receive, and for which first absolutely new ideas, and
+next words with new meaning, must be formed. Now we, (by we I mean those
+with whom I am connected) have learned to disturb the molecules in
+matter so as to turn them partly, or entirely, across the path of this
+magnetic current, and thus interrupt the motion of this ever-present
+energy. We can retard its velocity without, however, producing either
+magnetism (as is the case in a bar of steel), electricity, or heat, but
+motion instead, and thus a portion of this retarded energy springs into
+its new existence as motion of my boat. It is force changed into
+movement of matter, for the molecules of the boat, as a mass, must move
+onward as the force disappears as a current. Perhaps you can accept now
+that instead of light, heat, electricity, magnetism, and gravitation
+being really modifications of force they are disturbances."
+
+"Disturbances of what?"
+
+"Disturbances of motion."
+
+"Motion of what?"
+
+"Motion of itself, pure and simple."
+
+"I can not comprehend, I can not conceive of motion pure and simple."
+
+"I will explain at a future time so that you can comprehend more
+clearly. Other lessons must come first, but never will you see the end.
+Truth is infinite."
+
+Continuing, he said:
+
+"Let me ask if there is anything marvelous in this statement. On the
+earth's surface men arrest the fitful wind, and by so doing divert the
+energy of its motion into movement of machinery; they induce it to turn
+mills and propel vessels. This motion of air is a disturbance, mass
+motion transmitted to the air by heat, heat in turn being a disturbance
+or interruption of pure motion. When men learn to interrupt this
+unperceived stream of energy so as to change directly into material
+motion the spirit that saturates the universe, and that produces force
+expressions, as it is constantly rushing from earth into space, and from
+space back again, they will have at command wherever they may be an
+endless source of power, light, and heat; mass motion, light and heat
+being convertible. Motion lies behind heat, light, and electricity, and
+produces them, and so long as the earth revolves on its axis, and
+circles in its orbit, man needs no light and heat from such indirect
+sources as combustion. Men will, however, yet obtain motion of molecules
+(heat), and material mass motion as well, from earth motion, without the
+other dangerous intermediate force expressions now deemed necessary in
+their production."
+
+"Do you wish me to understand that on all parts of the earth's surface
+there is a continual expenditure of energy, an ever-ready current, that
+is really distinct from the light and heat of the sun, and also that the
+imponderable bodies that we call heat, light, electricity, and
+magnetism are not substances at all?"
+
+"Yes," he replied.
+
+"And that this imperceptible something--fluid I will say, for want of a
+better term--now invisible and unknown to man, is as a medium in which
+the earth, submerged, floats as a speck of dust in a flood of space?"
+
+"Certainly," he replied.
+
+"Am I to infer from your remarks that, in the course of time, man will
+be able to economize this force, and adapt it to his wants?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Go on with your exposition, I again beg of you; lead me deeper into
+this expanding study."
+
+"There is but little more that you can comprehend now, as I have said,"
+he answered. "All materials known to man are of coarse texture, and the
+minds of men are not yet in a condition to comprehend finer exhibitions
+of force, or of motion modifications. Pure energy, in all its
+modifications, is absolutely unknown to man. What men call heat,
+gravitation, light, electricity, and magnetism are the grosser
+attributes attending alterations in an unknown, attenuated, highly
+developed force producer. They are results, not causes. The real force,
+an unreached energy, is now flooding all space, pervading all materials.
+Everywhere there exists an infinite sea of motion absolute. Since this
+primeval entity can not now affect matter, as matter is known to man,
+man's sense can only be influenced by secondary attributes of this
+energy. Unconscious of its all-pervading presence, however, man is
+working towards the power that will some day, upon the development of
+latent senses, open to him this new world. Then at last he will move
+without muscular exertion, or the use of heat as an agent of motion, and
+will, as I am now doing, bridle the motion of space. Wherever he may be
+situated, there will then be warmth to any degree that he wishes, for he
+will be able to temper the seasons, and mass motion illimitable, also,
+for this energy, I reiterate, is omnipresent. However, as you will know
+more of this before long, we will pass the subject for the present."
+
+My guide slowly moved the lever. I sat in deep reflection, beginning to
+comprehend somewhat of his reasoning, and yet my mind was more than
+clouded. The several ambiguous repetitions he had made since our journey
+commenced, each time suggesting the same idea, clothing it in different
+forms of expression, impressed me vaguely with the conception of a
+certain something for which I was gradually being prepared, and that I
+might eventually be educated to grasp, but which he believed my mind was
+not yet ready to receive. I gathered from what he said that he could
+have given clearer explanations than he was now doing, and that he
+clothed his language intentionally in mysticism, and that, for some
+reason, he preferred to leave my mind in a condition of uncertainty. The
+velocity of the boat increased as he again and again cautiously touched
+the lever, and at last the responsive craft rose nearly out of the
+water, and skimmed like a bird over its surface. There was no object in
+that lake of pure crystal to govern me in calculating as to the rapidity
+of our motion, and I studied to evolve a method by which I could time
+our movements. With this object in view I tore a scrap from my clothing
+and tossed it into the air. It fell at my feet as if in a calm. There
+was no breeze. I picked the fragment up, in bewilderment, for I had
+expected it to fall behind us. Then it occurred to me, as by a flash,
+that notwithstanding our apparently rapid motion, there was an entire
+absence of atmospheric resistance. What could explain the paradox? I
+turned to my guide and again tossed the fragment of cloth upward, and
+again it settled at my feet. He smiled, and answered my silent inquiry.
+
+"There is a protecting sheet before us, radiating, fan-like, from the
+bow of our boat as if a large pane of glass were resting on edge, thus
+shedding the force of the wind. This diaphragm catches the attenuated
+atmosphere and protects us from its friction."
+
+"But I see no such protecting object," I answered.
+
+"No; it is invisible. You can not see the obstructing power, for it is
+really a gyrating section of force, and is colorless. That spray of
+metal on the brow of our boat is the developer of this protecting
+medium. Imagine a transverse section of an eddy of water on edge before
+us, and you can form a comparison. Throw the bit of garment as far as
+you can beyond the side of the boat."
+
+I did so, and saw it flutter slowly away to a considerable distance
+parallel with our position in the boat as though in a perfect calm, and
+then it disappeared. It seemed to have been dissolved. I gazed at my
+guide in amazement.
+
+"Try again," said he.
+
+[Illustration: "THE BIT OF GARMENT FLUTTERED LISTLESSLY AWAY TO THE SAME
+DISTANCE, AND THEN--VACANCY."]
+
+I tore another and a larger fragment from my coat sleeve. I fixed my
+eyes closely upon it, and cast it from me. The bit of garment fluttered
+listlessly away to the same distance, and then--vacancy. Wonders of
+wonderland, mysteries of the mysterious! What would be the end of this
+marvelous journey? Suspicion again possessed me, and distrust arose.
+Could not my self-existence be blotted out in like manner? I thought
+again of my New York home, and the recollection of upper earth, and
+those broken family ties brought to my heart a flood of bitter emotions.
+I inwardly cursed the writer of that alchemistic letter, and cursed
+myself for heeding the contents. The tears gushed from my eyes and
+trickled through my fingers as I covered my face with my hands and
+groaned aloud. Then, with a gentle touch, my guide's hand rested on my
+shoulder.
+
+"Calm yourself," he said; "this phenomenon is a natural sequence to a
+deeper study of nature than man has reached. It is simply the result of
+an exhibition of rapid motion. You are upon a great underground lake,
+that, on a shelf of earth substance one hundred and fifty miles below
+the earth's surface, covers an area of many thousand square miles, and
+which has an average depth of five miles. We are now crossing it
+diagonally at a rapid rate by the aid of the force that man will yet use
+in a perfectly natural manner on the rough upper ocean and bleak lands
+of the earth's coarse surface. The fragments of cloth disappeared from
+sight when thrown beyond the influence of our protecting diaphragm,
+because when they struck the outer motionless atmosphere they were
+instantly left behind; the eye could not catch their sudden change in
+motion. A period of time is necessary to convey from eye to mind the
+sensation of sight. The bullet shot from a gun is invisible by reason of
+the fact that the eye can not discern the momentary interruption to the
+light. A cannon ball will compass the field of vision of the eye, moving
+across it without making itself known, and yet the fact does not excite
+surprise. We are traveling so fast that small, stationary objects
+outside our track are invisible."
+
+Then in a kind, pathetic tone of voice, he said:
+
+"An important lesson you should learn, I have mentioned it before.
+Whatever seems to be mysterious, or marvelous, is only so because of the
+lack of knowledge of associated natural phenomena and connected
+conditions. All that you have experienced, all that you have yet to meet
+in your future journey, is as I have endeavored to teach you, in exact
+accordance with the laws that govern the universe, of which the earth
+constitutes so small a portion that, were the conditions favorable, it
+could be blotted from its present existence as quickly as that bit of
+garment disappeared, and with as little disturbance of the mechanism of
+the moving universe."
+
+I leaned over, resting my face upon my elbow; my thoughts were
+immethodically wandering in the midst of multiplying perplexities; I
+closed my eyes as a weary child, and slept.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+    SLEEP, DREAMS, NIGHTMARE.--"STRANGLE THE LIFE FROM MY BODY."
+
+
+I know not how long I sat wrapped in slumber. Even if my body had not
+been wearing away as formerly, my mind had become excessively wearied. I
+had existed in a state of abnormal mental intoxication far beyond the
+period of accustomed wakefulness, and had taxed my mental organization
+beyond endurance. In the midst of events of the most startling
+description, I had abruptly passed into what was at its commencement the
+sweetest sleep of my recollection, but which came to a horrible
+termination.
+
+In my dream I was transported once more to my native land, and roamed in
+freedom throughout the streets of my lost home. I lived over again my
+early life in Virginia, and I seemed to have lost all recollection of
+the weird journey which I had lately taken. My subsequent connection
+with the brotherhood of alchemists, and the unfortunate letter that led
+to my present condition, were forgotten. There came no thought
+suggestive of the train of events that are here chronicled, and as a
+child I tasted again the pleasures of innocence, the joys of boyhood.
+
+Then my dream of childhood vanished, and the scenes of later days spread
+themselves before me. I saw, after a time, the scenes of my later life,
+as though I viewed them from a distance, and was impressed with the idea
+that they were not real, but only the fragments of a dream. I shuddered
+in my childish dreamland, and trembled as a child would at confronting
+events of the real life that I had passed through on earth, and that
+gradually assuming the shape of man approached and stood before me, a
+hideous specter seemingly ready to absorb me. The peaceful child in
+which I existed shrunk back, and recoiled from the approaching living
+man.
+
+"Away, away," I cried, "you shall not grasp me, I do not wish to become
+a man; this can not, must not be the horrible end to a sweet existence."
+
+Gradually the Man Life approached, seized and enveloped me, closing
+around me as a jelly fish surrounds its living victim, while the horrors
+of a nightmare came over my soul.
+
+"Man's life is a fearful dream," I shouted, as I writhed in agony; "I am
+still a child, and will remain one; keep off! Life of man, away! let me
+live and die a child."
+
+The Specter of Man's Life seized me more firmly as I struggled to
+escape, and holding me in its irresistible clutch absorbed my substance
+as a vampire might suck the blood of an infant, and while the childish
+dream disappeared in that hideous embrace, the miserable man awoke.
+
+I found myself on land. The guide, seated at my side, remarked:
+
+"You have slept."
+
+"I have lived again," I said in bitterness.
+
+"You have not lived at all as yet," he replied; "life is a dream,
+usually it is an unsatisfied nightmare."
+
+"Then let me dream again as at the beginning of this slumber," I said;
+"and while I dream as a child, do you strangle the life from my
+body,--spare me the nightmare, I would not live to reach the Life of
+Man."
+
+"This is sarcasm," he replied; "you are as changeable as the winds of
+the earth's surface. Now as you are about to approach a part of our
+journey where fortitude is necessary, behold, you waver as a little
+child might. Nerve yourself; the trials of the present require a steady
+mind, let the future care for itself; you can not recall the past."
+
+I became attentive again; the depressing effects of that repulsive dream
+rapidly lifted, and wasted away, as I realized that I was a man, and was
+destined to see more than can be seen in the future of other mortals.
+This elevation of my spirit was evidently understood by my guide. He
+turned to the lake, and pointing to its quiet bosom, remarked:
+
+"For five hours we have journeyed over this sheet of water at the
+average rate of nine hundred miles an hour. At the time you threw the
+fragments of cloth overboard, we were traveling at a speed of not less
+than twenty miles per minute. You remember that some hours ago you
+criticised my assertion when I said that we would soon be near the axis
+of the earth beneath the North Pole, and now we are beyond that point,
+and are about six thousand miles from where we stood at that time."
+
+"You must have your way," I replied; "I can not disprove your assertion,
+but were it not that I have passed through so many marvelous experiences
+since first we met, I would question the reliability of your
+information."
+
+My guide continued:
+
+"The surface of this lake lies as a mirror beneath both the ocean and
+the land. The force effect that preserves the configuration of the ocean
+preserves the form of this also, but influences it to a less extent, and
+the two surfaces lie nearly parallel with each other, this one being one
+hundred and fifty miles beneath the surface of the earth. The shell of
+the earth above us is honeycombed by caverns in some places, in others
+it is compact, and yet, in most places, is impervious to water. At the
+farther extremity of the lake, a stratum of porous material extends
+through the space intervening between the bottom of the ocean and this
+lake. By capillary attraction, assisted by gravitation, part of the
+water of the ocean is being transferred through this stratum to the
+underground cavity. The lake is slowly rising."
+
+At this remark I interrupted him: "You say the water in the ocean is
+being slowly transferred down to this underground lake less by gravity
+than by capillarity."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"I believe that I have reason to question that statement, if you do not
+include the salt," I replied.
+
+"Pray state your objections."
+
+I answered: "Whether a tube be long or short, if it penetrate the bottom
+of a vessel of brine, and extend downward, the brine will flow into and
+out of it by reason of its weight."
+
+"You mistake," he asserted; "the attraction of the sides of the
+capillary tube, if the tube is long enough, will eventually separate the
+water from the salt, and at length a downward flow of water only will
+result."
+
+I again expressed my incredulity.
+
+"More than this, by perfectly natural laws the water that is freed from
+the tubes might again force itself upward perfectly fresh, to the
+surface of the earth--yes, under proper conditions, above the surface of
+the ocean."
+
+"Do you take me for a fool?" I said. "Is it not self-evident that a
+fountain can not rise above its source?"
+
+"It often does," he answered.
+
+"You trifle with me," I said, acrimoniously.
+
+"No," he replied; "I am telling you the truth. Have you never heard of
+what men call artesian wells?"
+
+"Yes, and" (here I attempted in turn to become sarcastic) "have you
+never learned that they are caused by water flowing into crevices in
+uplands where layers of stone or of clay strata separated by sand or
+gravel slant upward. The water conducted thence by these channels
+afterwards springs up in the valleys to which it has been carried by
+means of the crevices in these strata, but it never rises above its
+source."
+
+To my surprise he answered:
+
+"This is another of man's scientific speculations, based on some facts,
+it is true, and now and then correct, but not invariably. The water of
+an artesian well on an elevated plane may flow into the earth from a
+creek, pond, or river, that is lower than the mouth of the well it
+feeds, and still it may spout into the air from either a near or distant
+elevation that is higher than its source."
+
+"I can not admit the truth of this," I said; "I am willing to listen to
+reason, but such statements as these seem altogether absurd."
+
+"As you please," he replied; "we will continue our journey."
+
+
+
+
+INTERLUDE.--THE STORY INTERRUPTED.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+    A CHALLENGE.--MY UNBIDDEN GUEST ACCEPTS IT.
+
+
+The white-haired reader, in whom I had now become deeply interested, no
+longer an unwelcome stranger, suspended his reading, laid down his
+manuscript, and looking me in the face, asked:
+
+"Are you a believer?"
+
+"No," I promptly answered.
+
+"What part of the narrative do you question?"
+
+"All of it."
+
+"Have you not already investigated some of the statements I previously
+made?" he queried.
+
+"Yes," I said; "but you had not then given utterance to such
+preposterous expressions."
+
+"Is not the truth, the truth?" he answered.
+
+"You ask me to believe impossibilities," I replied.
+
+"Name one."
+
+"You yourself admit," I said warmly, "that you were incredulous, and
+shook your head when your guide asserted that the bottom of the ocean
+might be as porous as a sieve, and still hold water. A fountain can not
+rise above its source."
+
+"It often does, however," he replied.
+
+"I do not believe you," I said boldly. "And, furthermore, I assert that
+you might as reasonably ask me to believe that I can see my own brain,
+as to accept your fiction regarding the production of light, miles below
+the surface of the earth."
+
+"I can make your brain visible to you, and if you dare to accompany me,
+I will carry you beneath the surface of the earth and prove my other
+statement," he said. "Come!" He arose and grasped my arm.
+
+I hesitated.
+
+"You confess that you fear the journey."
+
+I made no reply.
+
+"Well, since you fear that method, I am ready to convince you of the
+facts by any rational course you may select, and if you wish to stake
+your entire argument on the general statement that a stream of water can
+not rise above its head, I will accept the challenge; but I insist that
+you do not divulge the nature of the experiment until, as you are
+directed, you make public my story."
+
+"Of course a fluid can be pumped up," I sarcastically observed.
+"However, I promise the secrecy you ask."
+
+"I am speaking seriously," he said, "and I have accepted your challenge;
+your own eyes shall view the facts, your own hands prepare the
+conditions necessary. Procure a few pints of sand, and a few pounds of
+salt; to-morrow evening I will be ready to make the experiment."
+
+"Agreed; if you will induce a stream of water to run up hill, a fountain
+to rise above its head, I will believe any statement you may henceforth
+make."
+
+"Be ready, then," he replied, "and procure the materials named." So
+saying he picked up his hat and abruptly departed.
+
+These substances I purchased the next day, procuring the silver sand
+from Gordon's pharmacy, corner of Eighth and Western Row, and promptly
+at the specified time we met in my room.
+
+He came, provided with a cylindrical glass jar about eighteen inches
+high and two inches in diameter (such as I have since learned is called
+a hydrometer jar), and a long, slender drawn glass tube, the internal
+diameter of which was about one-sixteenth of an inch.
+
+"You have deceived me," I said; "I know well enough that capillary
+attraction will draw a liquid above its surface. You demonstrated that
+quite recently to my entire satisfaction."
+
+"True, and yet not true of this experiment," he said. "I propose to
+force water through and out of this tube; capillary attraction will not
+expel a liquid from a tube if its mouth be above the surface of the
+supply."
+
+He dipped the tip of a capillary tube into a tumbler of water; the water
+rose inside the tube about an inch above the surface of the water in the
+tumbler.
+
+"Capillary attraction can do no more," he said. "Break the tube
+one-eighth of an inch above the water (far below the present capillary
+surface), and it will not overflow. The exit of the tube must be lower
+than the surface of the liquid if circulation ensues."
+
+He broke off a fragment, and the result was as predicted.
+
+Then he poured water into the glass jar to the depth of about six
+inches, and selecting a piece of very thin muslin, about an inch square,
+turned it over the end of the glass tube, tied it in position, and
+dropped that end of the tube into the cylinder.
+
+"The muslin simply prevents the tube from filling with sand," he
+explained. Then he poured sand into the cylinder until it reached the
+surface of the water. (See Figure 23.)
+
+"Your apparatus is simple enough," I remarked, I am afraid with some
+sarcasm.
+
+"Nature works with exceeding simplicity," he replied; "there is no
+complex apparatus in her laboratory, and I copy after nature."
+
+Then he dissolved the salt in a portion of water that he drew from the
+hydrant into my wash bowl, making a strong brine, and stirred sand into
+the brine to make a thick mush. This mixture of sand and brine he then
+poured into the cylinder, filling it nearly to the top. (See Figure 23,
+B. The sand settling soon left a layer of brine above it, as shown by
+A.) I had previously noticed that the upper end of the glass tube was
+curved, and my surprise can be imagined when I saw that at once water
+began to flow through the tube, dropping quite rapidly into the
+cylinder. The lower end of the curve of the glass tube was fully half an
+inch above the surface of the liquid in the cylinder.
+
+I here present a figure of the apparatus. (Figure 23.)
+
+The strange man, or man image, I do not know which, sat before me, and
+in silence we watched the steady flow of water, water rising above its
+surface and flowing into the reservoir from which it was being
+continually derived.
+
+"Do you give up?" he asked.
+
+"Let me think," I said.
+
+"As you please," he replied.
+
+"How long will this continue?" I inquired.
+
+"Until strong salt water flows from the tube."
+
+Then the old man continued:
+
+"I would suggest that after I depart you repeat these experiments. The
+observations of those interested in science must be repeated time and
+again by separate individuals. It is not sufficient that one person
+should observe a phenomenon; repeated experiments are necessary in order
+to overcome error of manipulation, and to convince others of their
+correctness. Not only yourself, but many others, after this manuscript
+appears, should go through with similar investigations, varied in detail
+as mind expansion may suggest. This experiment is but the germ of a
+thought which will be enlarged upon by many minds under other
+conditions. An event meteorological may occur in the experience of one
+observer, and never repeat itself. This is possible. The results of such
+experiments as you are observing, however, must be followed by similar
+results in the hands of others, and in behalf of science it is necessary
+that others should be able to verify your experience. In the time to
+come it will be necessary to support your statements in order to
+demonstrate that your perceptive faculties are now in a normal
+condition. Are you sure that your conceptions of these results are
+justified by normal perception? May you not be in an exalted state of
+mind that hinders clear perception, and compels you to imagine and
+accept as fact that which does not exist? Do you see what you think you
+see? After I am gone, and the influences that my person and mind exert
+on your own mind have been removed, will these results, as shown by my
+experiments, follow similar experimental conditions? In the years that
+are to pass before this paper is to be made public, it will be your duty
+to verify your present sense faculty. This you must do as opportunities
+present, and with different devices, so that no question may arise as to
+what will follow when others repeat our experiments. To-morrow evening I
+will call again, but remember, you must not tell others of this
+experiment, nor show the devices to them."
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 23. A, brine. B, sand and brine mixed. C, sand and
+water.]
+
+"I have promised," I answered.
+
+He gathered his manuscript and departed, and I sat in meditation
+watching the mysterious fountain.
+
+As he had predicted, finally, after a long time, the flow slackened, and
+by morning, when I arose from my bed, the water had ceased to drip, and
+then I found it salty to the taste.
+
+The next evening he appeared as usual, and prepared to resume his
+reading, making no mention of the previous test of my faith. I
+interrupted him, however, by saying that I had observed that the sand
+had settled in the cylinder, and that in my opinion his experiment was
+not true to appearances, but was a deception, since the sand by its
+greater weight displaced the water, which escaped through the tube,
+where there was least resistance.
+
+"Ah," he said, "and so you refuse to believe your own eyesight, and are
+contriving to escape the deserved penalty; I will, however, acquiesce in
+your outspoken desire for further light, and repeat the experiment
+without using sand. But I tell you that mother earth, in the phenomena
+known as artesian wells, uses sand and clay, pools of mineral waters of
+different gravities, and running streams. The waters beneath the earth
+are under pressure, induced by such natural causes as I have presented
+you in miniature, the chief difference being that the supplies of both
+salt and fresh water are inexhaustible, and by natural combinations
+similar to what you have seen; the streams within the earth, if a pipe
+be thrust into them, may rise continuously, eternally, from a reservoir
+higher than the head. In addition, there are pressures of gases, and
+solutions of many salts, other than chloride of soda, that tend to favor
+the phenomenon. You are unduly incredulous, and you ask of me more than
+your right after staking your faith on an experiment of your own
+selection. You demand more of me even than nature often accomplishes in
+earth structure; but to-morrow night I will show you that this seemingly
+impossible feat is possible."
+
+He then abruptly left the room. The following evening he presented
+himself with a couple of one-gallon cans, one of them without a bottom.
+I thought I could detect some impatience of manner as he filled the
+perfect can (D) with water from the hydrant, and having spread a strip
+of thin muslin over the mouth of the other can (B), pressed it firmly
+over the mouth (C) of the can of water, which it fitted tightly, thus
+connecting them together, the upper (bottomless) can being inverted.
+Then he made a narrow slit in the center of the muslin with his
+pen-knife, and through it thrust a glass tube like that of our former
+experiment. Next he wrapped a string around the open top of the upper
+can, crossed it over the top, and tied the glass tube to the center of
+the cross string.
+
+"Simply to hold this tube in position," he explained.
+
+The remainder of the bag of salt left from the experiment of the
+preceding evening was then dissolved in water, and the brine poured into
+the upper can, filling it to the top. Then carefully thrusting the glass
+tube downward, he brought the tip of the curve to within about one-half
+inch of the surface of the brine, when immediately a rapid flow of
+liquid exhibited itself. (Figure 24.)
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 24.
+
+A, surface of brine.
+
+B, upper can filled with brine.
+
+C, necks of cans telescoped.
+
+D, lower can full of water.]
+
+"It rises above its source without sand," he observed.
+
+"I can not deny the fact," I replied, "and furthermore I am determined
+that I shall not question any subsequent statement that you may make."
+We sat in silence for some time, and the water ran continuously through
+the tube. I was becoming alarmed, afraid of my occult guest, who
+accepted my self-selected challenges, and worked out his results so
+rapidly; he seemed to be more than human.
+
+"I am a mortal, but a resident of a higher plane than you," he replied,
+divining my thoughts. "Is not this experiment a natural one?"
+
+"Yes," I said.
+
+"Did not Shakspeare write, 'There are more things in heaven and earth,
+Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy'?"
+
+"Yes," I said.
+
+And my guest continued:
+
+"He might have added, 'and always will be'."
+
+"Scientific men will explain this phenomenon," I suggested.
+
+"Yes, when they observe the facts," he replied, "it is very simple. They
+can now tell, as I have before remarked, how Columbus stood the egg on
+end; however, given the problem before Columbus expounded it, they would
+probably have wandered as far from the true solution as the mountain
+with its edgewise layers of stone is from the disconnected artesian
+wells on a distant sea coast where the underground fresh and salt water
+in overlying currents and layers clash together. The explanation, of
+course, is simple. The brine is of greater specific gravity than the
+pure water; the pressure of the heavier fluid forces the lighter up in
+the tube. This action continues until, as you will see by this
+experiment, in the gradual diffusion of brine and pure water the salt is
+disseminated equally throughout the vessels, and the specific gravity of
+the mixed liquid becomes the same throughout, when the flow will cease.
+However, in the earth, where supplies are inexhaustible, the fountain
+flows unceasingly."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+    BEWARE OF BIOLOGY, THE SCIENCE OF THE LIFE OF MAN.[6]
+
+(The old man relates a story as an object lesson.)
+
+    [6] The reader is invited to skip this chapter of horrors.--J. U. L.
+
+
+"But you have not lived up to the promise; you have evaded part of the
+bargain," I continued. "While you have certainly performed some curious
+experiments in physics which seem to be unique, yet, I am only an
+amateur in science, and your hydrostatic illustrations may be
+repetitions of investigations already recorded, that have escaped the
+attention of the scientific gentlemen to whom I have hitherto applied."
+
+"Man's mind is a creature of doubts and questions," he observed. "Answer
+one query, and others rise. His inner self is never satisfied, and you
+are not to blame for wishing for a sign, as all self-conscious
+conditions of your former existence compel. Now that I have brushed
+aside the more prominent questionings, you insist upon those omitted,
+and appeal to me to--" he hesitated.
+
+"To what?" I asked, curious to see if he had intuitively grasped my
+unspoken sentence.
+
+"To exhibit to you your own brain," he replied.
+
+"That is it exactly," I said; "you promised it, and you shall be held
+strictly to your bargain. You agreed to show me my own brain, and it
+seems evident that you have purposely evaded the promise."
+
+"That I have made the promise and deferred its completion can not be
+denied, but not by reason of an inability to fulfill the contract. I
+will admit that I purposely deferred the exhibition, hoping on your own
+account that you would forget the hasty promise. You would better
+release me from the promise; you do not know what you ask."
+
+"I believe that I ask more than you can perform," I answered, "and that
+you know it."
+
+"Let me give you a history," he said, "and then perhaps you will
+relent. Listen. A man once became involved in the study of anatomy. It
+led him to destruction. He commenced the study in order to learn a
+profession; he hoped to become a physician. Materia medica, pharmacy,
+chemistry, enticed him at first, but after a time presented no charms.
+He was a dull student in much that men usually consider essential to the
+practice of medicine. He was not fitted to be a physician. Gradually he
+became absorbed in two branches, physiology and anatomy. Within his
+mental self a latent something developed that neither himself nor his
+friends had suspected. This was an increasing desire for knowledge
+concerning the human body. The insatiable craving for anatomy grew upon
+him, and as it did so other sections of medicine were neglected.
+Gradually he lost sight of his professional object; he dropped
+chemistry, materia medica, pharmacy, and at last, morbidly lived only in
+the aforenamed two branches.
+
+"His first visit to the dissecting room was disagreeable. The odor of
+putrid flesh, the sight of the mutilated bodies repulsed him. When first
+his hand, warm in life, touched the clammy flesh of a corpse, he
+shuddered. Then when his fingers came in contact with the viscera of a
+cadaver, that of a little child, he cried out in horror. The
+demonstrator of anatomy urged him on; he finally was induced to dissect
+part of the infant. The reflex action on his sensitive mind first
+stunned, and then warped his senses. His companions had to lead him from
+the room. 'Wash it off, wash it off,' he repeated, trying to throw his
+hand from his person. 'Horrid, horrible, unclean. The child is yet
+before me,' he insisted. Then he went into a fever and raved. 'Some
+mother will meet me on the street and curse me,' he cried. 'That hand is
+red with the blood of my darling; it has desecrated the innocent dead,
+and mutilated that which is most precious to a mother. Take the hand
+away, wash it,' he shouted. 'The mother curses me; she demands
+retribution. Better that a man be dead than cursed by a mother whose
+child has been desecrated.' So the unfortunate being raved, dreaming all
+manner of horrid imaginings. But at last he recovered, a different man.
+He returned voluntarily to the dissecting-room, and wrapped himself in
+the uncouth work. Nothing in connection with corpse-mutilation was now
+offensive or unclean. He threw aside his other studies, he became a
+slave possessed of one idea. He scarcely took time to dine respectably;
+indeed, he often ate his lunch in the dissecting-room. The blood of a
+child was again and again on his fingers; it mattered not, he did not
+take the trouble to wash it off. 'The liver of man is not more sacred
+than the liver of a hog,' he argued; 'the flesh of a man is the same as
+other forms of animal food. When a person dies the vital heat escapes,
+consciousness is dissipated, and the cold, rigid remains are only
+animal. Consciousness and life are all that is of man--one is force, the
+other matter; when man dies both perish and are dissipated.' His friends
+perceived his fondness for dissection, and argued with him again,
+endeavoring now to overcome his infatuation; he repelled them. 'I
+learned in my vision,' he said, referring to his fever, 'that Pope was
+right in saying that the "proper study of mankind is man"; I care
+nothing for your priestly superstitions concerning the dead. These
+fables are the invention of designing churchmen who live on the
+superstitions of the ignorant. I am an infidel, and believe in no spirit
+intangible; that which can be seen, felt, and weighed is, all else is
+not. Life is simply a sensation. All beyond is chimerical, less than
+fantastic, believed in only by dupes and weak-minded, credulous tools of
+knaves, or creatures of blind superstition.' He carried the finely
+articulated, bleached skull of a cadaver to his room, and placed it
+beside a marble statue that was a valued heirloom, the model of Venus of
+Milo. 'Both are lime compounds,' he cynically observed, 'neither is
+better than the other.' His friends protested. 'Your superstitious
+education is at fault,' he answered; 'you mentally clothe one of these
+objects in a quality it does not deserve, and the thought creates a
+pleasant emotion. The other, equally as pure, reminds you of the grave
+that you fear, and you shudder. These mental pulsations are artificial,
+both being either survivals of superstition, or creations of your own
+mind. The lime in the skull is now as inanimate as that of the statue;
+neither object is responsible for its form, neither is unclean. To me,
+the delicate configuration, the exact articulation, the perfect
+adaptation for the office it originally filled, makes each bone of this
+skull a thing of beauty, an object of admiration. As a whole, it gives
+me pleasure to think of this wonderful, exquisitely arranged piece of
+mechanism. The statue you admire is in every respect outrivaled by the
+skull, and I have placed the two together because it pleases me to
+demonstrate that man's most artistic creation is far inferior to
+material man. Throw aside your sentimental prejudices, and join with me
+in the admiration of this thing of beauty;' and he toyed with the skull
+as if it were a work of art. So he argued, and arguing passed from bone
+to bone, and from organ to organ. He filled his room with abnormal
+fragments of the human body, and surrounded himself with jars of
+preserved anatomical specimens. His friends fled in disgust, and he
+smiled, glad to be alone with his ghastly subjects. He was infatuated in
+one of the alcoves of science."
+
+The old man paused.
+
+"Shall I proceed?" he asked.
+
+"Yes," I said, but involuntarily moved my chair back, for I began again
+to be afraid of the speaker.
+
+"At last this scientific man had mastered all that was known concerning
+physiology and anatomy. He learned by heart the wording of great volumes
+devoted to these subjects. The human frame became to him as an open
+book. He knew the articulation of every muscle, could name a bone from a
+mere fragment. The microscope ceased to be an object of interest, the
+secrets of pathology and physiology had been mastered. Then,
+unconsciously, he was infected by another tendency; a new thought was
+destined to dominate his brain. 'What is it that animates this frame?
+What lies inside to give it life?' He became enthused again: 'The dead
+body, to which I have given my time, is not the conscious part of man,'
+he said to himself; 'I must find this thing of life within; I have been
+only a butcher of the dead. My knowledge is superficial.'"
+
+Again the old man hesitated and looked at me inquiringly.
+
+"Shall I proceed?" he repeated.
+
+I was possessed by horror, but yet fascinated, and answered
+determinedly: "Go on."
+
+"Beware," he added, "beware of the Science of Life."
+
+Pleadingly he looked at me.
+
+"Go on," I commanded.
+
+He continued:
+
+"With the cunning of a madman, this person of profound learning, led
+from the innocence of ignorance to the heartlessness of advanced
+biological science, secretly planned to seek the vital forces. 'I must
+begin with a child, for the life essence shows its first manifestations
+in children,' he reasoned. He moved to an unfrequented locality,
+discharged his servants, and notified his former friends that visitors
+were unwelcome. He had determined that no interruption to his work
+should occur. This course was unnecessary, however, for now he had
+neither friends nor visitors. He employed carpenters and artisans, and
+perfected a series of mechanical tables, beautiful examples of automatic
+mechanism. From the inner room of that house no cry could be heard by
+persons outside....
+
+     [It will be seen, by referring to the epilogue, that Mr. Drury
+     agreed to mutilate part of the book. This I have gladly done,
+     excising the heart-rending passages that follow. To use the words
+     of Prof. Venable, they do not "comport with the general delicacy
+     of the book."--J. U. L.]
+
+"Hold, old man, cease," I cried aghast; "I have had enough of this. You
+trifle with me, demon; I have not asked for nightmare stories,
+heart-curdling accounts of maniacal investigators, who madly pursue
+their revolting calling, and discredit the name of science."
+
+"You asked to see your own brain," he replied.
+
+"And have been given a terrible story instead," I retorted.
+
+"So men perverted, misconstruing the aim of science, answer the cry of
+humanity," he said. "One by one the cherished treasures of Christianity
+have been stolen from the faithful. What, to the mother, can replace the
+babe that has been lost?"
+
+"The next world," I answered, "offers a comfort."
+
+"Bah," he said; "does not another searcher in that same science field
+tell the mother that there is no personal hereafter, that she will never
+see her babe again? One man of science steals the body, another man of
+science takes away the soul, the third annihilates heaven; they go like
+pestilence and famine, hand in hand, subsisting on all that craving
+humanity considers sacred, and offering no tangible return beyond a
+materialistic present. This same science that seems to be doing so much
+for humanity will continue to elevate so-called material civilization
+until, as the yeast ferment is smothered in its own excretion, so will
+science-thought create conditions to blot itself from existence, and
+destroy the civilization it creates. Science is heartless,
+notwithstanding the personal purity of the majority of her helpless
+votaries. She is a thief, not of ordinary riches, but of treasures that
+can not be replaced. Before science provings the love of a mother
+perishes, the hope of immortality is annihilated. Beware of materialism,
+the end of the science of man. Beware of the beginning of biological
+inquiry, for he who commences, can not foresee the termination. I say to
+you in candor, no man ever engaged in the part of science lore that
+questions the life essence, realizing the possible end of his
+investigations. The insidious servant becomes a tyrannical master; the
+housebreaker is innocent, the horse thief guiltless in comparison.
+Science thought begins in the brain of man; science provings end all
+things with the end of the material brain of man. Beware of your own
+brain."
+
+[Illustration: "RISING ABRUPTLY, HE GRASPED MY HAND."]
+
+"I have no fear," I replied, "that I will ever be led to disturb the
+creeds of the faithful, and I will not be diverted. I demand to see my
+brain."
+
+"Your demand shall now be fulfilled; you have been warned of the return
+that may follow the commencement of this study; you force the issue; my
+responsibility ceases. No man of science realized the end when he began
+to investigate his throbbing brain, and the end of the fabric that
+science is weaving for man rests in the hidden future. The story I have
+related is a true one, as thousands of faithful men who unconsciously
+have been led into infidelity have experienced; and as the faithful
+followers of sacred teachings can also perceive, who recognize that
+their religion and the hope of heaven is slipping away beneath the
+steady inroad of the heartless materialistic investigator, who clothes
+himself in the garb of science."
+
+Rising abruptly from his chair, he grasped my hand. "You shall see your
+brain, man; come."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+    LOOKING BACKWARD.--THE LIVING BRAIN.
+
+
+The old man accompanied his word "come," as I have said, by rising from
+his chair, and then with a display of strength quite out of proportion
+to his age, he grasped my wrist and drew me toward the door. Realizing
+at once that he intended I should accompany him into the night, I
+protested, saying that I was quite unprepared.
+
+"My hat, at least," I insisted, as he made no recognition of my first
+demur.
+
+"Your hat is on your head," he replied.
+
+This was true, although I am sure the hat had been previously hung on a
+rack in a distant part of the room, and I am equally certain that
+neither my companion nor myself had touched it. Leaving me no time for
+reflection, he opened the door, and drew me through the hall-way and
+into the gloom. As though perfectly familiar with the city, he guided me
+from my cozy home, on the retired side street in which I resided,
+eastwardly into the busy thoroughfare, Western Row. Our course led us
+down towards the river, past Ninth, Eighth, Seventh Streets. Now and
+then a pedestrian stopped to gaze in surprise at the unique spectacle,
+the old man leading the young one, but none made any attempt to molest
+us. We passed on in silence, out of the busy part of the thoroughfare
+and into the shady part of the city, into the darkness below Fifth
+Street. Here the residences were poorer, and tenement-houses and
+factories began to appear. We were now in a quarter of the city into
+which strangers seldom, if ever, penetrated after night, and in which I
+would not have cared to be found unprotected at any time after sunset,
+much less in such questionable company. I protested against the
+indiscretion; my leader made no reply, but drew me on past the
+flickering gas lights that now and then appeared at the intersection of
+Third, Pearl, Second, and Water Streets, until at last we stood, in
+darkness, on the bank of the Ohio River.
+
+Strange, the ferry-boat at that time of night only made a trip every
+thirty minutes, and yet it was at the landing as though by appointment.
+Fear began to possess me, and as my thoughts recur to that evening, I
+can not understand how it was that I allowed myself to be drawn without
+cry or resistance from my secure home to the Ohio River, in such
+companionship. I can account for the adventure only by the fact that I
+had deliberately challenged my companion to make the test he was
+fulfilling, and that an innate consciousness of pride and justice
+compelled me to permit him to employ his own methods. We crossed the
+river without speaking, and rapidly ascending the levee we took our
+course up Main Street into Covington. Still in the lead, my aged guide,
+without hesitation, went onward to the intersection of Main and Pike
+Streets; thence he turned to the right, and following the latter
+thoroughfare we passed the old tannery, that I recalled as a familiar
+landmark, and then started up the hill. Onward we strode, past a hotel
+named "Niemeyer's," and soon were in the open country on the Lexington
+Pike, treading through the mud, diagonally up the hill back of
+Covington. Then, at a sharp curve in the road where it rounded the point
+of the hill, we left the highway, and struck down the hillside into a
+ravine that bounded the lower side of the avenue. We had long since left
+the city lamps and sidewalks behind us, and now, when we left the
+roadway, were on the muddy pike at a considerable elevation upon the
+hillside and, looking backward, I beheld innumerable lights throughout
+the cities of Cincinnati, Covington, and the village of Newport,
+sparkling away in the distance behind and below us.
+
+"Come," my companion said again, as I hesitated, repeating the only word
+he had uttered since telling his horrible story, "Come!"
+
+Down the hill into the valley we plunged, and at last he opened the door
+of an isolated log cabin, which we entered. He lighted a candle that he
+drew from his pocket, and together we stood facing each other.
+
+"Be seated," he said dryly.
+
+And then I observed that the cold excuse for furniture in that desolate
+room consisted of a single rude, hand-made chair with corn-shuck bottom.
+However, I did not need a second invitation, but sank exhausted and
+disconsolate upon the welcome object.
+
+My companion lost no time, but struck at once into the subject that
+concerned us, arguing as follows:
+
+"One of the troubles with humanity is that of changing a thought from
+the old to a new channel; to grasp at one effort an entirely new idea is
+an impossibility. Men follow men in trains of thought expression, as in
+bodily form generations of men follow generations. A child born with
+three legs is a freak of nature, a monstrosity, yet it sometimes
+appears. A man possessed of a new idea is an anomaly, a something that
+may not be impossible, but which has never appeared. It is almost as
+difficult to conceive of a new idea as it is to create out of nothing a
+new material or an element. Neither thoughts nor things can be invented,
+both must be evolved out of a pre�xisting something which it necessarily
+resembles. Every advanced idea that appears in the brain of man is the
+result of a suggestion from without. Men have gone on and on
+ceaselessly, with their minds bent in one direction, ever looking
+outwardly, never inwardly. It has not occurred to them to question at
+all in the direction of backward sight. Mind has been enabled to read
+the impressions that are made in and on the substance of brain
+convolutions, but at the same time has been and is insensible to the
+existence of the convolutions themselves. It is as though we could read
+the letters of the manuscript that bears them without having conceived
+of a necessity for the existence of a printed surface, such as paper or
+anything outside the letters. Had anatomists never dissected a brain,
+the human family would to-day live in absolute ignorance of the nature
+of the substance that lies within the skull. Did you ever stop to think
+that the mind can not now bring to the senses the configuration, or
+nature, of the substance in which mind exists? Its own house is unknown.
+This is in consequence of the fact that physical existence has always
+depended upon the study of external surroundings, and consequently the
+power of internal sight lies undeveloped. It has never been deemed
+necessary for man to attempt to view the internal construction of his
+body, and hence the sense of feeling only advises him of that which lies
+within his own self. This sense is abstract, not descriptive. Normal
+organs have no sensible existence. Thus an abnormal condition of an
+organ creates the sensation of pain or pleasure, but discloses nothing
+concerning the appearance or construction of the organ affected. The
+perfect liver is as vacancy. The normal brain never throbs and aches.
+The quiescent arm presents no evidence to the mind concerning its shape,
+size, or color. Man can not count his fingers unless some outside object
+touches them, or they press successively against each other, or he
+perceives them by sight. The brain of man, the seat of knowledge, in
+which mind centers, is not perceptible through the senses. Does it not
+seem irrational, however, to believe that mind itself is not aware, or
+could not be made cognizant, of the nature of its material
+surroundings?"
+
+"I must confess that I have not given the subject a thought," I replied.
+
+"As I predicted," he said. "It is a step toward a new idea, and simple
+as it seems, now that the subject has been suggested, you must agree
+that thousands of intelligent men have not been able to formulate the
+thought. The idea had never occurred to them. Even after our previous
+conversation concerning the possibility of showing you your own brain,
+you were powerless and could not conceive of the train of thought which
+I started, and along which I shall now further direct your senses."
+
+"The eye is so constituted that light produces an impression on a
+nervous film in the rear of that organ, this film is named the retina,
+the impression being carried backward therefrom through a magma of nerve
+fibers (the optic nerve), and reaching the brain, is recorded on that
+organ and thus affects the mind. Is it not rational to suppose it
+possible for this sequence to be reversed? In other words, if the order
+were reversed could not the same set of nerves carry an impression from
+behind to the retina, and picture thereon an image of the object which
+lies anterior thereto, to be again, by reflex action, carried back to
+the brain, thus bringing the brain substance itself to the view of the
+mind, and thus impress the senses? To recapitulate: If the nerve
+sensation, or force expression, should travel from the brain to the
+retina, instead of from an outward object, it will on the reverse of the
+retina produce the image of that which lies behind, and then if the
+optic nerve carry the image back to the brain, the mind will bring to
+the senses the appearance of the image depicted thereon."
+
+[Illustration: "FACING THE OPEN WINDOW HE TURNED THE PUPILS OF HIS EYES
+UPWARD."]
+
+"This is my first consideration of the subject," I replied.
+
+"Exactly," he said; "you have passed through life looking at outside
+objects, and have been heedlessly ignorant of your own brain. You have
+never made an exclamation of surprise at the statement that you really
+see a star that exists in the depths of space millions of miles beyond
+our solar system, and yet you became incredulous and scornful when it
+was suggested that I could show you how you could see the configuration
+of your brain, an object with which the organ of sight is nearly in
+contact. How inconsistent."
+
+"The chain of reasoning is certainly novel, and yet I can not think of a
+mode by which I can reverse my method of sight and look backward," I now
+respectfully answered.
+
+"It is very simple; all that is required is a counter excitation of the
+nerve, and we have with us to-night what any person who cares to
+consider the subject can employ at any time, and thus behold an outline
+of a part of his own brain. I will give you the lesson."
+
+Placing himself before the sashless window of the cabin, which opening
+appeared as a black space pictured against the night, the sage took the
+candle in his right hand, holding it so that the flame was just below
+the tip of the nose, and about six inches from his face. Then facing the
+open window he turned the pupils of his eyes upward, seeming to fix his
+gaze on the upper part of the open window space, and then he slowly
+moved the candle transversely, backward and forward, across, in front of
+his face, keeping it in such position that the flickering flame made a
+parallel line with his eyes, and as just remarked, about six inches from
+his face, and just below the tip of his nose. Speaking deliberately, he
+said:
+
+"Now, were I you, this movement would produce a counter irritation of
+the retina; a rhythm of the optic nerve would follow, a reflex action of
+the brain accompanying, and now a figure of part of the brain that rests
+against the skull in the back of my head would be pictured on the
+retina. I would see it plainly, apparently pictured or thrown across the
+open space before me."
+
+"Incredible!" I replied.
+
+"Try for yourself," quietly said my guide.
+
+Placing myself in the position designated, I repeated the maneuver, when
+slowly a shadowy something seemed to be evolved out of the blank space
+before me. It seemed to be as a gray veil, or like a corrugated sheet as
+thin as gauze, which as I gazed upon it and discovered its outline,
+became more apparent and real. Soon the convolutions assumed a more
+decided form, the gray matter was visible, filled with venations, first
+gray and then red, and as I became familiar with the sight, suddenly the
+convolutions of a brain in all its exactness, with a network of red
+blood venations, burst into existence.[7]
+
+     [7] This experiment is not claimed as original. See
+     Purkinje's Beitr�ge zur Kenntniss des Sehens in
+     subjectiver Hinsicht (Prague, 1823 and 1825), whose
+     conclusions to the effect that the shadow of the retina is
+     seen, I-Am-The-Man ignores.--J. U. L.
+
+[Illustration: "A BRAIN, A LIVING BRAIN, MY OWN BRAIN."]
+
+I beheld a brain, a brain, a living brain, my own brain, and as an
+uncanny sensation possessed me I shudderingly stopped the motion of the
+candle, and in an instant the shadowy figure disappeared.
+
+"Have I won the wager?"
+
+"Yes," I answered.
+
+"Then," said my companion, "make no further investigations in this
+direction."
+
+"But I wish to verify the experiment," I replied. "Although it is not a
+pleasant test, I can not withstand the temptation to repeat it."
+
+And again I moved the candle backward and forward, when the figure of my
+brain sprung at once into existence.
+
+"It is more vivid," I said; "I see it plainer, and more quickly than
+before."
+
+"Beware of the science of man, I repeat," he replied; "now, before you
+are deep in the toils, and can not foresee the end, beware of the
+science of human biology. Remember the story recently related, that of
+the physician who was led to destruction by the alluring voice."
+
+I made no reply, but stood with my face fixed, slowly moving the candle
+backward and forward, gazing intently into the depths of my own brain.
+
+After a time the old man removed the candle from my hand, and said: "Do
+you accept the fact? Have I demonstrated the truth of the assertion?"
+
+"Yes," I replied; "but tell me further, now that you have excited my
+interest, have I seen and learned all that man can discover in this
+direction?"
+
+"No; you have seen but a small portion of the brain convolutions, only
+those that lie directly back of the optic nerve. By systematic research,
+under proper conditions, every part of the living brain may become as
+plainly pictured as that which you have seen."
+
+"And is that all that could be learned?" I asked.
+
+"No," he continued. "Further development may enable men to picture the
+figures engraved on the convolutions, and at last to read the thoughts
+that are engraved within the brains of others, and thus through material
+investigation the observer will perceive the recorded thought of another
+person. An instrument capable of searching and illuminating the retina
+could be easily affixed to the eye of a criminal, after which, if the
+mind of the person operated upon were stimulated by the suggestion of an
+occurrence either remote or recent, the mind facility would excite the
+brain, produce the record, and spread the circumstances as a picture
+before the observer. The brain would tell its own story, and the
+investigator could read the truth as recorded in the brain of the other
+man. A criminal subjected to such an examination could not tell an
+untruth, or equivocate; his very brain would present itself to the
+observer."
+
+"And you make this assertion, and then ask me to go no further into the
+subject?"
+
+"Yes; decidedly yes."
+
+"Tell me, then, could you not have performed this experiment in my room,
+or in the dark cellar of my house?"
+
+"Any one can repeat it with a candle in any room not otherwise lighted,
+by looking at a blackboard, a blank wall, or black space," he said.
+
+I was indignant.
+
+"Why have you treated me so inhumanly? Was there a necessity for this
+journey, these mysterious movements, this physical exertion? Look at the
+mud with which I am covered, and consider the return trip which yet lies
+before me, and which must prove even more exhausting?"
+
+"Ah," he said, "you overdraw. The lesson has been easily acquired.
+Science is not an easy road to travel. Those who propose to profit
+thereby must work circuitously, soil their hands and person, meet
+discouragements, and must expect hardships, reverses, abuse, and
+discomfort. Do not complain, but thank me for giving you the lesson
+without other tribulations that might have accompanied it. Besides,
+there was another object in my journey, an object that I have quietly
+accomplished, and which you may never know. Come, we must return."
+
+He extinguished the light of the candle, and we departed together,
+trudging back through the mud and the night.[8]
+
+     [8] We must acquiesce in the explanation given for this
+     seemingly uncalled-for journey, and yet feel that it was
+     unnecessarily exacting.
+
+Of that wearisome return trip I have nothing to say beyond the fact that
+before reaching home my companion disappeared in the darkness of a side
+street, and that the Cathedral chimes were playing for three o'clock
+A.M., as I passed the corner of Eighth Street and Western Row.
+
+The next evening my visitor appeared as usual, and realizing his
+complete victory, he made no reference to the occurrences of the
+previous night. In his usual calm and deliberate manner he produced the
+roll of manuscript saying benignantly, and in a gentle tone:
+
+"Do you recollect where I left off reading?"
+
+"You had reached that point in your narrative," I answered, "at which
+your guide had replaced the boat on the surface of the lake."
+
+And the mysterious being resumed his reading.
+
+
+
+
+THE MANUSCRIPT CONTINUED.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+    A LESSON ON VOLCANOES.--PRIMARY COLORS ARE CAPABLE OF FARTHER
+    SUBDIVISION.
+
+
+"Get into the boat," said my eyeless pilot, "and we will proceed to the
+farther edge of the lake, over the barrier of which at great intervals
+of time, the surface water flows, and induces the convulsion known as
+Mount Epomeo."
+
+We accordingly embarked, and a gentle touch of the lever enabled us
+rapidly to skirt the shore of the underground sea. The soft, bright,
+pleasant earth-light continually enveloped us, and the absence of either
+excessive heat or cold, rendered existence delightful. The weird forms
+taken by the objects that successively presented themselves on the shore
+were a source of continual delight to my mind. The motion of our boat
+was constantly at the will of my guide. Now we would skim across a great
+bay, flashing from point to point; again we wound slowly through
+tortuous channels and among partly submerged stones.
+
+"What a blessing this mode of locomotion would be to humanity," I
+murmured.
+
+"Humanity will yet attain it," he replied. "Step by step men have
+stumbled along towards the goal that the light of coming centuries is
+destined to illuminate. They have studied, and are still engaged in
+studying, the properties of grosser forces, such as heat and
+electricity, and they will be led by the thread they are following, to
+this and other achievements yet unthought of, but which lie back of
+those more conspicuous."
+
+[Illustration: "WE FINALLY REACHED A PRECIPITOUS BLUFF."]
+
+We finally reached a precipitous bluff, that sprung to my view as by
+magic, and which, with a glass-like surface, stretched upward to a
+height beyond the scope of my vision, rising straight from the
+surface of the lake. It was composed of a material seemingly black as
+jet, and yet when seen under varying spectacular conditions as we
+skirted its base it reflected, or emitted, most gorgeously the brilliant
+hues of the rainbow, and also other colors hitherto unknown to me.
+
+"There is something unique in these shades; species of color appear that
+I can not identify; I seem to perceive colors utterly unlike any that I
+know as the result of deflected, or transmitted, sunlight rays, and they
+look unlike the combinations of primary colors with which I am
+familiar."
+
+"Your observations are true; some of these colors are unknown on earth."
+
+"But on the surface of the earth we have all possible combinations of
+the seven prismatic rays," I answered. "How can there be others here?"
+
+"Because, first, your primary colors are capable of further subdivision.
+
+"Second, other rays, invisible to men under usual conditions, also
+emanate from the sun, and under favorable circumstances may be brought
+to the sense of sight."
+
+"Do you assert that the prism is capable of only partly analyzing the
+sunlight?"
+
+"Yes; what reason have you to argue that, because a triangular bit of
+glass resolves a white ray into seven fractions that are, as men say,
+differently colored, you could not by proper methods subdivide each of
+these so-called primary shades into others? What reason have you to
+doubt that rays now invisible to man accompany those capable of
+impressing his senses, and might by proper methods become perceptible as
+new colors?"
+
+"None," I answered; "only that I have no proof that such rays exist."
+
+"But they do exist, and men will yet learn that the term 'primitive'
+ray, as applied to each of the seven colors of the rainbow, is
+incorrect. Each will yet be resolved, and as our faculties multiply and
+become more subtle, other colors will be developed, possessed of a
+delicacy and richness indescribable now, for as yet man can not
+comprehend the possibilities of education beyond the limits of his
+present condition."
+
+During this period of conversation we skirted the richly colored bluff
+with a rapid motion, and at last shot beyond it, as with a flash, into
+seeming vacancy. I was sitting with my gaze directed toward the bluff,
+and when it instantly disappeared, I rubbed my eyes to convince myself
+of their truthfulness, and as I did so our boat came gradually to a
+stand on the edge of what appeared to be an unfathomable abyss. Beneath
+me on the side where had risen the bluff that disappeared so abruptly,
+as far as the eye could reach, was an absolute void. To our right, and
+before and behind us, stretched the surface of that great smooth lake on
+whose bosom we rested. To our left, our boat brushing its rim, a narrow
+ledge, a continuation of the black, glass-like material, reached only a
+foot above the water, and beyond this narrow brink the mass descended
+perpendicularly to seemingly infinite depths. Involuntarily I grasped
+the sides of the boat, and recoiled from the frightful chasm, over which
+I had been so suddenly suspended, and which exceeded anything of a
+similar description that I had ever seen. The immeasurable depth of the
+abyss, in connection with the apparently frail barrier that held the
+great lake in its bounds, caused me to shudder and shrink back, and my
+brain reeled in dizzy fright. An inexplicable attraction, however,
+notwithstanding my dread, held me spell-bound, and although I struggled
+to shut out that view, the endeavor failed. I seemed to be drawn by an
+irresistible power, and yet I shuddered at the awful majesty of that
+yawning gulf which threatened to end the world on which I then existed.
+Fascinated, entranced, I could not help gazing, I knew not how long,
+down, down into that fathomless, silent profundity. Composing myself, I
+turned a questioning glance on my guide.
+
+He informed me that this hard, glass-like dam confined the waters of
+the slowly rising lake that we were sailing over, and which finally
+would rise high enough to overflow the barrier.
+
+[Illustration: "THE WALL DESCENDED PERPENDICULARLY TO SEEMINGLY INFINITE
+DEPTHS."]
+
+"The cycle of the periodic overflow is measured by great intervals," he
+said; "centuries are required to raise the level of the lake a fraction
+of an inch, and thousands of years may elapse before its surface will
+again reach the top of the adamantine wall. Then, governed by the law
+that attracts a liquid to itself, and heaps the teaspoon with liquid,
+the water of the quiet lake piles upon this narrow wall, forming a
+ledge along its summit. Finally the superimposed surface water gives
+way, and a skim of water pours over into the abyss."
+
+He paused; I leaned over and meditated, for I had now accustomed myself
+to the situation.
+
+"There is no bottom," I exclaimed.
+
+"Upon the contrary," he answered, "the bottom is less than ten miles
+beneath us, and is a great funnel-shaped orifice, the neck of the funnel
+reaching first down and then upward from us diagonally toward the
+surface of the earth. Although the light by which we are enveloped is
+bright, yet it is deficient in penetrating power, and is not capable of
+giving the contour of objects even five miles away, hence the chasm
+seems bottomless, and the gulf measureless."
+
+"Is it not natural to suppose that a mass of water like this great lake
+would overflow the barrier immediately, as soon as the surface reached
+the upper edge, for the pressure of the immense volume must be beyond
+calculation."
+
+"No, for it is height, not expanse, which, as hydrostatic engineers
+understand, governs the pressure of water. A liquid column, one foot in
+width, would press against the retaining dam with the force of a body of
+the same liquid, the same depth, one thousand miles in extent. Then the
+decrease of gravity here permits the molecular attraction of the water's
+molecules to exert itself more forcibly than would be the case on the
+surface of the earth, and this holds the liquid mass together more
+firmly."
+
+"See," he observed, and dipping his finger into the water he held it
+before him with a drop of water attached thereto (Figure 27), the
+globule being of considerable size, and lengthened as though it
+consisted of some glutinous liquid.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 27.]
+
+"How can a thin stratum of water give rise to a volcanic eruption?" I
+next queried. "There seems to be no melted rock, no evidence of intense
+heat, either beneath or about us."
+
+"I informed you some time ago that I would partially explain these
+facts. Know then, that the theories of man concerning volcanic
+eruptions, in connection with a molten interior of the earth, are such
+as are evolved in ignorance of even the sub-surface of the globe. The
+earth's interior is to mankind a sealed chamber, and the wise men who
+elucidate the curious theories concerning natural phenomena occurring
+therein are forced to draw entirely upon their imagination. Few persons
+realize the paucity of data at the command of workers in science.
+Theories concerning the earth are formulated from so little real
+knowledge of that body, that our science may be said to be all theory,
+with scarcely a trace of actual evidence to support it. If a globe ten
+inches in diameter be covered with a sheet of paper, such as I hold in
+my hand, the thickness of that sheet will be greater in proportion to
+that of such a globe than the depth men have explored within the earth
+is compared with the thickness of the crust of the earth. The outer
+surface of a pencil line represents the surface of the earth; the inner
+surface of the line represents the depth of man's explorations; the
+highest mountain would be represented by a comma resting on the line.
+The geologist studies the substances that are thrust from the crater of
+an active volcano, and from this makes conjectures regarding the strata
+beneath, and the force that casts the excretions out. The results must
+with men, therefore, furnish evidence from which to explain the cause.
+It is as though an anatomist would form his idea of the anatomy of the
+liver by the secretion thrown out of that organ, or of the lung texture
+by the breath and sputum. In fact, volcanoes are of several
+descriptions, and usually are extremely superficial. This lake, the
+surface of which is but one hundred and fifty miles underground, is the
+mother of an exceptionally deep one. When the water pours over this
+ledge it strikes an element below us, the metallic base of salt, which
+lies in great masses in some portions of the earth's crust.[9] Then an
+immediate chemical reaction ensues, the water is dissociated, intense
+heat results, part of the water combines with the metal, part is
+vaporized as steam, while part escapes as an inflammable gas. The sudden
+liberation of these gases causes an irregular pressure of vapor on the
+surface of the lake, the result being a throbbing and rebounding of the
+attenuated atmosphere above, which, in gigantic waves, like swelling
+tides, dashes great volumes of water over the ledge beside us, and into
+the depth below. This water in turn reacts on fresh portions of the
+metallic base, and the reflex action increases the vapor discharges, and
+as a consequence the chamber we are in becomes a gasholder, containing
+vapors of unequal gas pressures, and the resultant agitation of the lake
+from the turmoil continues, and the pulsations are repeated until the
+surface of the lake is lowered to such a degree as at last to prevent
+the water from overflowing the barrier. Finally the lake quiets itself,
+the gases slowly disappear by earth absorption, and by escape from the
+volcanic exit, and for an unrecorded period of time thereafter the
+surface of the lake continues to rise slowly as it is doing now."
+
+    [9] This view is supported in theory by a note I believe to have
+    somewhere seen recorded. Elsewhere other bases are mentioned
+    also.--J. U. L.
+
+"But what has this phenomenon to do with the volcano?"
+
+"It produces the eruption; the water that rushes down into the chasm,
+partly as steam, partly as gas, is forced onward and upward through a
+crevice that leads to the old crater of the presumed extinct but
+periodically active Mount Epomeo. These gases are intensely heated, and
+they move with fearful velocity. They tear off great masses of stone,
+which the resultant energy disturbances, pressure, gas, and friction,
+redden with heat. The mixture of gases from the decomposed water is in
+large amount, is burning and exploding, and in this fiery furnace amid
+such convulsions as have been described, the adjacent earth substance is
+fused, and even clay is melted, and carried on with the fiery blast.
+Finally the current reaches the earth's surface through the funnel
+passage, the apex of which is a volcano--the blast described a volcanic
+eruption."
+
+"One thing is still obscure in my mind," I said. "You assert that the
+reaction which follows the contact of the flowing water and metallic
+bases in the crevice below us liberates the explosive gases, and also
+volumes of vapor of water. These gases rush, you say, and produce a
+volcanic eruption in a distant part of the crust of the earth. I can not
+understand why they do not rush backward as well, and produce another
+eruption in Kentucky. Surely the pressure of a gas in confinement is the
+same in all directions, is it not?"
+
+"Yes," he replied, "but the conditions in the different directions are
+dissimilar. In the direction of the Kentucky cavern, the passage is
+tortuous, and often contracts to a narrow crevice. In one place near the
+cavern's mouth, as you will remember, we had to dive beneath the surface
+of a stream of water. That stratum of water as effectually closed the
+exit from the earth as the stopper prevents water escaping from a
+bottle. Between the point we now occupy and that water stopper, rest
+thousands of miles of quiescent air. The inertia of a thousand miles of
+air is great beyond your comprehension. To move that column of air by
+pushing against this end of it, and thus shoving it instantly out of the
+other end, would require greater force than would burst the one hundred
+and fifty miles of inelastic stone above us. Then, the friction of the
+sides is another thing that prevents its accomplishment. While a
+gradually applied pressure would in time overcome both the inertia of
+the air and the friction of the stone passages, it would take a supply
+of energy greater than you can imagine to start into motion the elastic
+mass that stands as solid and immovable as a sentinel of adamant,
+between the cavern you entered, and the spot we now occupy. Time and
+energy combined would be able to accomplish the result, but not under
+present conditions.
+
+"In the other direction a broad open channel reaches directly to and
+connects with the volcanic shaft. Through this channel the air is in
+motion, moving towards the extinct crater, being supplied from another
+surface orifice. The gases liberated in the manner I have described,
+naturally follow the line of least resistance. They turn at once away
+from the inert mass of air that rests behind us, and move with
+increasing velocity towards the volcanic exit. Before the pressure that
+might be exerted towards the Kentucky cavern would have more than
+compressed the intervening column of air enough to raise the water of a
+well from its usual level to the surface of the earth, the velocity in
+the other direction would have augmented prodigiously, and with its
+increased rapidity a suction would follow more than sufficient to
+consume the increasingly abundant gases from behind."
+
+"Volcanoes are therefore local, and the interior of the earth is not a
+molten mass as I have been taught," I exclaimed.
+
+He answered: "If men were far enough along in their thought journey (for
+the evolution of the mental side of man is a journey in the world of
+thought), they would avoid such theories as that which ascribes a
+molten interior to the earth. Volcanoes are superficial. They are as a
+rule, when in activity but little blisters or excoriations upon the
+surface of the earth, although their underground connections may be
+extensive. Some of them are in a continual fret with frequent eruptions,
+others, like the one under consideration, awaken only after great
+periods of time. The entire surface of this globe has been or will be
+subject to volcanic action. The phenomenon is one of the steps in the
+world-making, matter-leveling process. When the deposit of substances
+that I have indicated, and of which much of the earth's interior is
+composed, the bases of salt, potash, and lime and clay is exhausted,
+there will be no further volcanic action from this cause, and in some
+places, this deposit has already disappeared, or is covered deeply by
+layers of earth that serve as a protection."
+
+"Is water, then, the universal cause of volcanoes?"
+
+"Water and air together cause most of them. The action of water and its
+vapor produces from metallic space dust, limestone, and clay soil,
+potash and soda salts. This perfectly rational and natural action must
+continue as long as there is water above, and free elementary bases in
+contact with the earth bubbles. Volcanoes, earthquakes, geysers, mud
+springs, and hot springs, are the natural result of that reaction.
+Mountains are thereby forming by upheavals from beneath, and the
+corresponding surface valleys are consequently filling up, either by the
+slow deposit of the matter from the saline water of hot springs, or by
+the sudden eruption of a new or presumably extinct volcano."
+
+"What would happen if a crevice in the bottom of the ocean should
+conduct the waters of the ocean into a deposit of metallic bases?"
+
+"That often occurs," was the reply; "a volcanic wave results, and a
+volcano may thus rise from the ocean's depths."
+
+"Is there any danger to the earth itself? May it not be riven into
+fragments from such a convulsion?" I hesitatingly questioned.
+
+"No; while the configuration of continents is continually being altered,
+each disturbance must be practically superficial, and of limited area."
+
+"But," I persisted, "the rigid, solid earth may be blown to fragments;
+in such convulsions a result like that seems not impossible."
+
+"You argue from an erroneous hypothesis. The earth is neither rigid nor
+solid."
+
+"True," I answered. "If it were solid I could not be a hundred miles
+beneath its surface in conversation with another being; but there can
+not be many such cavities as that which we are now traversing, and they
+can not surely extend entirely through its mass; the great weight of the
+superincumbent material would crush together the strongest materials, if
+a globe as large as our earth were extensively honeycombed in this
+manner."
+
+"Quite the contrary," he replied; "and here let me, for the first time,
+enlighten you as to the interior structure of the terrestrial globe. The
+earth-forming principle consists of an invisible sphere of energy that,
+spinning through space, supports the space dust which collects on it, as
+dust on a bubble. By gradual accumulation of substance on that sphere a
+hollow ball has resulted, on the outer surface of which you have
+hitherto dwelt. The crust of the earth is comparatively thin, not more
+than eight hundred miles in average thickness, and is held in position
+by the central sphere of energy that now exists at a distance about
+seven hundred miles beneath the ocean level. The force inherent to this
+sphere manifests itself upon the matter which it supports on both sides,
+rendering matter the lighter the nearer it lies to the center sphere. In
+other words, let me say to you: The crust, or shell, which I have just
+described as being but about eight hundred miles in thickness, is firm
+and solid on both its convex and concave surface, but gradually loses in
+weight, whether we penetrate from the outer surface toward the center,
+or from any point of the inner surface towards the outside, until at the
+central sphere matter has no weight at all. Do you conceive my meaning?"
+
+"Yes," I replied; "I understand you perfectly."
+
+After a pause my pilot asked me abruptly:
+
+"What do you most desire?"
+
+The question caused my mind to revert instantly to my old home on the
+earth above me, and although I felt the hope of returning to it spring
+up in my heart, the force of habit caused me involuntarily to answer,
+"More light!"
+
+"More light being your desire, you shall receive it."
+
+Obedient to his touch, the bow of the boat turned from the gulf we had
+been considering towards the center of the lake; the responsive craft
+leaped forward, and in an instant the obsidian parapet disappeared
+behind us. On and over the trackless waste of glass-like water we sped,
+until the dead silence became painfully oppressive, and I asked:
+
+"Whither are we bound?"
+
+"Towards the east."
+
+The well-timed answer raised my spirits; I thought again that in this
+man, despite his repulsive shape, I beheld a friend, a brother;
+suspicion vanished, and my courage rose. He touched the lever, and the
+craft, subject to his will, nearly rose from the water, and sped with
+amazing velocity, as was evident from the appearance of the luminous
+road behind us. So rapid was our flight that the wake of the boat seemed
+as if made of rigid parallel lines that disappeared in the distance, too
+quick for the eye to catch the tremor.
+
+Continuing his conversation, my companion informed me that he had now
+directed the bark toward a point east of the spot where we struck the
+shore, after crossing the lake, in order that we might continue our
+journey downward, diagonally to the under surface of the earth crust.
+
+"This recent digression from our journey proper," said he, "has been
+made to acquaint you with a subject, regarding which you have exhibited
+a curiosity, and about which you have heretofore been misinformed; now
+you understand more clearly part of the philosophy of volcanoes and
+earthquakes. You have yet much to learn in connection with allied
+phenomena, but this study of the crude exhibition of force-disturbed
+matter, the manipulation of which is familiar to man under the above
+names, is an introduction to the more wonderful study destined yet to be
+a part of your field, an investigation of quiescent matter, and pure
+motion."
+
+"I can not comprehend you," I replied, "as I stated once before when you
+referred to what you designated as pure motion."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+    MATTER IS RETARDED MOTION.
+
+
+"It is possible--is it not?--for you to imagine a continuous volley of
+iron balls passing near you in one line, in a horizontal direction, with
+considerable velocity. Suppose that a pane of glass were to be gradually
+moved so that a corner of it would be struck by one of the balls; then
+the entire sheet of glass would be shivered by the concussion, even
+though the bullet struck but a single spot of glass, the point of
+contact covering only a small area. Imagine now that the velocity of the
+volley of bullets be increased a thousand fold; then a plate of glass
+thrust into their track would be smoothly cut, as though with a file
+that would gnaw its way without producing a single radiating fracture. A
+person standing near the volley would now hear a deep purr or growling
+sound, caused by the friction between the bullets and the air. Increase
+gradually the rapidity of their motion, and this growl would become more
+acute, passing from a deep, low murmur, into one less grave, and as the
+velocity increased, the tone would become sharper, and at last
+piercingly shrill. Increase now the rapidity of the train of bullets
+again, and again the notes would decrease in turn, passing back again
+successively through the several keys that had preceded, and finally
+would reach the low growl which first struck the ear, and with a further
+increase of speed silence would ensue, silence evermore, regardless of
+increasing velocity.[10] From these hundreds of miles in a second at
+which the volley is now passing, let the rapidity be augmented a
+thousand times, reaching in their flight into millions of miles each
+second, and to the eye, from the point where the sound disappeared, as
+the velocity increased, a dim redness would appear, a glow just
+perceptible, indicating to the sense of sight, by a continuous line,
+the track of the moving missiles. To all appearance, the line would be
+as uniform as an illuminated pencil mark, even though the several
+integral bullets of the trail might be separated one from another by
+miles of space. Let a pane of glass now be thrust across their track,
+and from the point of contact a shower of sparks would fly, and the
+edges of glass close to either side of the orifice would be shown, on
+withdrawing the glass, to have been fused. Conceive now that the
+velocity of the bullets be doubled and trebled, again and again, the
+line of red light becomes brighter, then brilliant, and finally as the
+velocity increases, at a certain point pure white results, and to man's
+sense the trail would now be a continuous something, as solid as a bar
+of metal if at a white heat, and (even if the bullets were a thousand
+miles apart) man could not bring proof of their separate existence to
+his senses. That portion of a pane of glass or other substance, even
+steel or adamant, which should cross its track now would simply melt
+away, the portion excised and carried out of that pathway neither
+showing itself as scintillations, nor as fragments of matter. The solid
+would instantly liquefy, and would spread itself as a thin film over the
+surface of each ball of that white, hot mass of fleeing metal, now to
+all essential conditions as uniform as a bar of iron. Madly increase the
+velocity to millions upon millions of miles per second, and the heat
+will disappear gradually as did the sound, while the bright light will
+pass backward successively through the primary shades of color that are
+now known to man, beginning with violet, and ending with red, and as the
+red fades away the train of bullets will disappear to the sense of man.
+Neither light nor sound now accompanies the volley, neither the human
+eye nor the human ear can perceive its presence. Drop a pane of glass or
+any other object edgewise through it, and it gives to the sense of man
+no evidence; the molecules of the glass separate from in front to close
+in from behind, and the moving train passes through it as freely as
+light, leaving the surface of the glass unaffected."
+
+    [10] A scientific critic seems to think that the shrill cry would
+    cease instantly and not gradually. However, science has been at
+    fault more than once, and I do not care to take liberties with
+    this statement.--J. U. L.
+
+"Hold," I interrupted; "that would be as one quality of matter passing
+through another quality of matter without disturbance to either, and it
+is a law in physics that two substances can not occupy the same space at
+the same time."
+
+"That law holds good as man understands the subject, but bullets are no
+longer matter. Motion of mass was first changed into motion of
+molecules, and motion of molecule became finally augmented into motion
+of free force entities 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 space (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
+retardation 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 space can
+generate elemental dirt. If you can conceive of an intermediate
+condition whereby pure space 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 space 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
+assertion 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
+encompass 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 space
+condition, neither gas, liquid, nor solid.[11] One particularly
+interferes with light in its passage. It is an entity 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' Association, 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] assertion.--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 passage 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 multitudes of tiny globular
+water surfaces are produced. Pure vapor of water, free from motion, is
+passive to the sunlight."
+
+"I can scarcely believe that a substance such as you describe, or that
+any constituent 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
+space 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 assume 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 passage of mortal man, with the faculties of man intact, into
+communion with the spirit world."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII.
+
+    "A STUDY OF SCIENCE IS A STUDY OF GOD."--COMMUNING WITH ANGELS.
+
+
+"This is incredible," I exclaimed.
+
+"You need not be astonished," he answered. "Is there any argument that
+can be offered to controvert the assertion that man is ignorant of many
+natural laws?"
+
+"I can offer none."
+
+"Is there any doubt that a force, distinct and separate from matter,
+influences matter and vivifies it into a living personality?"
+
+"I do not deny that there is such force."
+
+"What then should prevent this force from existing separate from the
+body if it be capable of existing in it?"
+
+"I can not argue against such a position."
+
+"If, as is hoped and believed by the majority of mankind, even though
+some try to deny the fact, it is possible for man to exist as an
+association of earth matters, linked to a personal spirit force, the
+soul, and for the spirit force, after the death of the body, to exist
+independent of the grosser attributes of man, free from his mortal body,
+is it not reasonable to infer that the spirit, while it is still in man
+and linked to his body, may be educated and developed so as, under
+favorable conditions, to meet and communicate with other spirits that
+have been previously liberated from earthly bondage?"
+
+"I submit," I answered; "but you shock my sensibilities when you thus
+imply that by cold, scientific investigation we can place ourselves in a
+position to meet the unseen spirit world--"
+
+It was now my turn to hesitate.
+
+"Go on," he said.
+
+"To commune with the angels," I answered.
+
+"A study of true science is a study of God," he continued. "Angels are
+organizations natural in accordance with God's laws. They appear
+superhuman, because of our ignorance concerning the higher natural
+forces. They exist in exact accordance with the laws that govern the
+universe; but as yet the attraction between clay and clay-bound spirit
+is so great as to prevent the enthralled soul of man from communicating
+with them. The faith of the religionist is an example of the
+unquenchable feeling that creates a belief as well as a hope that there
+is a self-existence separate from earthy substances. The scoffing
+scientific agnostic, working for other objects, will yet astonish
+himself by elaborating a method that will practically demonstrate these
+facts, and then empirical religion, as exemplified by the unquestioning
+faithful believer, and systematic science, as typified in the
+experimental materialist, will meet on common ground."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV.
+
+    I CEASE TO BREATHE, AND YET LIVE.
+
+
+During this conversation we had been rapidly walking, or I should better
+say advancing, for we no longer walked as men do, but skipped down into
+the earth, down, ever downward. There were long periods of silence, in
+which I was engaged in meditating over the problems that successively
+demanded solution, and even had I desired to do so I could have kept no
+record of time; days, or even weeks, may have been consumed in this
+journey. Neither have I any method of judging of the rapidity of our
+motion. I was sensible of a marked decrease in the amount of muscular
+energy required to carry us onward, and I realized that my body was
+quite exempt from weariness. Motion became restful instead of
+exhausting, and it seemed to me that the ratio of the loss of weight, as
+shown by our free movements, in proportion to the distance we traversed,
+was greater than formerly. The slightest exhibition of propelling force
+cast us rapidly forward. Instead of the laborious, short step of upper
+earth, a single leap would carry us many yards. A slight spring, and
+with our bodies in space, we would skip several rods, alighting gently,
+to move again as easily. I marveled, for, although I had been led to
+anticipate something unusual, the practical evidence was wonderfully
+impressive, and I again questioned my guide.
+
+"We are now nearing what physicists would call the center of gravity,"
+he replied, "and our weight is rapidly diminishing. This is in exact
+accordance with the laws that govern the force called gravitation,
+which, at the earth's surface, is apparently uniform, though no
+instrument known to man can demonstrate its exact variation within the
+field man occupies. Men have not, as yet, been in a position to estimate
+this change, although it is known that mountains attract objects, and
+that a change in weight as we descend into the earth is perceptible; but
+to evolve the true law, observation, at a distance of at least ten
+miles beneath the surface of the ocean is necessary, and man, being a
+creature whose motions are confined to a thin, horizontal skin of earth,
+has never been one mile beneath its surface, and in consequence his
+opportunities for comparison are extremely limited."
+
+[Illustration: "WE WOULD SKIP SEVERAL RODS, ALIGHTING GENTLY."]
+
+"I have been taught," I replied, "that the force of gravitation
+decreases until the center of the earth is reached, at which point a
+body is without weight; and I can scarcely understand how such positive
+statements from scientific men can be far from the truth."
+
+"It is supposed by your surface men that the maximum of weight is to be
+found at one-sixth the distance beneath the surface of the earth, and
+therefrom decreases until at the center it is nothing at all," he
+replied. "This hypothesis, though a stagger toward the right, is far
+from the truth, but as near as could be expected, when we consider the
+data upon which men base their calculations. Were it not for the purpose
+of controverting erroneous views, men would have little incentive to
+continue their investigations, and as has been the rule in science
+heretofore, the truth will, in time, appear in this case. One generation
+of students disproves the accepted theories of that which precedes, all
+working to eliminate error, all adding factors of error, and all
+together moving toward a common goal, a grand generalization, that as
+yet can not be perceived. And still each series of workers is
+overlooking phenomena that, though obvious, are yet unperceived, but
+which will make evident to future scientists the mistakes of the
+present. As an example of the manner in which facts are thus overlooked,
+in your journey you have been impressed with certain surprising external
+conditions, or surroundings, and yet are oblivious to conditions more
+remarkable in your own body. So it is with scientists. They overlook
+prominent facts that stare them boldly in the face, facts that are so
+conspicuous as to be invisible by reason of their very nearness."
+
+"This statement I can not disprove, and therefore must admit under
+protest. Where there is so much that appears mysterious I may have
+overlooked some things, but I can scarcely accept that, in ignorance, I
+have passed conditions in my own organization so marked as this decrease
+in gravity which has so strikingly been called to my attention."
+
+"You have, and to convince you I need only say that you have nearly
+ceased to breathe, and are unconscious of the fact."
+
+I stopped short, in momentary alarm, and now that my mind was directed
+to the fact, I became aware that I did not desire to breathe, and that
+my chest had ceased to heave with the alternate inhalation and
+exhalation of former times. I closed my lips firmly, and for a long
+period there was no desire for breath, then a slight involuntary
+inhalation followed, and an exhalation, scarcely noticeable, succeeded
+by a great interval of inaction. I impulsively turned my face toward the
+passage we had trod; a feeling of alarm possessed me, an uncontrollable,
+inexpressible desire to flee from the mysterious earth-being beside me,
+to return to men, and be an earth-surface man again, and I started
+backward through the chamber we had passed.
+
+The guide seized me by the hand, "Hold, hold," he cried; "where would
+you go, fickle mortal?"
+
+"To the surface," I shouted; "to daylight again. Unhand me, unearthly
+creature, abnormal being, man or devil; have you not inveigled me far
+enough into occult realms that should be forever sealed from mankind?
+Have you not taken from me all that men love or cherish, and undone
+every tie of kith or kin? Have you not led me into paths that the
+imagination of the novelist dare not conjure, and into experiences that
+pen in human hand would not venture to describe as possible, until I now
+stand with my feet on the boundary line that borders vacancy, and utter
+loss of weight; with a body nearly lost as a material substance, verging
+into nothing, and lastly with breath practically extinguished, I say,
+and repeat, is it not time that I should hesitate and pause in my
+reckless career?"
+
+"It is not time," he answered.
+
+"When will that hour come?" I asked in desperation, and I trembled as he
+replied:
+
+"When the three Great Lights are closed."
+
+[Illustration: "AN UNCONTROLLABLE, INEXPRESSIBLE DESIRE TO FLEE."]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV.
+
+    "A CERTAIN POINT WITHIN A SPHERE."--MEN ARE AS PARASITES ON THE
+    ROOF OF EARTH.
+
+
+I realized again, as I had so many times before, that it was useless for
+me to rebel. "The self-imposed mystery of a sacrificed life lies before
+me," I murmured, "and there is no chance to retrace my footsteps. The
+'Beyond' of the course that I have voluntarily selected, and sworn to
+follow, is hidden; I must nerve myself to pursue it to the bitter end,
+and so help me God, and keep me steadfast."
+
+"Well said," he replied; "and since you have so wisely determined, I am
+free to inform you that these new obligations, like those you have
+heretofore taken, contain nothing which can conflict with your duty to
+God, your country, your neighbor, or yourself. In considering the
+phenomena presented by the suspension of the act of breathing, it should
+occur to you that where little labor is to be performed, little
+consumption of energy is required. Where there is such a trifling
+destruction of the vital force (not mind force) as at present is the
+case with us, it requires but slight respiration to retain the normal
+condition of the body. On earth's surface the act of respiration alone
+consumes by far the larger proportion of vital energy, and the muscular
+exertion involved thereby necessitates a proportionate amount of
+breathing in order that breath itself may continue. This act of
+respiration is the result of one of the conditions of surface earth
+life, and consumes most of the vital force. If men would think of this,
+they would understand how paradoxical it is for them to breathe in order
+to live, when the very act of respiration wears away their bodies and
+shortens their lives more than all else they have to do, and without
+adding to their mental or physical constitution in the least. Men are
+conversant with physical death as a constant result of suspended
+respiration, and with respiration as an accompaniment of life, which
+ever constant and connected conditions lead them to accept that the act
+of breathing is a necessity of mortal life. In reality, man occupies an
+unfortunate position among other undeveloped creatures of external
+earth; he is an animal, and is constitutionally framed like the other
+animals about him. He is exposed to the warring elements, to the vicious
+attacks of savage beasts and insidious parasites, and to the inroads of
+disease. He is a prey to the elementary vicissitudes of the undesirable
+exposure in which he exists upon the outer surface of our globe, where
+all is war, even among the forces of nature about him. These conditions
+render his lot an unhappy one indeed, and in ignorance he overlooks the
+torments of the weary, rasping, endless slavery of respiration in the
+personal struggle he has to undergo in order to retain a brief existence
+as an organized being. Have you never thought of the connected
+tribulations that the wear and tear of respiration alone inflict upon
+the human family? The heaving of the chest, the circulation of the
+blood, the throbbing of the heart, continue from mortal birth until
+death. The heart of man forces about two and one-half ounces of blood
+with each pulsation. At seventy beats per minute this amounts to six
+hundred and fifty-six pounds per hour, or nearly eight tons per day. The
+lungs respire over one thousand times an hour, and move over three
+thousand gallons of air a day. Multiply these amounts by three hundred
+and sixty-five, and then by seventy, and you have partly computed the
+enormous life-work of the lungs and heart of an adult. Over two hundred
+thousand tons of blood, and seventy-five million gallons of air have
+been moved by the vital force. The energy thus consumed is dissipated.
+No return is made for the expenditure of this life force. During the
+natural life of man, more energy is consequently wasted in material
+transformation resulting from the motion of heart and lungs, than would
+be necessary to sustain the purely vital forces alone for a thousand
+years. Besides, the act of respiration which man is compelled to perform
+in his exposed position, necessitates the consumption of large amounts
+of food, in order to preserve the animal heat, and replace the waste of
+a material body that in turn is worn out by these very movements. Add
+this waste of energy to the foregoing, and then you will surely perceive
+that the possible life of man is also curtailed to another and greater
+degree in the support of the digestive part of his organism. His spirit
+is a slave to his body; his lungs and heart, on which he imagines life
+depends, are unceasing antagonists of life. That his act of breathing is
+now a necessity upon the surface of the earth, where the force of
+gravity presses so heavily, and where the elements have men at their
+command, and show him no mercy, I will not deny; but it is exasperating
+to contemplate such a waste of energy, and corresponding loss of human
+life."
+
+"You must admit, however, that it is necessary?" I queried.
+
+"No; only to an extent. The natural life of man should, and yet will be,
+doubled, trebled, multiplied a dozen, yes a thousand fold."
+
+I stepped in front of him; we stood facing each other.
+
+"Tell me," I cried, "how men can so improve their condition as to
+lengthen their days to the limit you name, and let me return to surface
+earth a carrier of the glad tidings."
+
+He shook his head.
+
+I dropped on my knees before him.
+
+[Illustration: "I DROPPED ON MY KNEES BEFORE HIM."]
+
+"I implore you in behalf of that unfortunate humanity, of which I am a
+member, give me this boon. I promise to return to you and do your
+bidding. Whatever may be my subsequent fate, I promise to acquiesce
+therein willingly."
+
+He raised me to my feet.
+
+"Be of good cheer," he said, "and in the proper time you may return to
+the surface of this rind of earth, a carrier of great and good news to
+men."
+
+"Shall I teach them of what you have shown me?" I asked.
+
+"Yes; in part you will be a forerunner, but before you obtain the
+information that is necessary to the comfort of mankind you will have
+to visit surface earth again, and return again, perhaps repeatedly. You
+must prove yourself as men are seldom proven. The journey you have
+commenced is far from its conclusion, and you may not be equal to its
+subsequent trials; prepare yourself, therefore, for a series of events
+that may unnerve you. If you had full confidence and faith in your
+guide, you would have less cause to fear the result, but your suspicious
+human nature can not overcome the shrinking sensation that is natural to
+those who have been educated as you have been amid the changing
+vicissitudes of the earth's surface, and you can not but be incredulous
+by reason of that education."
+
+Then I stopped as I observed before me a peculiar fungus--peculiar
+because unlike all others I had seen. The convex part of its bowl was
+below, and the great head, as an inverted toadstool, stood upright on a
+short, stem-like pedestal. The gills within were of a deep green color,
+and curved out from the center in the form of a spiral. This form,
+however, was not the distinguishing feature, for I had before observed
+specimens that were spiral in structure. The extraordinary peculiarity
+was that the gills were covered with fruit. This fruit was likewise
+green in color, each spore, or berry, being from two to three inches in
+diameter, and honeycombed on the surface, corrugated most beautifully. I
+stopped, leaned over the edge of the great bowl, and plucked a specimen
+of the fruit. It seemed to be covered with a hard, transparent shell,
+and to be nearly full of a clear, green liquid. I handled and examined
+it in curiosity, at which my guide seemed not to be surprised. Regarding
+me attentively, he said:
+
+"What is it that impels a mortal towards this fruit?"
+
+"It is curious," I said; "nothing more."
+
+"As for that," said he, "it is not curious at all; the seed of the
+lobelia of upper earth is more curious, because, while it is as
+exquisitely corrugated, it is also microscopically small. In the second
+place you err when you say it is simply curious, 'nothing more,' for no
+mortal ever yet passed that bowl without doing exactly as you have done.
+The vein of curiosity, were it that alone that impels you, could not but
+have an exception."
+
+Then he cracked the shell of the fruit by striking it on the stony
+floor, and carefully opened the shell, handing me one of the halves
+filled with a green fluid. As he did so he spoke the single word,
+"Drink," and I did as directed. He stood upright before me, and as I
+looked him in the face he seemingly, without a reason, struck off into a
+dissertation, apparently as distinct from our line of thought as a
+disconnected subject could be, as follows:
+
+[Illustration: "HANDING ME ONE OF THE HALVES, HE SPOKE THE SINGLE
+WORD, DRINK."]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI.
+
+    DRUNKENNESS.--THE DRINKS OF MAN.
+
+
+"Intemperance has been the vice of every people, and is prevalent in all
+climes, notwithstanding that intoxicants, properly employed, may serve
+humanity's highest aims. Beginning early in the history of a people, the
+disease increases with the growth of a nation, until, at last, unless
+the knife is used, civilization perishes. A lowly people becomes more
+depraved as the use of liquor increases; a cultivated people passes
+backward into barbarism with the depravities that come from dissipation.
+Here nations meet, and individuals sink to a common level. No drinking
+man is strong enough to say, 'I can not become dissipated;' no nation is
+rich and cultivated enough to view the debauch of its people without
+alarm.
+
+"The disgusting habit of the drunken African finds its counterpart in
+the lascivious wine-bibber of aristocratic society. To picture the
+indecencies of society, that may be charged to debauchery, when the
+Grecian and Roman empires were at the height of greatness, would obscure
+the orgies of the barbarous African, and make preferable the brutality
+of the drunken American Indian. Intemperance brings men to the lowest
+level, and holds its power over all lands and all nations."
+
+"Did the aborigines know how to make intoxicants, and were barbarians
+intemperate before contact with civilized nations?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"But I have understood that drunkenness is a vice inherent only in
+civilized people; are not you mistaken?"
+
+"No. Every clime, unless it be the far North where men are scarcely more
+than animals, furnishes intoxicants, and all people use them. I will
+tell you part of this record of nations.
+
+"The Nubians make a barley beer which they call bouze, and also a wine,
+from the palm tree. The savages of Africa draw the clear, sweet juice of
+the palm oil tree into a gourd, in the morning, and by night it becomes
+a violent intoxicant. The natives of the Malayan Archipelago ferment and
+drink the sap of the flower stems of the cocoanut. The Tartar tribes
+make an intoxicating drink from mare's milk, called koomis. In South
+America the natives drink a vile compound, called cana, distilled from
+sugar cane; and in the Sandwich Islands, the shrub kava supplies the
+intoxicant kava-kava, drunk by all the inhabitants, from king to slave,
+and mother to child. In the heart of Africa, cannibal tribes make legyce
+of a cereal, and indulge in wild orgies over their barbaric cup. In
+North America the Indians, before Columbus discovered America, made an
+intoxicating drink of the sap of the maple tree. The national drink of
+the Mexicans is pulque, a beastly intoxicant, prepared from the Agave
+Americana. Mead is an alcoholic drink, made of honey, and used in many
+countries. In China wine was indulged in from the earliest day, and in
+former times, had it not been for the influence of their philosophers,
+especially Confucius, who foresaw the end, the Chinese nation would have
+perished from drunkenness. Opium, that fearful enslaver of millions of
+human beings, is in every sense a narcotic intoxicant, and stands
+conspicuous as an agent, capable of being either a friend, a companion,
+or a master, as man permits. History fails to indicate the date of its
+introduction to humanity. In South America the leaf of the cocoa plant
+is a stimulant scarcely less to be dreaded than opium. The juice of a
+species of asclepias produces the intoxicant soma, used once by the
+Brahmins, not only as a drink, but also in sacrificial and religious
+ceremonies. Many different flavored liquors made of palm, cocoanuts,
+sugar, pepper, honey, spices, etc., were used by native Hindoos, and as
+intoxicants have been employed from the earliest days in India. The
+Vedic people were fearfully dissipated, and page after page of that
+wonderful sacred book, the Rigs-Veda, is devoted to the habit of
+drunkenness. The worst classes of drunkards of India used Indian hemp to
+make bhang, or combined the deadly narcotic stramonium with arrack, a
+native beer, to produce a poisonous intoxicant. In that early day the
+inhabitants of India and China were fearfully depraved drunkards, and
+but for the reforms instituted by their wise men, must have perished as
+a people. Parahaoma, or 'homa,' is an intoxicant made from a lost plant
+that is described as having yellow blossoms, used by the ancient
+dissolute Persians from the day of Zoroaster. Cannabis sativa produces
+an intoxicant that in Turkey is known as hadschy, in Arabia and India as
+hashish, and to the Hottentots as dacha, and serves as a drunkard's food
+in other lands. The fruit of the juniper produces gin, and the fermented
+juice of the grape, or malt liquors, in all civilized countries are the
+favorite intoxicants, their origin being lost in antiquity. Other
+substances, such as palm, apples, dates, and pomegranates have also been
+universally employed as drink producers.
+
+"Go where you will, man's tendency seems to be towards the bowl that
+inebriates, and yet it is not the use but the abuse of intoxicants that
+man has to dread. Could he be temperate, exhilarants would befriend."
+
+"But here," I replied, "in this underground land, where food is free,
+and existence possible without an effort, this shameful vice has no
+existence. Here there is no incentive to intemperance, and even though
+man were present with his inherent passion for drink, he could not find
+means to gratify his appetite."
+
+"Ah," my guide replied, "that is an error. Why should this part of the
+earth prove an exception to the general rule? Nature always supplies the
+means, and man's instinct teaches him how to prepare an intoxicant. So
+long as man is human his passions will rule. If you should prove unequal
+to the task you have undertaken, if you shrink from your journey, and
+turn back, the chances are you will fail to reach the surface of the
+earth. You will surely stop in the chamber which we now approach, and
+which I have now prepared you to enter, and will then become one of a
+band of earth drunkards; having all the lower passions of a mortal you
+will yet be lost to the virtues of man. In this chamber those who falter
+and turn back, stop and remain for all time, sinking until they become
+lower in the human scale than any drunkard on earth. Without any
+restraining influence, without a care, without necessity of food or
+incentive to exertion, in this habitation where heat and cold are
+unknown, and no motive for self-preservation exists, they turn their
+thoughts toward the ruling passion of mankind and--Listen! Do you not
+hear them? Listen!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII.
+
+    THE DRUNKARD'S VOICE.
+
+
+Then I noticed a medley of sounds seemingly rising out of the depths
+beyond us. The noise was not such as to lead me to infer that persons
+were speaking coherently, but rather resembled a jargon such as might
+come from a multitude of persons talking indiscriminately and aimlessly.
+It was a constant volley, now rising and now falling in intensity, as
+though many persons regardless of one another were chanting different
+tunes in that peculiar sing-song tone often characteristic of the
+drunkard. As we advanced, the noise became louder and more of a medley,
+until at last we were surrounded by confusion. Then a single voice rose
+up strong and full, and at once, from about us, close to us, yes,
+against our very persons, cries and shrieks unearthly smote my ears. I
+could distinguish words of various tongues, English, Irish, German, and
+many unfamiliar and disjointed cries, imprecations, and maledictions.
+The cavern about seemed now to be resonant with voices,--shrieks, yells,
+and maniacal cries commingled,--and yet no form appeared. As we rushed
+onward, for now my guide grasped my arm tightly and drew me rapidly down
+the cavern floor, the voices subsided, and at length sounded as if
+behind us. Now however it seemed as though innumerable arrows, each
+possessed of a whistle or tone of its own, were in wave-like gusts
+shrieking by us. Coming from in front, they burst in the rear. Stopping
+to listen, I found that a connection could be traced between the screech
+of the arrow-like shriek, and a drunkard's distant voice. It seemed as
+though a rocket made of an escaping voice would scream past, and
+bursting in the cavern behind, liberate a human cry. Now and then all
+but a few would subside, to burst out with increased violence, as if a
+flight of rockets each with a cry of its own would rush past, to be
+followed after their explosion by a medley of maniacal cries, songs,
+shrieks, and groans, commingled. It was as though a shell containing a
+voice that escaped slowly as by pressure from an orifice, were fired
+past my ears, to explode and liberate the voice within my hearing. The
+dreadful utterance was not an echo, was not hallucination, it was real.
+
+I stopped and looked at my guide in amazement. He explained: "Did you
+not sometime back experience that your own voice was thrown from your
+body?"
+
+"Yes," I answered.
+
+"These crazed persons or rather experiences depraved, are shouting in
+the cavern beyond," he said. "They are in front; their voices pass us to
+burst into expression in the rear."
+
+Then, even as he spoke, from a fungus stalk near us, a hideous creature
+unfolded itself, and shambled to my side. It had the frame of a man, and
+yet it moved like a serpent, writhing towards me. I stepped back in
+horror, but the tall, ungainly creature reached out an arm and grasped
+me tightly. Leaning over he placed his hideous mouth close to my ear,
+and moaned: "Back, back, go thou back."
+
+I made no reply, being horror-stricken.
+
+"Back, I say, back to earth, or--"
+
+He hesitated, and still possessed of fear, and unable to reply, I was
+silent.
+
+"Then go on," he said, "on to your destiny, unhappy man," and slinking
+back to the fungus whence he arose, he disappeared from sight.
+
+"Come," said my guide, "let us pass the Drunkard's Den. This was but a
+straggler; nerve yourself, for his companions will soon surround us."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVIII.
+
+    THE DRUNKARDS' DEN.
+
+
+As we progressed the voices in our rear became more faint, and yet the
+whistling volleys of screeching voice bombs passed us as before. I
+shuddered in anticipation of the sight that was surely to meet our gaze,
+and could not but tremble for fear. Then I stopped and recoiled, for at
+my very feet I beheld a huge, living human head. It rested on the solid
+rock, and had I not stopped suddenly when I did, I would have kicked it
+at the next leap. The eyes of the monster were fixed in supplication on
+my face; the great brow indicated intelligence, the finely-cut mouth
+denoted refinement, the well-modeled head denoted brain, but the whole
+constituted a monster. The mouth opened, and a whizzing, arrow voice
+swept past, and was lost in the distance.
+
+"What is this?" I gasped.
+
+"The fate of a drunkard," my guide replied. "This was once an
+intelligent man, but now he has lost his body, and enslaved his soul, in
+the den of drink beyond us, and has been brought here by his comrades,
+who thus rid themselves of his presence. Here he must rest eternally. He
+can not move, he has but one desire, drink, and that craving, deeper
+than life, can not be satiated."
+
+"But he desires to speak; speak lower, man, or head of man, if you wish
+me to know your wants," I said, and leaned toward him.
+
+Then the monster whispered, and I caught the words:
+
+"Back, back, go thou back!"
+
+I made no reply.
+
+"Back I say, back to earth or--"
+
+Still I remained silent.
+
+"Then go on," he said; "on to your destiny, unhappy man."
+
+"This is horrible," I muttered.
+
+"Come," said the guide, "let us proceed."
+
+And we moved onward.
+
+Now I perceived many such heads about us, all resting upright on the
+stony floor. Some were silent, others were shouting, others still were
+whispering and endeavoring to attract my attention. As we hurried on I
+saw more and more of these abnormal creatures. Some were in rows,
+resting against each other, leaving barely room for us to pass between,
+but at last, much to my relief, we left them behind us.
+
+But I found that I had no cause for congratulation, when I felt myself
+clutched by a powerful hand--a hand as large as that of a man fifty feet
+in height. I looked about expecting to see a gigantic being, but instead
+beheld a shrunken pigmy. The whole man seemed but a single hand--a
+Brobdingnag hand affixed to the body of a Liliputian.
+
+"Do not struggle," said the guide; "listen to what he wishes to impart."
+
+I leaned over, placing my ear close to the mouth of the monstrosity.
+
+"Back, back, go thou back," it whispered.
+
+"What have I to fear?" I asked.
+
+"Back, I say, back to earth, or--"
+
+"Or what?" I said.
+
+"Then go on; on to your destiny, unhappy man," he answered, and the hand
+loosed its grasp.
+
+My guide drew me onward.
+
+Then, from about us, huge hands arose; on all sides they waved in the
+air; some were closed and were shaken as clenched fists, others moved
+aimlessly with spread fingers, others still pointed to the passage we
+had traversed, and in a confusion of whispers I heard from the pigmy
+figures a babble of cries, "Back, back, go thou back." Again I
+hesitated, the strain upon my nerves was becoming unbearable; I glanced
+backward and saw a swarm of misshaped diminutive forms, each holding up
+a monstrous arm and hand. The passage behind us was closed against
+retreat. Every form possessed but one hand, the other and the entire
+body seemingly had been drawn into this abnormal member. While I thus
+meditated, momentarily, as by a single thought each hand closed,
+excepting the index finger, and in unison each finger pointed towards
+the open way in front, and like shafts from a thousand bows I felt the
+voices whiz past me, and then from the rear came the reverberation as a
+complex echo, "Then go on; on to your destiny, unhappy man."
+
+Instinctively I sprang forward, and had it not been for the restraining
+hand of my guide would have rushed wildly into passages that might have
+ended my misery, for God only knows what those unseen corridors
+contained. I was aware of that which lay behind, and was only intent on
+escaping from the horrid figures already passed.
+
+[Illustration: "EACH FINGER POINTED TOWARDS THE OPEN WAY IN FRONT."]
+
+"Hold," whispered the guide; "as you value your life, stop."
+
+And then exerting a power that I could not withstand, he held me a
+struggling prisoner.
+
+"Listen," he said, "have you not observed that these creatures do not
+seek to harm you? Have not all of them spoken kindly, have any offered
+violence?"
+
+"No," I replied, "but they are horrible."
+
+"That they realize; but fearing that you will prove to be as weak as
+they have been, and will become as they are now, they warn you back.
+However, I say to you, if you have courage sufficient, you need have no
+fear. Come, rely on me, and do not be surprised at anything that
+appears."
+
+Again we went forward. I realized now my utter helplessness. I became
+indifferent again; I could neither retrace my footsteps alone, nor guide
+them forward in the path I was to pursue. I submissively relied on my
+guide, and as stoical as he appeared to be, I moved onward to new
+scenes.
+
+We came to a great chamber which, as we halted on its edge, seemed to be
+a prodigious amphitheater. In its center a rostrum-like stone of a
+hundred feet in diameter, flat and circular on the top, reared itself
+about twelve feet above the floor, and to the base of this rostrum the
+floor of the room sloped evenly. The amphitheater was fully a thousand
+feet in diameter, of great height, and the floor was literally alive
+with grotesque beings. Imagination could not depict an abnormal human
+form that did not exhibit itself to my startled gaze. One peculiarity
+now presented itself to my mind; each abnormal part seemed to be created
+at the expense of the remainder of the body. Thus, to my right I beheld
+a single leg, fully twelve feet in height, surmounted by a puny human
+form, which on this leg, hopped ludicrously away. I saw close behind
+this huge limb a great ear attached to a small head and body; then a
+nose so large that the figure to which it was attached was forced to
+hold the face upward, in order to prevent the misshaped organ from
+rubbing on the stony floor. Here a gigantic forehead rested on a
+shrunken face and body, and there a pair of enormous feet were walking,
+seemingly attached to the body of a child, and yet the face was that of
+a man. If an artist were to attempt to create as many revolting figures
+as possible, each with some member out of proportion to the rest of the
+body, he could not add one form to those upon this floor. And yet, I
+again observed that each exaggerated organ seemed to have drawn itself
+into existence by absorbing the remainder of the body. We stood on the
+edge of this great room, and I pondered the scene before my eyes. At
+length my guide broke the silence:
+
+"You must cross this floor; no other passage is known. Mark well my
+words, heed my advice."
+
+"This is the Drunkards' Den. These men are lost to themselves and to the
+world. Every member of this assembly once passed onward as you are now
+doing, in charge of a guide. They failed to reach the goal to which you
+aspire, and retreating, reached this chamber, to become victims to the
+drink habit. Some of these creatures have been here for ages, others
+only for a short period."
+
+"Why are they so distorted?" I asked.
+
+"Because matter is now only partly subservient to will," he replied.
+"The intellect and mind of a drunkard on surface earth becomes abnormal
+by the influence of an intoxicant, but his real form is unseen, although
+evidently misshapen and partly subject to the perception of a few only
+of his fellow men. Could you see the inner form of an earth surface
+drunkard, you would perceive as great a mental monstrosity as is any
+physical monster now before you, and of the two the physically abnormal
+creature is really the least objectionable. Could you see the mind
+configurations of an assembly of surface earth topers, you would
+perceive a class of beings as much distorted mentally as are these
+physically. A drunkard is a monstrosity. On surface earth the mind
+becomes abnormal; here the body suffers."
+
+"Why is it," I asked, "that parts of these creatures shrink away as some
+special organ increases?"
+
+"Because the abnormal member can grow only by abstracting its substance
+from the other portions of the body. An increasing arm enlarges itself
+by drawing its strength from the other parts, hence the body withers as
+the hand enlarges, and in turn the hand shrinks when the leg increases
+in size. The total weight of the individual remains about the same.
+
+"Men on earth judge of men not by what they are, but by what they seem
+to be. The physical form is apparent to the sense of sight, the real man
+is unseen. However, as the boot that encloses a foot can not altogether
+hide the form of the foot within, so the body that encloses the life
+entity, can not but exhibit here and there the character of the
+dominating spirit within. Thus a man's features may grow to indicate the
+nature of the enclosed spirit, for the controlling character of that
+spirit will gradually impress itself on the material part of man. Even
+on surface earth, where the matter side of man dominates, a vicious
+spirit will produce a villainous countenance, a mediocre mind a vapid
+face, and an amorous soul will even protrude the anterior part of the
+skull.
+
+"Carry the same law to this location, and it will be seen that as mind,
+or spirit, is here the master, and matter is the slave, the same rule
+should, under natural law, tend to produce such abnormal figures as you
+perceive. Hence the part of a man's spirit that is endowed most highly
+sways the corresponding part of his physical body at the expense of the
+remainder. Gradually the form is altered under the relaxing influence of
+this fearful intra-earth intoxicant, and eventually but one organ
+remains to tell of the symmetrical man who formerly existed. Then, when
+he is no longer capable of self-motion, the comrades carry the
+drunkard's fate, which is here the abnormal being you have seen, into
+the selected corridor, and deposit it among others of its kind, as in
+turn the bearers are destined sometime to be carried by others. We
+reached this cavern through a corridor in which heads and arms were
+abnormal, but in others may be found great feet, great legs, or other
+portions of self-abused man.
+
+"I should tell you, furthermore, that on surface earth a drunkard is not
+less abnormal than these creatures; but men can not see the form of the
+drunkard's spirit. Could they perceive the image of the real man life
+that corresponds to the material part, it would appear not less
+distorted and hideous. The soul of a mortal protrudes from the visible
+body as down expands from a thistle seed, but it is invisible. Drink
+drives the spirit of an earth-surface drunkard to unnatural forms, not
+less grotesque than these physical distortions. Could you see the real
+drunkard on surface earth he would be largely outside the body shell,
+and hideous in the extreme. As a rule, the spirit of an earth-surface
+drunkard dominates the nose and face, and if mortal man could be
+suddenly gifted with the sense of mind-sight, they would find themselves
+surrounded by persons as misshapen as any delirious imagination can
+conjure. Luckily for humanity this scene is as yet withheld from man,
+for life would otherwise be a fearful experience, because man has not
+the power to resist the temptation to abuse drink."
+
+"Tell me," I said, "how long will those beings rest in these caverns?"
+
+"They have been here for ages," replied the guide; "they are doomed to
+remain for ages yet."
+
+"You have intimated that if my courage fails I will return to this
+cavern and become as they are. Now that you have warned me of my doom,
+do you imagine that anything, even sudden death, can swerve me from my
+journey? Death is surely preferable to such an existence as this."
+
+"Do not be so confident. Every individual before you has had the same
+opportunity, and has been warned as you have been. They could not
+undergo the test to which they were subjected, and you may fail.
+Besides, on surface earth are not men constantly confronted with the
+doom of the drunkard, and do they not, in the face of this reality, turn
+back and seek his caverns? The journey of life is not so fearful that
+they should become drunkards to shrink from its responsibilities. You
+have reached this point in safety. You have passed the sentinels
+without, and will soon be accosted by the band before us. Listen well
+now to my advice. A drunkard always seeks to gain companions, to draw
+others down to his own level, and you will be tried as never have you
+been before. Taste not their liquor by whatever form or creature
+presented. They have no power to harm him who has courage to resist. If
+they entreat you, refuse; if they threaten, refuse; if they offer
+inducements, refuse to drink. Let your answer be No, and have no fear.
+If your strength fail you, mark well my--"
+
+Before he could complete his sentence I felt a pressure, as of a great
+wind, and suddenly found myself seized in an embrace irresistible, and
+then, helpless as a feather, was swept out into the cavern of the
+drunkards.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIX.
+
+    AMONG THE DRUNKARDS.
+
+
+I remember once to have stood on the edge of Niagara's great whirlpool,
+but not more fearful did its seething waters then seem than did the
+semi-human whirl into which I had now been plunged. Whether my guide had
+been aware of the coming move that separated us I never knew, but, as
+his words were interrupted, I infer that he was not altogether ready to
+part from my company. Be this as it may, he disappeared from sight, and,
+as by a concerted move, the cries of the drunkards subsided instantly. I
+found myself borne high in the air, perched on a huge hand that was
+carried by its semi-human comrades. It seemed as though the contents of
+that vast hall had been suddenly thrown beneath me, for, as I looked
+about, I saw all around a sea of human fragments, living, moving parts
+of men. Round and round that hall we circled as an eddy whirls in a
+rock-bound basin, and not less silently than does the water of an eddy.
+Then I perceived that the disjointed mass of humanity moved as a spiral,
+in unison, throbbing like a vitalized stream, bearing me submissively on
+its surface. Gradually the distance between myself and the center stone
+lessened, and then I found that, as if carried in the groove of a
+gigantic living spiral, I was being swept towards the stone platform in
+the center of the room. There was method in the movements of the
+drunkards, although I could not analyze the intricacies of their complex
+reel.
+
+Finally I was borne to the center stone, and by a sudden toss of the
+hand, in the palm of which I was seated, I was thrown upon the raised
+platform. Then in unison the troop swung around the stone, and I found
+myself gazing on a mass of vitalized fragments of humanity. Quickly a
+figure sprung upon the platform, and in him I discerned a seemingly
+perfect man. He came to my side and grasped my hand as if he were a
+friend.
+
+"Do not fear," he said; "obey our request, and you will not be harmed."
+
+"What do you desire?" I asked.
+
+He pointed to the center of the stone, and I saw thereon many gigantic,
+inverted fungus bowls. The gills of some had been crushed to a pulp, and
+had saturated themselves with liquid which, perhaps by a species of
+fermentation, had undergone a structural change; others were as yet
+intact; others still contained men intently cutting the gills into
+fragments and breaking the fruit preparatory to further manipulation.
+
+"You are to drink with us," he replied.
+
+"No," I said; "I will not drink."
+
+"Then you must die; to refuse to drink with us is to invite death."
+
+"So mote it be; I will not drink."
+
+We stood facing each other, apparently both meditating on the situation.
+
+I remember to have been surprised, not that the man before me had been
+able to spring from the floor to the table rock on which I stood, but
+that so fair a personage could have been a companion of the
+monstrosities about me. He was a perfect type of manhood, and was
+exquisitely clothed in a loose, flowing robe that revealed and
+heightened the beauty of his symmetrical form. His face was fair, yet
+softly tinted with rich, fresh color; his hair and beard were neatly
+trimmed; his manner was polished, and his countenance frank and
+attractive. The contrast between the preternatural shapes from among
+whom he sprung and himself was as between a demon and an angel. I
+marveled that I had not perceived him before, for such a one should have
+been conspicuous because so fair; but I reflected that it was quite
+natural that among the thousands of grotesque persons about me, one
+attractive form should have escaped notice. Presently he spoke again,
+seemingly having repented of his display of temper.
+
+"I am a friend," he said; "a deliverer. I will serve you as I have
+others before you. Lean on me, listen to my story, accept my proffered
+friendship."
+
+Then he continued: "When you have rested, I will guide you in safety
+back to upper earth, and restore you to your friends."
+
+I could not resist his pleasing promise. I suddenly and unaccountably
+believed in his sincerity. He impressed me with confidence in his
+truthfulness, yes, against my better judgment, convinced me that he must
+be a friend, a savior. Grasping him by the hand I thanked him for his
+interest in a disconsolate wanderer, and assured him of my confidence.
+
+"I am in your hands," I said; "I will obey you implicitly. I thank you,
+my deliverer; lead me back to surface earth and receive the gratitude of
+a despairing mortal."
+
+"This I will surely do," he said; "rest your case in my hands, do not
+concern yourself in the least about your future. Before acquiescing in
+your desire, however, I will explain part of the experiences through
+which you have recently passed. You have been in the control of an evil
+spirit, and have been deceived. The grotesque figures, the abnormal
+beings about you, exist only in your disordered imagination. They are
+not real. These persons are happy and free from care or pain. They live
+in bliss inexpressible. They have a life within a life, and the outward
+expression that you have perceived is as the uncouth hide and figure
+that incloses the calm, peaceful eye of a toad. Look at their eyes, not
+at their seemingly distorted forms."
+
+I turned to the throng and beheld a multitude of upturned faces mildly
+beaming upon me. As I glanced from eye to eye of each countenance, the
+repulsive figure disappeared from my view, and a sweet expression of
+innocence was all that was disclosed to me. I realized that I had judged
+by the outer garment. I had wronged these fellow-beings. A sense of
+remorse came over me, a desire to atone for my short-sightedness.
+
+"What can I offer as a retribution?" I asked. "I have injured these
+people."
+
+"Listen," was the reply. "These serene intelligences are happy. They are
+as a band of brothers. They seek to do you a kindness, to save you from
+disaster. One hour of experience such as they enjoy is worth a hundred
+years of the pleasures known to you. This delicious favor, an hour of
+bliss, they freely offer you, and after you have partaken of their
+exquisite joy, I will conduct you back to earth's surface whenever you
+desire to leave us." He emphasized the word, desire.
+
+"I am ready," I replied; "give me this promised delight."
+
+The genial allurer turned to the table rock behind us, and continued:
+
+"In these fungus bowls we foment the extract of life. The precious
+cordial is as a union of the quintessential spirits of joy, peace,
+tranquillity, happiness, and delight. Could man abstract from ecstasy
+the thing that underlies the sense that gives that word a meaning, his
+product would not approach the power of the potent liquids in these
+vessels."
+
+"Of what are they composed?" I asked.
+
+"Of derivatives of the rarest species of the fungus family," he
+answered. "They are made by formul� that are the result of thousands of
+years of experimentation. Come, let us not delay longer the hour of
+bliss."
+
+Taking me by the hand, my graceful comrade led me to the nearest bowl.
+Then on closer view I perceived that its contents were of a deep green
+color, and in active commotion, and although no vapor was apparent, a
+delightful sensation impressed my faculties. I am not sure that I
+inhaled at all,--the feeling was one of penetration, of subtile, magic
+absorption. My companion took a tiny shell which he dipped into the
+strange cauldron. Holding the tiny cup before me, he spoke the one word,
+"Drink."
+
+Ready to acquiesce, forgetful of the warning I had received, I grasped
+the cup, and raised it to my lips, and as I did so chanced to glance at
+my tempter's face, and saw not the supposed friend I had formerly
+observed, but, as through a mask fair in outline, the countenance of an
+exulting demon, regarding me with a sardonic grin. In an instant he had
+changed from man to devil.
+
+I dashed the cup upon the rock. "No; I will not drink," I shouted.
+
+Instantly the cavern rung with cries of rage. A thousand voices joined
+as by accord, and simultaneously the throng of fragments of men began to
+revolve again. The mysterious spiral seemed to unwind, but I could not
+catch the method of its movement. The motion was like that of an
+uncoiling serpent bisected lengthwise, the two halves of the body
+seeming to slide against each other. Gradually that part of the cavern
+near the stone on which I stood became clear of its occupants, and at
+last I perceived that the throng had receded to the outer edge.
+
+Then the encircling side walls of the amphitheater became visible, and
+as water sinks into sand, the medley of fragments of humanity
+disappeared from view.
+
+I turned to my companion; he, too, had vanished. I glanced towards the
+liquor cauldrons; the stone was bare. I alone occupied the gigantic
+hall. No trace remained to tell of the throng that a short time
+previously had surrounded and mocked me.
+
+Desolate, distracted, I threw myself upon the stone, and cursed my
+miserable self. "Come back," I cried, "come back. I will drink, drink,
+drink."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XL.
+
+    FURTHER TEMPTATION.--ETIDORHPA.
+
+
+Then, as my voice reverberated from the outer recesses, I caught a sound
+as of music in the distance. I raised my head and listened--yes, surely
+there was music. The melody became clearly distinct, and soon my senses
+were aware that both vocal and instrumental music were combined. The
+airs which came floating were sweet, simple, and beautiful. The voices
+and accompanying strains approached, but I could distinguish no words.
+By and by, from the corridors of the cavern, troops of bright female
+forms floated into view. They were clad in robes ranging from pure white
+to every richest hue, contrasting strangely, and in the distance their
+rainbow brilliancy made a gorgeous spectacle. Some were fantastically
+attired in short gowns, such as I imagine were worn by the dancing girls
+of sacred history, others had kirtles of a single bright color, others
+of many shades intermingled, while others still were dressed in
+gauze-like fabrics of pure white.
+
+As they filed into the cavern, and approached me, they formed into
+platoons, or into companies, and then, as dissolving views come and go,
+they presented first one and then another figure. Sometimes they would
+stretch in great circling lines around the hall, again they would form
+into squares, and again into geometrical figures of all shades and
+forms, but I observed that with every change they drew nearer to the
+stone on which I rested.
+
+They were now so near that their features could be distinguished, and
+never before had I seen such loveliness in human mold. Every face was as
+perfect as a master's picture of the Madonna, and yet no two seemed to
+possess the same type of beauty. Some were of dark complexion with
+glossy, raven hair, others were fair with hair ranging from light brown
+to golden. The style of head dress, as a rule, was of the simplest
+description. A tinted ribbon, or twisted cord, over the head, bound
+their hair with becoming grace, and their silken locks were either
+plaited into braids, curled into ringlets, or hung loosely, flowing in
+wavelets about their shoulders. Some held curious musical instruments,
+others beautiful wands, and altogether they produced a scenic effect of
+rare beauty that the most extravagant dream of fairyland could not
+surpass. Thus it was that I became again the center of a throng, not of
+repulsive monsters, but of marvelously lovely beings. They were as
+different from those preceding as darkness is from daylight.
+
+Could any man from the data of my past experiences have predicted such a
+scene? Never before had the semblance of a woman appeared, never before
+had an intimation been given that the gentle sex existed in these silent
+chambers. Now, from the grotesque figures and horrible cries of the
+former occupants of this same cavern, the scene had changed to a
+conception of the beautiful and artistic, such as a poetic spirit might
+evolve in an extravagant dream of higher fairy land. I glanced above;
+the great hall was clothed in brilliant colors, the bare rocks had
+disappeared, the dome of that vast arch reaching to an immeasurable
+height, was decorated in all the colors of the rainbow. Flags and
+streamers fluttered in breezes that also moved the garments of the
+angelic throng about me, but which I could not sense; profiles of
+enchanting faces pervaded the glimmering space beyond; I alone was but
+an onlooker, not a participant of the joys about me.
+
+The movements of the seraph-like figures continued, innumerable forms
+and figures followed forms and figures innumerable, and music
+indescribable blended with the poetry of motion. I was rapt, the past
+disappeared, my former mind was blotted from existence, the world
+vanished, and I became a thrill of joy, a sensation of absolute delight.
+
+The band of spirits or fairy forms reached the rock at my feet, but I
+did not know how long a time they consumed in doing this; it may have
+been a second, and it may have been an eternity. Neither did I care. A
+single moment of existence such as I experienced, seemed worth an age of
+any other pleasure.
+
+Circling about me, these ethereal creatures paused from their motions,
+and, as the music ceased, I stood above them, and yet in their midst,
+and gazed out into a distance illimitable, but not less beautiful in the
+expanse than was the adjacent part. The cavern had altogether
+disappeared, and in the depths about me as far as the eye could reach,
+seemingly into the broad expanse of heaven, I saw the exquisite forms
+that I have so imperfectly described.
+
+Then a single band from the throng lightly sprung upon the stony terrace
+where I stood, and sung and danced before me. Every motion was perfect
+as imagination could depict, every sound was concentrated extract of
+melody. This band retired to be replaced by another, which in turn gave
+way to another, and still another, until, as in space we have no
+standard, time vanished, and numbers ceased to be numbers.
+
+No two of the band of dancers were clothed alike, no two songs were
+similar, though all were inexpressibly enchanting. The first group
+seemed perfect, and yet the second was better, and each succeeding band
+sung sweeter songs, were more beautiful, and richer in dress than those
+preceding. I became enveloped in the �sthetic atmosphere, my spirit
+seemed to be loosened from the body, it was apparently upon the point of
+escaping from its mortal frame; suddenly the music ceased, the figures
+about became passive, and every form standing upright and graceful,
+gazed upon my face, and as I looked at the radiant creatures, each
+successive face, in turn, seemed to grow more beautiful, each form more
+exquisite than those about.
+
+Then, in the distance, I observed the phalanx divide, forming into two
+divisions, separated by a broad aisle, stretching from my feet to the
+limit of space without, and down this aisle I observed a single figure
+advancing toward me.
+
+As she approached, the phalanx closed in behind her, and when at last
+she reached the stone on which I stood, she stepped, or was wafted to my
+side, and the phalanx behind moved together and was complete again.
+
+[Illustration: ETIDORHPA.]
+
+"My name is Etidorhpa. In me you behold the spirit that elevates man,
+and subdues the most violent of passions. In history, so far back in the
+dim ages as to be known now as legendary mythology, have I ruled and
+blessed the world. Unclasp my power over man and beast, and while heaven
+dissolves, the charms of Paradise will perish. I know no master. The
+universe bows to my authority. Stars and suns enamored pulsate and throb
+in space and kiss each other in waves of light; atoms cold embrace and
+cling together; structures inanimate affiliate with and attract
+inanimate structures; bodies dead to other noble passions are not dead
+to love. The savage beast, under my enchantment, creeps to her lair, and
+gently purrs over her offspring; even man becomes less violent, and
+sheathes his weapon and smothers his hatred as I soothe his passions
+beside the loved ones in the privacy of his home.
+
+"I have been known under many titles, and have comforted many peoples.
+Strike my name from Time's record, and the lovely daughters of Zeus and
+Dione would disappear; and with them would vanish the grace and beauty
+of woman; the sweet conception of the Froth Child of the Cyprus Sea
+would be lost; Venus, the Goddess of Love, would have no place in song,
+and Love herself, the holiest conception of the poet, man's superlative
+conception of Heaven's most precious charms, would be buried with the
+myrtle and the rose. My name is Etidorhpa; interpret it rightly, and you
+have what has been to humanity the essence of love, the mother of all
+that ennobles. He who loves a wife worships me; she, who in turn makes a
+home happy, is typical of me. I am Etidorhpa, the beginning and the end
+of earth. Behold in me the antithesis of envy, the opposite of malice,
+the enemy of sorrow, the mistress of life, the queen of immortal bliss.
+
+"Do you know," she continued, and her voice, soft and sweet, carried
+with it a pleasurable sense of truthfulness indescribable, "do you know
+that man's idea of heaven, places me, Etidorhpa, on the highest throne?
+With the charm of maiden pure, I combine the devotion of wife and the
+holiness of mother. Take from the life of man the treasures I embody,
+and he will be homeless, childless, loveless. The thought of Heaven will
+in such a case be as the dismal conception of a dreary platitude. A life
+in such a Heaven, a Heaven devoid of love (and this the Scriptures
+teach), is one of endless torment.
+
+"Love, by whatever name the conception is designated, rules the world.
+Divest the cold man of science, of the bond that binds him to his
+life-thought, and his work is ended. Strike from the master in music
+the chord that links his soul to the voice he breathes, and his songs
+will be hushed. Deaden the sense of love which the artist bears his art,
+and as the spirit that underlies his thought-scenes vanishes, his touch
+becomes chilled, and his brush inexpressive. The soldier thinks of his
+home and country, and without a murmur sheds his life blood.
+
+"And yet there are debasing phases of love, for as love of country
+builds a nation, so love of pillage may destroy it. Love of the holy and
+the beautiful stands in human life opposed to love of the debasing and
+vicious, and I, Etidorhpa, am typical of the highest love of man. As the
+same force binds the molecules of the rose and the violet as well as
+those of noxious drugs, so the same soul conception may serve the love
+of good or the love of evil. Love may guide a tyrant or actuate a saint,
+may make man torture his fellow, or strive to ease his pain.
+
+"Thus, man's propensity to serve his holy or his evil passion may each
+be called a degree in love, and in the serving of that passion the love
+of one heart may express itself as the antithesis of love in another. As
+bitter is to some men's taste more pleasant than sweet, and sour is yet
+more grateful to others, so one man may love the beautiful, another
+delight in the grotesque, and a third may love to see his neighbor
+suffer. Amid these, the phase of love that ennobles, brings the greatest
+degree of pleasure and comfort to mankind, but the love that degrades is
+love nevertheless, by whatever name the expression of the passion may be
+called. Love rules the world, and typical of man's intensest, holiest
+love, I, Etidorhpa, stand the Soul of Love Supreme." She hesitated.
+
+"Go on."
+
+"I have already said, and in saying this have told the truth, I come
+from beyond the empty shell of a materialistic gold and silver
+conception of Heaven. Go with me, and in my home you will find man's
+soul devotion, regardless of material surroundings. I have said, and
+truly, the corridors of the Heaven mansion, enriched by precious stones
+and metals fine, but destitute of my smiles and graces, are deserted.
+The golden calf is no longer worshiped, cobwebs cling in festoons
+motionless, and the dust of selfish thoughts perverted, dry and black as
+the soot from Satan's fires settling therein, as the dust of an
+antiquated sarcophagus, rest undisturbed. Place on one side the Heaven
+of which gold-bound misers sing, and on the other Etidorhpa and the
+treasures that come with me to man and woman, (for without me neither
+wife, child, nor father could exist,) and from any other heaven mankind
+will turn away. The noblest gift of Heaven to humanity is the highest
+sense of love, and I, Etidorhpa, am the soul of love."
+
+She ceased speaking, and as I looked at the form beside me I forgot
+myself in the rapture of that gaze.
+
+Crush the colors of the rainbow into a single hue possessed of the
+attributes of all the others, and multiply that entity to infinity, and
+you have less richness than rested in any of the complex colors shown in
+the trimming of her raiment. Lighten the softness of eiderdown a
+thousand times, and yet maintain its sense of substance, and you have
+not conceived of the softness of the gauze that decked her simple,
+flowing garments. Gather the shadows cast by a troop of radiant angels,
+then sprinkle the resultant shade with star dust, and color therewith a
+garment brighter than satin, softer than silk, and more ethereal than
+light itself, and you have less beauty than reposed in the modest dress
+that enveloped her figure. Abstract the perfume from the sweetest
+oriental grasses, and combine with it the essential spirit of the wild
+rose, then add thereto the soul of ambergris, and the quintessential
+extracts of the finest aromatics of the East, and you have not
+approached the exquisite fragrance that penetrated my very being at her
+approach. She stood before me, slender, lithe, symmetrical, radiant. Her
+hair was more beautiful than pen can depict; it was colorless because it
+can not be described by colors known to mortals. Her face paled the
+beauty of all who had preceded her. She could not be a fairy, for no
+conception of a fairy can approach such loveliness; she was not a
+spirit, for surely material substance was a part of her form; she was
+not an angel, for no abnormal, irrational wing protruded from her
+shoulder to blemish her seraphic figure.
+
+"No," I said musingly; "she is a creature of other climes; the
+Scriptures tell of no such being; she is neither human nor angelic,
+but--"
+
+"But what?" she said.
+
+"I do not know," I answered.
+
+"Then I will tell you," she replied. "Yes; I will tell you of myself and
+of my companions. I will show you our home, carrying you through the
+shadows of heaven to exhibit that fair land, for heaven without
+Etidorhpa casts a shadow in comparison therewith. See," she said, as
+with her dainty fingers she removed from her garment a fragment of
+transparent film that I had not previously observed; "see, this is a
+cobweb that clung to my skirt, as, on my way to meet you, I passed
+through the dismal corridors of the materialists' loveless heaven."
+
+She dropped it on the floor, and I stooped to pick it up, but vainly--my
+fingers passed through it as through a mist.
+
+"You must be an angel," I stammered.
+
+She smiled.
+
+"Come," she said, "do not consume your time with thoughts of
+materialistic heaven; come with me to that brighter land beyond, and in
+those indescribable scenes we, you and I, will wander together forever."
+
+She held out her hand; I hesitatingly touched it, and then raised it to
+my lips. She made no resistance.
+
+I dropped upon my knees. "Are you to be mine?" I cried. "Mine forever?"
+
+"Yes," she answered; "if you will it, for he who loves will be loved in
+turn."
+
+"I will do it," I said; "I give myself to you, be you what you may, be
+your home where it may, I give up the earth behind me, and the hope of
+heaven before me; the here and the hereafter I will sacrifice. Let us
+hasten," I said, for she made no movement.
+
+She shook her head. "You must yet be tempted as never before, and you
+must resist the tempter. You can not pass into the land of Etidorhpa
+until you have suffered as only the damned can suffer, until you have
+withstood the pangs of thirst, and have experienced heat and cold
+indescribable. Remember the warning of your former guide, mark well the
+words of Etidorhpa: you must not yield. 'Twas to serve you that I came
+before you now, 'twas to preserve you from the Drunkard's Cavern that I
+have given you this vision of the land beyond the End of Earth where, if
+you will serve yourself, we will meet again."
+
+She held aloft two tiny cups; I sprung to my feet and grasped one of
+them, and as I glanced at the throng in front of me, every radiant
+figure held aloft in the left hand a similar cup. All were gazing in my
+face. I looked at the transparent cup in my hand; it appeared to be
+partly filled with a green liquid. I looked at her cup and saw that it
+contained a similar fluid.
+
+Forgetting the warning she had so recently given, I raised the cup to my
+lips, and just before touching it glanced again at her face. The fair
+creature stood with bowed head, her face covered with her hand; her very
+form and attitude spoke of sorrow and disappointment, and she trembled
+in distress. She held one hand as though to thrust back a form that
+seemed about to force itself beyond her figure, for peering exultingly
+from behind, leered the same Satanic face that met my gaze on the
+preceding occasion, when in the presence of the troop of demons, I had
+been tempted by the perfect man.
+
+Dashing the cup to the floor I shouted:
+
+"No; I will not drink."
+
+Etidorhpa dropped upon her knees and clasped her hands. The Satanic
+figure disappeared from sight. Realizing that we had triumphed over the
+tempter, I also fell upon my knees in thankfulness.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLI.
+
+    MISERY.
+
+
+As all the bubbles in a glass shrink and vanish when the first
+collapses, so the troop of fairy-like forms before me disintegrated, and
+were gone. The delicate being, whose hand I held, fluttered as does a
+mist in the first gust of a sudden gale, and then dissolved into
+transparency. The gaily decked amphitheater disappeared, the very earth
+cavern passed from existence, and I found myself standing solitary and
+alone in a boundless desert. I turned towards every point of the compass
+only to find that no visible object appeared to break the monotony. I
+stood upon a floor of pure white sand which stretched to the horizon in
+gentle wave-like undulations as if the swell of the ocean had been
+caught, transformed to sand, and fixed.
+
+I bent down and scooped a handful of the sand, and raised it in the palm
+of my hand, letting it sift back again to earth; it was surely sand. I
+pinched my flesh, and pulled my hair, I tore my garments, stamped upon
+the sand, and shouted aloud to demonstrate that I myself was still
+myself. It was real, yes, real. I stood alone in a desert of sand.
+Morning was dawning, and on one side the great sun rose slowly and
+majestically.
+
+"Thank God for the sun," I cried. "Thank God for the light and heat of
+the sun."
+
+I was again on surface earth; once more I beheld that glorious orb for
+the sight of which I had so often prayed when I believed myself
+miserable in the dismal earth caverns, and which I had been willing to
+give my very life once more to behold. I fell on my knees, and raised my
+hands in thankfulness. I blessed the rising sun, the illimitable sand,
+the air about me, and the blue heavens above. I blessed all that was
+before me, and again and again returned thanks for my delivery from the
+caverns beneath me. I did not think to question by what power this
+miracle had been accomplished. I did not care to do so; had I thought
+of the matter at all I would not have dared to question for fear the
+transition might prove a delusion.
+
+I turned towards the sun, and walked eastward. As the day progressed and
+the sun rose into the heavens, I maintained my journey, aiming as best I
+could to keep the same direction. The heat increased, and when the sun
+reached the zenith it seemed as though it would melt the marrow in my
+bones. The sand, as white as snow and hot as lava, dazzled my eyes, and
+I covered them with my hands. The sun in the sky felt as if it were a
+ball of white hot iron near my head. It seemed small, and yet appeared
+to shine as through a tube directed only towards myself. Vainly did I
+struggle to escape and get beyond its boundary, the tube seemed to
+follow my every motion, directing the blazing shafts, and concentrating
+them ever upon my defenseless person. I removed my outer garments, and
+tore my shirt into fibers hoping to catch a waft of breeze, and with one
+hand over my eyes, and the other holding my coat above my head,
+endeavored to escape the mighty flood of heat, but vainly. The fiery
+rays streamed through the garment as mercury flows through a film of
+gauze. They penetrated my flesh, and vaporized my blood. My hands,
+fingers, and arms puffed out as a bladder of air expands under the
+influence of heat. My face swelled to twice, thrice its normal size, and
+at last my eyes were closed, for my cheeks and eyebrows met. I rubbed my
+shapeless hand over my sightless face, and found it as round as a ball;
+the nose had become imbedded in the expanded flesh, and my ears had
+disappeared in the same manner.
+
+I could no longer see the sun, but felt the vivid, piercing rays I could
+not evade. I do not know whether I walked or rolled along; I only know
+that I struggled to escape those deadly rays. Then I prayed for death,
+and in the same breath begged the powers that had transferred me to
+surface earth to carry me back again to the caverns below. The
+recollection of their cool, refreshing atmosphere was as the thought of
+heaven must be to a lost spirit. I experienced the agony of a damned
+soul, and now, in contradistinction to former times, considered as my
+idea of perfect happiness the dismal earth caverns of other days. I
+thought of the day I had stood at the mouth of the Kentucky cave, and
+waded into the water with my guide; I recalled the refreshing coolness
+of the stream in the darkness of that cavern when the last ray of
+sunshine disappeared, and I cursed myself for longing then for sunshine,
+and the surface earth. Fool that man is, I mentally cried, not to be
+contented with that which is, however he may be situated, and wherever
+he may be placed. This is but a retribution, I am being cursed for my
+discontented mind, this is hell, and in comparison with this hell all
+else on or in earth is happiness. Then I damned the sun, the earth, the
+very God of all, and in my frenzy cursed everything that existed. I felt
+my puffed limbs, and prayed that I might become lean again. I asked to
+shrink to a skeleton, for seemingly my misery came with my expanded
+form; but I prayed and cursed in vain. So I struggled on in agony, every
+moment seemingly covering a multitude of years; struggled along like a
+lost soul plodding in an endless expanse of ever-increasing,
+ever-concentrating hell. At last, however, the day declined, the heat
+decreased, and as it did so my distorted body gradually regained its
+normal size, my eyesight returned, and finally I stood in that
+wilderness of sand watching the great red sun sink into the earth, as in
+the morning I had watched it rise. But between the sunrise and the
+sunset there had been an eternity of suffering, and then, as if released
+from a spell, I dropped exhausted upon the sand, and seemed to sleep. I
+dreamed of the sun, and that an angel stood before me, and asked why I
+was miserable, and in reply I pointed to the sun. "See," I said, "the
+author of the misery of man."
+
+Said the angel: "Were there no sun there would be no men, but were there
+no men there would still be misery."
+
+"Misery of what?" I asked.
+
+"Misery of mind," replied the angel. "Misery is a thing, misery is not a
+conception--pain is real, pain is not an impression. Misery and pain
+would still exist and prey upon mind substance were there no men, for
+mind also is real, and not a mere conception. The pain you have suffered
+has not been the pain of matter, but the pain of spirit. Matter can not
+suffer. Were it matter that suffered, the heated sand would writhe in
+agony. No; it is only mind and spirit that experience pain, or pleasure,
+and neither mind nor spirit can evade its destiny, even if it escape
+from the body."
+
+Then I awoke and saw once more the great red sun rise from the sand-edge
+of my desolate world, and I became aware of a new pain, for now I
+perceived the fact that I experienced the sense of thirst. The
+conception of the impression drew my mind to the subject, and instantly
+intense thirst, the most acute of bodily sufferings, possessed me. When
+vitalized tissue craves water, other physical wants are unfelt; when man
+parches to death all other methods of torture are disregarded. I thought
+no longer of the rising sun, I remembered no more the burning sand of
+yesterday, I felt only the pain of thirst.
+
+"Water, water, water," I cried, and then in the distance as if in answer
+to my cry, I beheld a lake of water.
+
+Instantly every nerve was strained, every muscle stretched, and I fled
+over the sands towards the welcome pool.
+
+On and on I ran, and as I did so, the sun rising higher and higher,
+again began to burn the sands beneath my feet, and roast the flesh upon
+my bones. Once more I experienced that intolerable sense of pain, the
+pain of living flesh disintegrating by fire, and now with thirst gnawing
+at my vitals, and fire drying up the residue of my evaporated blood, I
+struggled in agony towards a lake that vanished before my gaze, to
+reappear just beyond.
+
+This day was more horrible than the preceding, and yet it was the
+reverse so far as the action of the sun on my flesh was concerned. My
+prayer of yesterday had been fearfully answered, and the curses of the
+day preceding were being visited upon my very self. I had prayed to
+become lean, and instead of the former puffed tissue and expanded flesh,
+my body contracted as does beef when dried. The tightening skin squeezed
+upon the solidifying flesh, and as the moisture evaporated, it left a
+shriveled integument, contracted close upon the bone. My joints stood
+out as great protuberances, my skin turned to a dark amber color, and my
+flesh became transparent as does wetted horn. I saw my very vitals
+throb, I saw the empty blood vessels, the shriveled nerves and vacant
+arteries of my frame. I could not close my eyes. I could not shield them
+from the burning sun. I was a mummy, yet living, a dried corpse walking
+over the sand, dead to all save pain. I tried to fall, but could not,
+and I felt that, while the sun was visible, I must stand upright; I
+could not stop, and could not stoop. Then at last the malevolent sun
+sank beneath the horizon, and as the last ray disappeared again, I fell
+upon the sand.
+
+I did not sleep, I did not rest, I did not breathe nor live a human; I
+only existed as a living pain, the conception of pain realized into a
+conscious nucleus,--and so the night passed. Again the sun arose, and
+with the light of her first ray I saw near at hand a caravan, camels,
+men, horses, a great cavalcade. They approached rapidly and surrounded
+me. The leader of the band alighted and raised me to my feet, for no
+longer had I the power of motion. He spoke to me kindly, and strange as
+it may seem to you, but not at all strange did it seem to me, called me
+by name.
+
+"We came across your tracks in the desert," he said; "we are your
+deliverers."
+
+I motioned for water; I could not speak.
+
+"Yes," he said, "water you shall have."
+
+Then from one of the skins that hung across the hump of a camel he
+filled a crystal goblet with sparkling water, and held it towards me,
+but just before the goblet touched my lips he withdrew it and said:
+
+"I forgot to first extend the greetings of our people."
+
+And then I noticed in his other hand a tiny glass containing a green
+liquid, which he placed to my lips, pronouncing the single word,
+"Drink."
+
+I fastened my gaze upon the water, and opened my lips. I smelled the
+aroma of the powerful narcotic liquid within the glass, and hastened to
+obey, but glanced first at my deliverer, and in his stead saw the
+familiar face of the satanic figure that twice before had tempted me.
+Instantly, without a thought as to the consequences, without a fear as
+to the result, I dashed the glass to the sand, and my voice returning, I
+cried for the third time, "No; I will not drink."
+
+The troop of camels instantly disappeared, as had the figures in the
+scenes before, the tempter resolved into clear air, the sand beneath my
+feet became natural again, and I became myself as I had been before
+passing through the hideous ordeal. The fact of my deliverance from the
+earth caverns had, I now realized, been followed by temporary aberration
+of my mind, but at last I saw clearly again, the painful fancy had
+passed, the delirium was over.
+
+I fell upon my knees in thankfulness; the misery through which I had
+passed had proven to be illusory, the earth caverns were beneath me, the
+mirage and temptations were not real, the horrors I had experienced were
+imaginary--thank God for all this--and that the sand was really sand.
+Solitary, alone, I kneeled in the desert barren, from horizon to horizon
+desolation only surrounded, and yet the scene of that illimitable waste,
+a fearful reality, it is true, was sweet in comparison with the misery
+of body and soul about which I had dreamed so vividly.
+
+"'Tis no wonder," I said to myself, "that in the moment of transition
+from the underground caverns to the sunshine above, the shock should
+have disturbed my mental equilibrium, and in the moment of reaction I
+should have dreamed fantastic and horrible imaginings."
+
+A cool and refreshing breeze sprung now, from I know not where; I did
+not care to ask; it was too welcome a gift to question, and contrasted
+pleasantly with the misery of my past hallucination. The sun was shining
+hot above me, the sand was glowing, parched beneath me, and yet the
+grateful breeze fanned my brow, and refreshed my spirit.
+
+"Thank God," I cried, "for the breeze, for the coolness that it brings;
+only those who have experienced the silence of the cavern solitudes
+through which I have passed, and added thereto, have sensed the horrors
+of the more recent nightmare scenes, can appreciate the delights of a
+gust of air."
+
+The incongruity of surrounding conditions, as connected with affairs
+rational, did not appeal at all to my questioning senses, it seemed as
+though the cool breeze, coming from out the illimitable desolation of a
+heated waste was natural. I arose and walked on, refreshed. From out
+that breeze my physical self drew refreshment and strength.
+
+"'Tis the cold," I said; "the blessed antithesis of heat, that supports
+life. Heat enervates, cold stimulates; heat depresses, cold animates.
+Thank God for breezes, winds, waters, cold."
+
+I turned and faced the gladsome breeze. "'Tis the source of life, I will
+trace it to its origin, I will leave the accursed desert, the hateful
+sunshine, and seek the blissful regions that give birth to cool
+breezes."
+
+I walked rapidly, and the breeze became more energetic and cooler. With
+each increase of momentum on my part, corresponding strength seemed to
+be added to the breeze--both strength and coolness.
+
+"Is not this delightful?" I murmured; "my God at last has come to be a
+just God. Knowing what I wanted, He sent the breeze; in answer to my
+prayer the cool, refreshing breeze arose. Damn the heat," I cried aloud,
+as I thought of the horrid day before; "blessed be the cold," and as
+though in answer to my cry the breeze stiffened and the cold
+strengthened itself, and I again returned thanks to my Creator.
+
+With ragged coat wrapped about my form I faced the breeze and strode
+onward towards the home of the gelid wind that now dashed in gusts
+against my person.
+
+Then I heard my footstep crunch, and perceived that the sand was hard
+beneath my feet; I stooped over to examine it and found it frozen.
+Strange, I reflected, strange that dry sand can freeze, and then I
+noticed, for the first time, that spurts of snow surrounded me, 'twas a
+sleety mixture upon which I trod, a crust of snow and sand. A sense of
+dread came suddenly over me, and instinctively I turned, affrighted, and
+ran away from the wind, towards the desert behind me, back towards the
+sun, which, cold and bleak, low in the horizon, was sinking. The sense
+of dread grew upon me, and I shivered as I ran. With my back towards the
+breeze I had blessed, I now fled towards the sinking sun I had cursed. I
+stretched out my arms in supplication towards that orb, for from behind
+overhanging blackness spread, and about me roared a fearful hurricane.
+Vainly. As I thought in mockery the heartless sun disappeared before my
+gaze, the hurricane surrounded me, and the wind about me became
+intensely cold, and raved furiously. It seemed as though the sun had
+fled from my presence, and with the disappearance of that orb, the
+outline of the earth was blotted from existence. It was an awful
+blackness, and the universe was now to me a blank. The cold strengthened
+and froze my body to the marrow of my bones. First came the sting of
+frost, then the pain of cold, then insensibility of flesh. My feet were
+benumbed, my limbs motionless. I stood a statue, quiescent in the midst
+of the roaring tempest. The earth, the sun, the heavens themselves, my
+very person now had disappeared. Dead to the sense of pain or touch,
+sightless, amid a blank, only the noise of the raging winds was to me a
+reality. And as the creaking frost reached my brain and congealed it,
+the sound of the tempest ceased, and then devoid of physical senses, my
+quickened intellect, enslaved, remained imprisoned in the frozen form it
+could not leave, and yet could no longer control.
+
+Reflection after reflection passed through that incarcerated thought
+entity, and as I meditated, the heinous mistakes I had committed in the
+life that had passed, arose to torment. God had answered my
+supplications, successively I had experienced the hollowness of earthly
+pleasures, and had left each lesson unheeded. Had I not alternately
+begged for and then cursed each gift of God? Had I not prayed for heat,
+cold, light, and darkness, and anathematized each? Had I not, when in
+perfect silence, prayed for sound; in sheltered caverns, prayed for
+winds and storms; in the very corridors of heaven, and in the presence
+of Etidorhpa, had I not sought for joys beyond?
+
+Had I not found each pleasure of life a mockery, and notwithstanding
+each bitter lesson, still pursued my headstrong course, alternately
+blessing and cursing my Creator, and then myself, until now, amid a
+howling waste, in perfect darkness, my conscious intellect was bound to
+the frozen, rigid semblance of a body? All about me was dead and dark,
+all within was still and cold, only my quickened intellect remained as
+in every corpse the self-conscious intellect must remain, while the body
+has a mortal form, for death of body is not attended by the immediate
+liberation of mind. The consciousness of the dead man is still acute,
+and he who thinks the dead are mindless, will realize his fearful error
+when devoid of motion he lies a corpse, conscious of all that passes on
+around him, waiting the liberation that can only come by disintegration
+and destruction of the flesh.
+
+So, unconscious of pain, unconscious of any physical sense, I existed on
+and on, enthralled, age after age passed and piled upon one another, for
+time was to me unchangeable, no more an entity. I now prayed for change
+of any kind, and envied the very devils in hell their pleasures, for
+were they not gifted with the power of motion, could they not hear, and
+see, and realize the pains they suffered? I prayed for death--death
+absolute, death eternal. Then, at last, the darkness seemed to lessen,
+and I saw the frozen earth beneath, the monstrous crags of ice above,
+the raging tempest about, for I now had learned by reflection to
+perceive by pure intellect, to see by the light within. My body, solid
+as stone, was fixed and preserved in a waste of ice. The world was
+frozen. I perceived that the sun, and moon, and stars, nearly stilled,
+dim and motionless, had paled in the cold depths of space. The universe
+itself was freezing, and amid the desolation only my deserted intellect
+remained. Age after age had passed, �ons of ages had fled, nation after
+nation had grown and perished, and in the uncounted epochs behind,
+humanity had disappeared. Unable to free itself from the frozen body, my
+own intellect remained the solitary spectator of the dead silence about.
+At last, beneath my vision, the moon disappeared, the stars faded one by
+one, and then I watched the sun grow dim, until at length only a milky,
+gauze-like film remained to indicate her face, and then--vacancy. I had
+lived the universe away. And in perfect darkness the living intellect,
+conscious of all that had transpired in the ages past, clung still
+enthralled to the body of the frozen mortal. I thought of my record in
+the distant past, of the temptations I had undergone, and called myself
+a fool, for, had I listened to the tempter, I could at least have
+suffered, I could have had companionship even though it were of the
+devils--in hell. I lived my life over and over, times without number; I
+thought of my tempters, of the offered cups, and thinking, argued with
+myself:
+
+"No," I said; "no, I had made the promise, I have faith in Etidorhpa,
+and were it to do over again I would not drink."
+
+Then, as this thought sped from me, the ice scene dissolved, the
+enveloped frozen form of myself faded from view, the sand shrunk into
+nothingness, and with my natural body, and in normal condition, I found
+myself back in the earth cavern, on my knees, beside the curious
+inverted fungus, of which fruit I had eaten in obedience to my guide's
+directions. Before me the familiar figure of my guide stood, with folded
+arms, and as my gaze fell upon him he reached out his hand and raised me
+to my feet.
+
+"Where have you been during the wretched epochs that have passed since I
+last saw you?" I asked.
+
+"I have been here," he replied, "and you have been there."
+
+"You lie, you villainous sorcerer," I cried; "you lie again as you have
+lied to me before. I followed you to the edge of demon land, to the
+caverns of the drunkards, and then you deserted me. Since last we met I
+have spent a million, billion years of agony inexpressible, and have had
+that agony made doubly horrible by contrast with the thought, yes, the
+very sight and touch of Heaven. I passed into a double eternity, and
+have experienced the ecstacies of the blessed, and suffered the torments
+of the damned, and now you dare boldly tell me that I have been here,
+and that you have been there, since last I saw you stand by this cursed
+fungus bowl."
+
+"Yes," he said, taking no offense at my violence; "yes, neither of us
+has left this spot; you have sipped of the drink of an earth-damned
+drunkard, you have experienced part of the curses of intemperance, the
+delirium of narcotics. Thousands of men on earth, in their drunken
+hallucination, have gone through hotter hells than you have seen; your
+dream has not exaggerated the sufferings of those who sup of the
+delirium of intemperance."
+
+And then he continued:
+
+"Let me tell you of man's conception of eternity."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLII.
+
+    ETERNITY WITHOUT TIME.
+
+
+"Man's conception of eternity is that of infinite duration, continuance
+without beginning or end, and yet everything he knows is bounded by two
+or more opposites. From a beginning, as he sees a form of matter, that
+substance passes to an end." Thus spoke my guide.
+
+Then he asked, and showed by his question that he appreciated the nature
+of my recent experiences: "Do you recall the instant that you left me
+standing by this bowl to start, as you imagined, with me as a companion,
+on the journey to the cavern of the grotesque?"
+
+"No; because I did not leave you. I sipped of the liquid, and then you
+moved on with me from this spot; we were together, until at last we were
+separated on the edge of the cave of drunkards."
+
+"Listen," said he; "I neither left you nor went with you. You neither
+went from this spot nor came back again. You neither saw nor experienced
+my presence nor my absence; there was no beginning to your journey."
+
+"Go on."
+
+"You ate of the narcotic fungus; you have been intoxicated."
+
+"I have not," I retorted. "I have been through your accursed caverns,
+and into hell beyond. I have been consumed by eternal damnation in the
+journey, have experienced a heaven of delight, and also an eternity of
+misery."
+
+"Upon the contrary, the time that has passed since you drank the liquid
+contents of that fungus fruit has only been that which permitted you to
+fall upon your knees. You swallowed the liquor when I handed you the
+shell cup; you dropped upon your knees, and then instantly awoke. See,"
+he said; "in corroboration of my assertion the shell of the fungus fruit
+at your feet is still dripping with the liquid you did not drink. Time
+has been annihilated. Under the influence of this potent earth-bred
+narcoto-intoxicant, your dream begun inside of eternity; you did not
+pass into it."
+
+"You say," I interrupted, "that I dropped upon my knees, that I have
+experienced the hallucination of intoxication, that the experiences of
+my vision occurred during the second of time that was required for me to
+drop upon my knees."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Then by your own argument you demonstrate that eternity requires time,
+for even a millionth part of a second is time, as much so as a million
+of years."
+
+"You mistake," he replied, "you misinterpret my words. I said that all
+you experienced in your eternity of suffering and pleasure, occurred
+between the point when you touched the fungus fruit to your lips, and
+that when your knees struck the stone."
+
+"That consumed time," I answered.
+
+"Did I assert," he questioned, "that your experiences were scattered
+over that entire period?"
+
+"No."
+
+"May not all that occurred to your mind have been crushed into the
+second that accompanied the mental impression produced by the liquor, or
+the second of time that followed, or any other part of that period, or a
+fraction of any integral second of that period?"
+
+"I can not say," I answered, "what part of the period the hallucination,
+as you call it, occupied."
+
+"You admit that so far as your conception of time is concerned, the
+occurrences to which you refer may have existed in either an inestimable
+fraction of the first, the second, or the third part of the period."
+
+"Yes," I replied, "yes; if you are correct in that, they were
+illusions."
+
+"Let me ask you furthermore," he said; "are you sure that the flash that
+bred your hallucination was not instantaneous, and a part of neither the
+first, second, nor third second?"
+
+"Continue your argument."
+
+"I will repeat a preceding question with a slight modification. May not
+all that occurred to your mind have been crushed into the space between
+the second of time that preceded the mental impression produced by the
+liquor, and the second that followed it? Need it have been a part of
+either second, or of time at all? Indeed, could it have been a part of
+time if it were instantaneous?"
+
+"Go on."
+
+"Suppose the entity that men call the soul of man were in process of
+separation from the body. The process you will admit would occupy time,
+until the point of liberation was reached. Would not dissolution, so far
+as the separation of matter and spirit is concerned at its critical
+point be instantaneous?"
+
+I made no reply.
+
+"If the critical point is instantaneous, there would be no beginning,
+there could be no end. Therein rests an eternity greater than man can
+otherwise conceive of, for as there is neither beginning nor end, time
+and space are annihilated. The line that separates the soul that is in
+the body from the soul that is out of the body is outside of all things.
+It is a between, neither a part of the nether side nor of the upper
+side; it is outside the here and the hereafter. Let us carry this
+thought a little further," said he. "Suppose a good man were to undergo
+this change, could not all that an eternity of happiness might offer be
+crushed into this boundless conception, the critical point? All that a
+mother craves in children dead, could reappear again in their once loved
+forms; all that a good life earns, would rest in the soul's experience
+in that eternity, but not as an illusion, although no mental pleasure,
+no physical pain is equal to that of hallucinations. Suppose that a
+vicious life were ended, could it escape the inevitable critical point?
+Would not that life in its previous journey create its own sad eternity?
+You have seen the working of an eternity with an end but not a beginning
+to it, for you can not sense the commencement of your vision. You have
+been in the cavern of the grotesque,--the realms of the beautiful, and
+have walked over the boundless sands that bring misery to the soul, and
+have, as a statue, seen the frozen universe dissolve. You are thankful
+that it was all an illusion as you deem it now; what would you think had
+only the heavenly part been spread before you?"
+
+"I would have cursed the man who dispelled the illusion," I answered.
+
+"Then," he said, "you are willing to admit that men who so live as to
+gain such an eternity, be it mental illusion, hallucination or real,
+make no mistake in life."
+
+"I do," I replied; "but you confound me when you argue in so cool a
+manner that eternity may be everlasting to the soul, and yet without the
+conception of time."
+
+"Did I not teach you in the beginning of this journey," he interjected,
+"that time is not as men conceive it. Men can not grasp an idea of
+eternity and retain their sun bred, morning and evening, conception of
+time. Therein lies their error. As the tip of the whip-lash passes with
+the lash, so through life the soul of man proceeds with the body. As
+there is a point just when the tip of the whip-lash is on the edge of
+its return, where all motion of the line that bounds the tip ends, so
+there is a motionless point when the soul starts onward from the body of
+man. As the tip of the whip-lash sends its cry through space, not while
+it is in motion either way, but from the point where motion ceases, the
+spaceless, timeless point that lies between the backward and the
+forward, so the soul of man leaves a cry (eternity) at the critical
+point. It is the death echo, and thus each snap of the life-thread
+throws an eternity, its own eternity, into eternity's seas, and each
+eternity is made up of the entities thus cast from the critical point.
+With the end of each soul's earth journey, a new eternity springs into
+existence, occupying no space, consuming no time, and not conflicting
+with any other, each being exactly what the soul-earth record makes it,
+an eternity of joy (heaven), or an eternity of anguish (hell). There can
+be no neutral ground."
+
+Then he continued:
+
+"The drunkard is destined to suffer in the drunkard's eternity, as you
+have suffered; the enticement of drink is evanescent, the agony to
+follow is eternal. You have seen that the sub-regions of earth supply an
+intoxicant. Taste not again of any intoxicant; let your recent lesson be
+your last. Any stimulant is an enemy to man, any narcotic is a fiend. It
+destroys its victim, and corrupts the mind, entices it into pastures
+grotesque, and even pleasant at first, but destined to eternal misery in
+the end. Beware of the eternity that follows the snapping of the
+life-thread of a drunkard. Come," he abruptly said, "we will pursue our
+journey."
+
+     [NOTE.--Morphine, belladonna, hyoscyamus and cannabis indica are
+     narcotics, and yet each differs in its action from the others.
+     Alcohol and methyl alcohol are intoxicants; ether, chloroform,
+     and chloral are an�sthetics, and yet no two are possessed of the
+     same qualities. Is there any good reason to doubt that
+     combinations of the elements as yet hidden from man can not cause
+     hallucinations that combine and intensify the most virulent of
+     narcotics, intoxicants, and an�sthetics, and pall the effects of
+     hashish or of opium?
+
+     If, in the course of experimentation, a chemist should strike
+     upon a compound that in traces only would subject his mind and
+     drive his pen to record such seemingly extravagant ideas as are
+     found in the hallucinations herein pictured, would it not be his
+     duty to bury the discovery from others, to cover from mankind the
+     existence of such a noxious fruit of the chemist's or
+     pharmaceutist's art? Introduce such an intoxicant, and start it
+     to ferment in humanity's blood, and before the world were advised
+     of its possible results, might not the ever increasing potency
+     gain such headway as to destroy, or debase, our civilization, and
+     even to exterminate mankind?--J. U. L.]
+
+
+
+
+INTERLUDE.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIII.
+
+    THE LAST CONTEST.
+
+
+I, Lewellyn Drury, had been so absorbed in the fantastic story the old
+man read so fluently from the execrably written manuscript, and in the
+metaphysical argument which followed his account of the vision he had
+introduced so artfully as to lead me to think it was a part of his
+narrative, that I scarcely noted the passage of time. Upon seeing him
+suspend his reading, fold the manuscript, and place it in his pocket, I
+reverted to material things, and glancing at the clock, perceived that
+the hands pointed to bed-time.
+
+"To-morrow evening," said he, "I will return at nine o'clock. In the
+interim, if you still question any part of the story, or wish further
+information on any subject connected with my journey, I will be prepared
+to answer your queries. Since, however, that will be your last
+opportunity, I suggest that you make notes of all subjects that you wish
+to discuss."
+
+Then, in his usual self-possessed, exquisitely polite manner, he bowed
+himself out.
+
+I spent the next day reviewing the most questionable features of his
+history, recalling the several statements that had been made.
+Remembering the humiliation I had experienced in my previous attempts to
+confute him, I determined to select such subjects as would appear the
+most difficult to explain, and to attack the old man with vehemence.
+
+I confess, that notwithstanding my several failures, and his successful
+and constant elucidation and minute details in regard to occurrences
+which he related, and which anticipated many points I had once had in
+mind to question, misgivings still possessed me concerning the
+truthfulness of the story. If these remarkable episodes were true,
+could there be such a thing as fiction? If not all true, where did fact
+end and fancy begin?
+
+Accordingly I devoted the following day to meditating my plan of attack,
+for I felt that I had been challenged to a final contest. Late the next
+day, I felt confident of my own ability to dispossess him, and in order
+further to test his power, when night came I doubly locked the door to
+my room, first with the key and next with the inside bolt. I had
+determined to force him again to induce inert material to obey his
+command, as he had done at our first interview. The reader will remember
+that Prof. Chickering had deemed that occurrence an illusion, and I
+confess that time had dimmed the vividness of the scene in my own mind.
+Hence I proposed to verify the matter. Therefore, at the approach of
+nine o'clock, the evening following, I sat with my gaze riveted on the
+bolt of the door, determined not to answer his knock.
+
+He gave me no chance to neglect a response to his rap. Exactly at the
+stroke of nine the door swung noiselessly on its hinges, the wizard
+entered, and the door closed again. The bolt had not moved, the knob did
+not turn. The bar passed through the catch and back to its seat,--I
+sprung from my chair, and excitedly and rudely rushed past my guest. I
+grasped the knob, wrenched it with all my might. Vainly; the door was
+locked, the bolt was fastened. Then I turned to my visitor. He was
+quietly seated in his accustomed place, and apparently failed to notice
+my discomposure, although he must have realized that he had withstood my
+first test.
+
+This pronounced defeat, at the very beginning of our proposed contest,
+produced a depressing effect; nevertheless I made an effort at
+self-control, and seating myself opposite, looked my antagonist in the
+face. Calm, dignified, with the brow of a philosopher, and the
+countenance of a philanthropist, a perfect type of the exquisite
+gentleman, and the cultured scholar, my guest, as serene and complacent
+as though, instead of an intruder, he were an invited participant of the
+comforts of my fireside, or even the host himself, laid his hat upon the
+table, stroked his silvery, translucent beard, and said:
+
+"Well?"
+
+I accepted the challenge, for the word, as he emphasized it, was a
+challenge, and hurled at him, in hopes to catch him unprepared, the
+following abrupt sentence:
+
+"I doubt the possibility of the existence of a great cavern such as you
+have described. The superincumbent mass of earth would crush the
+strongest metal. No material known to man could withstand a pressure so
+great as would overlie an arch as large as that you depict; material
+would succumb even if the roof were made of steel."
+
+"Do not be so positive," he replied. "By what authority do you make this
+assertion?"
+
+"By the authority of common sense as opposed to an unreasonable
+hypothesis. You should know that there is a limit to the strength of all
+things, and that no substance is capable of making an arch of thousands
+of miles, which, according to your assertion, must have been the
+diameter of the roof of your inland sea."
+
+"Ah," he replied, "and so you again crush my facts with your theory.
+Well, let me ask a question."
+
+"Proceed."
+
+"Did you ever observe a bubble resting on a bubble?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Did you ever place a pipe-stem in a partly filled bowl of soap water,
+and by blowing through it fill the bowl with bubbles?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Did you ever calculate the tensile strength of the material from which
+you blew the bubble?"
+
+"No; for soap water has no appreciable strength."
+
+"And yet you know that a bubble made of suds has not only strength, but
+elasticity. Suppose a bubble of energy floating in space were to be
+covered to the depth of the thickness of a sheet of tissue paper with
+the dust of space, would that surprise you?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Suppose two such globes of energy, covered with dust, were to be
+telescoped or attached together, would you marvel at the fact?"
+
+"No."
+
+He drew a picture on a piece of paper, in which one line was inclosed by
+another, and remarked:
+
+"The pencil mark on this paper is proportionately thicker than the crust
+of the earth over the earth cavern I have described. Even if it were
+made of soap suds, it could revolve through space and maintain its
+contour."
+
+"But the earth is a globe," I interjected.
+
+"You do not mean an exact globe?"
+
+"No; it is flattened at the poles."
+
+He took from his pocket two thin rubber balls, one slightly larger than
+the other. With his knife he divided the larger ball, cutting it into
+halves. He then placed one of the sections upon the perfect ball, and
+held the arrangement between the gas light and the wall.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 33. A A, telescoped energy spheres.]
+
+"See; is not the shadow flattened, as your earth is, at the poles?"
+
+"Yes; but the earth is not a shadow."
+
+"We will not argue that point now," he replied, and then asked: "Suppose
+such a compound shell as this were to revolve through space and
+continuously collect dust, most of it of the earth's temperature,
+forming a fluid (water), would not that dust be propelled naturally from
+the poles?"
+
+"Yes; according to our theory."
+
+"Perhaps," said he, "the contact edge of the invisible spheres of energy
+which compose your earth bubbles, for planets are bubbles, that have
+been covered with water and soil during the time the energy bubble,
+which is the real bone of the globe, has been revolving through space;
+perhaps, could you reach the foundation of the earth dust, you would
+find it not a perfect sphere, but a compound skeleton, as of two bubbles
+locked, or rather telescoped together. [See Fig. 34.]
+
+"Are you sure that my guide did not lead me through the space between
+the bubbles?"
+
+Then he continued:
+
+"Do not be shocked at what I am about to assert, for, as a member of
+materialistic humanity, you will surely consider me irrational when I
+say that matter, materials, ponderous substances, one and all, so far as
+the ponderous part is concerned have no strength."
+
+"What! no strength?"
+
+"None whatever."
+
+I grasped the poker.
+
+"Is not this matter?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"I can not break it."
+
+"No."
+
+"Have not I strength?"
+
+"Confine your argument now to the poker; we will consider you next. You
+can not break it."
+
+"I can break this pencil, though," and I snapped it in his face.
+
+"Yes."
+
+I curled my lip in disdain.
+
+"You carry this argument too far."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"I can break the pencil, I can not break the poker; had these materials
+not different strengths there could be no distinction; had I no strength
+I could not have broken either."
+
+"Are you ready to listen?" he replied.
+
+"Yes; but do not exasperate me."
+
+"I did not say that the combination you call a poker had no strength,
+neither did I assert that you could not break a pencil."
+
+"A distinction without a difference; you play upon words."
+
+"I said that matter, the ponderous side of material substances, has no
+strength."
+
+"And I say differently."
+
+He thrust the end of the poker into the fire, and soon drew it forth
+red-hot.
+
+"Is it as strong as before?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Heat it to whiteness and it becomes plastic."
+
+"Yes."
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 34. B B, telescoped energy spheres covered with
+space dirt, inclosing space between.]
+
+"Heat it still more and it changes to a liquid."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Has liquid iron strength?"
+
+"Very little, if any."
+
+"Is it still matter?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Is it the material of the iron, or is it the energy called heat that
+qualifies the strength of the metal? It seems to me that were I in your
+place I would now argue that absence of heat constitutes strength," he
+sarcastically continued.
+
+"Go on."
+
+"Cool this red-hot poker by thrusting it into a pail of cold water, and
+it becomes very hard and brittle."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Cool it slowly, and it is comparatively soft and plastic."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"The material is the same, is it not?"
+
+"Go on."
+
+"What strength has charcoal?"
+
+"Scarcely any."
+
+"Crystallize it, and the diamond results."
+
+"I did not speak of diamond."
+
+"Ah! and is not the same amount of the same material present in each, a
+grain of diamond and a grain of charcoal? What is present in a grain of
+diamond that is not present in a grain of charcoal?"
+
+"Go on."
+
+"Answer my question."
+
+"I can not."
+
+"Why does brittle, cold zinc, when heated, become first ductile, and
+then, at an increased temperature, become brittle again? In each case
+the same material is present."
+
+"I do not know; but this I do know: I am an organized being, and I have
+strength of body."
+
+The old man grasped the heavy iron poker with both hands, and suddenly
+rising to his full height, swung it about his head, then with a motion
+so menacing that I shrunk back into my chair and cried out in alarm,
+seemed about to strike, with full force, my defenseless brow.
+
+"My God," I shouted, "what have I done that you should murder me?"
+
+He lowered the weapon, and calmly asked:
+
+"Suppose that I had crushed your skull--where then would be your vaunted
+strength?"
+
+I made no reply, for as yet I had not recovered from the mental shock.
+
+"Could you then have snapped a pencil? Could you have broken a reed?
+Could you even have blown the down from a thistle bloom?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Would not your material body have been intact?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Listen," said he. "Matter has no strength, matter obeys spirit, and
+spirit dominates all things material. Energy in some form holds
+particles of matter together, and energy in other forms loosens them.
+'Tis this imponderable force that gives strength to substances, not the
+ponderable side of the material. Granite crushed is still granite, but
+destitute of rigidity. Creatures dead are still organic structures, but
+devoid of strength or motion. The spirit that pervades all material
+things gives to them form and existence. Take from your earth its vital
+spirit, the energy that subjects matter, and your so-called adamantine
+rocks would disintegrate, and sift as dust into the interstices of
+space. Your so-called rigid globe, a shell of space dust, would
+dissolve, collapse, and as the spray of a burst bubble, its ponderous
+side would vanish in the depths of force."
+
+I sat motionless.
+
+"Listen," he repeated. "You wrong your own common sense when you place
+dead matter above the spirit of matter. Atoms come and go in their
+ceaseless transmigrations, worlds move, universes circulate, not because
+they are material bodies, but because as points of matter, in a flood of
+force, they obey the spirit that can blot out a sun, or dissolve the
+earth, as easily as it can unlink two atoms. Matter is an illusion,
+spirit is the reality."
+
+I felt that he had silenced me against my will, and although I could not
+gainsay his assertions, I determined to study the subject carefully, at
+my leisure.
+
+"As you please," he interjected into my musings; "but since you are so
+determined, you would better study from books that are written by
+authors who know whereof they write, and who are not obliged to theorize
+from speculative data concerning the intrastructural earth crust."
+
+"But where can I find such works? I do not know of any."
+
+"Then," said he, "perhaps it would be better to cease doubting the word
+of one who has acquired the knowledge to write such a book, and who has
+no object in misleading you."
+
+"Still other questions arise," I said.
+
+"Well?"
+
+"I consider the account of the intra-earth fungus intoxicant beyond the
+realm of fact."
+
+"In what respect?"
+
+"The perfect loss of self that resulted immediately, in an instant,
+after swallowing the juice of the fungous fruit, so that you could not
+distinguish between the real guide at your side and the phantom that
+sprung into existence, is incredible. [See p. 234.] An element of time
+is a factor in the operation of nerve impressions."[12]
+
+    [12] It is well that reference was made to this point. Few readers
+    would probably notice that Chapter XXXVI. begun a narcotic
+    hallucination.--J. U. L.
+
+"Have you investigated all possible an�sthetics?" he asked.
+
+"Of course not."
+
+"Or all possible narcotics?"
+
+"No."
+
+"How long does it require for pure prussic acid to produce its
+physiological action?"
+
+"I do not know."
+
+He ignored my reply, and continued:
+
+"Since there exists a relative difference between the time that is
+required for ether and chloroform to produce insensibility, and between
+the actions and resultant effects of all known an�sthetics, intoxicants,
+and narcotics, I think you are hypercritical. Some nerve excitants known
+to you act slowly, others quickly; why not others still instantaneously?
+If you can rest your assertion on any good basis, I will gladly meet
+your questions, but I do not accept such evidence as you now introduce,
+and I do not care to argue for both parties."
+
+Again I was becoming irritated, for I was not satisfied with the manner
+in which I upheld my part of the argument, and naturally, as is usually
+the case with the defeated party, became incensed at my invincible
+antagonist.
+
+"Well," I said, "I criticise your credulity. The drunkards of the
+drunkards' cavern were beyond all credence. I can not conceive of such
+abnormal creations, even in illusion. Had I met with your experiences I
+would not have supposed, for an instant, that the fantastic shapes could
+have been aught but a dream, or the result of hallucination, while,
+without a question, you considered them real."
+
+"You are certainly pressed for subjects about which to complain when you
+resort to criticising the possibilities in creations of a mind under the
+influence of a more powerful intoxicant than is known to surface earth,"
+he remarked. "However, I will show you that nature fashions animals in
+forms more fantastic than I saw, and that even these figures were not
+overdrawn--"
+
+Without heeding his remark, I interrupted his discourse, determined to
+have my say:
+
+"And I furthermore question the uncouth personage you describe as your
+guide. Would you have me believe that such a being has an existence
+outside an abnormal thought-creation?"
+
+"Ah," he replied, "you have done well to ask these two questions in
+succession, for you permit me to answer both at once. Listen: The
+Monkey, of all animals, seems to approach closest to man in figure, the
+Siamang Gibon of Asia, the Bald-headed Saki of South America, with its
+stub of a tail, being nearest. From these types we have great deviations
+as in the Wanderer of India, with its whiskered face, and the Black
+Macaque of the Island of Celebes, with its hairy topknot, and hairless
+stub of a tail, or the well-known Squirrel Monkey, with its long supple
+tail, and the Thumbless Spider Monkey, of South America. Between these
+types we have among monkeys, nearly every conceivable shape of limb and
+figure, and in color of their faces and bodies, all the shades of the
+rainbow.
+
+"Some Squirrels jump and then sail through the air. The Sloth can barely
+move on the earth. Ant-eaters have no teeth at all, while the Grizzly
+Bear can crush a gun barrel with its molars.
+
+"The Duck-billed Platypus of South Australia has the body of a mole, the
+tail of a raccoon, the flat bill of a duck, and the flipper of a seal,
+combined with the feet of a rat. It lays eggs as birds do, but suckles
+its young as do other mammalia. The Opossum has a prehensile tail, as
+have some monkeys, and in addition a living bag or pouch in which the
+female carries her tiny young. The young of a kind of tree frog of the
+genus Hylodes, breathe through a special organ in their tails; the young
+of the Pipa, a great South American toad, burrow into the skin of the
+mother, and still another from Chili, as soon as hatched, creep down the
+throat of the father frog, and find below the jaw an opening into a
+false membrane covering the entire abdomen, in which they repose in
+safety. Three species of frogs and toads have no tongue at all, while in
+all the others the tongue is attached by its tip to the end of the
+mouth, and is free behind. The ordinary Bullfrog has conspicuous great
+legs, while a relative, the Coecilia (and others as well) have a head
+reminding of the frog, but neither tail nor legs, the body being
+elongated as if it were a worm. The long, slender fingers of a Bat are
+united by means of a membrane that enables it to fly like a bird, while
+as a contrast, the fingers of a Mole, its near cousin, are short and
+stubby, and massive as compared with its frame. The former flies through
+the air, the latter burrows (almost flies) through the earth. The Great
+Ant-eater has a curved head which is drawn out into a slender snout, no
+teeth, a long, slender tongue, a great bushy tail, and claws that
+neither allow the creature to burrow in the earth nor climb into trees,
+but which are admirably adapted to tear an ant-hill into fragments. Its
+close relatives, the Apar and Armadillo, have a round body covered with
+bony plates, and a short, horny, curved tail, while another relative,
+the Long-tailed Pangolin, has a great alligator-like tail which,
+together with its body, is covered with horny, overlapping scales.
+
+"The Greenland Whale has an enormous head occupying more than one-third
+its length, no teeth, and a throat scarcely larger than that of a sucker
+fish. The Golden Mole has a body so nearly symmetrical that, were it not
+for the snout, it would be difficult to determine the location of the
+head without close inspection, and it has legs so short that, were it
+not for the powerful claws, they would not be observed at all. The
+Narwhal has a straight, twisted tusk, a--"
+
+"Hold, hold," I interrupted; "do you think that I am concerned in these
+well known contrasts in animal structure?"
+
+"Did you not question the possibility of the description I gave of my
+grotesque drunkards, and of the form of my subterranean guide?" my guest
+retorted.
+
+"Yes; but I spoke of men, you describe animals."
+
+"Man is an animal, and between the various species of animals that you
+say are well known, greater distinctions can be drawn than between my
+guide and surface-earth man. Besides, had you allowed me to proceed to a
+description of animal life beneath the surface of the earth, I would
+have shown you that my guide partook of their attributes. Of the
+creatures described, one only was of the intra-earth origin--the
+Mole,--and like my guide, it is practically eyeless."
+
+"Go on," I said; "'tis useless for me to resist. And yet--"
+
+"And yet what?"
+
+"And yet I have other subjects to discuss."
+
+"Proceed."
+
+"I do not like the way in which you constantly criticise science,
+especially in referring thereto the responsibilities of the crazed
+anatomist.[13] It seems to me that he was a monomaniac, gifted, but
+crazed, and that science was unfortunate in being burdened with such an
+incubus."
+
+    [13] This section (see p. 190) was excised, being too
+    painful.--J. U. L.
+
+"True, and yet science advances largely by the work of such apparently
+heartless creatures. Were it not for investigators who overstep the
+bounds of established methods, and thus criticise their predecessors,
+science would rust and disintegrate. Besides, why should not science be
+judged by the rule she applies to others?"
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"Who is more free to criticise religion than the materialistic man of
+science?"
+
+"But a religious man is not cruel."
+
+"Have you not read history? Have you not shuddered at the crimes
+recorded in the name of the religions of man?"
+
+"Yes; but these cruelties were committed by misguided men under the
+cloak of the church, or of false religions, during the dark ages. Do not
+blame religion, but the men who abused the cause."
+
+"Yes," he added, "you are right; they were fanatics, crazed beings, men;
+yes, even communities, raving mad. Crazed leaders can infuse the minds
+of the people with their fallacies, and thus become leaders of crazed
+nations. Not, as I have depicted in my scientific enthusiast, one man
+alone in the privacy of his home torturing a single child, but whole
+nations pillaging, burning, torturing, and destroying. But this is
+foreign to our subject. Beware, I reiterate, of the science of human
+biology. The man who enters the field can not foresee the end, the man
+who studies the science of life, and records his experiments, can not
+know the extremes to which a fanatical follower may carry the
+thought-current of his leader. I have not overdrawn the lesson. Besides,
+science is now really torturing, burning, maiming, and destroying
+humanity. The act of destruction has been transferred from barbarians
+and the fanatic in religion to the follower of the devotees of science."
+
+"No; I say, no."
+
+"Who created the steam engine? Who evolves improved machinery? Who
+creates improved artillery, and explosives? Scientific men."
+
+He hesitated.
+
+"Go on."
+
+"Accumulate the maimed and destroyed each year; add together the
+miseries and sorrows that result from the explosions, accidents, and
+catastrophes resulting from science improvements, and the dark ages
+scarcely offer a parallel. Add thereto the fearful destruction that
+follows a war among nations scientific, and it will be seen that the
+scientific enthusiast of the present has taken the place of the
+misguided fanatic of the past. Let us be just. Place to the credit of
+religion the good that religion has done, place to the credit of science
+the good that science is doing, and yet do not mistake, both leave in
+their wake an atmosphere saturated with misery, a road whitened with
+humanity's bones. Neither the young nor the old are spared, and so far
+as the sufferer is concerned it matters not whether the person has been
+racked by the tortures of an inquisition, or the sword of an infidel, is
+shrieking in the agony of a scald by super-heated steam, or is mangled
+by an explosion of nitroglycerin."
+
+Again he hesitated.
+
+"Go on."
+
+"One of science's most serious responsibilities, from which religion has
+nearly escaped, is that of supplying thought-food to fanatics, and from
+this science can not escape."
+
+"Explain yourself."
+
+"Who places the infidel in possession of arguments to combat sacred
+teachings? Who deliberately tortures animals, and suggests that
+biological experimentation in the name of science, before cultured
+audiences even, is legitimate, such as making public dissections of
+living creatures?"
+
+"Enough, enough," I cried, thinking of his crazed anatomist, and
+covering my face with my hands; "you make my blood creep."
+
+"Yes," he added sarcastically; "you shudder now and criticise my
+truthful study, and to-morrow you will forget the lesson, and perhaps
+for dinner you will relish your dish of veal, the favorite food of
+mothers, the nearest approach to the flesh of babies."
+
+Then his manner changed, and in his usual mild, pleasant way, he said:
+
+"Take what I have said kindly; I wish only to induce your religious part
+to have more charity for your scientific self, and the reverse. Both
+religion and science are working towards the good of man, although their
+devotees are human, and by human errors bring privations, sufferings,
+and sorrows to men. Neither can fill the place of the other; each should
+extend a helping hand, and have charity for the shortcomings of the
+other; they are not antagonists, but workers in one field; both must
+stand the criticisms of mutual antagonists, and both have cause to fear
+the evils of fanaticism within their own ranks more than the attacks of
+opponents from without. Let the religious enthusiast exercise care; his
+burning, earnest words may lead a weak-minded father to murder an
+innocent family, and yet 'tis not religion that commits the crime. Let
+the zealous scientific man hesitate; he piles up fuel by which minds
+unbalanced, or dispositions perverted, seek to burn and destroy hopes
+that have long served the yearnings of humanity's soul. Neither pure
+religion nor true science is to blame for the acts of its devotees, and
+yet each must share the responsibility of its human agents."
+
+"We will discuss the subject no further," I said; "it is not agreeable."
+
+Then I continued:
+
+"The idea of eternity without time is not quite clear to me, although I
+catch an imperfect conception of the argument advanced. Do you mean to
+say that when a soul leaves the body, the earth life of the individual,
+dominated by the soul, is thrown off from it as is the snap of a
+whip-lash, and that into the point between life and death, the hereafter
+of that mortal may be concentrated?"
+
+"I simply give you the words of my guide," he replied, "but you have
+expressed the idea about as well as your word language will admit. Such
+a conception of eternity is more rational to one who, like myself, has
+lived through an instant that covered, so far as mind is concerned, a
+million years of time, than is an attempt to grasp a conception of an
+eternity, without beginning or end, by basing an argument on conditions
+governing material substances, as these substances are known to man. You
+have the germ of the idea which may be simply a thought for you to
+ponder over; you can study the problem at your leisure. Do not, however,
+I warn you, attempt to comprehend the notion of eternity by throwing
+into it the conception of time as men accept that term, for the very
+word time, as men define it, demands that there be both a beginning and
+an end. With the sense of time in one's mind, there can be no conception
+of the term eternity."
+
+Then, as I had so often done before, I unwarily gave him an opportunity
+to enlarge on his theme, to my disadvantage. I had determined not to ask
+any questions concerning his replies to my criticism, for whenever I had
+previously done so, the result had been disastrous to me. In this case I
+unwittingly said:
+
+"Why do you say that our language will not permit of clearer conceptions
+than you give?"
+
+"Because your education does not permit you to think outside of words;
+you are word-bound."
+
+"You astonish me by making such an arrogant assertion. Do you mean to
+assert that I can not think without using words?"
+
+"Yes. Every thought you indulge in is circumscribed. You presumably
+attempt to throw a thought-line forward, and yet you step backward and
+spin it in words that have been handed you from the past, and, struggle
+as you may, you can not liberate yourself from the dead incubus. Attempt
+to originate an idea, and see if you can escape your word-master?"
+
+"Go on; I am listening."
+
+"Men scientific think in language scientific. Men poetical think in
+language poetic. All educated men use words in thinking of their
+subjects, words that came to them from the past, and enslave their
+intellect. Thus it is that the novelist can not make fiction less real
+than is fact; that scientists can not commence at the outside, and build
+a theory back to phenomena understood. In each case the foundation of a
+thought is a word that in the very beginning carries to the mind a
+meaning, a something from the past. Each thought ramification is an
+offshoot from words that express ideas and govern ideas, yes, create
+ideas, even dominating the mind. Men speak of ideas when they intend to
+refer to an image in the mind, but in reality they have no ideas outside
+of the word sentences they unconsciously reformulate. Define the term
+idea correctly, and it will be shown that an idea is a sentence, and if
+a sentence is made of words already created, there can be no new idea,
+for every word has a fixed meaning. Hence, when men think, they only
+rearrange words that carry with themselves networks of ideas, and thus
+play upon their several established meanings. How can men so
+circumscribed construct a new idea or teach a new science?"
+
+"New words are being created."
+
+"Language is slowly progressing, but no new word adds itself to a
+language; it is linked to thought-chains that precede. In order to
+create a word, as a rule, roots are used that are as established in
+philology as are building materials in architecture. When a new sound is
+thrust into a language, its intent must be introduced by words already
+known, after which it conveys a meaning derived from the past, and
+becomes a part of mind sentences already constructed, as it does of
+spoken language. Language has thus been painfully and slowly evolved and
+is still being enlarged, but while new impressions may be felt by an
+educated person, the formulated feeling is inseparable, from well-known
+surviving words."
+
+"Some men are dumb."
+
+"Yes; and yet they frame mind-impressions into unspoken words of their
+own, otherwise they would be scarcely more than animals. Place an
+uneducated dumb person in a room with a complicated instrument, and
+although he may comprehend its uses, he can not do so unless he frames
+sense-impressions into, what is to him, a formulated mind-word
+sequence."
+
+"But he can think about it."
+
+"No; unless he has already constructed previous impressions into
+word-meanings of his own, he can not think about it at all. Words,
+whether spoken or unspoken, underlie all ideas. Try, if you believe I am
+mistaken, try to think of any subject outside of words?"
+
+I sat a moment, and mentally attempted the task, and shook my head.
+
+"Then," said the old man, "how can I use words with established meanings
+to convey to your senses an entirely new idea? If I use new sounds,
+strung together, they are not words to you, and convey no meaning; if I
+use words familiar, they reach backward as well as forward. Thus it is
+possible to instruct you, by a laborious course of reasoning, concerning
+a phenomenon that is connected with phenomena already understood by you,
+for your word-language can be thrust out from the parent stalk, and can
+thus follow the outreaching branches. However, in the case of phenomena
+that exist on other planes, or are separated from any known material, or
+force, as is the true conception that envelops the word eternity, there
+being neither connecting materials, forces, nor words to unite the
+outside with the inside, the known with the unknown, how can I tell you
+more than I have done? You are word-bound."
+
+"Nevertheless, I still believe that I can think outside of words."
+
+"Well, perhaps after you attempt to do so, and fail again and again, you
+will appreciate that a truth is a truth, humiliating as it may be to
+acknowledge the fact."
+
+"A Digger Indian has scarcely a word-language," I asserted, loth to
+relinquish the argument.
+
+"You can go farther back if you desire, back to primitive man; man
+without language at all, and with ideas as circumscribed as those of the
+brutes, and still you have not strengthened your argument concerning
+civilized man. But you are tired, I see."
+
+"Yes; tired of endeavoring to combat your assertions. You invariably
+lead me into the realms of speculation, and then throw me upon the
+defensive by asking me to prove my own theories, or with apparent
+sincerity, you advance an unreasonable hypothesis, and then, before I am
+aware of your purpose, force me to acquiesce because I can not find
+facts to confute you. You very artfully throw the burden of proof on me
+in all cases, for either by physical comparisons that I can not make, I
+must demonstrate the falsity of your metaphysical assertions, or by
+abstract reasonings disprove statements you assert to be facts."
+
+"You are peevish and exhausted, or you would perceive that I have
+generally allowed you to make the issue, and more than once have
+endeavored to dissuade you from doing so. Besides, did I not several
+times in the past bring experimental proof to dispel your incredulity?
+Have I not been courteous?"
+
+"Yes," I petulantly admitted; "yes."
+
+Then I determined to imitate his artful methods, and throw him upon the
+defensive as often as he had done with me. I had finally become familiar
+with his process of arguing a question, for, instead of coming
+immediately to his subject, he invariably led by circuitous route to the
+matter under discussion. Before reaching the point he would manage to
+commit me to his own side of the subject, or place me in a defenseless
+position. So with covert aim I began:
+
+"I believe that friction is one method of producing heat."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"I have been told that the North American Indians make fires by rubbing
+together two pieces of dry wood."
+
+"True."
+
+"I have understood that the light of a shooting star results from the
+heat of friction, producing combustion of its particles."
+
+"Partly," he answered.
+
+"That when the meteoric fragment of space dust strikes the air, the
+friction resulting from its velocity heats it to redness, fuses its
+surface, or even burns its very substance into ashes."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"I have seen the spindle of a wheel charred by friction."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"I have drawn a wire rapidly through a handkerchief tightly grasped in
+my hands, and have warmed the wire considerably in doing so."
+
+"Yes."
+
+I felt that I had him committed to my side of the question, and I
+prepared to force him to disprove the possibility of one assertion that
+he had made concerning his journey.
+
+"You stated that you rode in a boat on the underground lake."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"With great rapidity?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Rapid motion produces friction, I believe?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And heat?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Why did not your boat become heated even to redness? You rode at the
+rate of nine hundred miles an hour," I cried exultingly.
+
+"For two reasons," he calmly replied; "two natural causes prevented such
+a catastrophe."
+
+And again he warned me, as he had done before, by saying:
+
+"While you should not seek for supernatural agencies to account for any
+phenomena in life, for all that is is natural, neither should you fail
+to study the differences that varying conditions produce in results
+already known. A miracle ceases to be a miracle when we understand the
+scientific cause underlying the wonder; occultism is natural, for if
+there be occult phenomena they must be governed by natural law; mystery
+is not mysterious if the veil of ignorance that envelops the
+investigator is lifted. What you have said is true concerning the heat
+that results from friction, but--
+
+"First, the attraction of gravitation was inconsiderable where the boat,
+to which you refer, rested on the water.
+
+"Second, the changing water carried away the heat as fast as it was
+produced. While it is true that a cannon ball becomes heated in its
+motion through the air, its surface is cooled when it strikes a body of
+water, notwithstanding that its great velocity is altogether overcome by
+the water. The friction between the water and the iron does not result
+in heated iron, but the contrary. The water above the rapids of a river
+has practically the temperature of the water below the rapids,
+regardless of the friction that ensues between these points. Admit,
+however, that heat is liberated as the result of the friction of solids
+with water, and still it does not follow that this heat will perceptibly
+affect the solid. With a boat each particle of water carries the heat
+away, each succeeding portion of water takes up the heat liberated by
+that preceding it. Thus the great body of water, over which our boat
+sped, in obedience to the ordinary law, became slightly warmed, but its
+effect upon the boat was scarcely perceptible. Your comparison of the
+motion of a meteor, with that of our boat, was unhappy. We moved
+rapidly, it is true, in comparison with the motion of vessels such as
+you know, but comparison can not be easily drawn between the velocity of
+a boat and that of a meteor. While we moved at the rate of many miles a
+minute, a meteor moves many times faster, perhaps as many miles in a
+second. Then you must remember that the force of gravitation was so
+slight in our position that--"
+
+"Enough," I interrupted. "We will pass the subject. It seems that you
+draw upon science for knowledge to support your arguments, however
+irrational they may be, and then you sneer at this same method of
+argument when I employ it."
+
+He replied to my peevish complaint with the utmost respect by calling to
+my attention the fact that my own forced argument had led to the answer,
+and that he had simply replied to my attacks. Said he:
+
+"If I am wrong in my philosophy, based on your science thought, I am
+right in my facts, and science thought is thus in the wrong, for facts
+overbalance theory. I ask you only to give me the attention that my
+statements merit. I am sincere, and aim to serve your interests. Should
+investigation lead you hereafter to infer that I am in error, at our
+final interview you can have my considerate attention. Be more
+charitable, please."
+
+Then he added:
+
+"Is there any other subject you wish to argue?"
+
+"Yes," I answered, and again my combativeness arose; "yes. One of the
+truly edifying features of your narrative is that of the intelligent
+guide," and I emphasized the word intelligent, and curled up my lip in a
+sarcastic manner.
+
+"Proceed."
+
+"He was verily a wonderful being; an eyeless creature, and yet possessed
+of sight and perception beyond that of mortal man; a creature who had
+been locked in the earth, and yet was more familiar with its surface
+than a philosopher; a cavern-bred monstrosity, and yet possessed of the
+mind of a sage; he was a scientific expert, a naturalist, a metaphysical
+reasoner, a critic of religion, and a prophet. He could see in absolute
+darkness as well as in daylight; without a compass he could guide a boat
+over a trackless sea, and could accomplish feats that throw Gulliver and
+Munchausen into disrepute."
+
+In perfect composure my aged guest listened to my cynical, and almost
+insulting tirade. He made no effort to restrain my impetuous sentences,
+and when I had finished replied in the polished language of a scholarly
+gentleman.
+
+"You state truly, construe my words properly, as well as understand
+correctly."
+
+Then he continued musingly, as though speaking to himself:
+
+"I would be at fault and deserve censure did I permit doubts to be
+thrown upon so clear a subject, or discredit on so magnanimous a
+person."
+
+Turning to me he continued:
+
+"Certainly I did not intend to mislead or to be misunderstood, and am
+pleased to find you so earnest a scholar."
+
+And then in his soft, mild manner, he commenced his detail reply,
+pouring oil upon the waters of my troubled soul, his sweet, melodious
+voice being so in contrast to my rash harangue. He began with his
+expressive and often repeated word, "listen."
+
+[Illustration: "WE PASSED THROUGH CAVERNS FILLED WITH CREEPING
+REPTILES."]
+
+"Listen. You are right, my guide was a being wonderful to mortals. He
+was eyeless, but as I have shown you before, and now swear to the fact,
+was not sightless; surely," he said, "surely you have not forgotten
+that long ago I considered the phenomenal instinct at length. He
+predicted the future by means of his knowledge of the past--there is
+nothing wonderful in that. Can not a civil engineer continue a line into
+the beyond, and predict where the projection of that line will strike;
+can he not also calculate the effect that a curve will have on his
+line's destiny? Why should a being conversant with the lines and curves
+of humanity's journey for ages past not be able to indicate the lines
+that men must follow in the future? Of course he could guide the boat,
+in what was to me a trackless waste of water, but you err in asserting
+that I had said he did not have a guide, even if it were not a compass.
+Many details concerning this journey have not been explained to you;
+indeed, I have acquainted you with but little that I experienced. Near
+surface earth we passed through caverns filled with creeping reptiles;
+through others we were surrounded by flying creatures, neither beast nor
+bird; we passed through passages of ooze and labyrinths of apparently
+interminable intra-earth structures; to have disported on such features
+of my journey would have been impracticable. From time to time I
+experienced strains of melody, such as never before had I conceived,
+seemingly choruses of angels were singing in and to my very soul. From
+empty space about me, from out the crevices beyond and behind me, from
+the depths of my spirit within me, came these strains in notes clear and
+distinct, but yet indescribable. Did I fancy, or was it real? I will not
+pretend to say. Flowers and structures beautiful, insects gorgeous and
+inexplicable were spread before me. Figures and forms I can not attempt
+to indicate in word descriptions, ever and anon surrounded, accompanied,
+and passed me by. The canvas conceptions of earth-bred artists bring to
+mind no forms so strange and weird and yet so beautiful as were these
+compound beings. Restful beyond description was it to drink in the
+indescribable strains of poetry of motion that I appreciated in the
+movements of fair creatures I have not mentioned, and it was no less
+soothing to experience the soul relief wrought by the sounds about me,
+for musicians know no notes so sweet and entrancing.
+
+"There were also, in side caverns to which I was led, combinations of
+sounds and scenes in which floating strains and fleeting figures were
+interwoven and interlaced so closely that the senses of both sight and
+hearing became blended into a single sense, new, weird, strange, and
+inexpressible. As flavor is the combination of odor and taste, and is
+neither taste nor odor, so these sounds and scenes combined were neither
+scenes nor sounds, but a complex sensation, new, delicious. Sometimes I
+begged to be permitted to stop and live forever 'mid those heavenly
+charms, but with as firm a hand as when helping me through the chambers
+of mire, ooze, and creeping reptiles, my guide drew me onward.
+
+"But to return to the subject. As to my guide being a cavern-bred
+monstrosity, I do not remember to have said that he was cavern-bred, and
+if I have forgotten a fact, I regret my short memory. Did I say that he
+was always a cavern being? Did I assert that he had never lived among
+mortals of upper earth? If so, I do not remember our conversation on
+that subject. He was surely a sage in knowledge, as you have experienced
+from my feeble efforts in explaining the nature of phenomena that were
+to you unknown, and yet have been gained by me largely through his
+instruction. He was a metaphysician, as you assert; you are surely
+right; he was a sincere, earnest reasoner and teacher. He was a
+conscientious student, and did not by any word lead me to feel that he
+did not respect all religions, and bow to the Creator of the universe,
+its sciences, and its religions. His demeanor was most considerate, his
+methods faultless, his love of nature deep, his patience inexhaustible,
+his sincerity unimpeachable. Yes," the old man said; "you are right in
+your admiration of this lovely personage, and when you come to meet this
+being as you are destined yet to do--for know now that you too will some
+day pass from surface earth, and leave only your name in connection with
+this story of myself--you will surely then form a still greater love and
+a deeper respect for one so gifted, and yet so self-sacrificing."
+
+"Old man," I cried, "you mock me. I spoke facetiously, and you answer
+literally. Know that I have no confidence in your sailor-like tales,
+your Marco Polo history."
+
+"Ah! You discredit Marco Polo? And why do you doubt?"
+
+"Because I have never seen such phenomena, I have never witnessed such
+occurrences. I must see a thing to believe it."
+
+"And so you believe only what you see?" he queried.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Now answer promptly," he commanded, and his manner changed as by magic
+to that of a master. "Did you ever see Greenland?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Iceland?"
+
+"No."
+
+"A geyser?"
+
+"No."
+
+"A whale?"
+
+"No."
+
+"England?"
+
+"No."
+
+"France?"
+
+"No."
+
+"A walrus?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Then you do not believe that these conditions, countries, and animals
+have an existence?"
+
+"Of course they have."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Others have seen them."
+
+"Ah," he said; "then you wish to modify your assertion--you only believe
+what others have seen?"
+
+"Excepting one person," I retorted.
+
+Then he continued, seemingly not having noticed my personal allusion:
+
+"Have you ever seen your heart?"
+
+I hesitated.
+
+"Answer," he commanded.
+
+"No."
+
+"Your stomach?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Have you seen the stomach of any of your friends?"
+
+"No."
+
+"The back of your head?"
+
+I became irritated, and made no reply.
+
+"Answer," he again commanded.
+
+"I have seen its reflection in a glass."
+
+"I say no," he replied; "you have not."
+
+"You are impudent," I exclaimed.
+
+"Not at all," he said, good humoredly; "how easy it is to make a
+mistake. I venture to say that you have never seen the reflection of the
+back of your head in a mirror."
+
+"Your presumption astounds me."
+
+"I will leave it to yourself."
+
+He took a hand-glass from the table and held it behind my head.
+
+"Now, do you see the reflection?"
+
+"No; the glass is behind me."
+
+"Ah, yes; and so is the back of your head."
+
+"Look," I said, pointing to the great mirror on the bureau; "look, there
+is the reflection of the back of my head."
+
+"No; it is the reflection of the reflection in my hand-glass."
+
+"You have tricked me; you quibble!"
+
+"Well," he said, ignoring my remark; "what do you believe?"
+
+"I believe what others have seen, and what I can do."
+
+"Excluding myself as to what others have seen," he said facetiously.
+
+"Perhaps," I answered, relenting somewhat.
+
+"Has any man of your acquaintance seen the middle of Africa?"
+
+"No."
+
+"The center of the earth?"
+
+"No."
+
+"The opposite side of the moon?"
+
+"No."
+
+"The soul of man?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Heat, light, electricity?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Then you do not believe that Africa has a midland, the earth a center,
+the moon an opposite side, man a soul, force an existence?"
+
+"You distort my meaning."
+
+"Well, I ask questions in accord with your suggestions, and you defeat
+yourself. You have now only one point left. You believe only what _you_
+can do?"
+
+[Illustration: "FLOWERS AND STRUCTURES BEAUTIFUL, INSECTS GORGEOUS."]
+
+"Yes."
+
+"I will rest this case on one statement, then, and you may be the
+judge."
+
+"Agreed."
+
+"You can not do what any child in Cincinnati can accomplish. I assert
+that any other man, any other woman in the city can do more than you
+can. No cripple is so helpless, no invalid so feeble as not, in this
+respect, to be your superior."
+
+"You insult me," I again retorted, almost viciously.
+
+"Do you dispute the assertion seriously?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Well, let me see you kiss your elbow."
+
+Involuntarily I twisted my arm so as to bring the elbow towards my
+mouth, then, as I caught the full force of his meaning, the ridiculous
+result of my passionate wager came over me, and I laughed aloud. It was
+a change of thought from the sublime to the ludicrous.
+
+The white-haired guest smiled in return, and kindly said:
+
+"It pleases me to find you in good humor at last. I will return
+to-morrow evening and resume the reading of my manuscript. In the
+meantime take good exercise, eat heartily, and become more cheerful."
+
+He rose and bowed himself out.
+
+
+
+
+THE OLD MAN CONTINUES HIS MANUSCRIPT.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIV.
+
+    THE FATHOMLESS ABYSS.--THE EDGE OF THE EARTH SHELL.
+
+
+Promptly at eight o'clock the next evening the old man entered my room.
+He did not allude to the occurrences of the previous evening, and for
+this considerate treatment I felt thankful, as my part in those episodes
+had not been enviable. He placed his hat on the table, and in his usual
+cool and deliberate manner, commenced reading as follows:
+
+For a long time thereafter we journeyed on in silence, now amid stately
+stone pillars, then through great cliff openings or among gigantic
+formations that often stretched away like cities or towns dotted over a
+plain, to vanish in the distance. Then the scene changed, and we
+traversed magnificent avenues, bounded by solid walls which expanded
+into lofty caverns of illimitable extent, from whence we found ourselves
+creeping through narrow crevices and threading winding passages barely
+sufficient to admit our bodies. For a considerable period I had noted
+the absence of water, and as we passed from grotto to temple reared
+without hands, it occurred to me that I could not now observe evidence
+of water erosion in the stony surface over which we trod, and which had
+been so abundant before we reached the lake. My guide explained by
+saying in reply to my thought question, that we were beneath the water
+line. He said that liquids were impelled back towards the earth's
+surface from a point unnoticed by me, but long since passed. Neither did
+I now experience hunger nor thirst, in the slightest degree, a
+circumstance which my guide assured me was perfectly natural in view of
+the fact that there was neither waste of tissue nor consumption of heat
+in my present organism.
+
+[Illustration: "WITH FEAR AND TREMBLING I CREPT ON MY KNEES TO HIS
+SIDE."]
+
+At last I observed far in the distance a slanting sheet of light that,
+fan-shaped, stood as a barrier across the way; beyond it neither earth
+nor earth's surface appeared. As we approached, the distinctness of its
+outline disappeared, and when we came nearer, I found that it streamed
+into the space above, from what appeared to be a crevice or break in the
+earth that stretched across our pathway, and was apparently limitless
+and bottomless.
+
+"Is this another hallucination?" I queried.
+
+"No; it is a reality. Let us advance to the brink."
+
+Slowly we pursued our way, for I hesitated and held back. I had really
+begun to distrust my own senses, and my guide in the lead was even
+forced to demonstrate the feasibility of the way, step by step, before I
+could be induced to follow. At length we neared the edge of the chasm,
+and while he stood boldly upright by the brink, with fear and trembling
+I crept on my knees to his side, and together we faced a magnificent but
+fearful void that stretched beneath and beyond us, into a profundity of
+space. I peered into the chamber of light, that indescribable gulf of
+brilliancy, but vainly sought for an opposite wall; there was none. As
+far as the eye could reach, vacancy, illuminated vacancy, greeted my
+vision. The light that sprung from that void was not dazzling, but was
+possessed of a beauty that no words can suggest. I peered downward, and
+found that we stood upon the edge of a shelving ledge of stone that
+receded rapidly beneath us, so that we seemed to rest upon the upper
+side of its wedge-like edge. I strained my vision to catch a glimpse of
+the bottom of this chasm, but although I realized that my eyes were
+glancing into miles and miles of space, there was no evidence of earthly
+material other than the brink upon which we stood.
+
+The limit of vision seemed to be bounded by a silvery blending of light
+with light, light alone, only light. The dead silence about, and the new
+light before me, combined to produce a weird sensation, inexplicable,
+overpowering. A speck of dust on the edge of immensity, I clung to the
+stone cliff, gazing into the depths of that immeasurable void.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLV.
+
+    MY HEART THROB IS STILLED, AND YET I LIVE.
+
+
+"It now becomes my duty to inform you that this is one of the stages in
+our journey that can only be passed by the exercise of the greatest will
+force. Owing to our former surroundings upon the surface of the earth,
+and to your inheritance of a so-called instinctive education, you would
+naturally suppose that we are now on the brink of an impassable chasm.
+This sphere of material vacuity extends beneath us to a depth that I am
+sure you will be astonished to learn is over six thousand miles. We may
+now look straight into the earth cavity, and this streaming light is the
+reflected purity of the space below. The opposite side of this crevice,
+out of sight by reason of its distance, but horizontally across from
+where we stand, is precipitous and comparatively solid, extending upward
+to the material that forms the earth's surface. We have, during our
+journey, traversed an oblique, tortuous natural passage, that extends
+from the spot at which you entered the cave in Kentucky, diagonally down
+into the crust of the globe, terminating in this shelving bluff. I would
+recall to your mind that your journey up to this time has been of your
+own free will and accord. At each period of vacillation--and you could
+not help but waver occasionally--you have been at liberty to return to
+surface earth again, but each time you decided wisely to continue your
+course. You can now return if your courage is not sufficient to overcome
+your fear, but this is the last opportunity you will have to reconsider,
+while in my company."
+
+"Have others overcome the instinctive terrors to which you allude?"
+
+"Yes; but usually the dread of death, or an unbearable uncertainty,
+compels the traveler to give up in despair before reaching this spot,
+and the opportunity of a lifetime is lost. Yes; an opportunity that
+occurs only in the lifetime of one person out of millions, of but few in
+our brotherhood."
+
+"Then I can return if I so elect?"
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"Will you inform me concerning the nature of the obstacle I have to
+overcome, that you indicate by your vague references?"
+
+"We must descend from this cliff."
+
+"You can not be in earnest."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Do you not see that the stone recedes from beneath us, that we stand on
+the edge of a wedge overhanging bottomless space?"
+
+"That I understand."
+
+"There is no ladder," and then the foolish remark abashed me as I
+thought of a ladder six thousand miles in length.
+
+"Go on."
+
+He made no reference to my confusion.
+
+"There is practically no bottom," I asserted, "if I can believe your
+words; you told me so."
+
+"And that I reiterate."
+
+"The feat is impracticable, impossible, and only a madman would think of
+trying to descend into such a depth of space."
+
+Then an idea came over me; perhaps there existed a route at some other
+point of the earth's crevice by which we could reach the under side of
+the stone shelf, and I intimated as much to the guide.
+
+"No; we must descend from this point, for it is the only entrance to the
+hollow beneath."
+
+We withdrew from the brink, and I meditated in silence. Then I crept
+again to the edge of the bluff, and lying flat on my chest, craned my
+head over, and peered down into the luminous gulf. The texture of the
+receding mineral was distinctly visible for a considerable distance, and
+then far, far beneath all semblance to material form disappeared--as the
+hull of a vessel fades in deep, clear water. As I gazed into the gulf it
+seemed evident that, as a board floating in water is bounded by water,
+this rock really ended. I turned to my guide and questioned him.
+
+"Stone in this situation is as cork," he replied; "it is nearly devoid
+of weight; your surmise is correct. We stand on the shelving edge of a
+cliff of earthly matter, that in this spot slants upward from beneath
+like the bow of a boat. We have reached the bottom of the film of space
+dust on the bubble of energy that forms the skeleton of earth."
+
+I clutched the edge of the cliff with both hands.
+
+"Be not frightened; have I not told you that if you wish to return you
+can do so. Now hearken to me:
+
+"A short time ago you endeavored to convince me that we could not
+descend from this precipice, and you are aware that your arguments were
+without foundation. You drew upon your knowledge of earth materials, as
+you once learned them, and realized at the time that you deluded
+yourself in doing so, for you know that present conditions are not such
+as exist above ground. You are now influenced by surroundings that are
+entirely different from those that govern the lives of men upon the
+earth's surface. You are almost without weight. You have nearly ceased
+to breathe, as long since you discovered, and soon I hope will agree
+entirely to suspend that harsh and wearying movement. Your heart
+scarcely pulsates, and if you go with me farther in this journey, will
+soon cease to beat."
+
+I started up and turned to flee, but he grasped and held me firmly.
+
+"Would you murder me? Do you think I will mutely acquiesce, while you
+coolly inform me of your inhuman intent, and gloat over the fact that my
+heart will soon be as stone, and that I will be a corpse?" He attempted
+to break in, but I proceeded in frenzy. "I _will_ return to upper earth,
+to sunshine and humanity. I _will_ retreat while yet in health and
+strength, and although I have in apparent willingness accompanied you to
+this point, learn now that at all times I have been possessed of the
+means to defend myself from personal violence." I drew from my pocket
+the bar of iron. "See, this I secreted about my person in the fresh air
+of upper earth, the sweet sunshine of heaven, fearing that I might fall
+into the hands of men with whom I must combat. Back, back," I cried.
+
+He released his hold of my person, and folded his arms upon his breast,
+then quietly faced me, standing directly between myself and the passage
+we had trod, while I stood on the brink, my back to that fearful chasm.
+
+By a single push he could thrust me into the fathomless gulf below, and
+with the realization of that fact, I felt that it was now a life and
+death struggle. With every muscle strained to its utmost tension, with
+my soul on fire, my brain frenzied, I drew back the bar of iron to smite
+the apparently defenseless being in the forehead, but he moved not, and
+as I made the motion, he calmly remarked: "Do you remember the history
+of Hiram Abiff?"
+
+[Illustration: "I DREW BACK THE BAR OF IRON TO SMITE THE APPARENTLY
+DEFENSELESS BEING IN THE FOREHEAD."]
+
+The hand that held the weapon dropped as if stricken by paralysis, and a
+flood of recollections concerning my lost home overcame me. I had raised
+my hand against a brother, the only being of my kind who could aid me,
+or assist me either to advance or recede. How could I, unaided, recross
+that glassy lake, and pass through the grotesque forests of fungi and
+the labyrinth of crystal grottoes of the salt bed? How could I find my
+way in the utter darkness that existed in the damp, soppy, dripping
+upper caverns that I must retrace before I could hope to reach the
+surface of the earth? "Forgive me," I sobbed, and sunk at his feet.
+"Forgive me, my friend, my brother; I have been wild, mad, am crazed."
+He made no reply, but pointed over my shoulder into the space beyond.
+
+I turned, and in the direction indicated, saw, in amazement, floating in
+the distant space a snow- and ice-clad vessel in full sail. She was
+headed diagonally from us, and was moving rapidly across the field of
+vision. Every spar and sail was clearly defined, and on her deck, and in
+the rigging I beheld sailors clad in winter garments pursuing their
+various duties.
+
+As I gazed, enraptured, she disappeared in the distance.
+
+"A phantom vessel," I murmured.
+
+"No," he replied; "the abstraction of a vessel sailing on the ocean
+above us. Every object on earth is the second to an imprint in another
+place. There is an apparent reproduction of matter in so-called vacancy,
+and on unseen pages a recording of all events. As that ship sailed over
+the ocean above us, she disturbed a current of energy, and it left its
+impress as an outline on a certain zone beneath, which is parallel with
+that upon which we now chance to stand."
+
+"I can not comprehend," I muttered.
+
+"No," he answered; "to you it seems miraculous, as to all men an
+unexplained phenomenon approaches the supernatural. All that is is
+natural. Have men not been told in sacred writings that their every
+movement is being recorded in the Book of Life, and do they not often
+doubt because they can not grasp the problem? May not the greatest
+scientist be the most apt skeptic?"
+
+"Yes," I replied.
+
+"You have just seen," he said, "the record of an act on earth, and in
+detail it is being printed elsewhere in the Book of Eternity. If you
+should return to earth's surface you could not by stating these facts
+convince even the persons on that same ship, of your sanity. You could
+not make them believe that hundreds of miles beneath, both their vessel
+and its crew had been reproduced in fac simile, could you?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Were you to return to earth you could not convince men that you had
+existed without breath, with a heart dead within you. If you should try
+to impress on mankind the facts that you have learned in this journey,
+what would be the result?"
+
+"I would probably be considered mentally deranged; this I have before
+admitted."
+
+"Would it not be better then," he continued, "to go with me, by your own
+free will, into the unknown future, which you need fear less than a
+return to the scoffing multitude amid the storms of upper earth? You
+know that I have not at any time deceived you. I have, as yet, only
+opened before you a part of one rare page out of the boundless book of
+nature; you have tasted of the sweets of which few persons in the flesh
+have sipped, and I now promise you a further store of knowledge that is
+rich beyond conception, if you wish to continue your journey."
+
+"What if I decide to return?"
+
+"I will retrace my footsteps and liberate you upon the surface of the
+earth, as I have others, for few persons have courage enough to pass
+this spot."
+
+"Binding me to an oath of secrecy?"
+
+[Illustration: "SPRUNG FROM THE EDGE OF THE CLIFF INTO THE ABYSS BELOW,
+CARRYING ME WITH HIM INTO ITS DEPTHS."]
+
+"No," he answered; "for if you relate these events men will consider you
+a madman, and the more clearly you attempt to explain the facts that you
+have witnessed, the less they will listen to you; such has been the fate
+of others."
+
+"It is, indeed, better for me to go with you," I said musingly; "to that
+effect my mind is now made up, my course is clear, I am ready."
+
+With a motion so quick in conception, and rapid in execution that I was
+taken altogether by surprise, with a grasp so powerful that I could not
+have repelled him, had I expected the movement and tried to protect
+myself, the strange man, or being beside me, threw his arms around my
+body. Then, as a part of the same movement, he raised me bodily from the
+stone, and before I could realize the nature of his intention, sprung
+from the edge of the cliff into the abyss below, carrying me with him
+into its depths.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVI.
+
+    THE INNER CIRCLE, OR THE END OF GRAVITATION.--IN THE BOTTOMLESS
+    GULF.
+
+
+I recall a whirling sensation, and an involuntary attempt at
+self-preservation, in which I threw my arms wildly about with a vain
+endeavor to clutch some form of solid body, which movement naturally
+ended by a tight clasping of my guide in my arms, and locked together we
+continued to speed down into the seven thousand miles of vacancy.
+Instinctively I murmured a prayer of supplication, and awaited the
+approaching hereafter, which, as I believed, would quickly witness the
+extinction of my unhappy life, the end of my material existence; but the
+moments (if time can be so divided when no sun marks the division)
+multiplied without bodily shock or physical pain of any description; I
+retained my consciousness.
+
+"Open your eyes," said my guide, "you have no cause for fear."
+
+I acquiesced in an incredulous, dazed manner.
+
+"This unusual experience is sufficient to unnerve you, but you need have
+no fear, for you are not in corporal danger, and can relax your grasp on
+my person."
+
+I cautiously obeyed him, misgivingly, and slowly loosened my hold, then
+gazed about to find that we were in a sea of light, and that only light
+was visible, that form of light which I have before said is an entity
+without source of radiation. In one direction, however, a great gray
+cloud hung suspended and gloomy, dark in the center, and shading
+therefrom in a circle, to disappear entirely at an angle of about
+forty-five degrees.
+
+"This is the earth-shelf from which we sprung," said the guide; "it will
+soon disappear."
+
+Wherever I glanced this radiant exhalation, a peaceful, luminous
+envelope, this rich, soft, beautiful white light appeared. The power of
+bodily motion I found still a factor in my frame, obedient, as before,
+to my will. I could move my limbs freely, and my intellect seemed to be
+intact. Finally I became impressed with the idea that I must be at
+perfect rest, but if so what could be the nature of the substance, or
+material, upon which I was resting so complacently? No; this could not
+be true. Then I thought: "I have been instantly killed by a painless
+shock, and my spirit is in heaven;" but my earthly body and coarse,
+ragged garments were palpable realities; the sense of touch, sight, and
+hearing surely were normal, and a consideration of these facts dispelled
+my first conception.
+
+"Where are we now?"
+
+"Moving into earth's central space."
+
+"I comprehend that a rushing wind surrounds us which is not
+uncomfortable, but otherwise I experience no unusual sensation, and can
+not realize but that I am at rest."
+
+"The sensation, as of a blowing wind, is in consequence of our rapid
+motion, and results from the friction between our bodies and the
+quiescent, attenuated atmosphere which exists even here, but this
+atmosphere becomes less and less in amount until it will disappear
+altogether at a short distance below us. Soon we will be in a perfect
+calm, and although moving rapidly, to all appearances will be at
+absolute rest."
+
+Naturally, perhaps, my mind attempted, as it so often had done, to urge
+objections to his statements, and at first it occurred to me that I did
+not experience the peculiar sinking away sensation in the chest that I
+remembered follows, on earth, the downward motion of a person falling
+from a great height, or moving rapidly in a swing, and I questioned him
+on the absence of that phenomenon.
+
+"The explanation is simple," he said; "on the surface of the earth a
+sudden motion, either upward or downward, disturbs the equilibrium of
+the organs of respiration, and of the heart, and interferes with the
+circulation of the blood. This produces a change in blood pressure
+within the brain, and the 'sinking' sensation in the chest, or the
+dizziness of the head of a person moving rapidly, or it may even result
+in unconsciousness, and complete suspension of respiration, effects
+which sometimes follow rapid movements, as in a person falling from a
+considerable height. Here circumstances are entirely different. The
+heart is quiet, the lungs in a comatose condition, and the blood
+stagnant. Mental sensations, therefore, that result from a disturbed
+condition of these organs are wanting, and, although we are experiencing
+rapid motion, we are in the full possession of our physical selves, and
+maintain our mental faculties unimpaired."
+
+Again I interposed an objection:
+
+"If, as you say, we are really passing through an attenuated atmosphere
+with increasing velocity, according to the law that governs falling
+bodies that are acted upon by gravity which continually accelerates
+their motion, the friction between ourselves and the air will ultimately
+become so intense as to wear away our bodies."
+
+"Upon the contrary," said he, "this attenuated atmosphere is decreasing
+in density more rapidly than our velocity increases, and before long it
+will have altogether disappeared. You can perceive that the wind, as you
+call it, is blowing less violently than formerly; soon it will entirely
+cease, as I have already predicted, and at that period, regardless of
+our motion, we will appear to be stationary."
+
+Pondering over the final result of this strange experience I became
+again alarmed, for accepting the facts to be as he stated, such motion
+would ultimately carry us against the opposite crust of the earth, and
+without a doubt the shock would end our existence. I inquired about
+this, to me, self-evident fact, and he replied:
+
+"Long before we reach the opposite crust of the earth, our motion will
+be arrested."
+
+I had begun now to feel a self-confidence that is surprising as I recall
+that remarkable position in connection with my narrow experience in true
+science, and can say that instead of despondency, I really enjoyed an
+elated sensation, a curious exhilaration, a feeling of delight, which I
+have no words to describe. Life disturbances and mental worry seemed to
+have completely vanished, and it appeared as if, with mental perception
+lucid, I were under the influence of a powerful soporific; the cares of
+mortals had disappeared. After a while the wind ceased to blow, as my
+guide had predicted, and with the suspension of that factor, all that
+remained to remind me of earth phenomena had vanished. There was no
+motion of material, nothing to mar or disturb the most perfect peace
+imaginable; I was so exquisitely happy that I now actually feared some
+change might occur to interrupt that quiescent existence. It was as a
+deep, sweet sleep in which, with faculties alive, unconsciousness was
+self-conscious, peaceful, restful, blissful. I listlessly turned my
+eyes, searching space in all directions--to meet vacancy everywhere,
+absolute vacancy. I took from my pocket (into which I had hastily thrust
+it) the bar of iron, and released it; the metal remained motionless
+beside me.
+
+"Traveling through this expanse with the rapidity of ourselves," said my
+guide.
+
+I closed my eyes and endeavored to convince myself that I was
+dreaming--vainly, however. I opened my eyes, and endeavored to convince
+myself that I was moving, equally in vain. I became oblivious to
+everything save the delicious sensation of absolute rest that enveloped
+and pervaded my being.
+
+"I am neither alive nor dead," I murmured; "neither asleep nor awake;
+neither moving nor at rest, and neither standing, reclining, nor
+sitting. If I exist I can not bring evidence to prove that fact, neither
+can I prove that I am dead."
+
+"Can any man prove either of these premises?" said the guide.
+
+"I have never questioned the matter," said I; "it is a self-evident
+fact."
+
+"Know then," said he, "that existence is a theory, and that man is
+incapable of demonstrating that he has a being. All evidences of mortal
+life are only as the phantasms of hallucination. As a moment in
+dreamland may span a life of time, the dreamer altogether unconscious
+that it is a dream, so may life itself be a shadow, the vision of a
+distempered fancy, the illusion of a floating thought."
+
+"Are pain, pleasure, and living, imaginary creations?" I asked
+facetiously.
+
+"Is there a madman who does not imagine, as facts, what others agree
+upon as hallucinations peculiar to himself? Is it not impossible to
+distinguish between different gradations of illusions, and is it not,
+therefore, possible that even self-existence is an illusion? What
+evidence can any man produce to prove that his idea of life is not a
+madman's dream?"
+
+"Proceed," I said.
+
+"At another time, perhaps," he remarked; "we have reached the Inner
+Circle, the Sphere of Rest, the line of gravity, and now our bodies have
+no weight; at this point we begin to move with decreased speed, we will
+soon come to a quiescent condition, a state of rest, and then start back
+on our rebound."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVII.
+
+    HEARING WITHOUT EARS.--"WHAT WILL BE THE END?"
+
+
+A flood of recollections came over me, a vivid remembrance of my
+earth-learned school philosophy. "I rebel again," I said, "I deny your
+statements. We can neither be moving, nor can we be out of the
+atmosphere. Fool that I have been not to have sooner and better used my
+reasoning faculties, not to have at once rejected your statements
+concerning the disappearance of the atmosphere."
+
+"I await your argument."
+
+"Am I not speaking? Is other argument necessary? Have I not heard your
+voice, and that, too, since you asserted that we had left the
+atmosphere?"
+
+"Continue."
+
+"Have not men demonstrated, and is it not accepted beyond the shadow of
+a doubt, that sound is produced by vibrations of the air?"
+
+"You speak truly; as men converse on surface earth."
+
+"This medium--the air--in wave vibrations, strikes upon the drum of the
+ear, and thus impresses the brain," I continued.
+
+"I agree that such is the teachings of your philosophy; go on."
+
+"It is unnecessary; you admit the facts, and the facts refute you; there
+must be an atmosphere to convey sound."
+
+"Can not you understand that you are not now on the surface of the
+earth? Will you never learn that the philosophy of your former life is
+not philosophy here? That earth-bound science is science only with
+surface-earth men? Here science is a fallacy. All that you have said is
+true of surface earth, but your argument is invalid where every
+condition is different from the conditions that prevail thereon. You use
+the organs of speech in addressing me as you once learned to use them,
+but such physical efforts are unnecessary to convey sense-impressions
+in this condition of rest and complacency, and you waste energy in
+employing them. You assert and believe that the air conveys sound; you
+have been taught such theories in support of a restricted philosophy;
+but may I ask you if a bar of iron, a stick of wood, a stream of water,
+indeed any substance known to you placed against the ear will not do the
+same, and many substances even better than the atmosphere?"
+
+"This I admit."
+
+"Will you tell me how the vibration of any of these bodies impresses the
+seat of hearing?"
+
+"It moves the atmosphere which strikes upon the tympanum of the ear."
+
+"You have not explained the phenomenon; how does that tympanic membrane
+communicate with the brain?"
+
+"By vibrations, I understand," I answered, and then I began to feel that
+this assertion was a simple statement, and not sufficient to explain how
+matter acts upon mind, whatever mind may be, and I hesitated.
+
+"Pray do not stop," he said; "how is it that a delicate vibrating film
+of animal membrane can receive and convey sound to a pulpy organic mass
+that is destitute of elasticity, and which consists mostly of water, for
+the brain is such in structure, and vibrations like those you mention,
+can not, by your own theory, pass through it as vibrations through a
+sonorous material, or even reach from the tympanum of the ear to the
+nearest convolution of the brain."
+
+"I can not explain this, I admit," was my reply.
+
+"Pass that feature, then, and concede that this tympanic membrane is
+capable of materially affecting brain tissue by its tiny vibrations, how
+can that slimy, pulpy formation mostly made up of water, communicate
+with the soul of man, for you do not claim, I hope, that brain material
+is either mind, conscience, or soul?"
+
+I confessed my inability to answer or even to theorize on the subject,
+and recognizing my humiliation, I begged him to open the door to such
+knowledge.
+
+"The vibration of the atmosphere is necessary to man, as earthy man is
+situated," he said. "The coarser attributes known as matter formations
+are the crudities of nature, dust swept from space. Man's organism is
+made up of the roughest and lowest kind of space materials; he is
+surrounded by a turbulent medium, the air, and these various conditions
+obscure or destroy the finer attributes of his ethereal nature, and
+prevent a higher spiritual evolution. His spiritual self is enveloped in
+earth, and everywhere thwarted by earthy materials. He is insensible to
+the finer influences of surrounding media by reason of the overwhelming
+necessity of a war for existence with the grossly antagonistic
+materialistic confusion that everywhere confronts, surrounds, and
+pervades him. Such a conflict with extraneous matter is necessary in
+order that he may retain his earthy being, for, to remain a mortal, he
+must work to keep body and soul together. His organs of communication
+and perception are of 'earth, earthy'; his nature is cast in a mold of
+clay, and the blood within him gurgles and struggles in his brain, a
+whirlpool of madly rushing liquid substances, creating disorder in the
+primal realms of consciousness. He is ignorant of this inward turmoil
+because he has never been without it, as ignorant as he is of the rank
+odors of the gases of the atmosphere that he has always breathed, and
+can not perceive because of the benumbed olfactory nerves. Thus it is
+that all his subtler senses are inevitably blunted and perverted, and
+his vulgar nature preponderates. The rich essential part of his own self
+is unknown, even to himself. The possibility of delight and pleasure in
+an acquaintance with the finer attributes of his own soul is clouded by
+this shrouding materialistic presence that has, through countless
+generations, become a part of man, and he even derives most of his
+mental pleasures from such acts as tend to encourage the animal
+passions. Thus it follows that the sensitive, highly developed,
+extremely attenuated part of his inner being has become subservient to
+the grosser elements. The baser part of his nature has become dominant.
+He remains insensible to impressions from the highly developed
+surrounding media which, being incapable of reaching his inner organism
+other than through mechanical agencies, are powerless to impress. Alas,
+only the coarser conditions of celestial phenomena can affect him, and
+the finer expressions of the universe of life and force are lost to his
+spiritual apprehension."
+
+"Would you have me view the soul of man as I would a material being?"
+
+"Surely," he answered; "it exists practically as does the more gross
+forms of matter, and in exact accord with natural laws. Associated with
+lower forms of matter, the soul of man is a temporary slave to the
+enveloping substance. The ear of man as now constituted can hear only by
+means of vibrations of such media as conduct vibrations in matter--for
+example, the air; but were man to be deprived of the organs of hearing,
+and then exist for generations subject to evolutions from within,
+whereby the acuteness of the spirit would become intensified, or
+permitted to perform its true function, he would learn to communicate
+soul to soul, not only with mankind, but with beings celestial that
+surround, and are now unknown to him. This he would accomplish through a
+medium of communication that requires neither ear nor tongue. To an
+extent your present condition is what men call supernatural, although in
+reality you have been divested of only a part of your former material
+grossness, which object has been accomplished under perfectly natural
+conditions; your mind no longer requires the material medium by which to
+converse with the spiritual. We are conversing now by thought contact,
+there is no atmosphere here, your tongue moves merely from habit, and
+not from necessity. I am reading your mind as you in turn are mine,
+neither of us is speaking as you were accustomed to speak."
+
+"I can not accept that assertion," I said; "it is to me impossible to
+realize the existence of such conditions."
+
+"As it is for any man to explain any phenomenon in life," he said. "Do
+you not remember that you ceased to respire, and were not conscious of
+the fact?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"That your heart had stopped beating, your blood no longer circulated,
+while you were in ignorance of the change?"
+
+"That is also true."
+
+"Now I will prove my last assertion. Close your mouth, and think of a
+question you wish to propound."
+
+I did so, and to my perfect understanding and comprehension he answered
+me with closed mouth.
+
+"What will be the end?" I exclaimed, or thought aloud. "I am possessed
+of nearly all the attributes that I once supposed inherent only in a
+corpse, yet I live, I see clearly, I hear plainly, I have a quickened
+being, and a mental perception intensified and exquisite. Why and how
+has this been accomplished? What will be the result of this eventful
+journey?"
+
+"Restful, you should say," he remarked; "the present is restful, the end
+will be peace. Now I will give you a lesson concerning the words Why and
+How that you have just used."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVIII.
+
+    WHY AND HOW.--"THE STRUGGLING RAY OF LIGHT FROM THOSE FARTHERMOST
+    OUTREACHES."
+
+
+"Confronting mankind there stands a sphinx--the vast Unknown. However
+well a man may be informed concerning a special subject, his farthermost
+outlook concerning that subject is bounded by an impenetrable infinity."
+
+"Granted," I interrupted, "that mankind has not by any means attained a
+condition of perfection, yet you must admit that questions once regarded
+as inscrutable problems are now illuminated by the discoveries of
+science."
+
+"And the 'discovered,' as I will show, has only transferred ignorance to
+other places," he replied. "Science has confined its labors to
+superficial descriptions, not the elucidation of the fundamental causes
+of phenomena."
+
+"I can not believe you, and question if you can prove what you say."
+
+"It needs no argument to illustrate the fact. Science boldly heralds her
+descriptive discoveries, and as carefully ignores her explanatory
+failures. She dare not attempt to explain the why even of the simplest
+things. Why does the robin hop, and the snipe walk? Do not tell me this
+is beneath the notice of men of science, for science claims that no
+subject is outside her realm. Search your works on natural history and
+see if your man of science, who describes the habits of these birds,
+explains the reason for this evident fact. How does the tree-frog change
+its color? Do not answer me in the usual superficial manner concerning
+the reflection of light, but tell me why the skin of that creature is
+enabled to perform this function? How does the maple-tree secrete a
+sweet, wholesome sap, and deadly nightshade, growing in the same soil
+and living on the same elements, a poison? What is it that your
+scientific men find in the cells of root, or rootlet, to indicate that
+one may produce a food, and the other a noxious secretion that can
+destroy life? Your microscopist will discuss cell tissues learnedly,
+will speak fluently of physiological structure, will describe organic
+intercellular appearances, but ignore all that lies beyond. Why does the
+nerve in the tongue respond to a sensation, and produce on the mind the
+sense of taste? What is it that enables the nerve in the nose to perform
+its discriminative function? You do not answer. Silver is sonorous, lead
+is not; why these intrinsic differences? Aluminum is a light metal, gold
+a heavy one; what reason can you offer to explain the facts other than
+the inadequate term density? Mercury at ordinary temperature is a
+liquid; can your scientist tell why it is not a solid? Of course anyone
+can say because its molecules move freely on each other. Such an answer
+evades the issue; why do they so readily exert this action? Copper
+produces green or blue salts; nickel produces green salts; have you ever
+been told why they observe these rules? Water solidifies at about
+thirty-two degrees above your so-called zero; have you ever asked an
+explanation of your scientific authority why it selects that
+temperature? Alcohol dissolves resins, water dissolves gums; have you
+any explanation to offer why either liquid should dissolve anything,
+much less exercise a preference? One species of turtle has a soft shell,
+another a hard shell; has your authority in natural history told you why
+this is so? The albumen of the egg of the hen hardens at one hundred and
+eighty degrees Fahrenheit; the albumen of the eggs of some turtles can
+not be easily coagulated by boiling the egg in pure water; why these
+differences? Iceland spar and dog-tooth spar are identical, both are
+crystallized carbonate of lime; has your mineralogist explained why this
+one substance selects these different forms of crystallization, or why
+any crystal of any substance is ever produced? Why is common salt white
+and charcoal black? Why does the dog lap and the calf drink? One child
+has black hair, another brown, a third red; why? Search your physiology
+for the answer and see if your learned authority can tell you why the
+life-current makes these distinctions? Why do the cells of the liver
+secrete bile, and those of the mouth saliva? Why does any cell secrete
+anything? A parrot can speak; what has your anatomist found in the
+structure of the brain, tongue, or larynx of that bird to explain why
+this accomplishment is not as much the birthright of the turkey? The
+elements that form morphine and strychnine, also make bread, one a food,
+the other a poison; can your chemist offer any reason for the fact that
+morphine and bread possess such opposite characters? The earth has one
+satellite, Saturn is encompassed by a ring; it is not sufficient to
+attempt to refer to these familiar facts; tell me, does your earth-bound
+astronomer explain why the ring of Saturn was selected for that planet?
+Why are the salts of aluminum astringent, the salts of magnesium
+cathartic, and the salts of arsenicum deadly poison? Ask your
+toxicologist, and silence will be your answer. Why will some substances
+absorb moisture from the air, and liquefy, while others become as dry as
+dust under like conditions? Why does the vapor of sulphuric ether
+inflame, while the vapor of chloroform is not combustible, under
+ordinary conditions? Oil of turpentine, oil of lemon, and oil of
+bergamot differ in odor, yet they are composed of the same elements,
+united in the same proportion; why should they possess such distinctive,
+individual characteristics? Further search of the chemist will explain
+only to shove the word why into another space, as ripples play with and
+toss a cork about. Why does the newly-born babe cry for food before its
+intellect has a chance for worldly education? Why--"
+
+"Stop," I interrupted; "these questions are absurd."
+
+"So some of your scientific experts would assert," he replied; "perhaps
+they would even become indignant at my presumption in asking them, and
+call them childish; nevertheless these men can not satisfy their own
+cravings in attempting to search the illimitable, and in humiliation, or
+irritation, they must ignore the word Why. That word Why to man
+dominates the universe. It covers all phenomena, and thrusts inquiry
+back from every depth. Science may trace a line of thought into the
+infinitely little, down, down, beyond that which is tangible, and at
+last in that far distant inter-microscopical infinity, monstrous by
+reason of its very minuteness, must rest its labors against the word
+Why. Man may carry his superficial investigation into the immeasurably
+great, beyond our sun and his family of satellites, into the outer
+depths of the solar system, of which our sun is a part, past his sister
+stars, and out again into the depths of the cold space channels beyond;
+into other systems and out again, until at last the nebul� shrink and
+disappear in the gloom of thought-conjecture, and as the straggling ray
+of light from those farthermost outreaches, too feeble to tell of its
+origin, or carry a story of nativity, enters his eye, he covers his face
+and rests his intellect against the word Why. From the remote space
+caverns of the human intellect, beyond the field of perception, whether
+we appeal to conceptions of the unknowable in the infinitely little, or
+the immeasurably great, we meet a circle of adamant, as impenetrable as
+the frozen cliffs of the Antarctic, that incomprehensible word--Why!
+
+"Why did the light wave spring into his field of perception by
+reflection from the microscopic speck in the depths of littleness, on
+the one hand; and how did this sliver of the sun's ray originate in the
+depths of inter-stellar space, on the other?"
+
+I bowed my head.
+
+[Illustration: DESCRIPTION OF JOURNEY FROM K. [KENTUCKY] TO P.--"THE END
+OF EARTH."]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIX.
+
+    OSCILLATING THROUGH SPACE.--EARTH'S SHELL ABOVE ME.[14]
+
+    [14] For detail illustration of the earth shell, as explained in
+    this chapter, see the plate.
+
+Continued my companion:
+
+"We have just now crossed the line of gravitation. We were drawn
+downward until at a certain point, to which I called your attention at
+the time, we recently crossed the curved plane of perfect rest, where
+gravity ceases, and by our momentum are now passing beyond that plane,
+and are now pressing against the bond of gravitation again. This shell
+in which gravity centers is concentric with that of the earth's
+exterior, and is about seven hundred miles below its surface. Each
+moment of time will now behold us carried farther from this sphere of
+attraction, and thus the increasing distance increases the force of the
+restraining influence. Our momentum is thus retarded, and consequently
+the rapidity of our motion is continually decreasing. At last when the
+forces of gravitation and mass motion neutralize each other, we will
+come to a state of rest again. When our motion in this direction ceases,
+however, gravitation, imperishable, continues to exert its equalizing
+influence, the result being a start in the opposite direction, and we
+will then reverse our course, and retrace our path, crossing again the
+central band of attraction, to retreat and fly to the opposite side of
+the power of greater attraction, into the expanse from which we came,
+and that is now above us."
+
+"Can this oscillation ever end? Are we to remain thus, as an unceasing
+pendulum, traversing space, to and fro across this invisible shell of
+attraction from now until the end of time?"
+
+"No; there are influences to prevent such an experience; one being the
+friction of the attenuated atmosphere into which we plunge each time
+that we cross the point of greater gravity, and approach the crust of
+the earth. Thus each succeeding vibration is in shorter lines, and at
+last we will come to a state of perfect rest at the center of gravity."
+
+"I can only acquiesce in meek submission, powerless even to argue, for I
+perceive that the foundations for my arguments must be based on those
+observed conditions of natural laws formerly known to me, and that do
+not encompass us here; I accept, therefore, your statements as I have
+several times heretofore, because I can not refute them. I must close my
+eyes to the future, and accept it on faith; I cease to mourn the past, I
+can not presage the end."
+
+"Well spoken," he replied; "and while we are undergoing this necessary
+delay, this oscillating motion, to which we must both submit before we
+can again continue our journey, I will describe some conditions inherent
+in the three spheres of which the rind of the earth is composed, for I
+believe that you are now ready to receive and profit by facts that
+heretofore you would have rejected in incredulity.
+
+"The outer circle, coat, or contour, of which you have heard others
+besides myself speak, is the surface crust of our globe, the great
+sphere of land and water on which man is at present an inhabitant. This
+is the exposed part of the earth, and is least desirable as a residence.
+It is affected by grievous atmospheric changes, and restless physical
+conditions, such as men, in order to exist in, must fortify against at
+the expense of much bodily and mental energy, which leads them,
+necessarily, to encourage the animal at the expense of the ethereal. The
+unmodified rays of the sun produce aerial convulsions that are marked by
+thermal contrasts, and other meteorological variations, during which the
+heat of summer and the cold of winter follow each other periodically and
+unceasingly. These successive solar pulsations generate winds, calms,
+and storms, and in order to protect himself against such exposures and
+changes in material surroundings, man toils, suffers, and comes to
+believe that the doom, if not the object, of life on earth is the
+preservation of the earthy body. All conditions and phases of nature on
+this outer crust are in an angry struggle, and this commotion envelops
+the wretched home, and governs the life of man. The surrounding cyclones
+of force and matter have distorted the peaceful side of what human
+nature might be until the shortened life of man has become a passionate,
+deplorable, sorrowful struggle for physical existence, from the cradle
+to the grave. Of these facts man is practically ignorant, although each
+individual is aware he is not satisfied with his condition. If his
+afflictions were obvious to himself, his existence would be typical of a
+life of desolation and anguish. You know full well that the condition of
+the outer sphere is, as I have described it, a bleak, turbulent surface,
+the roof of the earth on which man exists, as a creeping parasite does
+on a rind of fruit, exposed to the fury of the ever-present earth
+storms.
+
+"The central circle, or medial sphere, the shell, or layer of
+gravitation, lies conformably to the outer configuration of the globe,
+about seven hundred miles towards its center. It stretches beneath the
+outer circle (sphere) as a transparent sheet, a shell of energy, the
+center of gravitation. The material crust of the earth rests on this
+placid sphere of vigor, excepting in a few places, where, as in the
+crevice we have entered, gaps, or crevices, in matter exist, beginning
+from near the outer surface and extending diagonally through the medial
+and inner spheres into the intra-earth space beyond. This medial sphere
+is a form of pure force, a disturbance of motion, and although without
+weight it induces, or conserves, gravity. It is invisible to mortal
+eyes, and is frictionless, but really is the bone of the earth. On it
+matter, the retarded energy of space, space dust, has arranged itself as
+dust collects on a bubble of water. This we call matter. The material
+portion of the earth is altogether a surface film, an insignificant skin
+over the sphere of purity, the center of gravitation. Although men
+naturally imagine that the density and stability of the earth is
+dependent on the earthy particles, of which his own body is a part, such
+is not the case. Earth, as man upon the outer surface, can now know it,
+is an aggregation of material particles, a shell resting on this
+globular sphere of medial force, which attracts solid matter from both
+the outer and inner surfaces of earth, forming thereby the middle of the
+three concentric spheres. This middle sphere is the reverse of the
+outer, or surface, layer in one respect, for, while it attracts solids,
+gases are repelled by it, and thus the atmosphere becomes less dense as
+we descend from the outer surfaces of the earth. The greater degree of
+attraction for gases belongs, therefore, to the earth's exterior
+surface."
+
+"Exactly at the earth's exterior surface?" I asked.
+
+"Practically so. The greatest density of the air is found a few miles
+below the surface of the ocean; the air becomes more attenuated as we
+proceed in either direction from that point. Were this not the case, the
+atmosphere that surrounds the earth would be quickly absorbed into its
+substance, or expand into space and disappear."
+
+"Scientific men claim that the atmosphere is forty-five geographical
+miles in depth over the earth's surface," I said.
+
+"If the earth is eight thousand miles in diameter, how long would such
+an atmosphere, a skin only, over a great ball, resist such attraction,
+and remain above the globe? Were it really attracted towards its center
+it would disappear as a film of water sinks into a sponge."
+
+"Do you know," I interrupted, "that if these statements were made to men
+they would not be credited? Scientific men have calculated the weights
+of the planets, and have estimated therefrom the density of the earth,
+showing it to be solid, and knowing its density, they would, on this
+consideration alone, discredit your story concerning the earth shell."
+
+[Illustration: THE EARTH AND ITS ATMOSPHERE.
+
+The space between the inner and the outer lines represents the
+atmosphere upon the earth. The depth to which man has penetrated the
+earth is less than the thickness of either line, as compared with the
+diameter of the inner circle.]
+
+"You mistake, as you will presently see. It is true that man's ingenuity
+has enabled him to ascertain the weights and densities of the planets,
+but do you mean to say that these scientific results preclude the
+possibility of a hollow interior of the heavenly bodies?"
+
+"I confess, I do."
+
+"You should know then, that what men define as density of the earth, is
+but an average value, which is much higher than that exhibited by
+materials in the surface layers of the earth crust, such as come within
+the scrutiny of man. This fact allows mortals of upper earth but a vague
+conjecture as to the nature of the seemingly much heavier substances
+that exist in the interior of the earth. Have men any data on hand to
+show exactly how matter is distributed below the limited zone that is
+accessible to their investigations?"
+
+"I think not."
+
+"You may safely accept, then, that the earth shell I have described to
+you embraces in a compact form the total weight of the earth. Even
+though men take for granted that matter fills out the whole interior of
+our planet, such material would not, if distributed as on earth's
+surface, give the earth the density he has determined for it."
+
+"I must acquiesce in your explanations."
+
+"Let us now go a step further in this argument. What do you imagine is
+the nature of those heavier substances whose existence deep within the
+earth is suggested by the exceedingly high total density observed by man
+on upper earth?"
+
+"I am unable to explain, especially as the materials surrounding us
+here, seemingly, do not differ much from those with which my former life
+experience has made me acquainted."
+
+"Your observation is correct, there is no essential difference in this
+regard. But as we are descending into the interior of this globe, and
+are approaching the central seat of the shell of energy, the opposing
+force into which we plunge becomes correspondingly stronger, and as a
+consequence, matter pressed within it becomes really lighter. Your own
+experience about your weight gradually disappearing during this journey
+should convince you of the correctness of this fact."
+
+"Indeed, it does," I admitted.
+
+"You will then readily understand, that the heavy material to which
+surface-bred mortals allude as probably constituting the interior of the
+earth, is, in fact, nothing but the manifestation of a matter-supporting
+force, as exemplified in the sphere of attractive energy, the seat of
+which we are soon to encounter on our journey. Likewise the mutual
+attraction of the heavenly bodies is not a property solely of their
+material part, but an expression in which both the force-spheres and the
+matter collected thereon take part.
+
+"Tell me more of the sphere in which gravitation is intensest."
+
+"Of that you are yet to judge," he replied. "When we come to a state of
+rest in the stratum of greater gravity, we will then traverse this
+crevice in the sheet of energy until we reach the edge of the earth
+crust, after which we will ascend towards the interior of the earth,
+until we reach the inner crust, which is, as before explained, a surface
+of matter that lies conformably with the external crust of the earth,
+and which is the interior surface of the solid part of the earth. There
+is a concave world beneath the outer convex world."
+
+"I can not comprehend you. You speak of continuing our journey towards
+the center of the earth, and at the same time you say that after leaving
+the Median Circle, we will then ascend, which seems contradictory."
+
+"I have endeavored to show you that matter is resting in or on a central
+sphere of energy, which attracts solid bodies towards its central plane.
+From this fundamental and permanent seat of gravity we may regard our
+progress as up-hill, whether we proceed towards the hollow center or
+towards the outer surface of the globe. If a stick weighted on one end
+is floated upright in water, an insect on the top of the stick above the
+water will fall to the surface of the liquid, and yet the same insect
+will rise to the surface of the water if liberated beneath the water at
+the bottom of the stick. This comparison is not precisely applicable to
+our present position, for there is no change in medium here, but it may
+serve as an aid to thought and may indicate to you that which I wish to
+convey when I say 'we ascend' in both directions as we pull against
+Gravity. The terms up and down are not absolute, but relative."
+
+Thus we continued an undefined period in mind conversation; and of the
+information gained in my experience of that delightful condition, I have
+the privilege now to record but a small portion, and even this statement
+of facts appears, as I glance backward into my human existence, as if it
+may seem to others to border on the incredible. During all that time--I
+know not how long the period may have been--we were alternately passing
+and repassing through the partition of division (the sphere of gravity)
+that separated the inner from the outer substantial crust of earth. With
+each vibration our line of travel became shorter and shorter, like the
+decreasing oscillations of a pendulum, and at last I could no longer
+perceive the rushing motion of a medium like the air. Finally my guide
+said that we were at perfect rest at a point in that mysterious medial
+sphere which, at a distance of about seven hundred miles below the level
+of the sea, concentrates in its encompassing curvature, the mighty power
+of gravitation. We were fixed seven hundred miles from the outer surface
+of the globe, but more than three thousand from the center.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER L.
+
+    MY WEIGHT ANNIHILATED.--"TELL ME," I CRIED IN ALARM, "IS THIS TO
+    BE A LIVING TOMB?"
+
+
+"If you will reflect upon the condition we are now in, you will perceive
+that it must be one of unusual scientific interest. If you imagine a
+body at rest, in an intangible medium, and not in contact with a gas or
+any substance capable of creating friction, that body by the prevailing
+theory of matter and motion, unless disturbed by an impulse from
+without, would remain forever at absolute rest. We now occupy such a
+position. In whatever direction we may now be situated, it seems to us
+that we are upright. We are absolutely without weight, and in a
+perfectly frictionless medium. Should an inanimate body begin to revolve
+here, it would continue that motion forever. If our equilibrium should
+now be disturbed, and we should begin to move in a direction coinciding
+with the plane in which we are at rest, we would continue moving with
+the same rapidity in that direction until our course was arrested by
+some opposing object. We are not subject to attraction of matter, for at
+this place gravitation robs matter of its gravity, and has no influence
+on extraneous substances. We are now in the center of gravitation, the
+'Sphere of Rest.'"
+
+"Let me think it out," I replied, and reasoning from his remarks, I
+mentally followed the chain to its sequence, and was startled as
+suddenly it dawned upon me that if his argument was true we must remain
+motionless in this spot until death (could beings in conditions like
+ourselves die beyond the death we had already achieved) or the end of
+time. We were at perfect rest, in absolute vacancy, there being, as I
+now accepted without reserve, neither gas, liquid, nor solid, that we
+could employ as a lever to start us into motion. "Tell me," I cried in
+alarm, "is this to be a living tomb? Are we to remain suspended here
+forever, and if not, by what method can we hope to extricate ourselves
+from this state of perfect quiescence?" He again took the bar of iron
+from my hand, and cautiously gave it a whirling motion, releasing it as
+he did so. It revolved silently and rapidly in space without support or
+pivot.
+
+"So it would continue," he remarked, "until the end of time, were it not
+for the fact that I could not possibly release it in a condition of
+absolute horizontal rest. There is a slight, slow, lateral motion that
+will carry the object parallel with this sheet of energy to the material
+side of this crevice, when its motion will 'be arrested by the earth it
+strikes.'"
+
+"That I can understand," I replied, and then a ray of light broke upon
+me. "Had not Cavendish demonstrated that, when a small ball of lead is
+suspended on a film of silk, near a mass of iron or lead, it is drawn
+towards the greater body? We will be drawn by gravity to the nearest
+cliff," I cried.
+
+"You mistake," he answered; "Cavendish performed his experiments on the
+surface of the earth, and there gravity is always ready to start an
+object into motion. Here objects have no weight, and neither attract nor
+repel each other. The force of cohesion holds together substances that
+are in contact, but as gravitation can not now affect matter out of
+molecular contact with other forms of matter, because of the equilibrium
+of all objects, so it may be likewise said, that bodies out of contact
+have at this point no attraction for one another. If they possessed this
+attribute, long ago we would have been drawn towards the earth cliff
+with inconceivable velocity. However, if by any method our bodies should
+receive an impulse sufficient to start them into motion, ever so gently
+though it be, we in like manner would continue to move in this
+frictionless medium--until--"
+
+"We would strike the material boundary of this crevice," I interrupted.
+
+"Yes; but can you conceive of any method by which such voluntary motion
+can now be acquired?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Does it not seem to you," he continued, "that when skillful mechanics
+on the earth's surface are able to adjust balances so delicately that in
+the face of friction of metal, friction of air, inertia of mass, the
+thousandth part of a grain can produce motion of the great beams and
+pans of such balances, we, in this location where there is no friction
+and no opposing medium--none at all--should be able to induce mass
+motion?"
+
+"I can not imagine how it is possible, unless we shove each other apart.
+There is no other object to push against,--but why do you continue to
+hold me so tightly?" I interrupted myself to ask, for he was clasping me
+firmly again.
+
+"In order that you may not leave me," he replied.
+
+"Come, you trifle," I said somewhat irritated; "you have just argued
+that we are immovably suspended in a frictionless medium, and fixed in
+our present position; you ask me to suggest some method by which we can
+create motion, and I fail to devise it, and almost in the same sentence
+you say that you fear that I will leave you. Cease your incongruities,
+and advise with me rationally."
+
+"Where is the bar of iron?" he asked.
+
+I turned towards its former location; it had disappeared.
+
+"Have you not occasionally felt," he asked, "that in your former life
+your mind was a slave in an earthly prison? Have you never, especially
+in your dreams, experienced a sensation of mental confinement?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Know then," he replied, "that there is a connection between the mind
+and the body of mortal beings, in which matter confines mind, and yet
+mind governs matter. How else could the will of men and animals impart
+voluntary motion to earthy bodies? With beings situated as are the
+animals on the surface of the earth, mind alone can not overcome the
+friction of matter. A person could suspend himself accurately on a
+string, or balance himself on a pivot, and wish with the entire force of
+his mind that his body would revolve, and still he would remain at
+perfect rest."
+
+"Certainly. A man would be considered crazy who attempted it," I
+answered.
+
+"Notwithstanding your opinion, in time to come, human beings on the
+surface of the earth will investigate in this very direction," he
+replied, "and in the proper time mental evolution will, by
+experimentation, prove the fact of this mind and matter connection, and
+demonstrate that even extraneous matter may be made subservient to mind
+influences. On earth, mind acts on the matter of one's body to produce
+motion of matter, and the spirit within, which is a slave to matter,
+moves with it. Contraries rule here. Mind force acts on pure space
+motion, moving itself and matter with it, and that, too, without any
+exertion of the material body which now is a nonentity, mind here being
+the master."
+
+"How can I believe you?" I replied.
+
+"Know, then," he said, "that we are in motion now, propelled by my will
+power."
+
+"Prove it."
+
+"You may prove it yourself," he said; "but be careful, or we will
+separate forever."
+
+Releasing his grasp, he directed me to wish that I were moving directly
+to the right. I did so; the distance widened between us.
+
+"Wish intensely that you would move in a circle about me."
+
+I acquiesced, and at once my body began to circle around him.
+
+"Call for the bar of iron."
+
+I did as directed, and soon it came floating out of space into my very
+hand.
+
+"I am amazed," I ejaculated; "yes, more surprised at these phenomena
+than at anything that has preceded."
+
+"You need not be; you move now under the influences of natural laws that
+are no more obscure or wonderful than those under which you have always
+existed. Instead of exercising its influence on a brain, and thence
+indirectly on a material body, your mind force is exerting its action
+through energy on matter itself. Matter is here subservient. It is
+nearly the same as vacuity, mind being a comprehensive reality. The
+positions we have heretofore occupied have been reversed, and mind now
+dominates. Know, that as your body is now absolutely without weight, and
+is suspended in a frictionless medium, the most delicate balance of a
+chemist can not approach in sensitiveness the adjustment herein
+exemplified. Your body does not weigh the fraction of the millionth part
+of a grain, and where there is neither material weight nor possible
+friction, even the attrition that on surface earth results from a needle
+point that rests on an agate plate is immeasurably greater in
+comparison. Pure mind energy is capable of disturbing the equilibrium
+of matter in our situation, as you have seen exemplified by our
+movements and extraneous materials, 'dead matter' obeys the spiritual.
+The bar of iron obeyed your call, the spiritless metal is subservient to
+the demands of intelligence. But, come, we must continue our journey."
+
+Grasping me again, he exclaimed: "Wish with all intensity that we may
+move forward, and I will do the same."
+
+I did so.
+
+"We are now uniting our energies in the creation of motion," he said;
+"we are moving rapidly, and with continually accelerated speed; before
+long we will perceive the earthy border of this chasm."
+
+And yet it seemed to me that we were at perfect rest.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LI.
+
+    IS THAT A MORTAL?--"THE END OF EARTH."
+
+
+At length I perceived, in the distance, a crescent-shaped ring of silver
+luster. It grew broader, expanding beneath my gaze, and appeared to
+approach rapidly.
+
+"Hold; cease your desire for onward motion," said the guide; "we
+approach too rapidly. Quick, wish with all your mind that you were
+motionless."
+
+I did so, and we rested in front of a ridge of brilliant material, that
+in one direction, towards the earth's outer circle, broadened until it
+extended upward as far as the eye could reach in the form of a bold
+precipice, and in the other towards the inner world, shelved gradually
+away as an ocean beach might do.
+
+"Tell me, what is this barrier?" I asked.
+
+"It is the bisected edge of the earth crevice," he said. "That
+overhanging upright bluff reaches towards the external surface of the
+earth, the land of your former home. That shelving approach beneath is
+the entrance to the 'Inner Circle,' the concavity of our world."
+
+Again we approached the visible substance, moving gently under the will
+of my guide. The shore became more distinctly outlined as we advanced,
+inequalities that were before unnoticed became perceptible, and the
+silver-like material resolved itself into ordinary earth. Then I
+observed, upright and motionless, on the edge of the shore that reached
+toward the inner shell of earth, towards that "Unknown Country" beyond,
+a figure in human form.
+
+"Is that a mortal?" I asked. "Are we nearing humanity again?"
+
+"It is a being of mortal build, a messenger who awaits our coming, and
+who is to take charge of your person and conduct you farther," he
+replied. "It has been my duty to crush, to overcome by successive
+lessons your obedience to your dogmatic, materialistic earth philosophy,
+and bring your mind to comprehend that life on earth's surface is only a
+step towards a brighter existence, which may, when selfishness is
+conquered, in a time to come, be gained by mortal man, and while he is
+in the flesh. The vicissitudes through which you have recently passed
+should be to you an impressive lesson, but the future holds for you a
+lesson far more important, the knowledge of spiritual, or mental
+evolution which men may yet approach; but that I would not presume to
+indicate now, even to you. Your earthly body has become a useless shell,
+and when you lay it aside, as you soon can do, as I may say you are
+destined to do, you will feel a relief as if an abnormal excrescence had
+been removed; but you can not now comprehend such a condition. That
+change will not occur until you have been further educated in the purely
+occult secrets for which I have partly prepared you, and the material
+part of your organism will at any time thereafter come and go at command
+of your will. On that adjacent shore, the person you have observed, your
+next teacher, awaits you."
+
+"Am I to leave you?" I cried in despair, for suddenly the remembrance of
+home came into my mind, and the thought, as by a flash, that this being
+alone could guide me back to earth. "Recall your words, do not desert me
+now after leading me beyond even alchemistic imaginings into this
+subterranean existence, the result of what you call your natural, or
+pure, ethereal lessons."
+
+He shook his head.
+
+"I beg of you, I implore of you, not to abandon me now; have you no
+compassion, no feeling? You are the one tie that binds me to earth
+proper, the only intelligence that I know to be related to a human in
+all this great, bright blank."
+
+Again he shook his head.
+
+[Illustration: "SUSPENDED IN VACANCY, HE SEEMED TO FLOAT."]
+
+"Hearken to my pleadings. Listen to my allegation. You stood on the edge
+of the brook spring in Kentucky, your back to the darkness of that
+gloomy cavern, and I voluntarily gave you my hand as to a guide; I
+turned from the verdure of the earth, the sunshine of the past, and
+accompanied you into as dismal a cavern as man ever entered. I have
+since alternately rebelled at your methods, and again have trusted you
+implicitly as we passed through scenes that rational imagination
+scarce could conjure. I have successively lost my voice, my weight, my
+breath, my heart throb, and my soul for aught I know. Now an unknown
+future awaits me on the one hand, in which you say my body is to
+disappear, and on the other you are standing, the only link between
+earth and my self-existence, a semi-mortal it may be, to speak mildly,
+for God only knows your true rank in life's scale. Be you man or not,
+you brought me here, and are responsible for my future safety. I plead
+and beg of you either to go on with me into the forthcoming uncertainty
+'Within the Unknown Country' to which you allude, or carry me back to
+upper earth."
+
+He shook his head again, and motioned me onward, and his powerful will
+overcoming my feeble resistance, impelled me towards that mysterious
+shore. I floated helpless, as a fragment of camphor whirls and spins on
+a surface of clear, warm water, spinning and whirling aimlessly about,
+but moving onward. My feet rested on solid earth, and I awkwardly
+struggled a short distance onward and upward, and then stepped upon the
+slope that reached, as he had said, inward and upward towards the
+unrevealed "Inner Circle." I had entered now that mysterious third
+circle or sphere, and I stood on the very edge of the wonderful land I
+was destined to explore, "The Unknown Country." The strange, peaceful
+being whom I had observed on the shore, stepped to my side, and clasped
+both my hands, and the guide of former days waved me an adieu. I sank
+upon my knees and imploringly raised my arms in supplication, but the
+comrade of my journey turned about, and began to retrace his course.
+Suspended in vacancy, he seemed to float as a spirit would if it were
+wafted diagonally into the heavens, and acquiring momentum rapidly,
+became quickly a bright speck, seemingly a silver mote in the occult
+earth shine of that central sphere, and soon vanished from view. In all
+my past eventful history there was nothing similar to or approaching in
+keenness the agony that I suffered at this moment, and I question if
+shipwrecked sailor or entombed miner ever experienced the sense of utter
+desolation that now possessed and overcame me. Light everywhere about
+me, ever-present light, but darkness within, darkness indescribable, and
+mental distress unutterable. I fell upon my face in agony, and thought
+of other times, and those remembrances of my once happy upper earth life
+became excruciatingly painful, for when a person is in misery, pleasant
+recollections, by contrast, increase the pain. "Let my soul die now as
+my body has done," I moaned; "for even mental life, all I now possess,
+is a burden. The past to me is a painful, melancholy recollection; the
+future is--"
+
+I shuddered, for who could foretell my future? I glanced at the
+immovable being with the sweet, mild countenance, who stood silent on
+the strand beside me, and whom I shall not now attempt to describe. He
+replied:
+
+"The future is operative and speculative. It leads the contemplative to
+view with reverence and admiration the glorious works of the Creator,
+and inspires him with the most exalted ideas of the perfections of his
+divine Creator."
+
+Then he added:
+
+"Have you accepted that whatever seems to be is not, and that that which
+seems not to be, is? Have you learned that facts are fallacies, and
+physical existence a delusion? Do you accept that material bliss is
+impossible, and that while humanity is working towards the undiscovered
+land, man is not, can not be satisfied?"
+
+"Yes," I said; "I admit anything, everything. I do not know that I am
+here or that you are there. I do not know that I have ever been, or that
+any form of matter has ever had an existence. Perhaps material things
+are not, perhaps vacuity only is tangible."
+
+"Are you willing to relinquish your former associations, to cease to
+concern yourself in the affairs of men? Do you--"
+
+He hesitated, seemed to consider a point that I could not grasp; then,
+without completing his sentence, or waiting for me to answer, added:
+
+"Come, my friend, let us enter the expanses of the Unknown Country. You
+will soon behold the original of your vision, the hope of humanity, and
+will rest in the land of Etidorhpa. Come, my friend, let us hasten."
+
+Arm in arm we passed into that domain of peace and tranquillity, and as
+I stepped onward and upward perfect rest came over my troubled spirit.
+All thoughts of former times vanished. The cares of life faded; misery,
+distress, hatred, envy, jealousy, and unholy passions, were blotted from
+existence. Excepting my love for dear ones still earth-enthralled, and
+the strand of sorrow that, stretching from soul to soul, linked us
+together, the past became a blank. I had reached the land of Etidorhpa--
+
+THE END OF EARTH.
+
+
+
+
+INTERLUDE.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LII.
+
+    THE LAST FAREWELL.
+
+
+My mysterious guest, he of the silver, flowing beard, read the last word
+of the foregoing manuscript, and then laid the sheet of paper on the
+table, and rested his head upon his hand, gazing thoughtfully at the
+open fire. Thus he sat for a considerable period in silence. Then he
+said:
+
+"You have heard part of my story, that portion which I am commanded to
+make known now, and you have learned how, by natural methods, I passed
+by successive steps while in the body, to the door that death only, as
+yet, opens to humanity. You understand also that, although of human
+form, I am not as other men (for with me matter is subservient to mind),
+and as you have promised, so you must act, and do my bidding concerning
+the manuscript."
+
+"But there is surely more to follow. You will tell me of what you saw
+and experienced beyond the end of earth, within the possessions of
+Etidorhpa. Tell me of that Unknown Country."
+
+"No," he answered; "this is the end, at least so far as my connection
+with you is concerned. You still question certain portions of my
+narrative, I perceive, notwithstanding the provings I have given you,
+and yet as time passes investigation will show that every word I have
+read or uttered is true, historically, philosophically, and spiritually
+(which you now doubt), and men will yet readily understand how the
+seemingly profound, unfathomable phenomena I have encountered may be
+verified. I have studied and learned by bitter experience in a school
+that teaches from the outgoings of a deeper philosophy than human
+science has reached, especially modern materialistic science which,
+however, step by step it is destined to reach. And yet I have recorded
+but a small part of the experiences that I have undergone. What I have
+related is only a foretaste of the inexhaustible feast which, in the
+wisdom expanse of the future, will yet be spread before man, and which
+tempts him onward and upward. This narrative, which rests against the
+beginning of my real story, the Unknown Country and its possibilities
+should therefore incite to renewed exertions, both mental and
+experimental, those permitted to review it. I have carried my history to
+the point at which I can say to you, very soon afterward I gave up my
+body temporarily, by a perfectly natural process, a method that man can
+yet employ, and passed as a spiritual being into the ethereal spaces,
+through those many mansions which I am not permitted to describe at this
+time, and from which I have been forced unwillingly to return and take
+up the semblance of my body, in order to meet you and record these
+events. I must await the development and expansion of mind that will
+permit men to accept this faithful record of my history before
+completing the narrative, for men are yet unprepared. Men must seriously
+consider those truths which, under inflexible natural laws, govern the
+destiny of man, but which, if mentioned at this day can only be viewed
+as the hallucinations of a disordered mind. To many this manuscript will
+prove a passing romance, to others an enigma, to others still it will be
+a pleasing study. Men are not now in a condition to receive even this
+paper. That fact I know full well, and I have accordingly arranged that
+thirty years shall pass before it is made public. Then they will have
+begun to study more deeply into force disturbances, exhibitions of
+energy that are now known and called imponderable bodies (perhaps some
+of my statements will then even be verified), and to reflect over the
+connection of matter therewith. A few minds will then be capable of
+vaguely conceiving possibilities, which this paper will serve to
+foretell, for a true solution of the great problems of the ethereal
+unknown is herein suggested, the study of which will lead to a final
+elevation of humanity, such as I dare not prophesy."
+
+"Much of the paper is obscure to me," I said; "and there are occasional
+phrases and repetitions that appear to be interjected, possibly, with
+an object, and which are yet disconnected from the narrative proper."
+
+"That is true; the paper often contains statements that are
+emblematical, and which you can not understand, but yet such portions
+carry to others a hidden meaning. I am directed to speak to many persons
+besides yourself, and I can not meet those whom I address more directly
+than I do through this communication. These pages will serve to instruct
+many people--people whom you will never know, to whom I have brought
+messages that will in secret be read between the lines."
+
+"Why not give it to such persons?"
+
+"Because I am directed to bring it to you," he replied, "and you are
+required:
+
+"First, To seal the manuscript, and place it in the inner vault of your
+safe.
+
+"Second, To draw up a will, and provide in case of your death, that
+after the expiration of thirty years from this date, the seals are to be
+broken, and a limited edition published in book form, by one you select.
+
+"Third, An artist capable of grasping the conceptions will at the proper
+time be found, to whom the responsibility of illustrating the volume is
+to be entrusted, he receiving credit therefor. Only himself and yourself
+(or your selected agent) are to presume to select the subjects for
+illustration.
+
+"Fourth, In case you are in this city, upon the expiration of thirty
+years, you are to open the package and follow the directions given in
+the envelope therein."
+
+And he then placed on the manuscript a sealed envelope addressed to
+myself.
+
+"This I have promised already," I said.
+
+"Very well," he remarked, "I will bid you farewell."
+
+"Wait a moment; it is unjust to leave the narrative thus uncompleted.
+You have been promised a future in comparison with which the experiences
+you have undergone, and have related to me, were tame; you had just met
+on the edge of the inner circle that mysterious being concerning whom I
+am deeply interested, as I am in the continuation of your personal
+narrative, and you have evidently more to relate, for you must have
+passed into that Unknown Country. You claim to have done so, but you
+break the thread in the most attractive part by leaving the future to
+conjecture."
+
+"It must be so. This is a history of man on Earth, the continuation will
+be a history of man within the Unknown Country."
+
+"And I am not to receive the remainder of your story?" I reiterated,
+still loth to give it up.
+
+"No; I shall not appear directly to you again. Your part in this work
+will have ended when, after thirty years, you carry out the directions
+given in the sealed letter which, with this manuscript, I entrust to
+your care. I must return now to the shore that separated me from my
+former guide, and having again laid down this semblance of a body, go
+once more into--"
+
+He buried his face in his hands and sobbed. Yes; this strange, cynical
+being whom I had at first considered an impertinent fanatic, and then,
+more than once afterward, had been induced to view as a cunning
+impostor, or to fear as a cold, semi-mortal, sobbed like a child.
+
+"It is too much," he said, seemingly speaking to himself; "too much to
+require of one not yet immortal, for the good of his race. I am again
+with men, nearly a human, and I long to go back once more to my old
+home, my wife, my children. Why am I forbidden? The sweets of Paradise
+can not comfort the mortal who must give up his home and family, and yet
+carry his earth-thought beyond. Man can not possess unalloyed joys, and
+blessings spiritual, and retain one backward longing for mundane
+subjects, and I now yearn again for my earth love, my material family.
+Having tasted of semi-celestial pleasures in one of the mansions of that
+complacent, pure, and restful sphere, I now exist in the border land,
+but my earth home is not relinquished, I cling as a mortal to former
+scenes, and crave to meet my lost loved ones. All of earth must be left
+behind if Paradise is ever wholly gained, yet I have still my sublunary
+thoughts.
+
+"Etidorhpa! Etidorhpa!" he pleaded, turning his eyes as if towards one I
+could not see, "Etidorhpa, my old home calls. Thou knowest that the
+beginning of man on earth is a cry born of love, and the end of man on
+earth is a cry for love; love is a gift of Etidorhpa, and thou,
+Etidorhpa, the soul of love, should have compassion on a pleading
+mortal."
+
+He raised his hands in supplication.
+
+"Have mercy on me, Etidorhpa, as I would on you if you were I and I were
+Etidorhpa."
+
+Then with upturned face he stood long and silent, listening.
+
+"Ah," he murmured at last, as if in reply to a voice I could not catch,
+a voice that carried to his ear an answer of deep disappointment; "thou
+spokest truly in the vision, Etidorhpa: it is love that enslaves
+mankind; love that commands; love that ensnares and rules mankind, and
+thou, Etidorhpa, art the soul of Love. True it is that were there no
+Etidorhpa, there would still be tears on earth, but the cold,
+meaningless tears of pain only. No mourning people, no sorrowful
+partings, no sobbing mothers kneeling with upturned faces, no planting
+of the myrtle and the rose on sacred graves. There would be no
+child-love, no home, no tomb, no sorrow, no Beyond--"
+
+He hesitated, sank upon his knees, pleadingly raised his clasped hands
+and seemed to listen to that far-off voice, then bowed his head, and
+answered:
+
+"Yes; thou art right, Etidorhpa--although thou bringest sorrow to
+mortals, without thee and this sorrow-gift there could be no bright
+hereafter. Thou art just, Etidorhpa, and always wise. Love is the seed,
+and sorrow is the harvest, but this harvest of sadness is to man the
+richest gift of love, the golden link that joins the spirit form that
+has fled to the spirit that is still enthralled on earth. Were there no
+earth-love, there could be no heart-sorrow; were there no craving for
+loved ones gone, the soul of man would rest forever a brother of the
+clod. He who has sorrowed and not profited by his sorrow-lesson, is
+unfitted for life. He who heeds best his sorrow-teacher is in closest
+touch with humanity, and nearest to Etidorhpa. She who has drank most
+deeply of sorrow's cup has best fitted herself for woman's sphere in
+life, and a final home of immortal bliss. I will return to thy realms,
+Etidorhpa, and this silken strand of sorrow wrapped around my heart,
+reaching from earth to Paradise and back to earth, will guide at last my
+loved ones to the realms beyond--the home of Etidorhpa."
+
+Rising, turning to me, and subduing his emotion, ignoring this outburst,
+he said:
+
+"If time should convince you that I have related a faithful history, if
+in after years you come to learn my name (I have been forbidden to
+speak it), and are convinced of my identity, promise me that you will do
+your unbidden guest a favor."
+
+[Illustration: "I STOOD ALONE IN MY ROOM HOLDING THE MYSTERIOUS
+MANUSCRIPT."]
+
+"This I will surely do; what shall it be?"
+
+"I left a wife, a little babe, and a two-year-old child when I was taken
+away, abducted in the manner that I have faithfully recorded. In my
+subsequent experience I have not been able to cast them from my memory.
+I know that through my error they have been lost to me, and will be
+until they change to the spirit, after which we will meet again in one
+of the waiting Mansions of the Great Beyond. I beg you to ascertain, if
+possible, if either my children, or my children's children live, and
+should they be in want, present them with a substantial testimonial.
+Now, farewell."
+
+He held out his hand, I grasped it, and as I did so, his form became
+indistinct, and gradually disappeared from my gaze, the fingers of my
+hand met the palm in vacancy, and with extended arms I stood alone in my
+room, holding the mysterious manuscript, on the back of which I find
+plainly engrossed:
+
+    "There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio,
+       Than are dreamt of in your philosophy."
+
+
+
+
+EPILOGUE.
+
+    LETTER ACCOMPANYING THE MYSTERIOUS MANUSCRIPT.
+
+
+The allotted thirty years have passed, and as directed, I, Llewellyn
+Drury, now break the seals, and open the envelope accompanying the
+mysterious package which was left in my hand, and read as follows:
+
+     Herein find the epilogue to your manuscript. Also a picture of
+     your unwelcome guest, I--Am--The--Man, which you are directed to
+     have engraved, and to use as a frontispiece to the volume. There
+     are men yet living to bear witness to my identity, who will need
+     but this picture to convince them of the authenticity of the
+     statements in the manuscript, as it is the face of one they knew
+     when he was a young man, and will recognize now that he is in
+     age. Do not concern yourself about the reception of the work, for
+     you are in no wise responsible for its statements. Interested
+     persons, if living, will not care to appear in public in
+     connection therewith, and those who grasp and appreciate, who can
+     see the pertinence of its truths, who can read between the lines
+     and have the key to connected conditions, will assuredly keep
+     their knowledge of these facts locked in their own bosoms, or
+     insidiously oppose them, and by their silence or their attacks
+     cover from men outside the fraternity, their connection with the
+     unfortunate author. They dare not speak.
+
+     Revise the sentences; secure the services of an editor if you
+     desire, and induce another to publish the book if you shrink from
+     the responsibility, but in your revision do not in any way alter
+     the meaning of the statements made in the manuscript; have it
+     copied for the printer, and take no part in comments that may
+     arise among men concerning its reception.[15] Those who are best
+     informed regarding certain portions thereof, will seemingly be
+     least interested in the book, and those who realize most fully
+     these truths, will persistently evade the endorsement of them.
+     The scientific enthusiast, like the fraternity to which I belong,
+     if appealed to, will obstruct the mind of the student either by
+     criticism or ridicule, for many of these revelations are not
+     recorded in his books.
+
+     [15] From a review of the fac simile (see p. 35), it will be seen
+     that an exact print word for word could not be expected. In more
+     than one instance subsequent study demonstrated that the first
+     conception was erroneous, and in the interview with Etidorhpa
+     (see p. 252), after the page had been plated, it was discovered
+     that the conveyed meaning was exactly the reverse of the
+     original. Luckily the error was discovered in time to change the
+     verse, and leave the spirit of this fair creature
+     unblemished.--J. U. L.
+
+     You are at liberty to give in your own language as a prologue the
+     history of your connection with the author, reserving, however,
+     if you desire to do so, your personality, adding an introduction
+     to the manuscript, and, as interludes, every detail of our
+     several conversations, and of your experience. Introduce such
+     illustrations as the selected artist and yourself think proper in
+     order to illuminate the statements. Do not question the
+     advisability of stating all that you know to have occurred; write
+     the whole truth, for although mankind will not now accept as fact
+     all that you and I have experienced, strange phases of life
+     phenomena are revealing themselves, and humanity will yet surely
+     be led to a higher plane. As men investigate the points of
+     historical interest, and the ultra-scientific phenomena broached
+     in this narrative, the curtain of obscurity will be drawn aside,
+     and evidence of the truths contained in these details will be
+     disclosed. Finally, you must mutilate a page of the manuscript
+     that you may select, and preserve the fragment intact and in
+     secret. Do not print another edition unless you are presented
+     with the words of the part that is missing.[16]
+
+     [16] I have excised a portion (see p. 190).--J. U. L.
+
+                                            (Signed.) I--Am--The--Man.
+
+
+NOTE BY MR. DRURY.--Thus the letter ended. After mature consideration it
+has been decided to give verbatim most of the letter, and all of the
+manuscript, and to append, as a prologue, an introduction to the
+manuscript, detailing exactly the record of my connection therewith,
+including my arguments with Professors Chickering and Vaughn, whom I
+consulted concerning the statements made to me directly by its author. I
+will admit that perhaps the opening chapter in my introduction may be
+such as to raise in the minds of some persons a question concerning my
+mental responsibility, for as the principal personage in this drama
+remarks: "Mankind can not now accept as facts what I have seen." Yet I
+walk the streets of my native city, a business man of recognized
+thoughtfulness and sobriety, and I only relate on my own responsibility
+what has to my knowledge occurred. It has never been intimated that I am
+mentally irresponsible, or speculative, and even were this the case, the
+material proof that I hold, and have not mentioned as yet, and may not,
+concerning my relations with this remarkable being, effectually
+disproves the idea of mental aberration, or spectral delusion. Besides,
+many of the statements are of such a nature as to be verified easily, or
+disproved by any person who may be inclined to repeat the experiments
+suggested, or visit the localities mentioned. The part of the whole
+production that will seem the most improbable to the majority of
+persons, is that to which I can testify from my own knowledge, as
+related in the first portion and the closing chapter. This approaches
+necromancy, seemingly, and yet in my opinion, as I now see the matter,
+such unexplained and recondite occurrences appear unscientific, because
+of the shortcomings of students of science. Occult phenomena, at some
+future day, will be proved to be based on ordinary physical conditions
+to be disclosed by scientific investigations [for "All that is is
+natural, and science embraces all things"], but at present they are
+beyond our perception; yes, beyond our conception.
+
+Whether I have been mesmerized, or have written in a trance, whether I
+have been the subject of mental aberration, or have faithfully given a
+life history to the world, whether this book is altogether romance, or
+carries a vein of prophecy, whether it sets in motion a train of wild
+speculations, or combines playful arguments, science problems, and
+metaphysical reasonings, useful as well as entertaining, remains for the
+reader to determine. So far as I, Llewellyn Drury, am concerned, this
+is--
+
+THE END.
+
+[Illustration: handwritten script]
+
+Had the above communication and the missing fragment of manuscript been
+withheld (see page 161), it is needless to say that this second edition
+of Etidorhpa would not have appeared.
+
+On behalf of the undersigned, who is being most liberally scolded by
+friends and acquaintances who can not get a copy of the first edition,
+and on behalf of these same scolding mortals, the undersigned extends to
+I-Am-The-Man the collective thanks of those who scold and the
+scolded.--J. U. L.
+
+[Illustration: handwritten script]
+
+This introduction, which in the author's edition was signed by the
+writer, is here reprinted in order that my views of the book be not
+misconstrued.--J. U. L.
+
+
+
+
+THE LIFE OF
+
+PROF. DANIEL VAUGHN
+
+BY PROF. RICHARD NELSON
+
+TO WHICH IS ADDED
+
+AN ACCOUNT OF HIS DEATH
+
+BY FATHER EUGENE BRADY, S.J.
+
+
+
+[Illustration: PROF. DANIEL VAUGHN.]
+
+
+Story of the Life of Prof. Daniel Vaughn.[17]
+
+
+    [17] Reprinted from the Cincinnati Tribune.
+
+BY PROF. RICHARD NELSON.
+
+HIS VALUABLE LIBRARY SHOWING MARKS OF MUCH STUDY.
+
+Twelve Years' Record in the Chair of Chemistry at the Cincinnati College
+of Medicine.
+
+[A paper read before the Literary Club by Prof. Richard Nelson.]
+
+
+Few men, if any, so eminent in science and philosophy have been known to
+live and die in such obscurity as the subject of this paper. A
+mathematician whose knowledge has never been fathomed, an original
+investigator in terrestrial and celestial chemistry, most of whose
+speculations are now accepted as law; a contributor to the philosophical
+journals of Europe, whose papers were received with distinguished favor;
+an astronomer, who, in those papers, ventured to differ with Laplace,
+and, too, as will be shown, a man skilled in classical scholarship, yet
+unknown to his nearest neighbors and recognized by only a few in his own
+city. He lived and died in obscurity and poverty in a city distinguished
+for its schools of science and art, and the liberality and public spirit
+of its men of wealth; who, if any, were to blame? One object of this
+paper is to unravel the mystery.
+
+
+HIS BIRTHPLACE AND PARENTAGE.
+
+Daniel Vaughn was born in the year 1818 at Glenomara, four miles from
+Killaloe, County Clare, Ireland. His father's name was John, who had two
+brothers, Daniel and Patrick. John, like Daniel, was educated for the
+church, but, being the eldest son, remained on the farm. Daniel became,
+subsequently, the parish priest of Killaloe, and in 1845 was ordained
+Bishop.
+
+John Vaughn had three children, Daniel (the subject of this paper), Owen
+and Margaret, afterward Mrs. Kent. The distance to the nearest school
+being four Irish miles, John had his sons educated by a tutor till they
+were prepared to enter a classical academy.
+
+At the age of about sixteen Dan, as he was familiarly called, was placed
+under the care of his uncle and namesake at Killaloe, where he entered
+the academy. There the young student pursued the study of Greek, Latin
+and mathematics, giving some attention to certain branches of physics,
+for which he evinced peculiar aptitude.
+
+
+HE EMIGRATES AND FINDS A HOME.
+
+About the year 1840 his uncle, desirous of having the young man enter
+the church, advanced him a sum of money to defray his expenses at a
+theological school in Cork, but on seeing the American liners when he
+reached Queenstown, the temptation to take the voyage to the land of
+promise was too great for the young adventurer to resist, so he secured
+a passage to New York. When at school he made wonderful advancement in
+study, especially in higher mathematics, and felt he ought to go to a
+country where he could be free to pursue his favorite line of thought
+and where attainments in science would not be circumscribed, as in the
+church.
+
+Of his voyage and subsequent wanderings little is known until he reached
+Kentucky. That he visited many schools and paid his way in part by
+teaching there is no question. The college of the late Dr. Campbell, in
+Virginia, was one of the institutions visited, but he felt he must push
+on to Kentucky. About 1842 he had reached the Blue Grass region, near
+the home of the late Colonel Stamps, in Bourbon County. The Colonel saw
+him engaged at work and was quick to observe that the stranger was no
+common man. Taking him to his house and supplying his wants, the Colonel
+soon installed him as his guest, and eventually made him instructor of
+his children. Access to the Colonel's library was a boon to the
+stranger, developing in him traits of genius of which his host was very
+proud.
+
+It was only a short time till the neighboring farmers heard of the
+distinguished young scholar, and desired to have the more mature members
+of their families under his care. A school was opened in the Colonel's
+house for instruction in the higher mathematics, the classics, geology,
+physical geography and astronomy. The young people were pleased with
+their teacher and made commendable progress, but the curriculum was too
+varied and comprehensive for an instructor, who, though far advanced in
+scholarship, had not yet studied the art of teaching.
+
+
+ACCEPTS A PROFESSORSHIP.
+
+In 1845 he accepted the chair of Greek in a neighboring college, which
+afforded him leisure for his scientific pursuits. After an absence of
+seven years the Professor returned to his old friend, Colonel Stamps and
+family, where he remained some two years, leaving them to settle in
+Cincinnati.
+
+During his stay at the Colonel's (1851) he became a member of the
+American Association for the Advancement of Science, and in 1852
+contributed to it his first article, entitled "On the Motions of
+Numerous Small Bodies and the Phenomena Resulting Therefrom." Having
+accumulated a valuable collection of books on science and philosophy and
+obtained access to several libraries, public and private, in the city,
+he was now in a condition to devote most of his time and energies to his
+favorite sciences. For subsistence he delivered lectures before
+teachers' institutes and colleges till 1856, when an affection of the
+lungs compelled him to abandon the lecture field.
+
+In the meantime he had offered papers for publication to Silliman's
+Journal, the principal scientific magazine of America at that time,
+but, receiving no response to his communications and being denied
+publication, he took the advice of a friend and sent his subsequent
+articles to the British Association for the Advancement of Science and
+to the Philosophic Magazine, where they were received with favor. He was
+much gratified to find his article on "Meteoric Astronomy" published in
+the report of the Liverpool meeting of the association in 1854. Six
+papers, which he subsequently sent in 1857, 1859 and 1861, met with
+similar favor.
+
+For several years he visited schools, colleges and teachers' institutes
+in Oxford, Lebanon, Cleveland and other cities, lecturing on his
+favorite branches of science. It had been his intention to popularize
+the science of physical astronomy by the publication of tracts or
+pamphlets.
+
+
+PUBLISHES PAMPHLETS.
+
+In the year 1856, at the request of teachers before whom he had lectured
+at the institutes, and with a view to popularize scientific knowledge,
+the Professor commenced the publication of pamphlets. The first number
+treated of "The Geological Agency of Water and Subterranean Forces."
+Only two of these pamphlets came into the possession of the
+administrator. One of them was a good-sized volume, as may be inferred
+from the following articles it contained:
+
+    "The Influence of Magnitude on Stability."
+    "The Doctrine of Gravitation."
+    "Theory of Tides."
+    "Effects of Tides."
+    "Cases of Excessive Tidal Action and Planetary Instability."
+    "The Rings of Saturn."
+    "The Supposed Influence of Satellites in Preserving Planetary Rings."
+    "Movements of Comets."
+    "The Tails of Comets."
+    "Mass and Density of Comets."
+    "Cometary Catastrophes."
+    "Phenomena Attending the Fall of Meteors."
+    "The Origin of Solar and Meteoric Light."
+    "Variable Stars and the Sun's Spots."
+    "Temporary Stars."
+    "Electrical Light and the Aurora Borealis."
+    "Proof of the Stability of the Solar System," with an appendix.
+
+Some of these subjects had been treated of at greater length and
+published by American and British associations for the advancement of
+science.
+
+He sent to the British Association for the Advancement of Science:
+
+    "Cases of Planetary Instability Indicated by the Appearance of
+      Temporary Stars."
+    "Appearance of Temporary Stars."
+
+Other papers appeared:
+
+    "Note on the Sunspots," Philosophical Magazine for December, 1858.
+    "On the Solar Spots and Variable Stars," idem, Vol. 15, p. 359.
+    "Changes in the Conditions of Celestial Bodies," an essay.
+    "The Origin of Worlds," Popular Science Monthly, May, 1879.
+    "Planetary Rings and New Stars," Popular Science Monthly,
+      February, 1879.
+    "Astronomical History of Worlds," idem, September, 1878.
+    "On the Stability of Satellites in Small Orbits and the Theory of
+      Saturn's Rings," Philosophical Magazine, May, 1861.
+    "On the Origin of the Asteroids." Contributed to the American
+      Association for the Advancement of Science.
+    "Static and Dynamic Stability in the Secondary Systems,"
+      Philosophical Magazine, December, 1861.
+    "On Phenomena which May be Traced to the Presence of a Medium
+      Pervading all Space," idem, May 11, 1861.
+
+The Professor contributed to other publications on both sides of the
+Atlantic, but as he failed to retain copies of the articles or of the
+magazines in which they were published, doubtless many papers of
+interest are among the number.
+
+The year 1860 found the Professor possessed of a valuable collection of
+books, the accumulation of ten or fifteen years, all showing the marks
+of wear, some of them besmeared with the drippings from his candle.
+Among them were works of some of the most prominent authors in branches
+of theoretical and practical science. Those of Laplace, Kepler,
+Tycho-Brahe, Leibnitz, Herschel, Newton and others, together with many
+pamphlets and periodicals, composed his library. He possessed a familiar
+knowledge of the German, French, Italian and Spanish languages, and of
+ancient Greek and Latin. Many of his papers appeared in the continental
+languages. It may be here stated that for the eminent astronomer,
+Laplace, as a scientist and writer, Prof. Vaughn entertained great
+respect, though he could not accept his nebular hypothesis, because
+important parts of it would not bear mathematical investigation. [The
+proof is in the papers in my possession.--N.] In an article of the
+Professor to the Popular Science Monthly (February, 1879) is a case of
+the kind, showing that the distinguished astronomer ignored his own
+famous theory. The article reads: "In endeavoring to account for the
+direct motion in secondary systems Laplace contends that, in consequence
+of friction the supposed primitive solar rings would have a greater
+velocity in their outer than in their inner zones. Now, if friction is
+to counteract to such an extent the normal effects of gravitation, it
+must be an eternal bar against the origin of worlds by nebulous
+dismemberment, and if the ring of attenuated matter were placed under
+the circumstances suggested by the eminent astronomer, it would be
+ultimately doomed, not to form a planet, but to coalesce with the
+immense spheroid of fiery vapor it was supposed to have environed."
+
+It is interesting to know that the theory of our Professor was the
+correct one, as proved by a recent discovery of Prof. James E. Keeler,
+astronomer of the Allegheny Observatory. As announced in a daily paper:
+"Prof. James E. Keeler, of the Allegheny Observatory, has made a
+wonderful discovery. It is a scientific and positive demonstration of
+the fact that the rings of Saturn are made up of many small bodies and
+that the satellites of the inner edge of the rings move faster than the
+outer."
+
+As to satellites, Prof. Vaughn, in the paper quoted, page 466, states:
+"The matter spread over the wide annular fields is ever urged by its own
+attraction to collect together and form satellites, which are ever
+destroyed by attractive disturbance of the primary, and have their parts
+scattered once more over a wide space."
+
+
+INSTALLED AS PROFESSOR OF CHEMISTRY.
+
+The Professor was elected to the chair of chemistry in the Cincinnati
+College of Medicine and Surgery in 1860, where he served with
+distinction for twelve years. His scholarly valedictory at that
+institution is one of the papers reserved for publication in his
+memoirs.
+
+While in the college he continued his investigations in science,
+applying his knowledge of terrestrial chemistry to the chemistry of the
+heavens, as shown in nearly all his writings. Besides the position held
+in the college, he gave lessons in schools and seminaries in geology,
+astronomy, chemistry, Latin and Greek.
+
+In 1873 he visited Lexington, where he met his old friend, Dr. J. C.
+Darby, and delivered lectures in public, at the Sayre Institute and the
+Baptist School, returning to Cincinnati the following spring. Except
+from his writings, he seemed to have no source of revenue for several
+years. How he managed to exist his most intimate friends could only
+conjecture. True, he contributed papers to monthly publications, but
+they appeared at such long intervals they could not be relied on for
+support, so, in the autumn of 1878 his friends organized for him a
+course of lectures, which were well patronized by physicians and others
+versed in science. In the meantime, negotiations were opened with
+prominent citizens of suburban towns for other lectures, and efforts
+were made to retire the Professor on an annuity.
+
+
+HIS END DRAWING NEAR.
+
+Enfeebled health, which confined him to his room for several weeks,
+prevented him from entering on the suburban course, so a second course
+was projected for the city and one of the lectures delivered. From what
+transpired after that lecture his friends were again anxious regarding
+his health, and, as the time approached for the delivery of the second,
+determined to see him. For reasons stated elsewhere it was with some
+difficulty he was found. Prostrated on a couch, he was suffering from a
+hemorrhage of the lungs of a few days previous, with evidences all
+around of a state of extreme destitution. No time was lost in having him
+removed to comfortable quarters in the Good Samaritan Hospital, where
+his friends arranged for his care as a private patient. Next day, April
+3, he expressed himself as greatly benefited by the change and talked
+cheerfully and hopefully of the future. Next day, Friday, he continued
+to improve, but on Saturday proof of his forthcoming article in the
+Popular Science Monthly reached him, and, feeling that he ought to
+return it promptly, he sat up to do the work. The effort was too great.
+Overcome with exhaustion after its completion, he sank to sleep and a
+little after two o'clock next morning, April 6, his weary spirit
+peacefully took its flight. Born in 1818, the Professor was then in the
+sixty-first year of his age.
+
+
+HIS OBSEQUIES.
+
+A committee of the more intimate friends of the deceased was formed,
+consisting of the late Jacob Traber, his nephew, J. C. Sproull, Drs. J. J.
+and William Taft and the writer.
+
+Funeral services were held in the chapel of the Hospital, where,
+considering the suddenness of the Professor's demise, many mourners were
+present. The interest evinced was profound, while the floral tributes
+that covered the casket were eloquent of affection and esteem.
+
+The remains were interred in a burial lot of Jacob Traber, who
+generously tendered its use until a separate place of interment and a
+monument could be procured. The remains of the two friends now lie side
+by side.
+
+
+HIS EFFECTS.
+
+After the funeral the committee referred to visited the room occupied by
+the Professor prior to his decease, and had the writer, as his nearest
+friend, procure letters of administration, so that papers of value, if
+any, would be cared for. A few letters, some private relics, unsalable
+remnants of books and pamphlets and scraps of manuscript constituted the
+effects. The scarcity of manuscript was easily accounted, for, as it was
+the habit of the deceased for years to print articles designed for
+publication and have them mailed to magazines and to savants in
+different parts of Europe and America.
+
+
+CHARACTERISTICS AND HABITS OF STUDY.
+
+A prominent characteristic of Prof. Vaughn was shyness--a shrinking from
+familiarity or conspicuousness. He never was the first to salute a
+casual acquaintance on the street, and when introduced to a stranger
+would extend his hand with apparent diffidence or reserve--not with the
+warmth of a hearty shake, but rather with a cautious presentation of the
+finger tips. Undemonstrative in manner, and inexperienced in the customs
+of social life, his diffidence was taken for coldness, yet he was kind
+and tender hearted almost to a fault, and a most grateful recipient of a
+favor. In his poverty he would part with money or personal property to
+people whom he considered more necessitous than himself. Of the proceeds
+of his last course of lectures he gave to one such a sum so large as to
+almost discourage his friends from helping him.
+
+Then, too, he was glad to render service to professional and public men.
+He made translations for writers and wrote lectures for others and made
+chemical analyses for the city when payment was not expected. As to his
+placing a commercial value upon his services he never learned to do it,
+though they often cost him both time and money that he could not well
+spare.
+
+His waking hours were always fully occupied in writing or study, either
+in his laboratory, the libraries or in open-air observations. He was
+thoroughly familiar with the geology of the neighborhood and the
+physical geography of the entire continent, as may be seen by his
+articles on "Volcanoes," "The Origin of Lakes and Mountains," "The
+Absence of Trees on Prairies," "Malaria," etc. His ingenuity in the
+construction of apparatus for his illustrations in chemistry was
+remarkable. Given a few tubes of glass and rubber, a piece of tin, some
+acid and alkali, a blow-pipe, soldering iron and a pair of pinchers, he
+could construct at will enough apparatus for a lesson, a lecture or an
+analysis.
+
+Considering his poverty, it may be questioned how he was able to
+maintain a laboratory. For twelve years he found a room at the Medical
+College. At other times he extemporized quarters at his humble lodgings,
+where the same apartment was to him laboratory, study and living room.
+Such a room he could not find in a private house, so he sought it
+elsewhere, as in the tenement in which he was found in his last
+illness. That life necessarily isolated him from society, its pleasures
+and advantages before he became familiar with the laws by which it was
+governed.
+
+Having acquired a mastery of Greek and Latin in his youth, he had a good
+preparation for the acquisition of the modern languages; besides, to
+prosecute his studies and investigations, he found it necessary to
+understand most of the languages of Europe.
+
+Exception has been taken to the Professor's manner as a lecturer. When
+we consider his natural diffidence in the presence of strangers we are
+surprised that he attempted to lecture at all. Take his case when he
+last lectured,--his lecture hall, the operating room of the Dental
+College, and his platform that of the operator with his audience around
+but elevated a few feet above him. The position was an exceedingly
+trying one, and some time elapsed before he was able to make a good
+start. While hesitating, on such occasions, his eyes would wander around
+the audience till they rested on those of a familiar friend. Immediately
+he addressed himself to that person, and confidence was restored. Like
+other public speakers we know of, he continued to address himself
+chiefly to the one selected, however embarrassing it might be to that
+individual.
+
+
+HIS RELIGIOUS LIFE.
+
+The Professor was a Bible student, if we judge from fragments found
+among his effects and a well-worn Bible, now a relic in possession of a
+former student. The book is a curiosity, worn as is the cover with marks
+of his fingers as he held it, often with a candle in his hand, as shown
+by occasional drippings on the page and cover.
+
+He was not a member of any church. At least, had not been up to a month
+before his decease, though he visited churches of all denominations and
+was familiar with their doctrines and polity. His religion consisted in
+his living up to his highest ideas of right and truth; hence he was
+charitable almost to a fault. When he had not money to give, he parted
+with his books.
+
+An eloquent public speaker, referring to his private life, has said: "He
+was social, kind and humane. He took pleasure in instructing the
+children and communing with friends--good men and women, who loved and
+admired him--and his humanity was gratified in bestowing what he valued
+most--knowledge. To him nothing seemed more precious than truth, and to
+shed the light of it abroad. His heart was in his work, and without a
+glance to the right or left, he pursued his arduous quest."
+
+Of the works of creation which occupied so much of his thoughts, the
+Professor's views may be had by reading the following concluding remarks
+found in his "Physical Astronomy:"
+
+"Whatever doubts may hang over all speculations respecting distant
+events, either of past or future time, we have reason to believe that
+our universe will ever exhibit great and useful operations throughout
+its extensive domains. From the ruins of some celestial bodies others
+will rise to act a part in the drama of the physical creation in future
+ages. Though nature's work may all decay, her laws remain the same, and
+numerous agencies, obedient to their control and aided by occasional
+interventions of creative power, must maintain the heavens forever in a
+harmonious condition and transform innumerable spheres into seats of
+light and intelligence. While the laws of nature have been thus widely
+ordained for such great ends, their simplicity renders them intelligible
+to the limited powers of the human mind, and the immense universe thus
+becomes a vast field of intellectual enjoyment for man."
+
+
+TESTIMONY OF THE LATE DR. JOHN HANCOCK.
+
+The late Dr. Hancock, in writing to Mrs. J. W. McLaughlin, stated that he
+attended institute lectures of Prof. Vaughn, making his acquaintance at
+a meeting of the Southwestern Ohio Normal Institute. The Professor was
+engaged to lecture on his favorite specialties, physical geography and
+astronomy. "It is my recollection," says the doctor, "that Prof. Vaughn
+was a graduate of Trinity Collage, Dublin. However that may be, there
+can be no doubt as to his wide and profound scholarship. He was not only
+deeply versed in the physical sciences, but was equally proficient in
+the classics and mathematics. It is said by competent judges that he
+read Greek and Latin as he would English, as though he thought in those
+languages, and he was one of the few Americans who read through
+Laplace's 'Mechanique Celeste.' He had a prodigious memory. At the
+Oxford Institute, to which I have referred, some dozen of the leading
+members, Prof. Vaughn among them, got up some literary games requiring
+wide reading and retentive memories for successful rivalry. In these
+games the Professor showed a wealth of reading and an ability to use it
+on the instant that I have never seen approached by any other scholar.
+It is needless to say that he was first in the game and the rest
+nowhere.
+
+"Some ten years afterward, when connected with Nelson's Commercial
+College, I edited a little educational paper, the News and Educator, of
+which Mr. Nelson was proprietor. In this relation I came much more
+frequently in contact with Prof. Vaughn than I ever did before. To this
+paper he contributed a number of articles on scientific subjects, but,
+being printed in an obscure local paper, they attracted little
+attention."
+
+
+REMINISCENCES OF MRS. STAMPS.
+
+Mrs. Eliza Stamps, widow of the late Colonel Stamps, in giving her
+experience with the Professor, said: "He was a very industrious student,
+in his profound researches pursuing them to the exclusion of every thing
+else. He would frequently forget the demands of hunger and disregard the
+summons to his meals. As to his engaging in innocent amusements, he
+considered it a sacrifice of valuable time; yet, lest he should be
+accused of selfishness or wanting in social etiquette, he sometimes left
+his books to unite with the children in their games, and, diffident
+though he was, would occasionally take part in the dance.
+
+"He enjoyed the Colonel's library, but soon exhausted its resources and
+those of the neighbors; so, to obtain a supply, he would go on foot to
+Cincinnati, one hundred miles distant, and return in the same manner,
+loaded with new books."
+
+Throughout his after life he gave evidence of his great respect and
+affection for Colonel Stamps, his benefactor, and his family, and the
+young ladies and gentlemen who had been his pupils, who never ceased to
+venerate him for his learning, or to love and cherish his memory. Some
+such were among the mourners at his funeral.
+
+
+REPUTATION IN ENGLAND.
+
+The late Jacob Traber, one of the most intimate friends of the
+Professor, has written: "In the year 1858 I was in the office of John
+Sayre, bookseller, High Holborn, where I made the purchase of books that
+were yet in the hands of the printer. I gave my address and directions
+for shipping. When in the act of leaving the office I was accosted by an
+elderly gentleman who, with the apology, 'Beg pardon, I overheard you
+when you gave your address, Cincinnati, and desire to make inquiry about
+one of your distinguished citizens, Daniel Vaughn. Assuming that you
+know him, may I ask how long it is since you have seen him?' I replied
+that I had known the Professor some four years, and had met him but a
+few months ago. At that time I regarded the Professor as a mechanical
+genius of the speculative type, and so expressed myself. A quick
+rejoinder came in that broad and forcible accent of an Englishman: 'If
+you Cincinnati people vote Vaughn as a speculative mechanic, the ripest
+and profoundest mathematical scholar in England may be marked as his
+apprentice. You have a treasure in that man. Why, sir, we send him
+problems that fail to be mastered here, and speedily have them back not
+only with a solution, but with the demonstration.' The speaker proved to
+be one of the ablest scholars and scientists in Europe."
+
+
+FIXING THE RESPONSIBILITY FOR HIS CONDITION.
+
+The subject of this paper, it will be inferred, did not inherit a
+patrimony, yet he contributed his valuable services to many worthy
+objects without pecuniary compensation. As has been stated, his great
+pleasure, next to the investigation of truth, was to impart useful
+knowledge and help the needy. When in the medical college he was paid
+with shares of stock on which a dividend was never declared, and when
+engaged in lecturing and teaching his diffidence prevented him from
+placing a sufficient value on his services. Living the life of a
+recluse, he concealed his poverty from his nearest friends, who were
+ignorant even of his address. Then, he never sought a gratuity, and his
+friends could only learn by conjecture when he was in need. When asked
+if his privations did not cause him much anxiety, he said they gave him
+no concern.
+
+On more than one occasion the writer, at the request of men of wealth
+and influence, proposed to retire him on an annuity, but he modestly but
+firmly declined to accept, and it was not until after the announcement
+of his last course that he consented. Then the proposition was to pay
+his expenses at a hotel of his choice and advance him money for his
+personal expenses, for which he was to lecture when and where he might
+choose. The gentlemen most active in this project were the following,
+now deceased: Henry Peachy, William F. Corry, Jacob Traber, Colonel
+Geoffrey and others. Favorably known to the public were Drs. J. J. and
+William Taft, Dr. Thad Reamy, J. C. Sproull, etc.
+
+The project had so far matured that the writer and another had arranged
+with Mr. Peachy to make the Lafayette National Bank the custodian of the
+funds. Had the Professor survived, he would have enjoyed a life of
+leisure and comfort, at one of the most prominent hotels in the city.
+
+The people of Cincinnati were, therefore, not responsible for the
+poverty of our friend, nor for the state of destitution in which he was
+found prior to his removal to the hospital.
+
+
+
+
+ACCOUNT OF THE DEATH OF PROF. VAUGHN, BY REV. EUGENE BRADY, S.J.
+
+    [Concerning the last days of Professor Vaughn, the following from
+    the pen of Father Brady, pastor of St. Xavier's Church, is of
+    special interest. This is peculiarly appropriate by reason of the
+    fact that Father Brady, while a boy, attended the college during
+    the time Professor Vaughn taught in Bardstown, Kentucky, and
+    finally comforted him in his last moments.--J. U. L.]
+
+    "MY DEAR MR. LLOYD:--
+
+    "Concerning the foot-note on page 160 of Etidorhpa. The
+    description of Daniel Vaughn is correct. The story of his
+    privations is quite true. He was so absorbed in science as to be
+    self-neglectful. Moreover, he was grossly neglected by those _who
+    made use of his labors_.
+
+    "A servant girl told the venerable Sister Anthony that a poor
+    lodger was dying in destitution in the west end of the city. The
+    lodger was Professor Vaughn. The Sister had the good man conveyed
+    to the Good Samaritan Hospital on April 1, 1879. She made him
+    comfortable, as he repeatedly declared. He died on April 6, 1879.
+    _Thoroughly conscious_ up to the last moment, _it was at his
+    request_ that the undersigned had the melancholy pleasure of
+    administering to him the last rites of the Catholic Church. It was
+    neither delirium nor senility that revived his faith. He was but
+    sixty-one years of age, and as rational as ever in life."
+
+                                                  --EUGENE BRADY, S.J.
+
+
+
+
+
+ETIDORHPA.
+
+TO THE RECIPIENTS OF THE AUTHOR'S EDITION OF ETIDORHPA:
+
+
+That so large an edition as 1,299 copies of an expensive book,
+previously unseen by any subscriber, should have been taken in advance
+by reason of a mere announcement, is complimentary to the undersigned;
+and yet this very confidence occasioned him not a little anxiety. Under
+such circumstances to have failed to give, either in workmanship or
+subject-matter, more than was promised in the announcement of Etidorhpa,
+would have been painfully embarrassing.
+
+Not without deep concern, then, were the returns awaited; for, while
+neither pains nor expense were spared to make the book artistically a
+prize, still, beautiful workmanship and attractive illustrations may
+serve but to make more conspicuous other failings. Humiliating indeed
+would it have been had the recipients, in a spirit of charity, spoken
+only of artistic merit and neat bookwork.
+
+When one not a bookman publishes a book, he treads the danger-line. When
+such a person, without a great publishing-house behind him, issues a
+book like Etidorhpa--a book that, spanning space, seemingly embraces
+wild imaginings and speculation, and intrudes on science and
+religion--he invites personal disaster.
+
+That in the case of the Author's Edition of Etidorhpa the reverse
+happily followed, is evidenced by hundreds of complimentary letters,
+written by men versed in this or that section wherein the book intrudes;
+and in a general way the undersigned herein gratefully extends his
+thanks to all correspondents--thanks for the cordial expressions of
+approval, and for the graceful oversights by critics and correspondents,
+that none better than he realizes have been extended towards blemishes
+that must, to others, be not less apparent than they are to himself.
+
+Since general interest has been awakened in the strange book Etidorhpa,
+and as many readers are soliciting information concerning its reception,
+it is not only as a duty, but as a pleasure, that the undersigned
+reproduces the following abstracts from public print concerning the
+Author's Edition, adding, that as in most cases the reviews were of
+great length and made by men specially selected for the purpose, the
+brief notes are but fragments and simply characteristic of their general
+tenor.
+
+The personal references indulged by the critics could not be excised
+without destroying the value of the criticisms, and the undersigned can
+offer no other apology for their introduction than to say that to have
+excluded them would have done an injustice to the writers.
+
+    Respectfully,
+    JOHN URI LLOYD.
+
+
+
+
+ETIDORHPA AS A WORK OF ART.
+
+PROFESSOR S. W. WILLIAMS, WYOMING, OHIO.
+
+
+If a fine statue or a stately cathedral is a poem in marble, a
+masterpiece of the printer's art may be called a poem in typography.
+Such is Etidorhpa. In its paper, composition, presswork, illustrations,
+and binding--it is the perfection of beauty. While there is nothing
+gaudy in its outward appearance, there is throughout a display of good
+taste. The simplicity of its neatness, like that of a handsome woman, is
+its great charm. Elegance does not consist in show nor wealth in
+glitter; so the richest as well as the costliest garb may be rich in its
+very plainness. The illustrations were drawn and engraved expressly for
+this work, and consist of twenty-one full-page, half-tone cuts, and over
+thirty half-page and text cuts, besides two photogravures. The best
+artistic skill was employed to produce them, and the printing was
+carefully attended to, so as to secure the finest effect. Only enameled
+book paper is used; and this, with the wide margins, gilt top, trimmed
+edges, and clear impressions of the type, makes the pages restful to the
+eyes in reading or looking at them. The jacket, or cover, which protects
+the binding, is of heavy paper, and bears the same imprint as the book
+itself. Altogether, as an elegant specimen of the bookmakers' art it is
+a credit to the trade. All honor to the compositors who set the type,
+the artists who drew and engraved the illustrations, the electrotyper
+who put the forms into plate, the pressman who worked off the sheets,
+and the binder who gathered and bound them in this volume.
+
+
+
+
+REVIEWS OF ETIDORHPA.
+
+
+[Sidenote: B. O. Flower, Editor of The Arena, Boston.]
+
+The present is an age of expectancy, of anticipation, and of prophecy;
+and the invention or discovery or production that occupies the attention
+of the busy world, as it rushes on its self-observed way, for more than
+the passing nine day's wonder, must needs be something great indeed.
+Such a production has now appeared in the literary world in the form of
+the volume entitled "Etidorhpa, or the End of Earth;" the very title of
+which is so striking as to arrest the attention at once.
+
+A most remarkable book.... Surpasses, in my judgment, any thing that has
+been written by the elder Dumas or Jules Verne, while in moral purpose
+it is equal to Hugo at his best.... It appeals to the thoughtful
+scientist no less than to the lover of fascinating romance.
+
+
+[Sidenote: Mr. Herbert Bates, in the Commercial Gazette, Cincinnati.]
+
+In summing, I would say that I have found the book distinctly
+stimulating. It is odd, but with the oddity of force. It has passages of
+uncanny imagination, but they excellently evade the enormous and
+extravagant. It is a book that by its title and by such features as
+strike one at a hurried glance might easily repel. Yet it is a book
+that, studied carefully, calls for re-reading and deep meditation. Its
+theories are capable of scientific demonstration, its imaginings, while
+they may not be fact, are always consistent with it. The reader who lets
+the outside repel him errs sadly. Let him read it, and he will be as
+changed in his position toward it, as ready to convert others, as is the
+reviewer, who picked it up with foreboding and laid it down with the
+sense of having read great thoughts.
+
+
+[Sidenote: Dr. W. H. Venable.]
+
+"The End of Earth" is not like any other book. The charm of adventure,
+the excitement of romance, the stimulating heat of controversy, the keen
+pursuit of scientific truth, the glow of moral enthusiasm, are all found
+in its pages. The book may be described as a sort of philosophical
+fiction, containing much exact scientific truth, many bold theories, and
+much ingenious speculation on the nature and destiny of man.... The
+occult and esoteric character of the discussions adds a strange
+fascination to them. We can hardly classify, by ordinary rules, a work
+so unusual in form and purpose, so discursive in subject-matter, so
+unconventional in its appeals to reason, religion and morality.... The
+direct teaching of the book, in so far as it aims to influence conduct,
+is always lofty and pure.
+
+
+[Sidenote: Letter from Sir Henry Irving, to the Author.]
+
+"_My Dear Sir:_ Let me thank you most heartily for sending me the
+special copy of your wonderful book 'Etidorhpa,' which I shall ever
+value. I may say that when by chance I found it in Cincinnati I read it
+with the greatest interest and pleasure, and was so struck by it that I
+have sent copies to several friends of mine here and at home. I hope I
+may have the pleasure of meeting you some day either here or in London.
+I remain, sincerely yours,      HENRY IRVING.
+
+    "20th March, 1896."
+
+
+[Sidenote: Etidorhpa as a work of art. Prof. S. W. Williams.]
+
+If a fine statute or a stately cathedral is a poem in marble, a
+masterpiece of the printer's art may be called a poem in typography.
+Such is "Etidorhpa." In its paper, composition, presswork,
+illustrations, and binding--it is the perfection of beauty. While there
+is nothing gaudy in its outward appearance, there is throughout a
+display of good taste.
+
+The illustrations were drawn and engraved expressly for this work, and
+consist of twenty-one full-page, half-tone cuts, and over thirty
+half-page and text cuts, besides two photogravures. The best artistic
+skill was employed to produce them, and the printing was carefully
+attended to, so as to secure the finest effect.
+
+
+[Sidenote: Eclectic Medical Journal, Cincinnati.]
+
+No one could have written the chapter on the "Food of Man" but Professor
+Lloyd; no one else knows and thinks of these subjects in a similar
+way.... The "old man's" description of "the spirit of stone," "the
+spirit of plants," and finally, "the spirit of man," is very fine, but
+those who hear Professor Lloyd lecture catch Lloyd's impulses
+throughout. The only regret one has in reading this entrancing work is,
+that it ends unexpectedly, for the End of Earth comes without a
+catastrophe. It should have been a hundred pages longer; the reader
+yearns for more, and closes the book wistfully.
+
+
+[Sidenote: New Idea, Detroit.]
+
+One of the great charms of the book is the space between the lines,
+which only the initiated can thoroughly comprehend. Don't fail to read
+and re-read Etidorhpa. Be sure and read it in the light of
+contemporaneous literature, for without doing so, its true beauty will
+not appear. Aside from its subject-matter, the excellency of the
+workmanship displayed by the printer, and artistic beauty of the
+illustrations, will make Etidorhpa an ornament to any library.
+
+
+[Sidenote: Cincinnati Student.]
+
+This book, to use the words of the editor of the Chicago Inter-Ocean, is
+"the literary novelty of the year."... In a literary sense, according to
+all reviewers, it abounds with "word-paintings of the highest order"--in
+some chapters being "terrible" in its vividness, several critics
+asserting that Dante's Inferno has nothing more realistic....
+
+
+[Sidenote: The British and Colonial Druggist, London, England.]
+
+We have read it with absorbed interest, the vividly-depicted scenes of
+each stage in the miraculous journey forming a theme which enthralls the
+reader till the last page is turned. Many new views of natural laws are
+given by the communicator, and argued between him and Drury, into which,
+and into the ultimate intent of Etidorhpa, we will not attempt to enter,
+but will leave it for each reader to peruse, and draw his own
+conclusions.... Professor Lloyd's style is quaint and polished, and
+perfectly clear. The printing and paper are all that can be desired, and
+an abundance of artistic and striking illustrations are admirably
+reproduced.
+
+
+[Sidenote: New York World.]
+
+Etidorhpa, the End of the Earth, is in all respects the worthiest
+presentation of occult teachings under the attractive guise of fiction
+that has yet been written. Its author, Mr. John Uri Lloyd, of
+Cincinnati, as a scientist and writer on pharmaceutical topics, has
+already a more than national reputation, but only his most intimate
+friends have been aware that he was an advanced student of occultism.
+His book is charmingly written, some of its passages being really
+eloquent; as, for instance, the apostrophe to Aphrodite--whose name is
+reversed to make the title of the story. It has as thrilling situations
+and startling phenomena as imagination has ever conceived.... There is
+no confusion between experiences and illusions, such as are common in
+the works of less instructed and conscientious writers treating of such
+matters. He knows where to draw the line and how to impress perception
+of it, as in the four awful nightmare chapters illustrating the curse of
+drink. Etidorhpa will be best appreciated by those who have "traveled
+East in search of light and knowledge."...
+
+
+[Sidenote: John Clark Ridpath, LL.D.]
+
+We are disposed to think "Etidorhpa" the most unique, original, and
+suggestive new book that we have seen in this the last decade of a not
+unfruitful century.
+
+
+[Sidenote: Times-Star, Cincinnati.]
+
+It is as fascinating as the richest romance by Dumas, and mysterious and
+awe-inspiring as the wild flights of Verne. Hugo wrote nothing more
+impassioned than those terrible chapters where "The-Man-Who-Did-It"
+drinks liquor from the mushroom cup. There never was a book like it. It
+falls partly in many classes, yet lies outside of all. It will interest
+all sorts and conditions of men and it has that in it which may make it
+popular as the most sensational novel of the day. Intricate plotting,
+marvelous mysteries, clear-cut science without empiricism, speculative
+reasoning, sermonizing, historical facts, and bold theorizing make up
+the tissue of the story, while the spirit of Etidorhpa, the spirit of
+love, pervades it all.... Happy is the scientist who can present science
+in a form so inviting as to charm not only the scholars of his own
+profession, but the laymen besides. This, Professor John Uri Lloyd has
+done in his Etidorhpa.
+
+
+[Sidenote: The Inter-Ocean, Chicago.]
+
+For eighteen years the writer has been seated at his desk, and all kinds
+of books have been passed in review, but has never before met with such
+a stumper as Etidorhpa. Its name is a stunner, and its title-page,
+head-lines, and weird, artistic pictures send you such a ghastly welcome
+as to make goblins on the walls, and fill the close room with spooks and
+mystery. The writer has only known of Professor Lloyd as a scientist and
+an expert in the most occult art of the pharmacist, and can scarcely
+conceive him in the role of the mystic and romancer in the region
+heretofore sacred to the tread of the supernatural.... The book is the
+literary novelty of the year, but those interested in such lines of
+thought will forget its novelties in a profound interest in the themes
+discussed.
+
+
+[Sidenote: The Chicago Medical Times.]
+
+The work stands so entirely alone in literature, and possesses such a
+marvelous versatility of thought and idea, that, in describing it, we
+are at a loss for comparison. In its scope it comprises alchemy,
+chemistry, science in general, philosophy, metaphysics, morals, biology,
+sociology, theosophy, materialism, and theism--the natural and
+supernatural.... It is almost impossible to describe the character of
+the work. It is realistic in expression, and weird beyond Hawthorne's
+utmost flights. It excels Bulwer-Lytton's Coming Race and Jules Verne's
+most extreme fancy. It equals Dante in vividness and eccentricity of
+plot.... The entire tone of the work is elevating. It encourages thought
+of all that is ennobling and pure. It teaches a belief and a faith in
+God and holy things, and shows God's supervision over all his works. It
+is an allegory of the life of one who desires to separate himself from
+the debasing influences of earth, and aspires to a pure and noble
+existence, as beautiful and as true to the existing conditions of human
+life as Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. The sorrow; the struggle with self;
+the physical burdens; the indescribable temptations with the presence
+and assistance of those who would assist in overcoming them; the dark
+hours, Vanity Fair, and the Beulahland, are all there.
+
+
+[Sidenote: Indianapolis Journal.]
+
+In every respect the volume bearing the title Etidorhpa, or the End of
+the Earth, is a most remarkable book. Typographically, it is both unique
+and artistic--as near perfection in conception and execution as can be
+conceived.... The author is John Uri Lloyd, of Cincinnati, a scientific
+writer whose pharmaceutical treatises are widely known and highly
+valued. That a man whose mind and time have been engrossed with the
+affairs of a specialist and man of affairs could have found time to
+enter the field of speculation, and there display not only the most
+extensive knowledge of the exact natural sciences, and refute what is
+held to be scientific truth with bold theories and ingenious
+speculations on the nature and destiny of man is marvelous....
+
+The Addenda is as original as the book itself, consisting, as it does,
+of a list of names, some of whom are not subscribers, but to whom the
+author is deeply obliged, or whom he regards as very dear friends, and
+those of a few whom he personally admires.... If each of them has a copy
+of Etidorhpa, or the End of the Earth, he possesses a book which is not
+like any other book in the world.
+
+
+[Sidenote: Cleveland Leader.]
+
+It relates to a journey made by the old man under the guidance of a
+peculiar being into the interior of the earth. The incidents of this
+journey overshadow any thing that Verne ever wrote in his palmiest days.
+But perhaps the most singular part of it is that they are all based on
+scientific grounds. Dr. Lloyd, the author of the volume, is one of the
+deepest students, and is well known as a profound writer on subjects
+pertaining to his profession, as well as one who has taken much pains in
+studying the occult sciences.... The book is a very pleasant one to
+read, a little redundant at times, but full of information.... Readers
+who succeed in securing it will be very lucky indeed.
+
+
+
+TRANSCRIBER NOTES:
+
+    Punctuation corrected without note.
+
+    page 47: no illustration is found in the original book for
+    this reference.
+
+    page 228: "siezed" changed to "seized" (The guide seized me by the
+    hand).
+
+    page 284: "begun" changed to "began" (began a narcotic
+    hallucination).
+
+    page 338: "comformably" changed to "conformably" (that lies
+    conformably with the external crust).
+
+    page 385: "wierd" changed to "weird" (and weird, artistic pictures).
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Etidorhpa or the End of Earth., by John Uri Lloyd
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ETIDORHPA OR THE END OF EARTH. ***
+
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+<pre>
+
+Project Gutenberg's Etidorhpa or the End of Earth., by John Uri Lloyd
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Etidorhpa or the End of Earth.
+       The Strange History of a Mysterious Being and The Account
+              of a Remarkable Journey
+
+Author: John Uri Lloyd
+
+Illustrator: J. Augustus Knapp
+
+Release Date: October 16, 2011 [EBook #37775]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ETIDORHPA OR THE END OF EARTH. ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Pat McCoy, Suzanne Shell and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_i" id="Page_i">[Pg i]</a></span></p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 421px;">
+<img src="images/gs1000.jpg" width="421" height="700" alt="" title="I AM THE MAN." />
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+
+<h1>ETIDORHPA<br />
+<br />
+<small>OR<br />
+<br />
+THE END OF EARTH.</small></h1>
+
+
+<p class="title gap4">THE STRANGE HISTORY OF A MYSTERIOUS BEING<br />
+<br />
+<small>AND</small><br />
+<br />
+The Account of a Remarkable Journey</p>
+
+
+<p class="title"><small>AS COMMUNICATED IN MANUSCRIPT TO</small><br />
+<br />
+LLEWELLYN DRURY<br />
+<br />
+<small>WHO PROMISED TO PRINT THE SAME, BUT FINALLY EVADED THE RESPONSIBILITY</small></p>
+
+
+<p class="title"><small>WHICH WAS ASSUMED BY</small><br />
+<br />
+JOHN URI LLOYD</p>
+
+
+<p class="title">WITH MANY ILLUSTRATIONS BY<br />
+<br />
+J. AUGUSTUS KNAPP</p>
+
+
+<p class="center">SIXTH EDITION<br />
+<br />
+
+CINCINNATI<br />
+<br />
+THE ROBERT CLARKE COMPANY</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg ii]</span></p><p class="center">1896</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>ASCRIPTION.</h2>
+
+<p>To Prof. W. H. Venable, who reviewed the manuscript of this
+work, I am indebted for many valuable suggestions, and I can not
+speak too kindly of him as a critic.</p>
+
+<p>The illustrations, excepting those mechanical and historical, making
+in themselves a beautiful narrative without words, are due to the
+admirable artistic conceptions and touch of Mr. J. Augustus Knapp.</p>
+
+<p>Structural imperfections as well as word selections and phrases
+that break all rules in composition, and that the care even of Prof.
+Venable could not eradicate, I accept as wholly my own. For much,
+on the one hand, that it may seem should have been excluded, and
+on the other, for giving place to ideas nearer to empiricism than to
+science, I am also responsible. For vexing my friends with problems
+that seemingly do not concern in the least men in my position, and for
+venturing to think, superficially, it may be, outside the restricted lines
+of a science bound to the unresponsive crucible and retort, to which
+my life has been given, and amid the problems of which it has nearly
+worn itself away, I have no plausible excuse, and shall seek none.</p>
+
+<p class="quotsig">JOHN URI LLOYD</p>
+
+
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Copyright, 1895, by John Uri Lloyd.<br />
+Copyright, 1896, by John Uri Lloyd.</span></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg iii]</span></p><p class="center">[<i>All rights reserved.</i>]</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><a name="Page_iii" id="Page_iii"></a></p>
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 374px;">
+<img src="images/gs1001b.jpg" width="374" height="600" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+
+
+<p>Books are as tombstones made
+by the living for the living, but
+destined soon only to remind us
+of the dead. The preface, like
+an epitaph, seems vainly to "implore
+the passing tribute" of a
+moment's interest. No man is
+allured by either a grave-inscription
+or a preface, unless it be
+accompanied by that ineffable
+charm which age casts over mortal
+productions. Libraries, in
+one sense, represent cemeteries,
+and the rows of silent volumes,
+with their dim titles, suggest
+burial tablets, many of which,
+alas! mark only cenotaphs&mdash;empty
+tombs. A modern
+book, no matter how talented
+the author, carries with it a
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg iv]</span>familiar personality which may often be treated with neglect or
+even contempt, but a volume a century old demands some
+reverence; a vellum-bound or hog-skin print, or antique yellow
+parchment, two, three, five hundred years old, regardless of its
+contents, impresses one with an indescribable feeling akin to awe
+and veneration,&mdash;as does the wheat from an Egyptian tomb, even
+though it be only wheat.
+We take such a work from
+the shelf carefully, and
+replace it gently. While
+the productions of modern
+writers are handled
+familiarly, as men living
+jostle men yet alive; those
+of authors long dead are
+touched as tho' clutched
+by a hand from the unseen
+world; the reader feels
+that a phantom form
+opposes his own, and
+that spectral eyes scan
+the pages as he turns
+them.</p>
+
+<p>The stern face, the
+penetrating eye of the
+personage whose likeness
+forms the frontispiece of
+the yellowed volume in my hand, speak across the gulf of two
+centuries, and bid me beware. The title page is read with reverence,
+and the great tome is replaced with care, for an almost
+superstitious sensation bids me be cautious and not offend. Let
+those who presume to criticise the intellectual productions of
+such men be careful; in a few days the dead will face their
+censors&mdash;dead.</p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_iv" id="Page_iv"></a></p>
+<div class="figright" style="width: 233px;">
+<img src="images/gs1002.jpg" width="233" height="300" alt="" title="THE STERN FACE, ... ACROSS THE GULF." />
+<span class="caption">"THE STERN FACE, ... ACROSS THE GULF."</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Standing in a library of antiquated works, one senses the
+shadows of a cemetery. Each volume adds to the oppression,
+each old tome casts the influence of its spirit over the beholder,
+for have not these old books spirits? The earth-grave covers the
+mind as well as the body of its moldering occupant, and while<span class="pagenum">[Pg v]</span>
+only a strong imagination
+can assume
+that a spirit
+hovers over and
+lingers around inanimate
+clay, here
+each title is a
+voice that speaks
+as though the heart
+of its creator still
+throbbed, the mind
+essence of the
+dead writer envelops
+the living
+reader. Take down
+that vellum-bound
+volume,&mdash;it was
+written in one of
+the centuries long
+past. The pleasant
+face of its creator,
+as fresh as if but a
+print of yesterday,
+smiles upon you
+from the exquisitely
+engraved copper-plate
+frontispiece; the mind of the author rises from out the
+words before you. This man is not dead and his comrades live.
+Turn to the shelves about, before each book stands a guardian
+spirit,&mdash;together they form a phantom army that, invisible to
+mortals, encircles the beholder.</p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v"></a></p>
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 210px;">
+<img src="images/gs1003.jpg" width="210" height="300" alt="" title="THE PLEASANT FACE OF ITS CREATOR ... SMILES UPON YOU." />
+<span class="caption">"THE PLEASANT FACE OF ITS CREATOR ... SMILES UPON YOU."</span>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>Ah! this antique library is not as is a church graveyard, only
+a cemetery for the dead; it is also a mansion for the living. These
+alcoves are trysting places for elemental shades. Essences of disenthralled
+minds meet here and revel. Thoughts of the past take
+shape and live in this atmosphere,&mdash;who can say that pulsations
+unperceived, beyond the reach of physics or of chemistry, are not
+as ethereal mind-seeds which, although unseen, yet, in living brain,
+exposed to such an atmosphere as this, formulate embryotic<span class="pagenum">[Pg vi]</span>
+thought-expressions destined
+to become energetic
+intellectual forces?
+I sit in such a weird library
+and meditate. The
+shades of grim authors
+whisper in my ear, skeleton
+forms oppose my
+own, and phantoms possess
+the gloomy alcoves
+of the library I am
+building.</p>
+
+<p>With the object of
+carrying to the future a
+section of thought current
+from the past, the
+antiquarian libraries of
+many nations have been
+culled, and purchases
+made in every book
+market of the world.
+These books surround me. Naturally many persons have become
+interested in the movement, and, considering it a worthy one,
+unite to further the project, for the purpose is not personal
+gain. Thus it is not unusual for boxes of old chemical or pharmacal
+volumes to arrive by freight or express, without a word as to
+the donor. The mail brings manuscripts unprinted, and pamphlets
+recondite, with no word of introduction. They come unheralded.
+The authors or the senders realize that in this unique library a
+place is vacant if any work on connected subjects is missing, and
+thinking men of the world are uniting their contributions to fill
+such vacancies.</p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi"></a></p>
+<div class="figright" style="width: 220px;">
+<img src="images/gs1004.jpg" width="220" height="300" alt="" title="SKELETON FORMS OPPOSE MY OWN." />
+<span class="caption">"SKELETON FORMS OPPOSE MY OWN."</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Enough has been said concerning the ancient library that has
+bred these reflections, and my own personality does not concern
+the reader. He can now formulate his conclusions as well perhaps
+as I, regarding the origin of the manuscript that is to follow, if he
+concerns himself at all over subjects mysterious or historical, and<span class="pagenum">[Pg vii]</span>
+my connection therewith is of minor importance. Whether Mr.
+Drury brought the strange paper in person, or sent it by express or
+mail,&mdash;whether it was slipped into a box of books from foreign
+lands, or whether my hand held the pen that made the record,&mdash;whether
+I stood face to face with Mr. Drury in the shadows of
+this room, or have but a fanciful conception of his figure,&mdash;whether
+the artist drew upon his imagination for the vivid likeness
+of the several personages figured in the book that follows,
+or from reliable data has given fac-similes authentic,&mdash;is immaterial.
+Sufficient be it to say that the manuscript of this book
+has been in my possession for a period of seven years, and my
+lips must now be sealed concerning all that transpired in connection
+therewith outside the subject-matter recorded therein.
+And yet I can not deny that for these seven years I have hesitated
+concerning my proper course, and more than once have
+decided to cover from sight the fascinating leaflets, hide them
+among surrounding volumes, and let them slumber until chance
+should bring them to the attention of the future student.</p>
+
+<p>These thoughts rise before me this gloomy day of December,
+1894, as, snatching a moment from the exactions of business, I
+sit among these old volumes devoted to science-lore, and again
+study over the unique manuscript, and meditate; I hesitate
+again: Shall I, or shall I not?&mdash;but a duty is a duty. Perhaps
+the mysterious part of the subject will be cleared to me only
+when my own thought-words come to rest among these venerable
+relics of the past&mdash;when books that I have written become
+companions of ancient works about me&mdash;for then I can claim
+relationship with the shadows that flit in and out, and can demand
+that they, the ghosts of the library, commune with the
+shade that guards the book that holds this preface.</p>
+
+<p class="quotsig">JOHN URI LLOYD.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg viii]</span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg ix]</span></p>
+<h2>PREFACE TO THIS EDITION.</h2>
+
+
+<p>The foot-note on page 160, with the connected matter, has awakened
+considerable interest in the life and fate of Professor Daniel Vaughn.</p>
+
+<p>The undersigned has received many letters imparting interesting information
+relating to Professor Vaughn's early history, and asking many
+questions concerning a man of whose memory the writer thinks so highly
+but whose name is generally unknown.</p>
+
+<p>Indeed, as some have even argued that the author of Etidorhpa has
+no personal existence, the words John Uri Lloyd being a <i>nom de plume</i>, so
+others have accepted Professor Vaughn to have been a fanciful creation of
+the mystical author.</p>
+
+<p>Professor Daniel Vaughn was one whose life lines ran nearly parallel
+with those of the late Professor C. S. Rafinesque, whose eventful history
+has been so graphically written by Professor R. Ellsworth Call. The cups
+of these two talented men were filled with privation's bitterness, and in no
+other place has this writer known the phrase "The Deadly Parallel" so
+aptly appropriate. Both came to America, scholars, scientists by education;
+both traveled through Kentucky, teachers; both gave freely to the
+world, and both suffered in their old age, dying in poverty&mdash;Rafinesque
+perishing in misery in Philadelphia and Vaughn in Cincinnati.</p>
+
+<p>Daniel Vaughn was not a myth, and, in order that the reader may
+know something of the life and fate of this eccentric man, an appendix has
+been added to this edition of Etidorhpa, in which a picture of his face is
+shown as the writer knew it in life, and in which brief mention is made of
+his record.</p>
+
+<p>The author here extends his thanks to Professor Richard Nelson and
+to Father Eugene Brady for their kindness to the readers of Etidorhpa
+and himself, for to these gentlemen is due the credit of the appended historical
+note.</p>
+
+<p class="quotsig">J. U. L.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg x]</span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg xi]</span></p>
+<h2>A VALUABLE AND UNIQUE LIBRARY.</h2>
+
+<p class="center">From the Pharmaceutical Era, New York, October, 1894.</p>
+
+
+<p>In Cincinnati is one of the most famous botanical and pharmacal libraries
+in the world, and by scientists it is regarded as an invaluable store of knowledge
+upon those branches of medical science. So famous is it that one of the
+most noted pharmacologists and chemists of Germany, on a recent trip to this
+country, availed himself of its rich collection as a necessary means of completing
+his study in the line of special drug history. When it is known that he
+has devoted a life of nearly eighty years to the study of pharmacology, and is
+an emeritus professor in the famous University of Strassburg, the importance
+of his action will be understood and appreciated. We refer to Prof. Frederick
+Flueckiger, who, in connection with Daniel Hanbury, wrote Pharmacographia
+and other standard works. Attached to the library is an herbarium, begun
+by Mr. Curtis Gates Lloyd when a schoolboy, in which are to be found over
+30,000 specimens of the flora of almost every civilized country on the globe.
+The collections are the work of two brothers, begun when in early boyhood.
+In money they are priceless, yet it is the intention of the founders that they
+shall be placed, either before or at their death, in some college or university
+where all students may have access to them without cost or favor, and their
+wills are already made to this end, although the institution to receive the bequest
+is not yet selected. Eager requests have been made that they be sent
+to foreign universities, where only, some persons believe, they can receive the
+appreciation they deserve.</p>
+
+<p>The resting place of this collection is a neat three-story house at 204 West
+Court street, rebuilt to serve as a library building. On the door is a plate
+embossed with the name Lloyd, the patronymic of the brothers in question.
+They are John Uri and Curtis Gates Lloyd. Every hour that can be spent by
+these men from business or necessary recreation is spent here. Mr. C. G.
+Lloyd devotes himself entirely to the study of botany and connected subjects,
+while his brother is equally devoted to materia medica, pharmacy, and
+chemistry.</p>
+
+<p>In the botanical department are the best works obtainable in every country,
+and there the study of botany may be carried to any height. In point of
+age, some of them go back almost to the time when the art of printing was
+discovered. Two copies of Aristotle are notable. A Greek version bound in
+vellum was printed in 1584. Another, in parallel columns of Greek and Latin,
+by Pacius, was published in 1607. Both are in excellent preservation. A
+bibliographical rarity (two editions) is the "Historia Plantarum," by Pinaeus,
+which was issued, one in 1561, the other in 1567. It appears to have been a
+first attempt at the production of colored plates. Plants that were rare at that
+time are colored by hand, and then have a glossy fixative spread over them,
+causing the colors still to be as bright and fresh as the day that the three-hundred-years-dead
+workmen laid them on. Ranged in their sequence are
+fifty volumes of the famous author, Linn�us. Mr. Lloyd has a very complete
+list of the Linn�an works, and his commissioners in Europe and America are<span class="pagenum">[Pg xii]</span>
+looking out for the missing volumes. An extremely odd work is the book of
+Dr. Josselyn, entitled "New England Rarities," in which the Puritan author
+discusses wisely on "byrds, beastes and fishes" of the New World. Dr. Carolus
+Plumierus, a French savant, who flourished in 1762, contributes an exhaustive
+work on the "Flora of the Antilles." He is antedated many years, however, by
+Dr. John Clayton, who is termed Johannes Claytonus, and Dr. John Frederick
+Gronovius. These gentlemen collated a work entitled the "Flora of Virginia,"
+which is among the first descriptions of botany in the United States. Two
+venerable works are those of Mattioli, an Italian writer, who gave his knowledge
+to the world in 1586, and Levinus Lemnius, who wrote "De Miraculis
+Occultis Natur�" in 1628. The father of modern systematized botany is conceded
+to be Mons. J. P. Tournefort, whose comprehensive work was published
+in 1719. It is the fortune of Mr. Lloyd to possess an original edition in good
+condition. His "Histoire des Plantes," Paris (1698), is also on the shelves. In
+the modern department of the library are the leading French and German
+works. Spanish and Italian authors are also on the shelves, the Lloyd collection
+of Spanish flora being among the best extant. Twenty-two volumes of
+rice paper, bound in bright yellow and stitched in silk, contain the flora of
+Japan. All the leaves are delicately tinted by those unique flower-painters,
+the Japanese. This rare work was presented to the Lloyd library by Dr.
+Charles Rice, of New York, who informed the Lloyds that only one other set
+could be found in America.</p>
+
+<p>One of the most noted books in the collection of J. U. Lloyd is a Materia
+Medica written by Dr. David Schoepf, a learned German scholar, who traveled
+through this country in 1787. But a limited number of copies were printed,
+and but few are extant. One is in the Erlangen library in Germany. This
+Mr. Lloyd secured, and had it copied verbatim. In later years Dr. Charles
+Rice obtained an original print, and exchanged it for that copy. A like work
+is that of Dr. Jonathan Carver of the provincial troops in America, published
+in London in 1796. It treats largely of Canadian materia medica. Manasseh
+Cutler's work, 1785, also adorns this part of the library. In addition to almost
+every work on this subject, Mr. Lloyd possesses complete editions of the
+leading serials and pharmaceutical lists published in the last three quarters
+of a century. Another book, famous in its way, is Barton's "Collections
+Toward a Materia Medica of the United States," published in 1798, 1801,
+and 1804.</p>
+
+<p>Several noted botanists and chemists have visited the library in recent
+years. Prof. Flueckiger formed the acquaintance of the Lloyds through their
+work, "Drugs and Medicines of North America," being struck by the exhaustive
+references and foot-notes. Students and lovers of the old art of copper-plate
+engraving especially find much in the ornate title pages and portraits to
+please their �sthetic sense. The founders are not miserly, and all students
+and delvers into the medical and botanical arts are always welcome. This
+library of rare books has been collected without ostentation and with the
+sole aim to benefit science and humanity. We must not neglect to state
+that the library is especially rich in books pertaining to the American Eclectics
+and Thomsonians. Since it has been learned that this library is at the disposal
+of students and is to pass intact to some worthy institution of learning,
+donations of old or rare books are becoming frequent.<span class="pagenum">[Pg xiii]</span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CONTENTS.</h2>
+
+
+
+<p><span class="ralign">PAGE.</span>
+<br />
+<span class="smcap">Prologue</span>&mdash;History of Llewellyn Drury,<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_1">   1</a></span><br />
+<br />
+CHAPTER.</p>
+
+<ul class="TOC">
+<li>I. Home of Llewellyn Drury&mdash;"Never Less Alone than When Alone,"<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_3"> 3</a></span><br /></li>
+
+<li>II. A Friendly Conference with Prof. Chickering,<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_16"> 16</a></span><br /></li>
+
+<li>III. A Second Interview with the Mysterious Visitor,<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_23"> 23</a></span><br /></li>
+
+<li>IV. A Search for Knowledge&mdash;The Alchemistic Letter,<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_34"> 35</a></span><br /></li>
+
+<li>V. The Writing of "My Confession,"<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_44"> 44</a></span><br /></li>
+
+<li>VI. Kidnapped,<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_46"> 46</a></span><br /></li>
+
+<li>VII. A Wild Night&mdash;I am Prematurely Aged,<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_55"> 55</a></span><br /></li>
+
+<li>VIII. A Lesson in Mind Study,<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_63"> 63</a></span><br /></li>
+
+<li>IX. I Can Not Establish My Identity,<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_67"> 67</a></span><br /></li>
+
+<li>X. My Journey Towards the End of Earth Begins&mdash;The Adepts
+Brotherhood,<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_74"> 74</a></span><br /></li>
+
+<li>XI. My Journey Continues&mdash;Instinct,<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_80"> 80</a></span><br /></li>
+
+<li>XII. A Cavern Discovered&mdash;Biswell's Hill,<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_84"> 84</a></span><br /></li>
+
+<li>XIII. The Punch Bowls and Caverns of Kentucky&mdash;"Into the Unknown
+Country,"<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_89"> 89</a></span><br /></li>
+
+<li>XIV. Farewell to God's Sunshine&mdash;"The Echo of the Cry,"<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_99"> 99</a></span><br /></li>
+
+<li>XV. A Zone of Light, Deep Within the Earth,<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_105"> 105</a></span><br /></li>
+
+<li>XVI. Vitalized Darkness&mdash;The Narrows in Science,<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_109"> 109</a></span><br /></li>
+
+<li>XVII. The Fungus Forest&mdash;Enchantment,<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_119"> 119</a></span><br /></li>
+
+<li>XVIII. The Food of Man,<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_123"> 123</a></span><br /></li>
+
+<li>XIX. The Cry from a Distance&mdash;I Rebel Against Continuing the
+Journey,<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_128"> 128</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<p>FIRST INTERLUDE.&mdash;THE NARRATIVE INTERRUPTED.</p></li>
+
+<li>XX. My Unbidden Guest Proves His Statements, and Refutes My Philosophy,<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_134"> 134</a></span><br />
+
+<br />
+<p>MY UNBIDDEN GUEST CONTINUES HIS MANUSCRIPT.</p></li>
+
+<li>XXI. My Weight Disappearing,<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_142"> 142</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<p>SECOND INTERLUDE.</p></li>
+
+<li>XXII. The Story Again Interrupted&mdash;My Guest Departs,<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_149"> 149</a></span><br /></li>
+
+<li>XXIII. Scientific Men Questioned&mdash;Aristotle's Ether,<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_151"> 151</a></span><br /></li>
+
+<li>XXIV. The Soliloquy of Prof. Daniel Vaughn&mdash;"Gravitation is the Beginning
+and Gravitation is the End: All Earthly Bodies
+Kneel to Gravitation,"<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_156"> 156</a></span><br />
+<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg xiv]</span></p>
+
+<br />
+<p>
+THE UNBIDDEN GUEST RETURNS TO READ HIS MANUSCRIPT,<br />
+CONTINUING THE NARRATIVE.</p></li>
+
+<li>XXV. The Mother of a Volcano&mdash;"You Can Not Disprove, and You
+Dare Not Admit,"<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_162"> 162</a></span><br /></li>
+
+<li>XXVI. Motion from Inherent Energy&mdash;"Lead Me Deeper Into this
+Expanding Study,"<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_169"> 169</a></span><br /></li>
+
+<li>XXVII. Sleep, Dreams, Nightmare&mdash;"Strangle the Life from My Body,"<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_175"> 175</a></span><br />
+
+<br />
+<p>THIRD INTERLUDE.&mdash;THE NARRATIVE AGAIN INTERRUPTED.</p></li>
+
+<li>XXVIII. A Challenge&mdash;My Unbidden Guest Accepts It,<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_179"> 179</a></span><br /></li>
+
+<li>XXIX. Beware of Biology&mdash;The Science of the Life of Man&mdash;The Old
+Man relates a Story as an Object Lesson,<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_186"> 186</a></span><br /></li>
+
+<li>XXX. Looking Backward&mdash;The Living Brain,<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_193"> 193</a></span><br />
+
+<br />
+<p>THE MANUSCRIPT CONTINUED.</p></li>
+
+<li>XXXI. A Lesson on Volcanoes&mdash;Primary Colors are Capable of Farther
+Subdivision,<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_204"> 204</a></span><br /></li>
+
+<li>XXXII. Matter is Retarded Motion&mdash;"A Wail of Sadness Inexpressible,"<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_218"> 218</a></span><br /></li>
+
+<li>XXXIII. "A Study of True Science is a Study of God"&mdash;Communing
+with Angels,<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_224"> 224</a></span><br /></li>
+
+<li>XXXIV. I Cease to Breathe, and Yet Live,<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_226"> 226</a></span><br /></li>
+
+<li>XXXV. "A Certain Point Within a Circle"&mdash;Men are as Parasites on
+the Roof of Earth,<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_230"> 230</a></span><br /></li>
+
+<li>XXXVI. The Drinks of Man,<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_235"> 235</a></span><br /></li>
+
+<li>XXXVII. The Drunkard's Voice,<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_238"> 238</a></span><br /></li>
+
+<li>XXXVIII. The Drunkard's Den,<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_240"> 240</a></span><br /></li>
+
+<li>XXXIX. Among the Drunkards,<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_247"> 247</a></span><br /></li>
+
+<li>XL. Further Temptation&mdash;Etidorhpa Appears,<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_252"> 252</a></span><br /></li>
+
+<li>XLI. Misery,<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_262"> 262</a></span><br /></li>
+
+<li>XLII. Eternity Without Time,<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_272"> 272</a></span><br />
+
+<br />
+<p>FOURTH INTERLUDE.</p></li>
+
+<li>XLIII. The Last Contest,<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_277"> 277</a></span><br />
+
+<br />
+<p>THE NARRATIVE CONTINUED.</p></li>
+
+<li>XLIV. The Fathomless Abyss&mdash;The Edge of the Earth's Shell,<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_306"> 306</a></span><br /></li>
+
+<li>XLV. My Heart-throb is Stilled, and Yet I Live,<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_310"> 310</a></span><br /></li>
+
+<li>XLVI. The Inner Circle, or the End of Gravitation&mdash;In the Bottomless
+Gulf,<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_317"> 317</a></span><br /></li>
+
+<li>XLVII. Hearing Without Ears&mdash;"What Will Be the End?"<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_322"> 322</a></span><br /></li>
+
+<li>XLVIII. Why and How&mdash;The Straggling Ray of Light from those
+Farthermost Outreaches,<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_327"> 327</a></span><br /></li>
+
+<li>XLIX.  Oscillating Through Space&mdash;The Earth Shell Above Us,<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_333"> 333</a></span><br /></li>
+
+<li>L. My Weight Annihilated&mdash;"Tell me," I cried in alarm, "is this
+a Living Tomb?"<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_340"> 340</a></span><br /></li>
+
+<li>LI. Is That a Mortal?&mdash;"The End of Earth,"<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_345"> 345</a></span><br />
+
+<br />
+<p>FIFTH INTERLUDE.</p></li>
+
+<li>LII. The Last Farewell,<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_352"> 352</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Epilogue</span>&mdash;Letter Accompanying the Mysterious Manuscript,<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_360"> 360</a></span><br /></li>
+</ul>
+<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg xv]</span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<h2>ILLUSTRATIONS.</h2>
+
+<p class="title">FULL-PAGE.</p>
+<div class="LOI"><ul>
+<li><p>Likeness of The&mdash;Man&mdash;Who&mdash;Did&mdash;It.<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_i">Frontispiece</a></span></p></li>
+
+<li> <span class="ralign">PAGE.</span><br /></li>
+
+<li><p> Preface Introduction&mdash;"Here lies the bones," etc.<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_iii">iii.</a></span></p></li>
+
+<li><p>"And to my amazement, saw a white-haired man."<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_7">7, 8.</a></span></p></li>
+
+<li><p>"The same glittering, horrible, mysterious knife."<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_29">29, 30.</a></span></p></li>
+
+<li><p>"Fac-simile of the mysterious manuscript of I&mdash;Am&mdash;The&mdash;Man&mdash;Who&mdash;Did&mdash;It.<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_35">35, 36.</a></span></p></li>
+
+<li><p>"My arms were firmly grasped by two persons."<span class="ralign"><a href="#Note_1"><ins title="No illustration is found in the original book for this reference.">47.</ins></a></span></p></li>
+
+<li><p>"Map of Kentucky near entrance to cavern."<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_85">85, 86.</a></span></p></li>
+
+<li><p>"Confronted by a singular looking being."<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_95">95, 96.</a></span></p></li>
+
+<li><p>"This struggling ray of sunlight is to be your last for years."<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_101">101, 102.</a></span></p></li>
+
+<li><p>"I was in a forest of colossal fungi."<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_117">117, 118.</a></span></p></li>
+
+<li><p>"Monstrous cubical crystals."<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_131">131, 132.</a></span></p></li>
+
+<li><p>"Far as the eye could reach the glassy barrier spread as a crystal
+mirror."<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_147">147, 148.</a></span></p></li>
+
+<li><p>"Soliloquy of Prof. Daniel Vaughn&mdash;'Gravitation is the beginning,
+and gravitation is the end; all earthly bodies kneel to gravitation.'"<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_157a">157, 158.</a></span></p></li>
+
+<li><p>"We came to a metal boat."<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_165">165, 166.</a></span></p></li>
+
+<li><p>"Facing the open window he turned the pupils of his eyes upward."<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_197">197, 198.</a></span></p></li>
+
+<li><p>"We finally reached a precipitous bluff."<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_205">205, 206.</a></span></p></li>
+
+<li><p>"The wall descended perpendicularly to seemingly infinite depths."<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_209">209, 210.</a></span></p></li>
+
+<li><p>Etidorhpa.<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_255">255, 256.</a></span></p></li>
+
+<li><p>"We passed through caverns filled with creeping reptiles."<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_297">297, 298.</a></span></p></li>
+
+<li><p>"Flowers and structures beautiful, insects gorgeous."<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_303">303, 304.</a></span></p></li>
+
+<li><p>"With fear and trembling I crept on my knees to his side."<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_307">307, 308.</a></span></p></li>
+
+<li><p>Diagram descriptive of journey from the Kentucky cavern to the
+"End of Earth," showing section of earth's crust.<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_332">332, 333.</a></span></p></li>
+
+<li><p>"Suspended in vacancy, he seemed to float."<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_347">347, 348.</a></span></p></li>
+
+<li><p>"I stood alone in my room holding the mysterious manuscript."<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_357">357, 358.</a></span></p></li>
+
+<li><p>Fac-simile of letter from I&mdash;Am&mdash;The&mdash;Man.<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_363">363.</a></span></p></li>
+
+<li><p>Manuscript dedication of Author's Edition.<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_364">364, 365.</a></span></p></li></ul></div>
+
+
+<p class="title gap4">HALF-PAGE AND TEXT CUTS.</p>
+<div class="LOI"><ul>
+<li><p>
+"The Stern Face." Fac-simile, reduced from copper plate title page
+of the botanical work (1708), 917 pages, of Simonis Paulli, D., a
+Danish physician. Original plate 7 � 5-1/2 inches.<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_iv">iv.</a></span></p></li>
+
+<li><p>"The Pleasant Face." Fac-simile of the original copper plate frontispiece
+to the finely illustrated botanical work of Joannes Burmannus,
+M.D., descriptive of the plants collected by Carolus
+Plumierus. Antique. Original plate 9 � 13 inches.<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_v">v.</a></span></p>
+<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg xvi]</span></p></li>
+
+<li><p>"Skeleton forms oppose my own." Photograph of John Uri Lloyd
+in the gloomy alcove of the antiquated library.<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_vi">vi.</a></span></p></li>
+
+<li><p>"Let me have your answer now."<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_12">12.</a></span></p></li>
+
+<li><p>"I espied upon the table a long white hair."<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_14">14.</a></span></p></li>
+
+<li><p>"Drew the knife twice across the front of the door-knob."<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_32">32.</a></span></p></li>
+
+<li><p>"I was taken from the vehicle, and transferred to a block-house."<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_52">52.</a></span></p></li>
+
+<li><p>"The dead man was thrown overboard."<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_54">54.</a></span></p></li>
+
+<li><p>"A mirror was thrust beneath my gaze."<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_58">58.</a></span></p></li>
+
+<li><p>"I am the man you seek."<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_70">70.</a></span></p></li>
+
+<li><p>"We approach daylight, I can see your face."<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_106">106.</a></span></p></li>
+
+<li><p>"Seated himself on a natural bench of stone."<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_108">108.</a></span></p></li>
+
+<li><p>"An endless variety of stony figures."<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_129">129.</a></span></p></li>
+
+<li><p>Cuts showing water and brine surfaces.<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_136">136.</a></span></p></li>
+
+<li><p>Cuts showing earth chambers in which water rises above brine.<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_137">137.</a></span></p></li>
+
+<li><p>Cuts showing that if properly connected, water and brine reverse the
+usual law as to the height of their surfaces.<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_138">138, 139.</a></span></p></li>
+
+<li><p>"I bounded upward fully six feet."<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_143">143.</a></span></p></li>
+
+<li><p>"I fluttered to the earth as a leaf would fall."<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_144">144.</a></span></p></li>
+
+<li><p>"We leaped over great inequalities."<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_145">145.</a></span></p></li>
+
+<li><p>"The bit of garment fluttered listlessly away to the distance, and
+then&mdash;vacancy."<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_173">173.</a></span></p></li>
+
+<li><p>Cut showing that water may be made to flow from a tube higher
+than the surface of the water.<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_182">182.</a></span></p></li>
+
+<li><p>Cut showing how an artesian fountain may be made without earth
+strata.<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_184">184.</a></span></p></li>
+
+<li><p>"Rising abruptly, he grasped my hand."<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_191">191.</a></span></p></li>
+
+<li><p>"A brain, a living brain, my own brain."<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_200">200.</a></span></p></li>
+
+<li><p>"Shape of drop of water in the earth cavern."<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_211">211.</a></span></p></li>
+
+<li><p>"We would skip several rods, alighting gently."<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_227">227.</a></span></p></li>
+
+<li><p>"An uncontrollable, inexpressible desire to flee."<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_229">229.</a></span></p></li>
+
+<li><p>"I dropped on my knees before him."<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_232">232.</a></span></p></li>
+
+<li><p>"Handing me one of the halves, he spoke the single word, 'Drink.'"<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_234">234.</a></span></p></li>
+
+<li><p>"Each finger pointed towards the open way in front."<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_242">242.</a></span></p></li>
+
+<li><p>"Telescoped energy spheres."<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_280">280.</a></span></p></li>
+
+<li><p>"Space dirt on energy spheres."<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_281">281.</a></span></p></li>
+
+<li><p>"I drew back the bar of iron to smite the apparently defenseless
+being in the forehead."<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_313">313.</a></span></p></li>
+
+<li><p>"He sprung from the edge of the cliff into the abyss below, carrying
+me with him into its depths."<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_315">315.</a></span></p></li>
+
+<li><p>"The Earth and its atmosphere."<span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_336">336.</a></span></p></li></ul></div>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>PROLOGUE.</h2>
+
+
+<p>My name was Johannes Llewellyn Llongollyn Drury. I was
+named Llewellyn at my mother's desire, out of respect to her
+father, Dr. Evan Llewellyn, the scientist and speculative philosopher,
+well known to curious students as the author of various
+rare works on occult subjects. The other given names were
+ancestral also, but when I reached the age of appreciation, they
+naturally became distasteful; so it is that in early youth I dropped
+the first and third of these cumbersome words, and retained only
+the second Christian name. While perhaps the reader of these
+lines may regard this cognomen with less favor than either of the
+others, still I liked it, as it was the favorite of my mother, who
+always used the name in full; the world, however, contracted
+Llewellyn to Lew, much to the distress of my dear mother, who
+felt aggrieved at the liberty. After her death I decided to move
+to a western city, and also determined, out of respect to her
+memory, to select from and rearrange the letters of my several
+names, and construct therefrom three short, terse words, which
+would convey to myself only, the resemblance of my former
+name. Hence it is that the Cincinnati Directory does not record
+my self-selected name, which I have no reason to bring before
+the public. To the reader my name is Llewellyn Drury. I might
+add that my ancestors were among the early settlers of what is
+now New York City, and were direct descendants of the early
+Welsh kings; but these matters do not concern the reader, and it
+is not of them that I now choose to write. My object in putting
+down these preliminary paragraphs is simply to assure the reader
+of such facts, and such only, as may give him confidence in my
+personal sincerity and responsibility, in order that he may with a
+right understanding read the remarkable statements that occur in
+the succeeding chapters.</p>
+
+<p>The story I am about to relate is very direct, and some parts
+of it are very strange, not to say marvelous; but not on account<span class="pagenum">[Pg 2]</span>
+of its strangeness alone do I ask for the narrative a reading;&mdash;that
+were mere trifling. What is here set down happened as recorded,
+but I shall not attempt to explain things which even to myself
+are enigmatical. Let the candid reader read the story as I have
+told it, and make out of it what he can, or let him pass the page
+by unread&mdash;I shall not insist on claiming his further attention.
+Only, if he does read, I beg him to read with an open mind,
+without prejudice and without predilection.</p>
+
+<p>Who or what I am as a participant in this work is of small
+importance. I mention my history only for the sake of frankness
+and fairness. I have nothing to gain by issuing the volume.
+Neither do I court praise nor shun censure. My purpose is to
+tell the truth.</p>
+
+<p>Early in the fifties I took up my residence in the Queen City,
+and though a very young man, found the employment ready that
+a friend had obtained for me with a manufacturing firm engaged
+in a large and complicated business. My duties were varied and
+peculiar, of such a nature as to tax body and mind to the utmost,
+and for several years I served in the most exacting of business
+details. Besides the labor which my vocation entailed, with its
+manifold and multiform perplexities, I voluntarily imposed upon
+myself other tasks, which I pursued in the privacy of my own
+bachelor apartments. An inherited love for books on abstruse
+and occult subjects, probably in part the result of my blood
+connection with Dr. Evan Llewellyn, caused me to collect a
+unique library, largely on mystical subjects, in which I took the
+keenest delight. My business and my professional duties by day,
+and my studies at night, made my life a busy one.</p>
+
+<p>In the midst of my work and reading I encountered the character
+whose strange story forms the essential part of the following
+narrative. I may anticipate by saying that the manuscript to
+follow only incidentally concerns myself, and that if possible I
+would relinquish all connection therewith. It recites the physical,
+mental, and moral adventures of one whose life history was
+abruptly thrust upon my attention, and as abruptly interrupted.
+The vicissitudes of his body and soul, circumstances seemed to
+compel me to learn and to make public.<span class="pagenum">[Pg 3]</span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><b>ETIDORPHA.</b></h2>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3"></a>CHAPTER I.<br />
+<br />
+"NEVER LESS ALONE THAN WHEN ALONE."</h2>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 204px;">
+<img src="images/gs1005.jpg" width="197" height="295" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+<p>ore than thirty years ago occurred the
+first of the series of remarkable events
+I am about to relate. The exact date I
+can not recall; but it was in November,
+and, to those familiar with November weather
+in the Ohio Valley, it is hardly necessary to
+state that the month is one of possibilities.
+That is to say, it is liable to bring every variety
+of weather, from the delicious, dreamy
+Indian summer days that linger late in the
+fall, to a combination of rain, hail, snow, sleet,&mdash;in
+short, atmospheric conditions sufficiently aggravating
+to develop a suicidal mania in any one the least
+susceptible to such influences. While the general
+character of the month is much the same the country over,&mdash;showing
+dull grey tones of sky, abundant rains that penetrate
+man as they do the earth; cold, shifting winds, that search the
+very marrow,&mdash;it is always safe to count more or less upon the
+probability of the unexpected throughout the month.</p>
+
+<p>The particular day which ushered in the event about to be
+chronicled, was one of these possible heterogeneous days presenting
+a combination of sunshine, shower, and snow, with winds that
+rang all the changes from balmy to blustery, a morning air of
+caloric and an evening of numbing cold. The early morning
+started fair and sunny; later came light showers suddenly switched
+by shifting winds into blinding sleet, until the middle of the
+afternoon found the four winds and all the elements commingled
+in one wild orgy with clashing and roaring as of a great organ<span class="pagenum">[Pg 4]</span>
+with all the stops out, and all the storm-fiends dancing over the
+key-boards! Nightfall brought some semblance of order to the
+sounding chaos, but still kept up the wild music of a typical
+November day, with every accompaniment of bleakness, gloom,
+and desolation.</p>
+
+<p>Thousands of chimneys, exhaling murky clouds of bituminous
+soot all day, had covered the city with the proverbial pall which
+the winds in their sport had shifted hither and yon, but as, thoroughly
+tired out, they subsided into silence, the smoky mesh suddenly
+settled over the houses and into the streets, taking possession
+of the city and contributing to the melancholy wretchedness of
+such of the inhabitants as had to be out of doors. Through this
+smoke the red sun when visible had dragged his downward course
+in manifest discouragement, and the hastening twilight soon gave
+place to the blackness of darkness. Night reigned supreme.</p>
+
+<p>Thirty years ago electric lighting was not in vogue, and the
+system of street lamps was far less complete than at present,
+although the gas burned in them may not have been any worse.
+The lamps were much fewer and farther between, and the light
+which they emitted had a feeble, sickly aspect, and did not reach
+any distance into the moist and murky atmosphere. And so the
+night was dismal enough, and the few people upon the street
+were visible only as they passed directly beneath the lamps, or in
+front of lighted windows; seeming at other times like moving
+shadows against a black ground.</p>
+
+<p>As I am like to be conspicuous in these pages, it may be
+proper to say that I am very susceptible to atmospheric influences.
+I figure among my friends as a man of quiet disposition, but I am
+at times morose, although I endeavor to conceal this fact from
+others. My nervous system is a sensitive weather-glass. Sometimes
+I fancy that I must have been born under the planet Saturn,
+for I find myself unpleasantly influenced by moods ascribed to
+that depressing planet, more especially in its disagreeable phases,
+for I regret to state that I do not find corresponding elation, as I
+should, in its brighter aspects. I have an especial dislike for
+wintry weather, a dislike which I find growing with my years,
+until it has developed almost into positive antipathy and dread.
+On the day I have described, my moods had varied with the
+weather. The fitfulness of the winds had found its way into my<span class="pagenum">[Pg 5]</span>
+feelings, and the somber tone of the clouds into my meditations.
+I was restless as the elements, and a deep sense of dissatisfaction
+with myself and everything else, possessed me. I could not content
+myself in any place or position. Reading was distasteful,
+writing equally so; but it occurred to me that a brisk walk, for a
+few blocks, might afford relief. Muffling myself up in my overcoat
+and fur cap, I took the street, only to find the air gusty and raw,
+and I gave up in still greater disgust, and returning home, after
+drawing the curtains and locking the doors, planted myself in
+front of a glowing grate fire, firmly resolved to rid myself of
+myself by resorting to the oblivion of thought, reverie, or dream.
+To sleep was impossible, and I sat moodily in an easy chair,
+noting the quarter and half-hour strokes as they were chimed out
+sweetly from the spire of St. Peter's Cathedral, a few blocks away.</p>
+
+<p>Nine o'clock passed with its silver-voiced song of "Home,
+Sweet Home"; ten, and then eleven strokes of the ponderous
+bell which noted the hours, roused me to a strenuous effort to
+shake off the feelings of despondency, unrest, and turbulence,
+that all combined to produce a state of mental and physical misery
+now insufferable. Rising suddenly from my chair, without a
+conscious effort I walked mechanically to a book-case, seized a
+volume at random, reseated myself before the fire, and opened
+the book. It proved to be an odd, neglected volume, "Riley's
+Dictionary of Latin Quotations." At the moment there flashed
+upon me a conscious duality of existence. Had the old book
+some mesmeric power? I seemed to myself two persons, and I
+quickly said aloud, as if addressing my double: "If I can not
+quiet you, turbulent Spirit, I can at least adapt myself to your
+condition. I will read this book haphazard from bottom to top,
+or backward, if necessary, and if this does not change the subject
+often enough, I will try Noah Webster." Opening the book
+mechanically at page 297, I glanced at the bottom line and read,
+"Nunquam minus solus quam cum solus" (Never less alone than
+when alone). These words arrested my thoughts at once, as, by
+a singular chance, they seemed to fit my mood; was it or was it
+not some conscious invisible intelligence that caused me to select
+that page, and brought the apothegm to my notice?</p>
+
+<p>Again, like a flash, came the consciousness of duality, and I
+began to argue with my other self. "This is arrant nonsense,"<span class="pagenum">[Pg 6]</span>
+I cried aloud; "even though Cicero did say it, and, it is on a par
+with many other delusive maxims that have for so many years
+embittered the existence of our modern youth by misleading
+thought. Do you know, Mr. Cicero, that this statement is not
+sound? That it is unworthy the position you occupy in history
+as a thinker and philosopher? That it is a contradiction in itself,
+for if a man is alone he is alone, and that settles it?"</p>
+
+<p>I mused in this vein a few moments, and then resumed aloud:
+"It won't do, it won't do; if one is alone&mdash;the word is absolute,&mdash;he
+is single, isolated, in short, alone; and there can by no manner
+of possibility be any one else present. Take myself, for instance:
+I am the sole occupant of this apartment; I am alone, and yet
+you say in so many words that I was never less alone than at
+this instant." It was not without some misgiving that I uttered
+these words, for the strange consciousness of my own duality
+constantly grew stronger, and I could not shake off the reflection
+that even now there were two of myself in the room, and that I
+was not so much alone as I endeavored to convince myself.</p>
+
+<p>This feeling oppressed me like an incubus; I must throw it
+off, and, rising, I tossed the book upon the table, exclaiming:
+"What folly! I am alone,&mdash;positively there is no other living
+thing visible or invisible in the room." I hesitated as I spoke, for
+the strange, undefined sensation that I was not alone had become
+almost a conviction; but the sound of my voice encouraged me,
+and I determined to discuss the subject, and I remarked in a full,
+strong voice: "I am surely alone; I know I am! Why, I will
+wager everything I possess, even to my soul, that I am alone."
+I stood facing the smoldering embers of the fire which I had
+neglected to replenish, uttering these words to settle the controversy
+for good and all with one person of my dual self, but the
+other ego seemed to dissent violently, when a soft, clear voice
+claimed my ear:</p>
+
+<p>"You have lost your wager; you are not alone."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span></p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 410px;">
+<img src="images/gs1006.jpg" width="410" height="600" alt="" title="TO MY AMAZEMENT SAW A WHITE-HAIRED MAN" />
+
+<span class="caption">"AND TO MY AMAZEMENT SAW A WHITE-HAIRED MAN."</span>
+</div>
+<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg 8]</span></p>
+
+<p>I turned instantly towards the direction of the sound, and, to
+my amazement, saw a white-haired man seated on the opposite
+side of the room, gazing at me with the utmost composure. I am
+not a coward, nor a believer in ghosts or illusions, and yet that
+sight froze me where I stood. It had no supernatural appearance&mdash;on
+the contrary, was a plain, ordinary, flesh-and-blood man;
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg 9]</span>but the weather, the experiences of the day, the weird, inclement
+night, had all conspired to strain my nerves to the highest point
+of tension, and I trembled from head to foot. Noting this, the
+stranger said pleasantly: "Quiet yourself, my dear sir; you have
+nothing to fear; be seated." I obeyed, mechanically, and regaining
+in a few moments some semblance of composure, took a
+mental inventory of my visitor. Who is he? what is he? how
+did he enter without my notice, and why? what is his business?
+were all questions that flashed into my mind in quick succession,
+and quickly flashed out unanswered.</p>
+
+<p>The stranger sat eying me composedly, even pleasantly, as if
+waiting for me to reach some conclusion regarding himself. At
+last I surmised: "He is a maniac who has found his way here by
+methods peculiar to the insane, and my personal safety demands
+that I use him discreetly."</p>
+
+<p>"Very good," he remarked, as though reading my thoughts;
+"as well think that as anything else."</p>
+
+<p>"But why are you here? What is your business?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"You have made and lost a wager," he said. "You have
+committed an act of folly in making positive statements regarding
+a matter about which you know nothing&mdash;a very common failing,
+by the way, on the part of mankind, and concerning which I wish
+first to set you straight."</p>
+
+<p>The ironical coolness with which he said this provoked me,
+and I hastily rejoined: "You are impertinent; I must ask you to
+leave my house at once."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well," he answered; "but if you insist upon this, I shall,
+on behalf of Cicero, claim the stake of your voluntary wager,
+which means that I must first, by natural though violent means,
+release your soul from your body." So saying he arose, drew
+from an inner pocket a long, keen knife, the blade of which
+quiveringly glistened as he laid it upon the table. Moving his
+chair so as to be within easy reach of the gleaming weapon, he
+sat down, and again regarded me with the same quiet composure
+I had noted, and which was fast dispelling my first impression
+concerning his sanity.</p>
+
+<p>I was not prepared for his strange action; in truth, I was not
+prepared for anything; my mind was confused concerning the
+whole night's doings, and I was unable to reason clearly or<span class="pagenum">[Pg 10]</span>
+consecutively, or even to satisfy myself what I did think, if
+indeed I thought at all.</p>
+
+<p>The sensation of fear, however, was fast leaving me; there
+was something reassuring in my unbidden guest's perfect ease of
+manner, and the mild, though searching gaze of his eyes, which
+were wonderful in their expression. I began to observe his
+personal characteristics, which impressed me favorably, and yet
+were extraordinary. He was nearly six feet tall, and perfectly
+straight; well proportioned, with no tendency either to leanness
+or obesity. But his head was an object from which I could not
+take my eyes,&mdash;such a head surely I had never before seen on
+mortal shoulders. The chin, as seen through his silver beard, was
+rounded and well developed, the mouth straight, with pleasant
+lines about it, the jaws square and, like the mouth, indicating
+decision, the eyes deep set and arched with heavy eyebrows, and
+the whole surmounted by a forehead so vast, so high, that it was
+almost a deformity, and yet it did not impress me unpleasantly; it
+was the forehead of a scholar, a profound thinker, a deep student.
+The nose was inclined to aquiline, and quite large. The contour of
+the head and face impressed me as indicating a man of learning,
+one who had given a lifetime to experimental as well as speculative
+thought. His voice was mellow, clear, and distinct, always pleasantly
+modulated and soft, never loud nor unpleasant in the least
+degree. One remarkable feature I must not fail to mention&mdash;his
+hair; this, while thin and scant upon the top of his head, was
+long, and reached to his shoulders; his beard was of unusual
+length, descending almost to his waist; his hair, eyebrows, and
+beard were all of singular whiteness and purity, almost transparent,
+a silvery whiteness that seemed an aureolar sheen in the
+glare of the gaslight. What struck me as particularly remarkable
+was that his skin looked as soft and smooth as that of a child;
+there was not a blemish in it. His age was a puzzle none could
+guess; stripped of his hair, or the color of it changed, he might
+be twenty-five,&mdash;given a few wrinkles, he might be ninety. Taken
+altogether, I had never seen his like, nor anything approaching his
+like, and for an instant there was a faint suggestion to my mind
+that he was not of this earth, but belonged to some other planet.</p>
+
+<p>I now fancy he must have read my impressions of him as these
+ideas shaped themselves in my brain, and that he was quietly<span class="pagenum">[Pg 11]</span>
+waiting for me to regain a degree of self-possession that would
+allow him to disclose the purpose of his visit.</p>
+
+<p>He was first to break the silence: "I see that you are not
+disposed to pay your wager any more than I am to collect it, so we
+will not discuss that. I admit that my introduction to-night was
+abrupt, but you can not deny that you challenged me to appear."
+I was not clear upon the point, and said so. "Your memory is
+at fault," he continued, "if you can not recall your experiences
+of the day just past. Did you not attempt to interest yourself in
+modern book lore, to fix your mind in turn upon history, chemistry,
+botany, poetry, and general literature? And all these failing,
+did you not deliberately challenge Cicero to a practical demonstration
+of an old apothegm of his that has survived for centuries,
+and of your own free will did not you make a wager that, as an
+admirer of Cicero's, I am free to accept?" To all this I could but
+silently assent. "Very good, then; we will not pursue this subject
+further, as it is not relevant to my purpose, which is to acquaint
+you with a narrative of unusual interest, upon certain conditions,
+with which if you comply, you will not only serve yourself, but
+me as well."</p>
+
+<p>"Please name the conditions," I said.</p>
+
+<p>"They are simple enough," he answered. "The narrative I
+speak of is in manuscript. I will produce it in the near future,
+and my design is to read it aloud to you, or to allow you to read
+it to me, as you may select. Further, my wish is that during the
+reading you shall interpose any objection or question that you
+deem proper. This reading will occupy many evenings, and I
+shall of necessity be with you often. When the reading is concluded,
+we will seal the package securely, and I shall leave you
+forever. You will then deposit the manuscript in some safe
+place, and let it remain for thirty years. When this period has
+elapsed, I wish you to publish this history to the world."</p>
+
+<p>"Your conditions seem easy," I said, after a few seconds' pause.</p>
+
+<p>"They are certainly very simple; do you accept?"</p>
+
+<p>I hesitated, for the prospect of giving myself up to a succession
+of interviews with this extraordinary and mysterious
+personage seemed to require consideration. He evidently divined
+my thoughts, for, rising from his chair, he said abruptly: "Let
+me have your answer now."<span class="pagenum">[Pg 12]</span></p>
+
+<p>I debated the matter no further, but answered: "I accept,
+conditionally."</p>
+
+<p>"Name your conditions," the guest replied.</p>
+
+<p>"I will either publish the work, or induce some other man to
+do so."</p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/gs1007.jpg" width="600" height="497" alt="" title="LET ME HAVE YOUR ANSWER NOW." />
+<span class="caption">"LET ME HAVE YOUR ANSWER NOW."</span>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>"Good," he said; "I will see you again," with a polite bow;
+and turning to the door which I had previously locked, he opened
+it softly, and with a quiet "Good night" disappeared in the
+hall-way.</p>
+
+<p>I looked after him with bewildered senses; but a sudden
+impulse caused me to glance toward the table, when I saw that he
+had forgotten his knife. With the view of returning this, I reached
+to pick it up, but my finger tips no sooner touched the handle
+than a sudden chill shivered along my nerves. Not as an electric
+shock, but rather as a sensation of extreme cold was the current
+that ran through me in an instant. Rushing into the hall-way to<span class="pagenum">[Pg 13]</span>
+the landing of the stairs, I called after the mysterious being,
+"You have forgotten your knife," but beyond the faint echo of my
+voice, I heard no sound. The phantom was gone. A moment
+later I was at the foot of the stairs, and had thrown open the
+door. A street lamp shed an uncertain light in front of the
+house. I stepped out and listened intently for a moment, but not
+a sound was audible, if indeed I except the beating of my own
+heart, which throbbed so wildly that I fancied I heard it. No
+footfall echoed from the deserted streets; all was silent as a
+churchyard, and I closed and locked the door softly, tiptoed my
+way back to my room, and sank collapsed into an easy chair. I
+was more than exhausted; I quivered from head to foot, not with
+cold, but with a strange nervous chill that found intensest expression
+in my spinal column, and seemed to flash up and down my
+back vibrating like a feverous pulse. This active pain was
+succeeded by a feeling of frozen numbness, and I sat I know not
+how long, trying to tranquilize myself and think temperately of
+the night's occurrence. By degrees I recovered my normal
+sensations, and directing my will in the channel of sober
+reasoning, I said to myself: "There can be no mistake about
+his visit, for his knife is here as a witness to the fact. So
+much is sure, and I will secure that testimony at all events."
+With this reflection I turned to the table, but to my astonishment
+I discovered that the knife had disappeared. It needed but this
+miracle to start the perspiration in great cold beads from every
+pore. My brain was in a whirl, and reeling into a chair, I covered
+my face with my hands. How long I sat in this posture
+I do not remember. I only know that I began to doubt my own
+sanity, and wondered if this were not the way people became
+deranged. Had not my peculiar habits of isolation, irregular and
+intense study, erratic living, all conspired to unseat reason?
+Surely here was every ground to believe so; and yet I was able
+still to think consistently and hold steadily to a single line of
+thought. Insane people can not do that, I reflected, and gradually
+the tremor and excitement wore away. When I had become
+calmer and more collected, and my sober judgment said, "Go to
+bed; sleep just as long as you can; hold your eyelids down, and
+when you awake refreshed, as you will, think out the whole
+subject at your leisure," I arose, threw open the shutters, and<span class="pagenum">[Pg 14]</span>
+found that day was breaking. Hastily undressing I went to
+bed, and closed my eyes, vaguely conscious of some soothing
+guardianship. Perhaps because I was physically exhausted, I
+soon lost myself in the oblivion of sleep.</p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 459px;">
+<img src="images/gs1008.jpg" width="459" height="600" alt="" title="I ESPIED UPON THE TABLE A LONG WHITE HAIR." />
+<span class="caption">"I ESPIED UPON THE TABLE A LONG WHITE HAIR."</span>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>I did not dream,&mdash;at least I could not afterwards remember my
+dream if I had one, but I recollect thinking that somebody
+struck ten distinct blows on my door, which seemed to me
+to be of metal and very sonorous. These ten blows in my
+semi-conscious state I counted. I lay very quiet for a time
+collecting my thoughts and noting various objects about the
+room, until my eye caught the dial of a French clock upon the<span class="pagenum">[Pg 15]</span>
+mantel. It was a few minutes past ten, and the blows I had
+heard were the strokes of the hammer upon the gong in the
+clock. The sun was shining into the room, which was quite cold,
+for the fire had gone out. I arose, dressed myself quickly, and
+after thoroughly laving my face and hands in ice-cold water, felt
+considerably refreshed.</p>
+
+<p>Before going out to breakfast, while looking around the room
+for a few things which I wanted to take with me, I espied upon
+the table a long white hair. This was indeed a surprise, for I had
+about concluded that my adventure of the previous night was
+a species of waking nightmare, the result of overworked brain
+and weakened body. But here was tangible evidence to the
+contrary, an assurance that my mysterious visitor was not a
+fancy or a dream, and his parting words, "I will see you again,"
+recurred to me with singular effect. "He will see me again;
+very well; I will preserve this evidence of his visit for future
+use." I wound the delicate filament into a little coil, folded it
+carefully in a bit of paper, and consigned it to a corner in my
+pocket-book, though not without some misgiving that it too
+might disappear as did the knife.</p>
+
+<p>The strange experience of that night had a good effect on
+me; I became more regular in all my habits, took abundant
+sleep and exercise, was more methodical in my modes of study
+and reasoning, and in a short time found myself vastly improved
+in every way, mentally and physically.</p>
+
+<p>The days went fleeting into weeks, the weeks into months,
+and while the form and figure of the white-haired stranger
+were seldom absent from my mind, he came no more.<span class="pagenum">[Pg 16]</span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16"></a>CHAPTER II.<br />
+<br />
+A FRIENDLY CONFERENCE.</h2>
+
+
+<p>It is rare, in our present civilization, to find a man who lives
+alone. This remark does not apply to hermits or persons of
+abnormal or perverted mental tendencies, but to the majority of
+mankind living and moving actively among their fellows, and
+engaged in the ordinary occupations of humanity. Every man
+must have at least one confidant, either of his own household, or
+within the circle of his intimate friends. There may possibly
+be rare exceptions among persons of genius in statecraft, war,
+or commerce, but it is doubtful even in such instances if any
+keep all their thoughts to themselves, hermetically sealed from
+their fellows. As a prevailing rule, either a loving wife or very
+near friend shares the inner thought of the most secretive
+individual, even when secrecy seems an indispensable element
+to success. The tendency to a free interchange of ideas and
+experiences is almost universal, instinct prompting the natural
+man to unburden his most sacred thought, when the proper
+confidant and the proper time come for the disclosure.</p>
+
+<p>For months I kept to myself the events narrated in the
+preceding chapter. And this for several reasons: first, the dread
+of ridicule that would follow the relation of the fantastic occurrences,
+and the possible suspicion of my sanity, that might result
+from the recital; second, very grave doubts as to the reality of
+my experiences. But by degrees self-confidence was restored,
+as I reasoned the matter over and reassured myself by occasional
+contemplation of the silvery hair I had coiled in my
+pocket-book, and which at first I had expected would vanish as
+did the stranger's knife. There came upon me a feeling that I
+should see my weird visitor again, and at an early day. I resisted
+this impression, for it was a feeling of the idea, rather than a
+thought, but the vague expectation grew upon me in spite of
+myself, until at length it became a conviction which no argument<span class="pagenum">[Pg 17]</span>
+or logic could shake. Curiously enough, as the original incident
+receded into the past, this new idea thrust itself into the foreground,
+and I began in my own mind to court another interview.
+At times, sitting alone after night, I felt that I was watched by
+unseen eyes; these eyes haunted me in my solitude, and I was
+morally sure of the presence of another than myself in the room.
+The sensation was at first unpleasant, and I tried to throw it off,
+with partial success. But only for a little while could I banish
+the intrusive idea, and as the thought took form, and the invisible
+presence became more actual to consciousness, I hoped that the
+stranger would make good his parting promise, "I will see you
+again."</p>
+
+<p>On one thing I was resolved; I would at least be better
+informed on the subject of hallucinations and apparitions, and
+not be taken unawares as I had been. To this end I decided
+to confer with my friend, Professor Chickering, a quiet, thoughtful
+man, of varied accomplishments, and thoroughly read upon
+a great number of topics, especially in the literature of the
+marvelous.</p>
+
+<p>So to the Professor I went, after due appointment, and
+confided to him full particulars of my adventure. He listened
+patiently throughout, and when I had finished, assured me in a
+matter-of-fact way that such hallucinations were by no means
+rare. His remark was provoking, for I did not expect from the
+patient interest he had shown while I was telling my story, that
+the whole matter would be dismissed thus summarily. I said
+with some warmth:</p>
+
+<p>"But this was not a hallucination. I tried at first to persuade
+myself that it was illusory, but the more I have thought the
+experience over, the more real it becomes to me."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps you were dreaming," suggested the Professor.</p>
+
+<p>"No," I answered; "I have tried that hypothesis, and it will
+not do. Many things make that view untenable."</p>
+
+<p>"Do not be too sure of that," he said; "you were, by your
+own account, in a highly nervous condition, and physically tired.
+It is possible, perhaps probable, that in this state, as you sat in
+your chair, you dozed off for a short interval, during which the
+illusion flashed through your mind."<span class="pagenum">[Pg 18]</span></p>
+
+<p>"How do you explain the fact that incidents occupying a
+large portion of the night, occurred in an interval which you
+describe as a flash?"</p>
+
+<p>"Easily enough; in dreams time may not exist: periods
+embracing weeks or months may be reduced to an instant.
+Long journeys, hours of conversation, or a multitude of transactions,
+may be compressed into a term measured by the opening
+or closing of a door, or the striking of a clock. In dreams,
+ordinary standards of reason find no place, while ideas or events
+chase through the mind more rapidly than thought."</p>
+
+<p>"Conceding all this, why did I, considering the unusual
+character of the incidents, accept them as real, as substantial,
+as natural as the most commonplace events?"</p>
+
+<p>"There is nothing extraordinary in that," he replied. "In
+dreams all sorts of absurdities, impossibilities, discordancies,
+and violation of natural law appear realities, without exciting
+the least surprise or suspicion. Imagination runs riot and is
+supreme, and reason for the time is dormant. We see ghosts,
+spirits, the forms of persons dead or living,&mdash;we suffer pain,
+pleasure, hunger,&mdash;and all sensations and emotions, without a
+moment's question of their reality."</p>
+
+<p>"Do any of the subjects of our dreams or visions leave
+tangible evidences of their presence?"</p>
+
+<p>"Assuredly not," he answered, with an incredulous, half-impatient
+gesture; "the idea is absurd."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I was not dreaming," I mused.</p>
+
+<p>Without looking at me, the Professor went on: "These false
+presentiments may have their origin in other ways, as from mental
+disorders caused by indigestion. Nicolai, a noted bookseller of
+Berlin, was thus afflicted. His experiences are interesting and
+possibly suggestive. Let me read some of them to you."</p>
+
+<p>The Professor hereupon glanced over his bookshelf, selected
+a volume, and proceeded to read:<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"I generally saw human forms of both sexes; but they usually seemed not
+to take the smallest notice of each other, moving as in a market place, where
+all are eager to press through the crowd; at times, however, they seemed to be
+transacting business with each other. I also saw several times, people on
+horseback, dogs, and birds.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg 19]</span></p>
+<p>"All these phantasms appeared to me in their natural size, and as distinct
+as if alive, exhibiting different shades of carnation in the uncovered parts, as
+well as different colors and fashions in their dresses, though the colors seemed
+somewhat paler than in real nature. None of the figures appeared particularly
+terrible, comical, or disgusting, most of them being of indifferent shape, and
+some presenting a pleasant aspect. The longer these phantasms continued to
+visit me, the more frequently did they return, while at the same time they
+increased in number about four weeks after they had first appeared. I also
+began to hear them talk: these phantoms conversed among themselves, but
+more frequently addressed their discourse to me; their speeches were uncommonly
+short, and never of an unpleasant turn. At different times there
+appeared to me both dear and sensible friends of both sexes, whose addresses
+tended to appease my grief, which had not yet wholly subsided: their consolatory
+speeches were in general addressed to me when I was alone. Sometimes,
+however, I was accosted by these consoling friends while I was engaged in
+company, and not unfrequently while real persons were speaking to me.
+These consolatory addresses consisted sometimes of abrupt phrases, and at
+other times they were regularly executed."</p></blockquote>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> This work I have found to be Vol. IV. of Chambers' Miscellany,
+published by Gould and Lincoln, Boston.&mdash;J. U. L.</p></div>
+
+<p>Here I interrupted: "I note, Professor, that Mr. Nicolai
+knew these forms to be illusions."</p>
+
+<p>Without answering my remark, he continued to read:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"There is in imagination a potency far exceeding the fabled power of
+Aladdin's lamp. How often does one sit in wintry evening musings, and trace
+in the glowing embers the features of an absent friend? Imagination, with its
+magic wand, will there build a city with its countless spires, or marshal
+contending armies, or drive the tempest-shattered ship upon the ocean. The
+following story, related by Scott, affords a good illustration of this principle:</p>
+
+<p>"'Not long after the death of an illustrious poet, who had filled, while
+living, a great station in the eyes of the public, a literary friend, to whom the
+deceased had been well known, was engaged during the darkening twilight of
+an autumn evening, in perusing one of the publications which professed to
+detail the habits and opinions of the distinguished individual who was now no
+more. As the reader had enjoyed the intimacy of the deceased to a considerable
+degree, he was deeply interested in the publication, which contained some
+particulars relating to himself and other friends. A visitor was sitting in the
+apartment, who was also engaged in reading. Their sitting-room opened into
+an entrance hall, rather fantastically fitted up with articles of armor, skins of
+wild animals, and the like. It was when laying down his book, and passing
+into this hall, through which the moon was beginning to shine, that the
+individual of whom I speak saw right before him, in a standing posture, the
+exact representation of his departed friend, whose recollection had been so
+strongly brought to his imagination. He stopped for a single moment, so as
+to notice the wonderful accuracy with which fancy had impressed upon the
+bodily eye the peculiarities of dress and position of the illustrious poet.
+Sensible, however, of the delusion, he felt no sentiment save that of wonder at
+the extraordinary accuracy of the resemblance, and stepped onward to the
+figure, which resolved itself as he approached into the various materials of<span class="pagenum">[Pg 20]</span>
+which it was composed. These were merely a screen occupied by great coats,
+shawls, plaids, and such other articles as are usually found in a country
+entrance hall. The spectator returned to the spot from which he had seen the
+illusion, and endeavored with all his power to recall the image which had been
+so singularly vivid. But this he was unable to do. And the person who had
+witnessed the apparition, or, more properly, whose excited state had been the
+means of raising it, had only to return to the apartment, and tell his young
+friend under what a striking hallucination he had for a moment labored.'"</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Here I was constrained to call the Professor to a halt. "Your
+stories are very interesting," I said, "but I fail to perceive any
+analogy in either the conditions or the incidents, to my experience.
+I was fully awake and conscious at the time, and the man I saw
+appeared and moved about in the full glare of the gaslight,"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps not," he answered; "I am simply giving you some
+general illustrations of the subject. But here is a case more to
+the point."</p>
+
+<p>Again he read:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"A lady was once passing through a wood, in the darkening twilight of a
+stormy evening, to visit a friend who was watching over a dying child. The
+clouds were thick&mdash;the rain beginning to fall; darkness was increasing; the
+wind was moaning mournfully through the trees. The lady's heart almost
+failed her as she saw that she had a mile to walk through the woods in the
+gathering gloom. But the reflection of the situation of her friend forbade her
+turning back. Excited and trembling, she called to her aid a nervous resolution,
+and pressed onward. She had not proceeded far when she beheld in the
+path before her the movement of some very indistinct object. It appeared to
+keep a little distance ahead of her, and as she made efforts to get nearer to see
+what it was, it seemed proportionally to recede. The lady began to feel rather
+unpleasantly. There was some pale white object certainly discernible before
+her, and it appeared mysteriously to float along, at a regular distance, without
+any effort at motion. Notwithstanding the lady's good sense and unusual
+resolution, a cold chill began to come over her. She made every effort to resist
+her fears, and soon succeeded in drawing nearer the mysterious object, when
+she was appalled at beholding the features of her friend's child, cold in death,
+wrapt in its shroud. She gazed earnestly, and there it remained distinct and
+clear before her eyes. She considered it a premonition that her friend's child
+was dead, and that she must hasten to her aid. But there was the apparition
+directly in her path. She must pass it. Taking up a little stick, she forced
+herself along to the object, and behold, some little animal scampered away. It
+was this that her excited imagination had transformed into the corpse of an
+infant in its winding sheet."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>I was a little irritated, and once more interrupted the reader
+warmly: "This is exasperating. Now what resemblance is there
+between the vagaries of a hysterical, weak-minded woman, and
+my case?"<span class="pagenum">[Pg 21]</span></p>
+
+<p>He smiled, and again read:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"The numerous stories told of ghosts, or the spirits of persons who are
+dead, will in most instances be found to have originated in diseased imagination,
+aggravated by some abnormal defect of mind. We may mention a
+remarkable case in point, and one which is not mentioned in English works
+on this subject; it is told by a compiler of Les Causes C�l�bres. Two young
+noblemen, the Marquises De Rambouillet and De Precy, belonging to two of
+the first families of France, made an agreement, in the warmth of their
+friendship, that the one who died first should return to the other with tidings
+of the world to come. Soon afterwards De Rambouillet went to the wars in
+Flanders, while De Precy remained at Paris, stricken by a fever. Lying alone
+in bed, and severely ill, De Precy one day heard a rustling of his bed curtains,
+and turning round, saw his friend De Rambouillet, in full military attire. The
+sick man sprung over the bed to welcome his friend, but the other receded, and
+said that he had come to fulfill his promise, having been killed on that very
+day. He further said that it behooved De Precy to think more of the afterworld,
+as all that was said of it was true, and as he himself would die in his
+first battle. De Precy was then left by the phantom; and it was afterward
+found that De Rambouillet had fallen on that day."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>"Ah," I said, "and so the phantom predicted an event that
+followed as indicated."</p>
+
+<p>"Spiritual illusions," explained the Professor, "are not
+unusual, and well authenticated cases are not wanting in
+which they have been induced in persons of intelligence by
+functional or organic disorders. In the last case cited, the
+prediction was followed by a fulfillment, but this was chance
+or mere coincidence. It would be strange indeed if in the
+multitude of dreams that come to humanity, some few should
+not be followed by events so similar as to warrant the belief
+that they were prefigured. But here is an illustration that
+fits your case: let me read it:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"In some instances it may be difficult to decide whether spectral appearances
+and spectral noises proceed from physical derangement or from an
+overwrought state of mind. Want of exercise and amusement may also be a
+prevailing cause. A friend mentions to us the following case: An acquaintance
+of his, a merchant, in London, who had for years paid very close attention to
+business, was one day, while alone in his counting house, very much surprised
+to hear, as he imagined, persons outside the door talking freely about him.
+Thinking it was some acquaintances who were playing off a trick, he opened
+the door to request them to come in, when to his amazement, he found that
+nobody was there. He again sat down to his desk, and in a few minutes the
+same dialogue recommenced. The language was very alarming. One voice
+seemed to say: 'We have the scoundrel in his own counting house; let us go
+in and seize him.' 'Certainly,' replied the other voice, 'it is right to take him;
+he has been guilty of a great crime, and ought to be brought to condign<span class="pagenum">[Pg 22]</span>
+punishment.' Alarmed at these threats, the bewildered merchant rushed to the
+door; and there again no person was to be seen. He now locked his door and
+went home; but the voices, as he thought, followed him through the crowd,
+and he arrived at his house in a most unenviable state of mind. Inclined to
+ascribe the voices to derangement in mind, he sent for a medical attendant, and
+told his case, and a certain kind of treatment was prescribed. This, however,
+failed; the voices menacing him with punishment for purely imaginary crimes
+continued, and he was reduced to the brink of despair. At length a friend
+prescribed entire relaxation from business, and a daily game of cricket, which,
+to his great relief, proved an effectual remedy. The exercise banished the
+phantom voices, and they were no more heard."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>"So you think that I am in need of out-door exercise?"</p>
+
+<p>"Exactly."</p>
+
+<p>"And that my experience was illusory, the result of vertigo,
+or some temporary calenture of the brain?"</p>
+
+<p>"To be plain with you, yes."</p>
+
+<p>"But I asked you a while ago if specters or phantoms ever
+leave tangible evidence of their presence." The Professor's eyes
+dilated in interrogation. I continued: "Well, this one did.
+After I had followed him out, I found on the table a long, white
+hair, which I still have," and producing the little coil from my
+pocket-book, I handed it to him. He examined it curiously,
+eyed me furtively, and handed it back with the cautious remark:</p>
+
+<p>"I think you had better commence your exercise at once."<span class="pagenum">[Pg 23]</span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23"></a>CHAPTER III.<br />
+<br />
+A SECOND INTERVIEW WITH THE MYSTERIOUS VISITOR.</h2>
+
+
+<p>It is not pleasant to have one's mental responsibility brought
+in question, and the result of my interview with Professor
+Chickering was, to put it mildly, unsatisfactory. Not that he
+had exactly questioned my sanity, but it was all too evident that
+he was disposed to accept my statement of a plain matter-of-fact
+occurrence with a too liberal modicum of salt. I say "matter-of-fact
+occurrence" in full knowledge of the truth that I myself
+had at first regarded the whole transaction as a fantasia or flight
+of mind, the result of extreme nervous tension; but in the
+interval succeeding I had abundant opportunity to correlate my
+thoughts, and to bring some sort of order out of the mental and
+physical chaos of that strange, eventful night. True, the
+preliminary events leading up to it were extraordinary; the
+dismal weather, the depression of body and spirit under which
+I labored, the wild whirl of thought keeping pace with the
+elements&mdash;in short, a general concatenation of events that
+seemed to be ordered especially for the introduction of some
+abnormal visitor&mdash;the night would indeed have been incomplete
+without a ghost! But was it a ghost? There was nothing
+ghostly about my visitor, except the manner of his entrance and
+exit. In other respects, he seemed substantial enough. He
+was, in his manners, courteous and polished as a Chesterfield;
+learned as a savant in his conversation; human in his thoughtful
+regard of my fears and misgivings; but that tremendous
+forehead, with its crown of silver hair, the long, translucent
+beard of pearly whiteness, and above all the astounding facility
+with which he read my hidden thoughts&mdash;these were not natural.</p>
+
+<p>The Professor had been patient with me&mdash;I had a right
+to expect that; he was entertaining to the extent of reading
+such excerpts as he had with him on the subject of hallucinations
+and their supposed causes, but had he not spoiled all by<span class="pagenum">[Pg 24]</span>
+assigning me at last to a place with the questionable, unbalanced
+characters he had cited? I thought so, and the reflection
+provoked me; and this thought grew upon me until I came to
+regard his stories and attendant theories as so much literary
+trash.</p>
+
+<p>My own reflections had been sober and deliberate, and had
+led me to seek a rational explanation of the unusual phenomena.
+I had gone to Professor Chickering for a certain measure of
+sympathy, and what was more to the point, to secure his
+suggestions and assistance in the further unraveling of a
+profound mystery that might contain a secret of untold use to
+humanity. Repulsed by the mode in which my confidence had
+been received, I decided to do what I should have done from
+the outset&mdash;to keep my own counsel, and to follow alone the
+investigation to the end, no matter what the result might be.
+I could not forget or ignore the silver hair I had so religiously
+preserved. That was genuine; it was as tangible, as real, as
+convincing a witness as would have been the entire head of my
+singular visitant, whatever might be his nature.</p>
+
+<p>I began to feel at ease the moment my course was decided,
+and the feeling was at once renewed within me that the gray
+head would come again, and by degrees that expectation ripened
+into a desire, only intensified as the days sped by. The weeks
+passed into months; summer came and went; autumn was fast
+fading, but the mysterious unknown did not appear. A curious
+fancy led me now to regard him as my friend, for the mixed
+and indefinite feelings I felt at first towards him had almost
+unaccountably been changed to those of sincere regard. He
+was not always in my thoughts, for I had abundant occupation
+at all times to keep both brain and hands busy, but there were
+few evenings in which I did not, just before retiring, give myself
+up for a brief period to quiet communion with my own thoughts,
+and I must confess at such times the unknown occupied the
+larger share of attention. The constant contemplation of any
+theme begets a feeling of familiarity or acquaintance with the
+same, and if that subject be an individual, as in the present
+instance, such contemplation lessens the liability to surprise from
+any unexpected development. In fact, I not only anticipated a
+visit, but courted it. The old Latin maxim that I had played<span class="pagenum">[Pg 25]</span>
+with, "Never less alone than when alone" had domiciled itself
+within my brain as a permanent lodger&mdash;a conviction, a feeling
+rather than a thought defined, and I had but little difficulty in
+associating an easy-chair which I had come to place in a certain
+position for my expected visitor, with his presence.</p>
+
+<p>Indian summer had passed, and the fall was nearly gone
+when for some inexplicable reason the number seven began to
+haunt me. What had I to do with seven, or seven with me?
+When I sat down at night this persistent number mixed itself in
+my thoughts, to my intense annoyance. Bother take the mystic
+numeral! What was I to do with seven? I found myself asking
+this question audibly one evening, when it suddenly occurred to
+me that I would refer to the date of my friend's visit. I kept no
+journal, but reference to a record of some business transactions
+that I had associated with that event showed that it took place
+on November seventh. That settled the importunate seven! I
+should look for whomever he was on the first anniversary of his
+visit, which was the seventh, now close at hand. The instant I
+had reached this conclusion the number left me, and troubled
+me no more.</p>
+
+<p>November third had passed, the fourth, and the fifth had
+come, when a stubborn, protesting notion entered my mind that
+I was yielding to a superstitious idea, and that it was time to
+control my vacillating will. Accordingly on this day I sent
+word to a friend that, if agreeable to him, I would call on him
+on the evening of the seventh for a short social chat, but as I
+expected to be engaged until later than usual, would he excuse
+me if I did not reach his apartments until ten? The request
+was singular, but as I was now accounted somewhat odd, it
+excited no comment, and the answer was returned, requesting
+me to come. The seventh of November came at last. I was
+nervous during the day, which seemed to drag tediously,
+and several times it was remarked of me that I seemed
+abstracted and ill at ease, but I held my peace. Night came
+cold and clear, and the stars shone brighter than usual, I
+thought. It was a sharp contrast to the night of a year ago.
+I took an early supper, for which I had no appetite, after which
+I strolled aimlessly about the streets, revolving how I should
+put in the time till ten o'clock, when I was to call upon my<span class="pagenum">[Pg 26]</span>
+friend. I decided to go to the theater, and to the theater I went.
+The play was spectacular, "Aladdin; or, The Wonderful Lamp."
+The entertainment, to me, was a flat failure, for I was busy with
+my thoughts, and it was not long until my thoughts were busy
+with me, and I found myself attempting to answer a series of
+questions that finally became embarrassing. "Why did you make
+an appointment for ten o'clock instead of eight, if you wished
+to keep away from your apartments?" I hadn't thought of that
+before; it was stupid to a degree, if not ill-mannered, and I
+frankly admitted as much. "Why did you make an appointment
+at all, in the face of the fact that you not only expected a
+visitor, but were anxious to meet him?" This was easily
+answered: because I did not wish to yield to what struck me as
+superstition. "But do you expect to extend your call until
+morning?" Well, no, I hadn't thought or arranged to do so.
+"Well, then, what is to prevent your expected guest from
+awaiting your return? Or, what assurance have you that he
+will not encounter you in the street, under circumstances that
+will provoke or, at the least, embarrass you?" None whatever.
+"Then what have you gained by your stupid perversity?"
+Nothing, beyond the assertion of my own individuality. "Why
+not go home and receive your guest in becoming style?" No; I
+would not do that. I had started on this course, and I would
+persevere in it. I would be consistent. And so I persisted,
+at least until nine o'clock, when I quit the theater in sullen
+dejection, and went home to make some slight preparation for
+my evening call.</p>
+
+<p>With my latch-key I let myself into the front door of the
+apartment house wherein I lodged, walked through the hall, up
+the stair-case, and paused on the threshold of my room, wondering
+what I would find inside. Opening the door I entered, leaving
+it open behind me so that the light from the hall-way would shine
+into the room, which was dark, and there was no transom above
+the door. The grate fire had caked into a solid mass of charred
+bituminous coal, which shed no illumination beyond a faint red
+glow at the bottom, showing that it was barely alive, and no
+more. I struck a match on the underside of the mantel shelf,
+and as I lit the gas I heard the click of the door latch. I turned
+instantly; the door had been gently closed by some unknown<span class="pagenum">[Pg 27]</span>
+force if not by unseen hands, for there was no breath of air
+stirring. This preternatural interference was not pleasant, for I
+had hoped in the event of another visit from my friend, if friend
+he was, that he would bring no uncanny or ghostly manifestation
+to disturb me. I looked at the clock; the index pointed to half
+past nine. I glanced about the room; it was orderly, everything
+in proper position, even to the arm-chair that I had been wont to
+place for my nondescript visitor. It was time to be going, so I
+turned to the dressing case, brushed my hair, put on a clean scarf,
+and moved towards the wash-stand, which stood in a little alcove
+on the opposite side of the room. My self-command well-nigh
+deserted me as I did so, for there, in the arm-chair that a moment
+before was empty, sat my guest of a year ago, facing me with
+placid features! The room began to revolve, a faint, sick feeling
+came over me, and I reeled into the first convenient chair, and
+covered my face with my hands. This depression lasted but an
+instant, however, and as I recovered self-possession, I felt or
+fancied I felt a pair of penetrating eyes fixed upon me with
+the same mild, searching gaze I remembered so well. I ventured
+to look up; sure enough, there they were, the beaming eyes, and
+there was he! Rising from his chair, he towered up to his full
+height, smiled pleasantly, and with a slight inclination of the
+head, murmured: "Permit me to wish you good evening; I am
+profoundly glad to meet you again."</p>
+
+<p>It was full a minute before I could muster courage to answer:
+"I wish I could say as much for myself."</p>
+
+<p>"And why shouldn't you?" he said, gently and courteously;
+"you have realized, for the past six months, that I would return;
+more than that&mdash;you have known for some time the very day and
+almost the exact hour of my coming, have even wished for it,
+and, in the face of all this, I find you preparing to evade the
+requirements of common hospitality;&mdash;are you doing either me
+or yourself justice?"</p>
+
+<p>I was nettled at the knowledge he displayed of my movements,
+and of my very thoughts; my old stubbornness asserted
+itself, and I was rude enough to say: "Perhaps it is as you say;
+at all events, I am obligated to keep an engagement, and with
+your permission will now retire."<span class="pagenum">[Pg 28]</span></p>
+
+<p>It was curious to mark the effect of this speech upon the
+intruder. He immediately became grave, reached quietly into an
+inner pocket of his coat, drew thence the same glittering, horrible,
+mysterious knife that had so terrified and bewildered me a year
+before, and looking me steadily in the eye, said coldly, yet with a
+certain tone of sadness: "Well, I will not grant permission. It
+is unpleasant to resort to this style of argument, but I do it to
+save time and controversy."</p>
+
+<p>I stepped back in terror, and reached for the old-fashioned
+bell-cord, with the heavy tassel at the end, that depended from
+the ceiling, and was on the point of grasping and giving it a
+vigorous pull.</p>
+
+<p>"Not so fast, if you please," he said, sternly, as he stepped
+forward, and gave the knife a rapid swish through the air above
+my head, causing the cord to fall in a tangle about my hand, cut
+cleanly, high above my reach!</p>
+
+<p>I gazed in dumb stupor at the rope about my hand, and raised
+my eyes to the remnant above. That was motionless; there was
+not the slightest perceptible vibration, such as would naturally
+be expected. I turned to look at my guest; he had resumed
+his seat, and had also regained his pleasant expression, but he
+still held the knife in his hand with his arm extended, at rest,
+upon the table, which stood upon his right.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 407px;">
+<img src="images/gs1009.jpg" width="407" height="600" alt="" title="THE SAME GLITTERING, MYSTERIOUS KNIFE." />
+<span class="caption">"THE SAME GLITTERING, MYSTERIOUS KNIFE."</span>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg 30]</span></p>
+
+<p>"Let us have an end to this folly," he said; "think a moment,
+and you will see that you are in fault. Your error we will rectify
+easily, and then to business. I will first show you the futility of
+trying to escape this interview, and then we will proceed to work,
+for time presses, and there is much to do." Having delivered
+this remark, he detached a single silvery hair from his head, blew
+it from his fingers, and let it float gently upon the upturned edge
+of the knife, which was still resting on the table. The hair was
+divided as readily as had been the bell-cord. I was transfixed
+with astonishment, for he had evidently aimed to exhibit the
+quality of the blade, though he made no allusion to the feat, but
+smilingly went on with his discourse: "It is just a year ago
+to-night since we first met. Upon that occasion you made an
+agreement with me which you are in honor bound to keep,
+and"&mdash;here he paused as if to note the effect of his words upon
+me, then added significantly&mdash;"will keep. I have been at some
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg 31]</span>pains to impress upon your mind the fact that I would be here
+to-night. You responded, and knew that I was coming, and yet
+in obedience to a silly whim, deliberately made a meaningless
+engagement with no other purpose than to violate a solemn
+obligation. I now insist that you keep your prior engagement
+with me, but I do not wish that you should be rude to your
+friend, so you had better write him a polite note excusing yourself,
+and dispatch it at once."</p>
+
+<p>I saw that he was right, and that there was no shadow of
+justification for my conduct, or at least I was subdued by his
+presence, so I wrote the note without delay, and was casting
+about for some way to send it, when he said: "Fold it, seal it,
+and address it; you seem to forget what is proper." I did as he
+directed, mechanically, and, without thinking what I was doing,
+handed it to him. He took it naturally, glanced at the superscription,
+went to the door which he opened slightly, and handed
+the billet as if to some messenger who seemed to be in waiting
+outside,&mdash;then closed and locked the door. Turning toward me
+with the apparent object of seeing if I was looking, he deftly
+drew his knife twice across the front of the door-knob, making a
+deep cross, and then deposited the knife in his pocket, and
+resumed his seat.<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></p>
+
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a>
+I noted afterward that the door-knob, which was of solid metal, was
+cut deeply, as though made of putty.</p></div>
+
+<p>As soon as he was comfortably seated, he again began the
+conversation: "Now that we have settled the preliminaries, I
+will ask if you remember what I required of you a year ago?" I
+thought that I did. "Please repeat it; I wish to make sure that
+you do, then we will start fair."</p>
+
+<p>"In the first place, you were to present me with a manuscript"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Hardly correct," he interrupted; "I was to acquaint you
+with a narrative which is already in manuscript, acquaint you
+with it, read it to you, if you preferred not to read it to me"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I beg your pardon," I answered; "that is correct. You
+were to read the manuscript to me, and during the reading I was
+to interpose such comments, remarks, or objections, as seemed
+proper; to embody as interludes, in the manuscript, as my own
+interpolations, however, and not as part of the original."</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg 32]</span></p>
+<p>"Very good," he replied, "you have the idea exactly; proceed."</p>
+
+<p>"I agreed that when the reading had been completed, I would
+seal the complete manuscript securely, deposit it in some safe
+place, there to remain for thirty years, when it must be published."</p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/gs1010.jpg" width="600" height="598" alt="" title="DREW HIS KNIFE TWICE ACROSS THE FRONT OF THE DOOR-KNOB." />
+<span class="caption">"DREW HIS KNIFE TWICE ACROSS THE FRONT OF THE DOOR-KNOB."</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>"Just so," he answered; "we understand each other as we
+should. Before we proceed further, however, can you think of
+any point on which you need enlightenment? If so, ask such
+questions as you choose, and I will answer them."</p>
+
+<p>I thought for a moment, but no query occurred to me; after a
+pause he said: "Well, if you think of nothing now, perhaps
+hereafter questions will occur to you which you can ask; but as
+it is late, and you are tired, we will not commence now. I will<span class="pagenum">[Pg 33]</span>
+see you just one week from to-night, when we will begin. From
+that time on, we will follow the subject as rapidly as you choose,
+but see to it that you make no engagements that will interfere
+with our work, for I shall be more exacting in the future." I
+promised, and he rose to go. A sudden impulse seized me, and I
+said: "May I ask one question?"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly."</p>
+
+<p>"What shall I call you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why call me aught? It is not necessary in addressing each
+other that any name be used."</p>
+
+<p>"But what are you?" I persisted.</p>
+
+<p>A pained expression for an instant rested upon his face, and
+he said, sadly, pausing between the words: "I&mdash;Am&mdash;The&mdash;Man
+Who&mdash;Did&mdash;It."</p>
+
+<p>"Did what?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ask not; the manuscript will tell you. Be content, Llewellyn,
+and remember this, that I&mdash;Am&mdash;The&mdash;Man."</p>
+
+<p>So saying he bade me good night, opened the door, and
+disappeared down the broad stair-case.</p>
+
+<p>One week thereafter he appeared promptly, seated himself,
+and producing a roll of manuscript, handed it to me, saying, "I
+am listening; you may begin to read."</p>
+
+<p>On examination I found each page to be somewhat larger
+than a sheet of letter paper, with the written matter occupying
+a much smaller space, so as to leave a wide white border. One
+hundred pages were in the package. The last sentence ending
+abruptly indicated that my guest did not expect to complete his
+task in one evening, and, I may anticipate by saying that with
+each successive interview he drew about the same amount of
+writing from his bosom. Upon attempting to read the manuscript
+I at first found myself puzzled by a style of chirography
+very peculiar and characteristic, but execrably bad. Vainly did I
+attempt to read it; even the opening sentence was not deciphered
+without long inspection and great difficulty.</p>
+
+<p>The old man, whom I had promised that I would fulfill the
+task, observing my discomfiture, relieved me of the charge, and
+without a word of introduction, read fluently as follows:<span class="pagenum">[Pg 34]</span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>THE MANUSCRIPT OF I&mdash;AM&mdash;THE&mdash;MAN.</h2>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34"></a>CHAPTER IV.<br />
+<br />
+A SEARCH FOR KNOWLEDGE.&mdash;THE ALCHEMISTIC LETTER.</h2>
+
+
+<p>I am the man who, unfortunately for my future happiness,
+was dissatisfied with such knowledge as could be derived from
+ordinary books concerning semi-scientific subjects in which I had
+long been absorbed. I studied the current works of my day
+on philosophy and chemistry, hoping therein to find something
+tangible regarding the relationship that exists between matter
+and spirit, but studied in vain. Astronomy, history, philosophy
+and the mysterious, incoherent works of alchemy and occultism
+were finally appealed to, but likewise failed to satisfy me. These
+studies were pursued in secret, though I am not aware that any
+necessity existed for concealment. Be that as it may, at every
+opportunity I covertly acquainted myself with such alchemical
+lore as could be obtained either by purchase or by correspondence
+with others whom I found to be pursuing investigations in the
+same direction. A translation of Geber's "De Claritate Alchemi�,"
+by chance came into my possession, and afterwards an
+original version from the Latin of B&#339;rhaave's "Elementa
+Chemi�," published and translated in 1753 by Peter Shaw.
+This magnificent production threw a flood of light upon the
+early history of chemistry, being far more elaborate than any
+modern work. It inspired me with the deepest regard for its
+talented author, and ultimately introduced me to a brotherhood
+of adepts, for in this publication, although its author disclaims
+occultism, is to be found a talisman that will enable any earnest
+searcher after light to become a member of the society of secret
+"Chemical Improvers of Natural Philosophy," with which I
+affiliated as soon as the key was discovered. Then followed
+a systematic investigation of authorities of the Alchemical
+School, including Geber, Morienus, Roger Bacon, George Ripley,
+Raymond Lully, Bernard, Count of Trevise, Isaac Hollandus,
+Arnoldus de la Villanova, Paracelsus, and others, not omitting
+the learned researches of the distinguished scientist, Llewellyn.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg 36]</span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 441px;">
+<img src="images/m1011.png" width="441" height="600" alt="" title="FAC-SIMILE OF PAGE OF MANUSCRIPT." />
+<span class="caption">FAC-SIMILE OF PAGE OF MANUSCRIPT.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg 37]</span></p>
+
+<p>I discovered that many talented men are still firm believers in
+the lost art of alchemy, and that among the followers of the
+"thrice-famed Hermes" are to be found statesmen, clergymen,
+lawyers, and scientific men who, for various reasons, invariably
+conceal with great tact their connection with the fraternity of
+adepts. Some of these men had written scientific treatises of
+a very different character from those circulating among the
+members of our brotherhood, and to their materialistic readers
+it would seem scarcely possible that the authors could be
+tainted with hallucinations of any description, while others,
+conspicuous leaders in the church, were seemingly beyond
+occult temptation.</p>
+
+<p>The larger number, it was evident, hoped by studies of the
+works of the alchemists, to find the key to the alkahest of Van
+Helmont, that is, to discover the Philosopher's Stone, or the
+Elixir of Life, and from their writings it is plain that the inner
+consciousness of thoughtful and scientific men rebelled against
+confinement to the narrow bounds of materialistic science, within
+which they were forced to appear as dogmatic pessimists. To
+them scientific orthodoxy, acting as a weight, prohibited intellectual
+speculation, as rank heresy. A few of my co-laborers
+were expert manipulators, and worked experimentally, following
+in their laboratories the suggestions of those gifted students who
+had pored over precious old manuscripts, and had attempted to
+solve the enigmatical formulas recorded therein, puzzles familiar
+to students of Hermetic lore. It was thus demonstrated,&mdash;for
+what I have related is history,&mdash;that in this nineteenth century
+there exists a fraternity, the members of which are as earnest
+in their belief in the truth of Esoteric philosophy, as were the
+followers of Hermes himself; savants who, in secret, circulate
+among themselves a literature that the materialism of this selfsame
+nineteenth century has relegated to the deluded and murky
+periods that produced it.</p>
+
+<p>One day a postal package came to my address, this being the
+manner in which some of our literature circulated, which, on<span class="pagenum">[Pg 38]</span>
+examination, I found to be a letter of instruction and advice
+from some unknown member of our circle. I was already
+becoming disheartened over the mental confusion into which
+my studies were leading me, and the contents of the letter, in
+which I was greatly interested, made a lasting impression upon
+me. It seemed to have been circulating a long time among our
+members in Europe and America, for it bore numerous marginal
+notes of various dates, but each and every one of its readers had
+for one reason or another declined the task therein suggested.
+From the substance of the paper, which, written exquisitely, yet
+partook of the ambiguous alchemistic style, it was evident that
+the author was well versed in alchemy, and, in order that my
+position may be clearly understood at this turning point in a life
+of remarkable adventure, the letter is appended in full:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>THE ALCHEMISTIC LETTER.</p>
+
+<p>TO THE BROTHER ADEPT WHO DARES TRY TO DISCOVER ZOROASTER'S CAVE,
+OR THE PHILOSOPHER'S INTELLECTUAL ECHOES, BY MEANS OF WHICH
+THEY COMMUNICATE TO ONE ANOTHER FROM THEIR CAVES.</p>
+
+<p>Know thou, that Hermes Trismegistus did not originate, but he gave to
+our philosophy his name&mdash;the Hermetic Art. Evolved in a dim, mystic age,
+before antiquity began, it endured through the slowly rolling cycles to be
+bandied about by the ever-ready flippancy of nineteenth century students. It
+has lived, because it is endowed with that quality which never dies&mdash;truth.
+Modern philosophy, of which chemistry is but a fragment, draws its sustenance
+from the prime facts which were revealed in ancient Egypt through Hermetic
+thought, and fixed by the Hermetic stylus.</p>
+
+<p>"The Hermetic allegories," so various in interpretable susceptibility, led
+subsequent thinkers into speculations and experimentations, which have
+resulted profitably to the world. It is not strange that some of the followers
+of Hermes, especially the more mercurial and imaginative, should have evolved
+nebulous theories, no longer explainable, and involving recondite spiritual
+considerations. Know thou that the ultimate on psycho-chemical investigation
+is the proximate of the infinite. Accordingly, a class came to believe that a
+projection of natural mental faculties into an advanced state of consciousness
+called the "wisdom faculty" constitutes the final possibility of Alchemy. The
+attainment of this exalted condition is still believed practicable by many
+earnest savants. Once on this lofty plane, the individual would not be trammelled
+by material obstacles, but would abide in that spiritual placidity which
+is the exquisite realization of mortal perfection. So exalted, he would be in
+naked parallelism with Omniscience, and through his illuminated understanding,
+could feast his soul on those exalted pleasures which are only less than
+deific.</p>
+
+<p>Notwithstanding the exploitings of a number of these philosophers, in
+which, by reason of our inability to comprehend, sense seemed lost in a passage<span class="pagenum">[Pg 39]</span>
+of incohesive dreamery and resonancy of terminology, some of the purest
+spiritual researches the world has ever known, were made in the dawn of
+history. The much abused alchemical philosophers existed upon a plane, in
+some respects above the level of the science of to-day. Many of them lived
+for the good of the world only, in an atmosphere above the materialistic
+hordes that people the world, and toiling over their crucibles and alembics,
+died in their cells "uttering no voice." Take, for example, Eiren�us Philalethes,
+who, born in 1623, lived contemporaneously with Robert Boyle. A fragment
+from his writings will illustrate the purpose which impelled the searcher for
+the true light of alchemy to record his discoveries in allegories, and we have
+no right to question the honesty of his utterances:</p>
+
+<p>"The Searcher of all hearts knows that I write the truth; nor is there any
+cause to accuse me of envy. I write with an unterrified quill in an unheard of
+style, to the honor of God, to the profit of my neighbors, with contempt of the
+world and its riches, because Elias, the artist, is already born, and now glorious
+things are declared of the city of God. I dare affirm that I do possess more
+riches than the whole known world is worth, but I can not make use of it
+because of the snares of knaves. I disdain, loathe, and detest the idolizing of
+silver and gold, by which the pomps and vanities of the world are celebrated.
+Ah! filthy evil! Ah! vain nothingness! Believe ye that I conceal the art out
+of envy? No, verily, I protest to you; I grieve from the very bottom of my
+soul that we (alchemists) are driven like vagabonds from the face of the Lord
+throughout the earth. But what need of many words? The thing that we
+have seen, taught, and made, which we have, possess, and know, that we do
+declare; being moved with compassion for the studious, and with indignation
+of gold, silver, and precious stones. Believe me, the time is at the door, I feel
+it in spirit, when we, adeptists, shall return from the four corners of the earth,
+nor shall we fear any snares that are laid against our lives, but we shall give
+thanks to the Lord our God. I would to God that every ingenious man in the
+whole earth understood this science; then it would be valued only for its
+wisdom, and virtue only would be had in honor."</p>
+
+<p>Of course there was a more worldly class, and a large contingent of mercenary
+impostors (as science is always encumbered), parasites, whose animus
+was shamefully unlike the purity of true esoteric psychologists. These men
+devoted their lives to experimentation for selfish advancement. They constructed
+alchemical outfits, and carried on a ceaseless inquiry into the nature
+of solvents, and studied their influences on earthly bodies, their ultimate
+object being the discovery of the Philosopher's Stone, and the alkahest which
+B&#339;haave asserts was never discovered. Their records were often a verbose
+melange, purposely so written, no doubt, to cover their tracks, and to make
+themselves conspicuous. Other Hermetic believers occupied a more elevated
+position, and connected the intellectual with the material, hoping to gain by
+their philosophy and science not only gold and silver, which were secondary
+considerations, but the highest literary achievement, the Magnum Opus.
+Others still sought to draw from Astrology and Magic the secrets that would
+lead them to their ambitious goal. Thus there were degrees of fineness in a
+fraternity, which the science of to-day must recognize and admit.</p>
+
+<p>B&#339;rhaave, the illustrious, respected Geber, of the alchemistic school, and
+none need feel compromised in admiring the talented alchemists who, like<span class="pagenum">[Pg 40]</span>
+Geber, wrought in the twilight of morn for the coming world's good. We are
+now enjoying a fragment of the ultimate results of their genius and industry
+in the materialistic outcomes of present-day chemistry, to be followed by
+others more valuable; and at last, when mankind is ripe in the wisdom faculty,
+by spiritual contentment in the complacent furtherings beyond. Allow me
+briefly to refer to a few men of the alchemistic type whose records may be
+considered with advantage.</p>
+
+<p>Rhasis, a conspicuous alchemist, born in 850, first mentioned orpiment,
+borax, compounds of iron, copper, arsenic, and other similar substances. It is
+said, too, that he discovered the art of making brandy. About a century later,
+Alfarabe (killed in 950), a great alchemist, astonished the King of Syria with
+his profound learning, and excited the admiration of the wise men of the East
+by his varied accomplishments. Later, Albertus Magnus (born 1205), noted for
+his talent and skill, believed firmly in the doctrine of transmutation. His
+beloved pupil, Thomas Aquinas, gave us the word amalgam, and it still serves
+us. Contemporaneously with these lived Roger Bacon (born 1214), who was a
+man of most extraordinary ability. There has never been a greater English
+intellect (not excepting his illustrious namesake, Lord Bacon), and his penetrating
+mind delved deeper into nature's laws than that of any successor.
+He told us of facts concerning the sciences, that scientific men can not fully
+comprehend to-day; he told us of other things that lie beyond the science
+provings of to-day, that modern philosophers can not grasp. He was an
+enthusiastic believer in the Hermetic philosophy, and such were his erudition
+and advanced views, that his brother friars, through jealousy and superstition,
+had him thrown into prison&mdash;a common fate to men who in those days dared
+to think ahead of their age. Despite (as some would say) of his mighty
+reasoning power and splendid attainments, he believed the Philosopher's
+Stone to be a reality; he believed the secret of indefinite prolongation of life
+abode in alchemy; that the future could be predicted by means of a mirror
+which he called Almuchese, and that by alchemy an adept could produce pure
+gold. He asserted that by means of Aristotle's "Secret of Secrets," pure gold
+can be made; gold even purer and finer than what men now know as gold. In
+connection with other predictions he made an assertion that may with other
+seemingly unreasonable predictions be verified in time to come. He said: "It
+is equally possible to construct cars which may be set in motion with marvelous
+rapidity, independently of horses or other animals." He declared that the
+ancients had done this, and he believed the art might be revived.</p>
+
+<p>Following came various enthusiasts, such as Raymond, the ephemeral
+(died 1315), who flared like a meteor into his brief, brilliant career; Arnold de
+Villanova (1240), a celebrated adept, whose books were burned by the Inquisition
+on account of the heresy they taught; Nicholas Flamel, of France (1350),
+loved by the people for his charities, the wonder of his age (our age will not
+admit the facts) on account of the vast fortune he amassed without visible
+means or income, outside of alchemical lore; Johannes de Rupecissus, a man
+of such remarkable daring that he even (1357) reprimanded Pope Innocent VI.,
+for which he was promptly imprisoned; Basil Valentine (1410), the author of
+many works, and the man who introduced antimony (antimonaches) into
+medicine; Isaac of Holland who, with his son, skillfully made artificial gems
+that could not be distinguished from the natural; Bernard Trevison (born<span class="pagenum">[Pg 41]</span>
+1406), who spent $30,000 in the study of alchemy, out of much of which he was
+cheated by cruel alchemic pretenders, for even in that day there were plenty of
+rogues to counterfeit a good thing. Under stress of his strong alchemic
+convictions, Thomas Dalton placed his head on the block by order of the
+virtuous (?) and conservative Thomas Herbert, 'squire to King Edward; Jacob
+Bohme (born 1575), the sweet, pure spirit of Christian mysticism, "The Voice
+of Heaven," than whom none stood higher in true alchemy, was a Christian,
+alchemist, theosophist; Robert Boyle, a conspicuous alchemical philosopher,
+in 1662 published his "Defense of the Doctrine touching the Spring and
+Weight of the Air," and illustrated his arguments by a series of ingenious
+and beautiful experiments, that stand to-day so high in the estimation of
+scientific men, that his remarks are copied verbatim by our highest authorities,
+and his apparatus is the best yet devised for the purpose. Boyle's "Law" was
+evolved and carefully defined fourteen years before Mariotte's "Discours de la
+Nature de l'Air" appeared, which did not, however, prevent French and
+German scientific men from giving the credit to Mariotte, and they still
+follow the false teacher who boldly pirated not only Boyle's ideas, but stole
+his apparatus.</p>
+
+<p>Then appeared such men as Paracelsus (born 1493), the celebrated physician,
+who taught that occultism (esoteric philosophy) was superior to experimental
+chemistry in enlightening us concerning the transmutation of baser
+metals into gold and silver; and Gueppo Francisco (born 1627), who wrote a
+beautiful treatise on "Elementary Spirits," which was copied without credit by
+Compte de Gabalis. It seems incredible that the man (Gueppo Francisco),
+whose sweet spirit-thoughts are revivified and breathe anew in "Undine" and
+"The Rape of the Lock," should have been thrown into a prison to perish as
+a Hermetic follower; and this should teach us not to question the earnestness
+of those who left us as a legacy the beauty and truth so abundantly found in
+pure alchemy.</p>
+
+<p>These and many others, cotemporaries, some conspicuous, and others
+whose names do not shine in written history, contributed incalculably to the
+grand aggregate of knowledge concerning the divine secret which enriched
+the world. Compare the benefits of Hermetic philosophy with the result of
+bloody wars ambitiously waged by self-exacting tyrants&mdash;tyrants whom history
+applauds as heroes, but whom we consider as butchers. Among the workers in
+alchemy are enumerated nobles, kings, and even popes. Pope John XXII. was
+an alchemist, which accounts for his bull against impostors, promulgated in
+order that true students might not be discredited; and King Frederick of
+Naples sanctioned the art, and protected its devotees.</p>
+
+<p>At last, Count Cagliostro, the chequered "Joseph Balsamo" (born 1743),
+who combined alchemy, magic, astrology, sleight of hand, mesmerism, Free
+Masonry, and remarkable personal accomplishments, that altogether have
+never since been equalled, burst upon the world. Focusing the gaze of
+the church, kings, and the commons upon himself, in many respects the
+most audacious pretender that history records, he raised the Hermetic art to a
+dazzling height, and finally buried it in a blaze of splendor as he passed from
+existence beneath a mantle of shame. As a meteor streams into view from out
+the star mists of space, and in corruscating glory sinks into the sea, Cagliostro
+blazed into the sky of the eighteenth century, from the nebul� of alchemistic<span class="pagenum">[Pg 42]</span>
+speculation, and extinguished both himself and his science in the light of the
+rising sun of materialism. Cagliostro the visionary, the poet, the inspired, the
+erratic comet in the universe of intellect, perished in prison as a mountebank,
+and then the plodding chemist of to-day, with his tedious mechanical methods,
+and cold, unresponsive, materialistic dogmas, arose from the ashes, and sprang
+into prominence.</p>
+
+<p>Read the story backward, and you shall see that in alchemy we behold the
+beginning of all the sciences of to-day; alchemy is the cradle that rocked
+them. Fostered with necromancy, astrology, occultism, and all the progeny of
+mystic dreamery, the infant sciences struggled for existence through the dark
+ages, in care of the once persecuted and now traduced alchemist. The world
+owes a monument to-day more to Hermetic heroes, than to all other influences
+and instrumentalities, religion excepted, combined, for our present civilization
+is largely a legacy from the alchemist. Begin with Hermes Trismegistus, and
+close with Joseph Balsamo, and if you are inclined towards science, do not
+criticise too severely their verbal logorrhea, and their romanticism, for your
+science is treading backward; it will encroach upon their field again, and you
+may have to unsay your words of hasty censure. These men fulfilled their
+mission, and did it well. If they told more than men now think they knew,
+they also knew more than they told, and more than modern philosophy
+embraces. They could not live to see all the future they eagerly hoped for,
+but they started a future for mankind that will far exceed in sweetness and
+light the most entrancing visions of their most imaginative dreamers. They
+spoke of the existence of a "red elixir," and while they wrote, the barbarous
+world about them ran red with blood,&mdash;blood of the pure in heart, blood of the
+saints, blood of a Saviour; and their allegory and wisdom formul� were
+recorded in blood of their own sacrifices. They dreamed of a "white elixir"
+that is yet to bless mankind, and a brighter day for man, a period of peace,
+happiness, long life, contentment, good will and brotherly love, and in the
+name of this "white elixir" they directed the world towards a vision of divine
+light. Even pure gold, as they told the materialistic world who worship gold,
+was penetrated and whelmed by this subtle, superlatively refined spirit of
+matter. Is not the day of the allegorical "white elixir" nearly at hand?
+Would that it were!</p>
+
+<p>I say to you now, brothers of the eighteenth century, as one speaking by
+authority to you, cease (some of you) to study this entrancing past, look to the
+future by grasping the present, cast aside (some of you) the alchemical lore of
+other days, give up your loved allegories; it is a duty, you must relinquish
+them. There is a richer field. Do not delay. Unlock this mystic door that
+stands hinged and ready, waiting the touch of men who can interpret the
+talisman; place before mankind the knowledge that lies behind its rivets.
+In the secret lodges that have preserved the wisdom of the days of Enoch and
+Elias of Egypt, who propagated the Egyptian Order, a branch of your ancient
+brotherhood, is to be found concealed much knowledge that should now be
+spread before the world, and added to the treasures of our circle of adepts.
+This cabalistic wisdom is not recorded in books nor in manuscript, but has
+been purposely preserved from the uninitiated, in the unreadable brains of
+unresponsive men. Those who are selected to act as carriers thereof, are, as a
+rule, like dumb water bearers, or the dead sheet of paper that mechanically<span class="pagenum">[Pg 43]</span>
+preserves an inspiration derived from minds unseen: they serve a purpose as a
+child mechanically commits to memory a blank verse to repeat to others, who
+in turn commit to repeat again&mdash;neither of them speaking understandingly.
+Search ye these hidden paths, for the day of mental liberation approaches, and
+publish to the world all that is locked within the doors of that antiquated
+organization. The world is nearly ripe for the wisdom faculty, and men are
+ready to unravel the golden threads that mystic wisdom has inwoven in her
+web of secret knowledge. Look for knowledge where I have indicated, and
+to gain it do not hesitate to swear allegiance to this sacred order, for so you
+must do to gain entrance to the brotherhood, and then you must act what men
+will call the traitor. You will, however, be doing a sacred duty, for the world
+will profit, humanity will be the gainer, "Peace on Earth, Good Will to Man,"
+will be closer to mankind, and at last, when the sign appears, the "white elixir"
+will no longer be allegorical; it will become a reality. In the name of the
+Great Mystic Vase-Man, go thou into these lodges, learn of their secrets, and
+spread their treasures before those who can interpret them.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Here this letter ended. It was evident that the writer
+referred to a secret society into which I could probably enter;
+and taking the advice, I did not hesitate, but applied at once
+for membership. I determined, regardless of consequence, to
+follow the suggestion of the unknown writer, and by so doing,
+for I accepted their pledges, I invited my destiny.</p>
+
+<p>My guest of the massive forehead paused for a moment,
+stroked his long, white beard, and then, after casting an inquiring
+glance on me, asked, "Shall I read on?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," I replied, and The&mdash;Man&mdash;Who&mdash;Did&mdash;It, proceeded
+as follows:<span class="pagenum">[Pg 44]</span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44"></a>CHAPTER V.<br />
+<br />
+THE WRITING OF MY CONFESSION.</h2>
+
+
+<p>Having become a member of the Secret Society as directed
+by the writer of the letter I have just read, and having obtained
+the secrets hinted at in the mystic directions, my next desire
+was to find a secluded spot where, without interruption, I could
+prepare for publication what I had gathered surreptitiously in the
+lodges of the fraternity I designed to betray. This I entitled
+"My Confession." Alas! why did my evil genius prompt me to
+write it? Why did not some kind angel withhold my hand
+from the rash and wicked deed? All I can urge in defense or
+palliation is that I was infatuated by the fatal words of the
+letter, "You must act what men will call the traitor, but humanity
+will be the gainer."</p>
+
+<p>In a section of the state in which I resided, a certain
+creek forms the boundary line between two townships, and also
+between two counties. Crossing this creek, a much traveled
+road stretches east and west, uniting the extremes of the great
+state. Two villages on this road, about four miles apart, situated
+on opposite sides of the creek, also present themselves to my
+memory, and midway between them, on the north side of the
+road, was a substantial farm house. In going west from the
+easternmost of these villages, the traveler begins to descend
+from the very center of the town. In no place is the grade
+steep, as the road lies between the spurs of the hill abutting
+upon the valley that feeds the creek I have mentioned. Having
+reached the valley, the road winds a short distance to the
+right, then turning to the left, crosses the stream, and immediately
+begins to climb the western hill; here the ascent is
+more difficult, for the road lies diagonally over the edge of the
+hill. A mile of travel, as I recall the scene, sometimes up a
+steep, and again among rich, level farm lands, and then on the
+very height, close to the road, within a few feet of it, appears<span class="pagenum">[Pg 45]</span>
+the square structure which was, at the time I mention, known
+as the Stone Tavern. On the opposite side of the road were
+located extensive stables, and a grain barn. In the northeast
+chamber of that stone building, during a summer in the twenties,
+I wrote for publication the description of the mystic work
+that my oath should have made forever a secret, a sacred trust.
+I am the man who wantonly committed the deplorable act.
+Under the infatuation of that alchemical manuscript, I strove
+to show the world that I could and would do that which might
+never benefit me in the least, but might serve humanity. It
+was fate. I was not a bad man, neither malignity, avarice,
+nor ambition forming a part of my nature. I was a close
+student, of a rather retiring disposition, a stone-mason by trade,
+careless and indifferent to public honors, and so thriftless that
+many trifling neighborhood debts had accumulated against me.</p>
+
+<p>What I have reluctantly told, for I am forbidden to give the
+names of the localities, comprises an abstract of part of the
+record of my early life, and will introduce the extraordinary
+narrative which follows. That I have spoken the truth, and in
+no manner overdrawn, will be silently evidenced by hundreds
+of brethren, both of the occult society and the fraternal brotherhood,
+with which I united, who can (if they will) testify to the
+accuracy of the narrative. They know the story of my crime
+and disgrace; only myself and God know the full retribution
+that followed.<span class="pagenum">[Pg 46]</span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46"></a>CHAPTER VI.<br />
+<br />
+KIDNAPPED.</h2>
+
+
+<p>The events just narrated occurred in the prime of my life, and
+are partly matters of publicity. My attempted breach of faith in
+the way of disclosing their secrets was naturally infamous in the
+eyes of my society brethren, who endeavored to prevail upon me
+to relent of my design which, after writing my "Confession," I
+made no endeavor to conceal. Their importunities and threatenings
+had generally been resisted, however, and with an obliquity
+that can not be easily explained, I persisted in my unreasonable
+design. I was blessed as a husband and father, but neither the
+thought of home, wife, nor child, checked me in my inexplicable
+course. I was certainly irresponsible, perhaps a monomaniac,
+and yet on the subject in which I was absorbed, I preserved my
+mental equipoise, and knowingly followed a course that finally
+brought me into the deepest slough of trouble, and lost to me
+forever all that man loves most dearly. An overruling spirit,
+perhaps the shade of one of the old alchemists, possessed me,
+and in the face of obstacles that would have caused most men
+to reflect, and retrace their steps, I madly rushed onward. The
+influence that impelled me, whatever it may have been, was irresistible.
+I apparently acted the part of agent, subject to an
+ever-present master essence, and under this dominating spirit
+or demon my mind was powerless in its subjection. My soul
+was driven imperiously by that impelling and indescribable
+something, and was as passive and irresponsible as lycopodium
+that is borne onward in a steady current of air. Methods were
+vainly sought by those who loved me, brethren of the lodge, and
+others who endeavored to induce me to change my headstrong
+purpose, but I could neither accept their counsels nor heed their
+forebodings. Summons by law were served on me in order
+to disconcert me, and my numerous small debts became the
+pretext for legal warrants, until at last all my papers (excepting<span class="pagenum">[Pg 47]</span>
+my "Confession"), and my person also, were seized, upon an execution
+served by a constable. Minor claims were quickly satisfied,
+but when I regained my liberty, the aggression continued. Even
+arson was resorted to, and the printing office that held my manuscript
+was fired one night, that the obnoxious revelation which I
+persisted in putting into print, might be destroyed. Finally I
+found myself separated by process of law from home and friends,
+an inmate of a jail. My opponents, as I now came to consider
+them, had confined me in prison for a debt of only two dollars,
+a sufficient amount at that time, in that state, for my incarceration.
+Smarting under the humiliation, my spirit became still
+more rebellious, and I now, perhaps justly, came to view myself
+as a martyr. It had been at first asserted that I had stolen a
+shirt, but I was not afraid of any penalty that could be laid on
+me for this trumped-up charge, believing that the imputation
+and the arrest would be shown to be designed as willful oppression.
+Therefore it was, that when this contemptible arraignment
+had been swept aside, and I was freed before a Justice of the
+Peace, I experienced more than a little surprise at a rearrest,
+and at finding myself again thrown into jail. I knew that it
+had been decreed by my brethren that I must retract and destroy
+my "Confession," and this fact made me the more determined to
+prevent its destruction, and I persisted sullenly in pursuing my
+course. On the evening of August 12th, 1826, my jailer's wife
+informed me that the debt for which I had been incarcerated had
+been paid by unknown "friends," and that I could depart; and I
+accepted the statement without question. Upon my stepping
+from the door of the jail, however, my arms were firmly grasped
+by two persons, one on each side of me, and before I could realize
+the fact that I was being kidnapped, I was thrust into a closed
+coach, which immediately rolled away, but not until I made an
+outcry which, if heard by anyone, was unheeded.</p>
+
+<p>"For your own sake, be quiet," said one of my companions
+in confinement, for the carriage was draped to exclude the light,
+and was as dark as a dungeon. My spirit rebelled; I felt that I
+was on the brink of a remarkable, perhaps perilous experience,
+and I indignantly replied by asking:</p>
+
+<p>"What have I done that you should presume forcibly to
+imprison me? Am I not a freeman of America?"<span class="pagenum">[Pg 48]</span></p>
+
+<p>"What have you done?" he answered. "Have you not bound
+yourself by a series of vows that are sacred and should be
+inviolable, and have you not broken them as no other man has
+done before you? Have you not betrayed your trust, and
+merited a severe judgment? Did you not voluntarily ask
+admission into our ancient brotherhood, and in good faith
+were you not initiated into our sacred mysteries? Did you
+not obligate yourself before man, and on your sacred honor
+promise to preserve our secrets?"</p>
+
+<p>"I did," I replied; "but previously I had sworn before a
+higher tribunal to scatter this precious wisdom to the world."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he said, "and you know full well the depth of the
+self-sought solemn oath that you took with us&mdash;more solemn
+than that prescribed by any open court on earth."</p>
+
+<p>"This I do not deny," I said, "and yet I am glad that I accomplished
+my object, even though you have now, as is evident, the
+power to pronounce my sentence."</p>
+
+<p>"You should look for the death sentence," was the reply, "but
+it has been ordained instead that you are to be given a lengthened
+life. You should expect bodily destruction; but on the contrary,
+you will pass on in consciousness of earth and earthly concerns
+when we are gone. Your name will be known to all lands, and
+yet from this time you will be unknown. For the welfare of
+future humanity, you will be thrust to a height in our order that
+will annihilate you as a mortal being, and yet you will exist,
+suspended between life and death, and in that intermediate state
+will know that you exist. You have, as you confess, merited a
+severe punishment, but we can only punish in accordance with
+an unwritten law, that instructs the person punished, and elevates
+the human race in consequence. You stand alone among mortals
+in that you have openly attempted to give broadly to those who
+have not earned it, our most sacred property, a property that did
+not belong to you, property that you have only been permitted
+to handle, that has been handed from man to man from before
+the time of Solomon, and which belongs to no one man, and will
+continue to pass in this way from one to another, as a hallowed
+trust, until there are no men, as men now exist, to receive it.
+You will soon go into the shadows of darkness, and will learn
+many of the mysteries of life, the undeveloped mysteries that<span class="pagenum">[Pg 49]</span>
+are withheld from your fellows, but which you, who have been
+so presumptuous and anxious for knowledge, are destined to
+possess and solve. You will find secrets that man, as man is
+now constituted, can not yet discover, and yet which the future
+man must gain and be instructed in. As you have sowed, so
+shall you reap. You wished to become a distributor of knowledge;
+you shall now by bodily trial and mental suffering obtain
+unsought knowledge to distribute, and in time to come you will
+be commanded to make your discoveries known. As your pathway
+is surely laid out, so must you walk. It is ordained; to rebel
+is useless."</p>
+
+<p>"Who has pronounced this sentence?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"A judge, neither of heaven nor of earth."</p>
+
+<p>"You speak in enigmas."</p>
+
+<p>"No; I speak openly, and the truth. Our brotherhood is
+linked with the past, and clasps hands with the antediluvians;
+the flood scattered the races of earth, but did not disturb our
+secrets. The great love of wisdom has from generation to
+generation led selected members of our organization to depths
+of study that our open work does not touch upon, and behind
+our highest officers there stand, in the occult shades between
+the here and the hereafter, unknown and unseen agents who
+are initiated into secrets above and beyond those known to the
+ordinary craft. Those who are introduced into these inner
+recesses acquire superhuman conceptions, and do not give an
+open sign of fellowship; they need no talisman. They walk
+our streets possessed of powers unknown to men, they concern
+themselves as mortals in the affairs of men, and even their brethren
+of the initiated, open order are unaware of their exalted
+condition. The means by which they have been instructed, their
+several individualities as well, have been concealed, because
+publicity would destroy their value, and injure humanity's cause."</p>
+
+<p>Silence followed these vague disclosures, and the carriage
+rolled on. I was mystified and alarmed, and yet I knew that,
+whatever might be the end of this nocturnal ride, I had invited
+it&mdash;yes, merited it&mdash;and I steeled myself to hear the sentence of
+my judges, in whose hands I was powerless. The persons on
+the seat opposite me continued their conversation in low tones,
+audible only to themselves. An individual by my side neither<span class="pagenum">[Pg 50]</span>
+moved nor spoke. There were four of us in the carriage, as I
+learned intuitively, although we were surrounded by utter darkness.
+At length I addressed the companion beside me, for the
+silence was unbearable. Friend or enemy though he might be,
+anything rather than this long silence. "How long shall we
+continue in this carriage?"</p>
+
+<p>He made no reply.</p>
+
+<p>After a time I again spoke.</p>
+
+<p>"Can you not tell me, comrade, how long our journey will
+last? When shall we reach our destination?"</p>
+
+<p>Silence only.</p>
+
+<p>Putting out my hand, I ventured to touch my mate, and
+found that he was tightly strapped,&mdash;bound upright to the seat
+and the back of the carriage. Leather thongs held him firmly
+in position; and as I pondered over the mystery, I thought to
+myself, if I make a disturbance, they will not hesitate to manacle
+me as securely. My custodians seemed, however, not to exercise
+a guard over me, and yet I felt that they were certain of my
+inability to escape. If the man on the seat was a prisoner, why
+was he so reticent? Why did he not answer my questions? I
+came to the conclusion that he must be gagged as well as bound.
+Then I determined to find out if this were so. I began to realize
+more forcibly that a terrible sentence must have been meted me,
+and I half hoped that I could get from my partner in captivity
+some information regarding our destination. Sliding my hand
+cautiously along his chest, and under his chin, I intended to
+remove the gag from his mouth, when I felt my flesh creep, for
+it came in contact with the cold, rigid flesh of a corpse. The
+man was dead, and stiff.</p>
+
+<p>The shock unnerved me. I had begun to experience the
+results of a severe mental strain, partly induced by the recent
+imprisonment and extended previous persecution, and partly
+by the mysterious significance of the language in which I had
+recently been addressed. The sentence, "You will now go into
+the Valley of the Shadow of Death, and learn the mysteries of
+life," kept ringing through my head, and even then I sat beside
+a corpse. After this discovery I remained for a time in a semi-stupor,
+in a state of profound dejection,&mdash;how long I can not say.
+Then I experienced an inexplicable change, such as I imagine<span class="pagenum">[Pg 51]</span>
+comes over a condemned man without hope of reprieve, and
+I became unconcerned as a man might who had accepted his
+destiny, and stoically determined to await it. Perhaps moments
+passed, it may have been hours, and then indifference gave place
+to reviving curiosity. I realized that I could die only once, and
+I coolly and complacently revolved the matter, speculating over
+my possible fate. As I look back on the night in which I rode
+beside that dead man, facing the mysterious agents of an all-powerful
+judge, I marvel over a mental condition that permitted
+me finally to rest in peace, and slumber in unconcern. So I did,
+however, and after a period, the length of which I am not able
+to estimate, I awoke, and soon thereafter the carriage stopped,
+and our horses were changed, after which our journey was
+resumed, to continue hour after hour, and at last I slept again,
+leaning back in the corner. Suddenly I was violently shaken
+from slumber, and commanded to alight. It was in the gray of
+morning, and before I could realize what was happening, I was
+transferred by my captors to another carriage, and the dead man
+also was rudely hustled along and thrust beside me, my companions
+speaking to him as though he were alive. Indeed, as I look
+back on these maneuvers, I perceive that, to all appearances,
+I was one of the abducting party, and our actions were really
+such as to induce an observer to believe that this dead man
+was an obstinate prisoner, and myself one of his official guards.
+The drivers of the carriages seemed to give us no attention, but
+they sat upright and unconcerned, and certainly neither of them
+interested himself in our transfer. The second carriage, like that
+other previously described, was securely closed, and our journey
+was continued. The darkness was as of a dungeon. It may
+have been days, I could not tell anything about the passage of
+time; on and on we rode. Occasionally food and drink were
+handed in, but my captors held to their course, and at last I was
+taken from the vehicle, and transferred to a block-house.</p>
+
+<p>I had been carried rapidly and in secret a hundred or more
+miles, perhaps into another state, and probably all traces of my
+journey were effectually lost to outsiders. I was in the hands of
+men who implicitly obeyed the orders of their superiors, masters
+whom they had never seen, and probably did not know. I needed
+no reminder of the fact that I had violated every sacred pledge<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span>
+voluntarily made to the craft, and now that they held me powerless,
+I well knew that, whatever the punishment assigned, I had
+invited it, and could not prevent its fulfillment. That it would
+be severe, I realized; that it would not be in accordance with
+ordinary human law, I accepted.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/gs1012.jpg" width="600" height="445" alt="" title="I WAS TAKEN FROM THE VEHICLE, AND TRANSFERRED TO A BLOCK-HOUSE." />
+<span class="caption">"I WAS TAKEN FROM THE VEHICLE, AND TRANSFERRED TO A BLOCK-HOUSE."</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Had I not in secret, in my little room in that obscure Stone
+Tavern, engrossed on paper the mystic sentences that never
+before had been penned, and were unknown excepting to persons
+initiated into our sacred mysteries? Had I not previously,
+in the most solemn manner, before these words had been imparted
+to my keeping, sworn to keep them inviolate and secret? and
+had I not deliberately broken that sacred vow, and scattered the
+hoarded sentences broadcast? My part as a brother in this
+fraternal organization was that of the holder only of property
+that belonged to no man, that had been handed from one to
+another through the ages, sacredly cherished, and faithfully
+protected by men of many tongues, always considered a trust,<span class="pagenum">[Pg 53]</span>
+a charge of honor, and never before betrayed. My crime was
+deep and dark. I shuddered.</p>
+
+<p>"Come what may," I mused, reflecting over my perfidy, "I
+am ready for the penalty, and my fate is deserved; it can not but
+be a righteous one."</p>
+
+<p>The words of the occupant of the carriage occurred to me
+again and again; that one sentence kept ringing in my brain; I
+could not dismiss it: "You have been tried, convicted, and we
+are of those appointed to carry out the sentence of the judges."</p>
+
+<p>The black silence of my lonely cell beat against me; I could
+feel the absence of sound, I could feel the dismal weight of
+nothingness, and in my solitude and distraction I cried out in
+anguish to the invisible judge: "I am ready for my sentence,
+whether it be death or imprisonment for life"; and still the
+further words of the occupant of the carriage passed through
+my mind: "You will now go into the Valley of the Shadow of
+Death, and will learn the mysteries of Life."</p>
+
+<p>Then I slept, to awake and sleep again. I kept no note
+of time; it may have been days or weeks, so far as my record
+could determine. An attendant came at intervals to minister to
+my wants, always masked completely, ever silent.</p>
+
+<p>That I was not entirely separated from mankind, however, I
+felt assured, for occasionally sounds of voices came to me from
+without. Once I ventured to shout aloud, hoping to attract
+attention; but the persons whom I felt assured overheard me,
+paid no attention to my lonely cry. At last one night, my door
+opened abruptly, and three men entered.</p>
+
+<p>"Do not fear," said their spokesman, "we aim to protect you;
+keep still, and soon you will be a free man."</p>
+
+<p>I consented quietly to accompany them, for to refuse would
+have been in vain; and I was conducted to a boat, which I found
+contained a corpse&mdash;the one I had journeyed with, I suppose&mdash;and
+embarking, we were silently rowed to the middle of the river,
+our course being diagonally from the shore, and the dead man
+was thrown overboard. Then our boat returned to the desolate
+bank.</p>
+
+<p>Thrusting me into a carriage, that, on our return to the river
+bank we found awaiting us, my captors gave a signal, and I was
+driven away in the darkness, as silently as before, and our journey<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span>
+was continued I believe for fully two days. I was again confined
+in another log cabin, with but one door, and destitute of windows.
+My attendants were masked, they neither spoke to me as they
+day after day supplied my wants, nor did they give me the least
+information on any subject, until at last I abandoned all hope of
+ever regaining my liberty.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/gs1013.jpg" width="600" height="237" alt="" title="THE DEAD MAN WAS THROWN OVERBOARD." />
+<span class="caption">"THE DEAD MAN WAS THROWN OVERBOARD."</span>
+</div>
+<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg 55]</span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55"></a>CHAPTER VII.<br />
+<br />
+A WILD NIGHT.&mdash;I AM PREMATURELY AGED.</h2>
+
+
+<p>In the depths of night I was awakened by a noise made by
+the opening of a door, and one by one seven masked figures
+silently stalked into my prison. Each bore a lighted torch, and
+they passed me as I lay on the floor in my clothes (for I had
+no bedding), and ranged themselves in a line. I arose, and
+seated myself as directed to do, upon the only stool in the room.
+Swinging into a semi-circle, the weird line wound about me, and
+from the one seat on which I rested in the center of the room,
+I gazed successively upon seven pairs of gleaming eyes, each
+pair directed at myself; and as I turned from one to another,
+the black cowl of each deepened into darkness, and grew more
+hideous.</p>
+
+<p>"Men or devils," I cried, "do your worst! Make me, if such
+is your will, as that sunken corpse beside which I was once
+seated; but cease your persecutions. I have atoned for my
+indiscretions a thousand fold, and this suspense is unbearable;
+I demand to know what is to be my doom, and I desire its
+fulfilment."</p>
+
+<p>Then one stepped forward, facing me squarely,&mdash;the others
+closed together around him and me. Raising his forefinger, he
+pointed it close to my face, and as his sharp eyes glittered from
+behind the black mask, piercing through me, he slowly said:
+"Why do you not say brothers?"</p>
+
+<p>"Horrible," I rejoined; "stop this mockery. Have I not
+suffered enough from your persecutions to make me reject that
+word as applied to yourselves? You can but murder; do your
+duty to your unseen masters, and end this prolonged torture!"</p>
+
+<p>"Brother," said the spokesman, "you well know that the
+sacred rules of our order will not permit us to murder any
+human being. We exist to benefit humanity, to lead the wayward
+back across the burning desert into the pathways of the<span class="pagenum">[Pg 56]</span>
+righteous; not to destroy or persecute a brother. Ours is an
+eleemosynary institution, instructing its members, helping them
+to seek happiness. You are now expiating the crime you have
+committed, and the good in your spirit rightfully revolts against
+the bad, for in divulging to the world our mystic signs and
+brotherly greetings, you have sinned against yourself more than
+against others. The sting of conscience, the bitings of remorse
+punish you."</p>
+
+<p>"True," I cried, as the full significance of what he said burst
+upon me, "too true; but I bitterly repent my treachery. Others
+can never know how my soul is harrowed by the recollection of
+the enormity of that breach of confidence. In spite of my open,
+careless, or defiant bearing, my heart is humble, and my spirit
+cries out for mercy. By night and by day I have in secret
+cursed myself for heeding an unhallowed mandate, and I have
+long looked forward to the judgment that I should suffer for my
+perfidy, for I have appreciated that the day of reckoning would
+surely appear. I do not rebel, and I recall my wild language; I
+recant my 'Confession,' I renounce myself! I say to you in all
+sincerity, brothers, do your duty, only I beg of you to slay me
+at once, and end my suspense. I await my doom. What might
+it be?"</p>
+
+<p>Grasping my hand, the leader said: "You are ready as a
+member of our order; we can now judge you as we have been
+commanded; had you persisted in calling us devils in your
+mistaken frenzy, we should have been forced to reason with you
+until you returned again to us, and became one of us. Our
+judgment is for you only; the world must not now know its
+nature, at least so far as we are concerned. Those you see here,
+are not your judges; we are agents sent to labor with you, to
+draw you back into our ranks, to bring you into a condition that
+will enable you to carry out the sentence that you have drawn
+upon yourself, for you must be your own doomsman. In the
+first place, we are directed to gain your voluntary consent to
+leave this locality. You can no longer take part in affairs that
+interested you before. To the people of this State, and to your
+home, and kindred, you must become a stranger for all time.
+Do you consent?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," I answered, for I knew that I must acquiesce.<span class="pagenum">[Pg 57]</span></p>
+
+<p>"In the next place, you must help us to remove all traces of
+your identity. You must, so far as the world is concerned, leave
+your body where you have apparently been drowned, for a
+world's benefit, a harmless mockery to deceive the people, and
+also to make an example for others that are weak. Are you
+ready?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Then remove your clothing, and replace it with this suit."</p>
+
+<p>I obeyed, and changed my garments, receiving others in
+return. One of the party then, taking from beneath his gown
+a box containing several bottles of liquids, proceeded artfully
+to mix and compound them, and then to paint my face with
+the combination, which after being mixed, formed a clear
+solution.</p>
+
+<p>"Do not fear to wash;" said the spokesman, "the effect of
+this lotion is permanent enough to stay until you are well out of
+this State."</p>
+
+<p>I passed my hand over my face; it was drawn into wrinkles
+as a film of gelatine might have been shrivelled under the
+influence of a strong tannin or astringent liquid; beneath my
+fingers it felt like the furrowed face of a very old man, but I
+experienced no pain. I vainly tried to smooth the wrinkles;
+immediately upon removing the pressure of my hand, the furrows
+reappeared.</p>
+
+<p>Next, another applied a colorless liquid freely to my hair and
+beard; he rubbed it well, and afterward wiped it dry with a
+towel. A mirror was thrust beneath my gaze. I started back,
+the transformation was complete. My appearance had entirely
+changed. My face had become aged and wrinkled, my hair as
+white as snow.</p>
+
+<p>I cried aloud in amazement: "Am I sane, is this a dream?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is not a dream; but, under methods that are in exact
+accordance with natural physiological laws, we have been enabled
+to transform your appearance from that of one in the prime
+of manhood into the semblance of an old man, and that,
+too, without impairment of your vitality." Another of the
+masked men opened a curious little casket that I perceived was
+surmounted by an alembic and other alchemical figures, and
+embossed with an Oriental design. He drew from it a lamp<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span>
+which he lighted with a taper; the flame that resulted, first pale
+blue, then yellow, next violet and finally red, seemed to become
+more weird and ghastly with each mutation, as I gazed spell-bound
+upon its fantastic changes. Then, after these transformations,
+it burned steadily with the final strange blood-red hue,
+and he now held over the blaze a tiny cup, which, in a few
+moments, commenced to sputter and then smoked, exhaling a
+curious, epipolic, semi-luminous vapor. I was commanded to
+inhale the vapor.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/gs1014.jpg" width="600" height="445" alt="" title="A MIRROR WAS THRUST BENEATH MY GAZE." />
+<span class="caption">"A MIRROR WAS THRUST BENEATH MY GAZE."</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>I hesitated; the thought rushed upon me, "Now I am
+another person, so cleverly disguised that even my own friends
+would perhaps not know me, this vapor is designed to suffocate
+me, and my body, if found, will not now be known, and could
+not be identified when discovered."</p>
+
+<p>"Do not fear," said the spokesman, as if divining my
+thought, "there is no danger," and at once I realized, by quick
+reasoning, that if my death were demanded, my body might long<span class="pagenum">[Pg 59]</span>
+since have been easily destroyed, and all this ceremony would
+have been unnecessary.</p>
+
+<p>I hesitated no longer, but drew into my lungs the vapor that
+arose from the mysterious cup, freely expanding my chest several
+times, and then asked, "Is not that enough?" Despair now
+overcame me. My voice, no longer the full, strong tone of a
+man in middle life and perfect strength, squeaked and quavered,
+as if impaired by palsy. I had seen my image in a mirror, an
+old man with wrinkled face and white hair; I now heard myself
+speak with the voice of an octogenarian.</p>
+
+<p>"What have you done?" I cried.</p>
+
+<p>"We have obeyed your orders; you told us you were ready
+to leave your own self here, and the work is complete. The
+man who entered has disappeared. If you should now stand
+in the streets of your village home, and cry to your former
+friends, 'It is I, for whom you seek,' they would smile, and
+call you a madman. Know," continued the voice, "that there
+is in Eastern metaphysical lore, more true philosophy than is
+embodied in the sciences of to-day, and that by means of the
+ramifications of our order it becomes possible, when necessary,
+for him who stands beyond the inner and upper Worshipful
+Master, to draw these treasures from the occult Wisdom possessions
+of Oriental sages who forget nothing and lose nothing.
+Have we not been permitted to do his bidding well?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," I squeaked; "and I wish that you had done it better.
+I would that I were dead."</p>
+
+<p>"When the time comes, if necessary, your dead body will be
+fished from the water," was the reply; "witnesses have seen
+the drowning tragedy, and will surely identify the corpse."</p>
+
+<p>"And may I go? am I free now?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah," said he, "that is not for us to say; our part of the
+work is fulfilled, and we can return to our native lands, and
+resume again our several studies. So far as we are concerned,
+you are free, but we have been directed to pass you over to the
+keeping of others who will carry forward this judgment&mdash;there
+is another step."</p>
+
+<p>"Tell me," I cried, once more desponding, "tell me the full
+extent of my sentence."<span class="pagenum">[Pg 60]</span></p>
+
+<p>"That is not known to us, and probably is not known to any
+one man. So far as the members of our order are concerned,
+you have now vanished. When you leave our sight this night,
+we will also separate from one another, we shall know no more
+of you and your future than will those of our working order who
+live in this section of the country. We have no personal
+acquaintance with the guide that has been selected to conduct
+you farther, and who will appear in due season, and we make
+no surmise concerning the result of your journey, only we know
+that you will not be killed, for you have a work to perform, and
+will continue to exist long after others of your age are dead.
+Farewell, brother; we have discharged our duty, and by your
+consent, now we must return to our various pursuits. In a short
+time all evidence of your unfortunate mistake, the crime committed
+by you in printing our sacred charges, will have vanished.
+Even now, emissaries are ordained to collect and destroy the
+written record that tells of your weakness, and with the destruction
+of that testimony, for every copy will surely be annihilated,
+and with your disappearance from among men, for this also is to
+follow, our responsibility for you will cease."</p>
+
+<p>Each of the seven men advanced, and grasped my hand,
+giving me the grip of brotherhood, and then, without a word,
+they severally and silently departed into the outer darkness.
+As the last man disappeared, a figure entered the door, clad and
+masked exactly like those who had gone. He removed the
+long black gown in which he was enveloped, threw the mask
+from his face and stood before me, a slender, graceful, bright-looking
+young man. By the light of the candle I saw him
+distinctly, and was at once struck by his amiable, cheerful
+countenance, and my heart bounded with a sudden hope. I had
+temporarily forgotten the transformation that had been made
+in my person, which, altogether painless, had left no physical
+sensation, and thought of myself as I had formerly existed; my
+soul was still my own, I imagined; my blood seemed unchanged,
+and must flow as rapidly as before; my strength was unaltered,
+indeed I was in self-consciousness still in the prime of life.</p>
+
+<p>"Excuse me, Father," said the stranger, "but my services
+have been sought as a guide for the first part of a journey that I
+am informed you intend to take."<span class="pagenum">[Pg 61]</span></p>
+
+<p>His voice was mild and pleasant, his bearing respectful, but
+the peculiar manner in which he spoke convinced me that he
+knew that, as a guide, he must conduct me to some previously
+designated spot, and that he purposed to do so was evident,
+with or without my consent.</p>
+
+<p>"Why do you call me Father?" I attempted to say, but as
+the first few words escaped my lips, the recollection of the events
+of the night rushed upon me, for instead of my own, I recognized
+the piping voice of the old man I had now become, and my
+tongue faltered; the sentence was unspoken.</p>
+
+<p>"You would ask me why I called you Father, I perceive;
+well, because I am directed to be a son to you, to care for your
+wants, to make your journey as easy and pleasant as possible, to
+guide you quietly and carefully to the point that will next prove
+of interest to you."</p>
+
+<p>I stood before him a free man, in the prime of life, full of
+energy, and this stripling alone interposed between myself and
+liberty. Should I permit the slender youth to carry me away
+as a prisoner? would it not be best to thrust him aside, if
+necessary, crush him to the earth? go forth in my freedom?
+Yet I hesitated, for he might have friends outside; probably
+he was not alone.</p>
+
+<p>"There are no companions near us," said he, reading my
+mind, "and, as I do not seem formidable, it is natural you
+should weigh in your mind the probabilities of escape; but you
+can not evade your destiny, and you must not attempt to
+deny yourself the pleasure of my company. You must leave
+this locality and leave without a regret. In order that you
+may acquiesce willingly I propose that together we return to
+your former home, which you will, however, find no longer to be
+a home. I will accompany you as a companion, as your son.
+You may speak, with one exception, to whomever you care to
+address; may call on any of your old associates, may assert
+openly who you are, or whatever and whoever you please to
+represent yourself, only I must also have the privilege of joining
+in the conversation."</p>
+
+<p>"Agreed," I cried, and extended my hand; he grasped it, and
+then by the light of the candle, I saw a peculiar expression flit
+over his face, as he added:<span class="pagenum">[Pg 62]</span></p>
+
+<p>"To one person only, as I have said, and you have promised,
+you must not speak&mdash;your wife."</p>
+
+<p>I bowed my head, and a flood of sorrowful reflections swept
+over me. Of all the world the one whom I longed to meet, to
+clasp in my arms, to counsel in my distress, was the wife of my
+bosom, and I begged him to withdraw his cruel injunction.</p>
+
+<p>"You should have thought of her before; now it is too late.
+To permit you to meet, and speak with her would be dangerous;
+she might pierce your disguise. Of all others there is no fear."</p>
+
+<p>"Must I go with you into an unknown future without a
+farewell kiss from my little child or from my babe scarce three
+months old?"</p>
+
+<p>"It has been so ordained."</p>
+
+<p>I threw myself on the floor and moaned. "This is too hard,
+too hard for human heart to bear. Life has no charm to a man
+who is thrust from all he holds most dear, home, friends, family."</p>
+
+<p>"The men who relinquish such pleasures and such comforts
+are those who do the greatest good to humanity," said the youth.
+"The multitude exist to propagate the race, as animal progenitors
+of the multitudes that are to follow, and the exceptional
+philanthropist is he who denies himself material bliss, and
+punishes himself in order to work out a problem such as it has
+been ordained that you are to solve. Do not argue further&mdash;the
+line is marked, and you must walk direct."</p>
+
+<p>Into the blaze of the old fireplace of that log house, for,
+although it was autumn, the night was chilly, he then cast his
+black robe and false face, and, as they turned to ashes, the last
+evidences of the vivid acts through which I had passed, were
+destroyed. As I lay moaning in my utter misery, I tried to
+reason with myself that what I experienced was all a hallucination.
+I dozed, and awoke startled, half conscious only, as one
+in a nightmare; I said to myself, "A dream! a dream!" and
+slept again.<span class="pagenum">[Pg 63]</span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63"></a>CHAPTER VIII.<br />
+<br />
+A LESSON IN MIND STUDY.</h2>
+
+
+<p>The door of the cabin was open when I awoke, the sun shone
+brightly, and my friend, apparently happy and unconcerned,
+said: "Father, we must soon start on our journey; I have taken
+advantage of your refreshing sleep, and have engaged breakfast
+at yonder farm-house; our meal awaits us."</p>
+
+<p>I arose, washed my wrinkled face, combed my white hair,
+and shuddered as I saw in a pocket mirror the reflection of my
+figure, an aged, apparently decrepit man.</p>
+
+<p>"Do not be disturbed at your feeble condition," said my
+companion; "your infirmities are not real. Few men have ever
+been permitted to drink of the richness of the revelations that
+await you; and in view of these expectations the fact that you
+are prematurely aged in appearance should not unnerve you.
+Be of good heart, and when you say the word, we will start on
+our journey, which will begin as soon as you have said farewell
+to former friends and acquaintances."</p>
+
+<p>I made no reply, but silently accompanied him, for my thoughts
+were in the past, and my reflections were far from pleasant.</p>
+
+<p>We reached the farm-house, and as I observed the care and
+attention extended me by the pleasant-faced housewife, I realized
+that, in one respect at least, old age brought its compensation.
+After breakfast a man appeared from the farmer's barn, driving
+a team of horses attached to an open spring-wagon which, in
+obedience to the request of my guide, I entered, accompanied
+by my young friend, who directed that we be driven toward the
+village from which I had been abducted. He seemed to know my
+past life as I knew it; he asked me to select those of my friends
+to whom I first wished to bid farewell, even mentioning their
+names; he seemed all that a patient, faithful son could be, and I
+began to wonder at his audacity, even as much as I admired his
+self-confidence.<span class="pagenum">[Pg 64]</span></p>
+
+<p>As we journeyed onward we engaged in familiar talk. We
+sat together on the back seat of the open spring-wagon, in full
+sight of passers, no attempt being made to conceal my person.
+Thus we traveled for two days, and on our course we passed
+through a large city with which I was acquainted, a city that
+my abductors had previously carried me through and beyond. I
+found that my "son" possessed fine conversational power, and a
+rich mine of information, and he became increasingly interesting
+as he drew from his fund of knowledge, and poured into my
+listening ears an entrancing strain of historical and metaphysical
+information. Never at a loss for a word or an idea, he appeared
+to discern my cogitations, and as my mind wandered in this
+or that direction he fell into the channel of my fancies, and
+answered my unspoken thoughts, my mind-questions or meditations,
+as pertinently as though I had spoken them.</p>
+
+<p>His accomplishments, for the methods of his perception were
+unaccompanied by any endeavor to draw me into word expression,
+made me aware at least, that, in him, I had to deal with a man
+unquestionably possessed of more than ordinary intellect and
+education, and as this conviction entered my mind he changed
+his subject and promptly answered the silent inquiry, speaking
+as follows:</p>
+
+<p>"Have you not sometimes felt that in yourself there may
+exist undeveloped senses that await an awakening touch to open
+to yourself a new world, senses that may be fully developed, but
+which saturate each other and neutralize themselves; quiescent,
+closed circles which you can not reach, satisfied circuits slumbering
+within your body and that defy your efforts to utilize
+them? In your dreams have you not seen sights that words
+are inadequate to describe, that your faculties can not retain in
+waking moments, and which dissolve into intangible nothingness,
+leaving only a vague, shadowy outline as the mind quickens, or
+rather when the senses that possess you in sleep relinquish the
+body to the returning vital functions and spirit? This unconscious
+conception of other planes, a beyond or betwixt, that is
+neither mental nor material, neither here nor located elsewhere,
+belongs to humanity in general, and is made evident from the
+unsatiable desire of men to pry into phenomena latent or recondite
+that offer no apparent return to humanity. This desire has<span class="pagenum">[Pg 65]</span>
+given men the knowledge they now possess of the sciences;
+sciences yet in their infancy. Study in this direction is, at
+present, altogether of the material plane, but in time to come,
+men will gain control of outlying senses which will enable them
+to step from the seen into the consideration of matter or force
+that is now subtle and evasive, which must be accomplished
+by means of the latent faculties that I have indicated. There
+will be an unconscious development of new mind-forces in the
+student of nature as the rudiments of these so-called sciences
+are elaborated. Step by step, as the ages pass, the faculties of
+men will, under progressive series of evolutions, imperceptibly
+pass into higher phases until that which is even now possible
+with some individuals of the purified esoteric school, but which
+would seem miraculous if practiced openly at this day, will prove
+feasible to humanity generally and be found in exact accord with
+natural laws. The conversational method of men, whereby
+communion between human beings is carried on by disturbing
+the air by means of vocal organs so as to produce mechanical
+pulsations of that medium, is crude in the extreme. Mind craves
+to meet mind, but can not yet thrust matter aside, and in order
+to communicate one with another, the impression one mind
+wishes to convey to another must be first made on the brain
+matter that accompanies it, which in turn influences the organs
+of speech, inducing a disturbance of the air by the motions of
+the vocal organs, which, by undulations that reach to another
+being, act on his ear, and secondarily on the earthly matter of his
+brain, and finally by this roundabout course, impress the second
+being's mind. In this transmission of motions there is great waste
+of energy and loss of time, but such methods are a necessity of
+the present slow, much-obstructed method of communication.
+There is, in cultivated man, an innate craving for something
+more facile, and often a partly developed conception, spectral
+and vague, appears, and the being feels that there may be for
+mortals a richer, brighter life, a higher earthly existence that
+science does not now indicate. Such intimation of a deeper
+play of faculties is now most vivid with men during the perfect
+loss of mental self as experienced in dreams, which as yet man
+in the quick can not grasp, and which fade as he awakens. As
+mental sciences are developed, investigators will find that the<span class="pagenum">[Pg 66]</span>
+medium known as air is unnecessary as a means of conveying
+mind conceptions from one person to another; that material
+sounds and word pulsations are cumbersome; that thought force
+unexpressed may be used to accomplish more than speech can
+do, and that physical exertions as exemplified in motion of matter
+such as I have described will be unnecessary for mental communication.
+As door after door in these directions shall open
+before men, mystery after mystery will be disclosed, and vanish
+as mysteries to reappear as simple facts. Phenomena that are
+impossible and unrevealed to the scientist of to-day will be
+familiar to the coming multitude, and at last, as by degrees,
+clearer knowledge is evolved, the vocal language of men will
+disappear, and humanity, regardless of nationality, will, in
+silence and even in darkness, converse eloquently together in
+mind language. That which is now esoteric will become exoteric.
+Then mind will meet mind as my mind now impinges on your
+own, and, in reply to your unuttered question regarding my
+apparently unaccountable powers of perception, I say they are
+perfectly natural, but while I can read your thoughts, because of
+the fact that you can not reciprocate in this direction, I must use
+my voice to impress your mind. You will know more of this,
+however, at a future day, for it has been ordained that you are to
+be educated with an object that is now concealed. At present
+you are interested mainly in the affairs of life as you know them,
+and can not enter into these purer spheres. We are approaching
+one of your former friends, and it may be your pleasure to ask
+him some questions and to bid him farewell."<span class="pagenum">[Pg 67]</span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67"></a>CHAPTER IX.<br />
+<br />
+I CAN NOT ESTABLISH MY IDENTITY.</h2>
+
+
+<p>In surprise I perceived coming towards us a light spring
+wagon, in which rode one of my old acquaintances. Pleasure
+at the discovery led me to raise my hat, wave it around my
+head, and salute him even at the considerable distance that then
+separated us. I was annoyed at the look of curiosity that passed
+over his countenance, and not until the two vehicles had stopped
+side by side did it occur to me that I was unrecognized. I had
+been so engrossed in my companion's revelations, that I had
+forgotten my unfortunate physical condition.</p>
+
+<p>I stretched out my hand, I leaned over almost into the other
+vehicle, and earnestly said:</p>
+
+<p>"Do you not know me? Only a short time ago we sat and
+conversed side by side."</p>
+
+<p>A look of bewilderment came over his features. "I have
+never seen you that I can recall," he answered.</p>
+
+<p>My spirit sank within me. Could it be possible that I was
+really so changed? I begged him to try and recall my former
+self, giving my name. "I am that person," I added; but he,
+with an expression of countenance that told as plainly as words
+could speak that he considered me deranged, touched his horse,
+and drove on.</p>
+
+<p>My companion broke the awkward silence. "Do you know
+that I perceived between you two men an unconscious display of
+mind-language, especially evident on your part? You wished
+with all the earnestness of your soul to bring yourself as you formerly
+appeared, before that man, and when it proved impossible,
+without a word from him, his mind exhibited itself to your more
+earnest intellect, and you realized that he said to himself, 'This
+person is a poor lunatic.' He told you his thoughts in mind-language,
+as plainly as words could have spoken, because the
+intense earnestness on your part quickened your perceptive<span class="pagenum">[Pg 68]</span>
+faculties, but he could not see your mental state, and the
+pleading voice of the apparent stranger before him could not
+convince the unconcerned lethargic mind within him. I observed,
+however, in addition to what you noticed, that he is really looking
+for you. That is the object of his journey, and I learn that in
+every direction men are now spreading the news that you have
+been kidnapped and carried from your jail. However, we shall
+soon be in the village, and you will then hear more about
+yourself."</p>
+
+<p>We rode in silence while I meditated on my remarkable
+situation. I could not resign myself without a struggle to my
+approaching fate, and I felt even yet a hope, although I seemed
+powerless in the hands of destiny. Could I not, by some
+method, convince my friends of my identity? I determined,
+forgetting the fact that my guide was even then reading my
+mind, that upon the next opportunity I would pursue a different
+course.</p>
+
+<p>"It will not avail," my companion replied. "You must do
+one of two things: you will voluntarily go with me, or you will
+involuntarily go to an insane asylum. Neither you nor I could
+by any method convince others that the obviously decrepit old
+man beside me was but yesterday hale, hearty, young and strong.
+You will find that you can not prove your identity, and as a
+friend, one of the great brotherhood to which you belong, a craft
+that deals charitably with all men and all problems, I advise
+you to accept the situation as soon as possible after it becomes
+evident to your mind that you are lost to former affiliations, and
+must henceforth be a stranger to the people whom you know.
+Take my advice, and cease to regret the past and cheerfully
+turn your thoughts to the future. On one side of you the lunatic
+asylum is open; on the other, a journey into an unknown
+region, beyond the confines of any known country. On the one
+hand, imprisonment and subjection, perhaps abuse and neglect;
+on the other, liberation of soul, evolution of faculty, and a
+grasping of superior knowledge that is denied most men&mdash;yes,
+withheld from all but a few persons of each generation, for only
+a few, unknown to the millions of this world's inhabitants, have
+passed over the road you are to travel. Just now you wished to
+meet your jailer of a few hours ago; it is a wise conclusion, and<span class="pagenum">[Pg 69]</span>
+if he does not recognize you, I ask in sincerity, who will be
+likely to do so? We will drive straight to his home; but, here
+he comes."</p>
+
+<p>Indeed, we were now in the village, where my miserable journey
+began, and perhaps by chance&mdash;it seems that it could not
+have been otherwise&mdash;my former jailer actually approached us.</p>
+
+<p>"If you please," said my companion, "I will assist you to
+alight from the wagon, and you may privately converse with him."</p>
+
+<p>Our wagon stopped, my guide opened a conversation with the
+jailer, saying that his friend wished to speak with him, and then
+assisted me to alight and retired a distance. I was vexed at
+my infirmities, which embarrassed me most exasperatingly, but
+which I knew were artificial; my body appeared unwilling
+although my spirit was anxious; but do what I could to control
+my actions, I involuntarily behaved like a decrepit old man.
+However, my mind was made up; this attempt to prove my
+personality should be the last; failure now would prove the
+turning point, and I would go willingly with my companion
+upon the unknown journey if I could not convince the jailer
+of my identity.</p>
+
+<p>Straightening myself before the expectant jailer, who, with
+a look of inquisitiveness, regarded me as a stranger, I asked if
+he knew my former self, giving my name.</p>
+
+<p>"That I do," he replied, "and if I could find him at this
+moment I would be relieved of a load of worry."</p>
+
+<p>"Would you surely know him if you met him?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Assuredly," he replied; "and if you bring tidings of his
+whereabouts, as your bearing indicates, speak, that I may rid
+myself of suspicion and suspense."</p>
+
+<p>Calling the jailer by name, I asked him if my countenance
+did not remind him of the man he wished to find.</p>
+
+<p>"Not at all."</p>
+
+<p>"Listen, does not my voice resemble that of your escaped
+prisoner?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not in the least."</p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/gs1015.jpg" width="600" height="595" alt="" title="&quot;I AM THE MAN YOU SEEK.&quot;" />
+<span class="caption">"I AM THE MAN YOU SEEK."</span>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>With a violent effort I drew my form as straight as possible,
+and stood upright before him, with every facial muscle
+strained to its utmost, in a vain endeavor to bring my wrinkled
+countenance to its former smoothness, and with the energy that<span class="pagenum">[Pg 70]</span>
+a drowning man might exert to grasp a passing object, I tried
+to control my voice, and preserve my identity by so doing,
+vehemently imploring him, begging him to listen to my story.
+"I am the man you seek; I am the prisoner who, a few days
+ago, stood in the prime of life before you. I have been spirited
+away from you by men who are leagued with occult forces, which
+extend forward among hidden mysteries, into forces which
+illuminate the present, and reach backward into the past
+unseen. These persons, by artful and damnable manipulations
+under the guidance of a power that has been evolved in the
+secrecy of past ages, and transmitted only to a favored few, have
+changed the strong man you knew into the one apparently
+feeble, who now confronts you. Only a short period has passed<span class="pagenum">[Pg 71]</span>
+since I was your unwilling captive, charged with debt, a trifling
+sum; and then, as your sullen prisoner, I longed for freedom.
+Now I plead before you, with all my soul, I beg of you to take
+me back to my cell. Seal your doors, and hold me again, for
+your dungeon will now be to me a paradise."</p>
+
+<p>I felt that I was becoming frantic, for with each word I realized
+that the jailer became more and more impatient and annoyed. I
+perceived that he believed me to be a lunatic. Pleadings and
+entreaties were of no avail, and my eagerness rapidly changed
+into despair until at last I cried: "If you will not believe my
+words, I will throw myself on the mercy of my young companion.
+I ask you to consider his testimony, and if he says that I
+am not what I assert myself to be, I will leave my home and
+country, and go with him quietly into the unknown future."</p>
+
+<p>He turned to depart, but I threw myself before him, and
+beckoned the young man who, up to this time, had stood aloof
+in respectful silence. He came forward, and addressing the
+jailer, called him by name, and corroborated my story. Yes,
+strange as it sounded to me, he reiterated the substance of my
+narrative as I had repeated it. "Now, you will believe it," I
+cried in ecstacy; "now you need no longer question the facts
+that I have related."</p>
+
+<p>Instead, however, of accepting the story of the witness, the
+jailer upbraided him.</p>
+
+<p>"This is a preconcerted arrangement to get me into ridicule
+or further trouble. You two have made up an incredible story
+that on its face is fit only to be told to men as crazy or designing
+as yourselves. This young man did not even overhear your
+conversation with me, and yet he repeats his lesson without a
+question from me as to what I wish to learn of him."</p>
+
+<p>"He can see our minds," I cried in despair.</p>
+
+<p>"Crazier than I should have believed from your countenance,"
+the jailer replied. "Of all the improbable stories imaginable,
+you have attempted to inveigle me into accepting that which is
+most unreasonable. If you are leagued together intent on some
+swindling scheme, I give you warning now that I am in no
+mood for trifling. Go your way, and trouble me no more with
+this foolish scheming, which villainy or lunacy of some description
+must underlie." He turned in anger and left us.<span class="pagenum">[Pg 72]</span></p>
+
+<p>"It is as I predicted," said my companion; "you are lost to
+man. Those who know you best will turn from you soonest. I
+might become as wild as you are, in your interest, and only
+serve to make your story appear more extravagant. In human
+affairs men judge and act according to the limited knowledge at
+command of the multitude. Witnesses who tell the truth are
+often, in our courts of law, stunned, as you have been, by the
+decisions of a narrow-minded jury. Men sit on juries with little
+conception of the facts of the case that is brought before them;
+the men who manipulate them are mere tools in unseen hands
+that throw their several minds in antagonisms unexplainable to
+man. The judge is unconsciously often a tool of his own errors
+or those of others. One learned judge unties what another has
+fastened, each basing his views on the same testimony, each
+rendering his decision in accordance with law derived from the
+same authority. Your case is that condition of mind that men
+call lunacy. You can see much that is hidden from others
+because you have become acquainted with facts that their narrow
+education forbids them to accept, but, because the majority is
+against you, they consider you mentally unbalanced. The philosophy
+of men does not yet comprehend the conditions that have
+operated on your person, and as you stand alone, although in the
+right, all men will oppose you, and you must submit to the views
+of a misguided majority. In the eyes of a present generation
+you are crazy. A jury of your former peers could not do else
+than so adjudge you, for you are not on the same mental plane,
+and I ask, will you again attempt to accomplish that which is as
+impossible as it would be for you to drink the waters of Seneca
+Lake at one draught? Go to those men and propose to drain that
+lake at one gulp, and you will be listened to as seriously as when
+you beg your former comrades to believe that you are another
+person than what you seem. Only lengthened life is credited
+with the production of physical changes that under favorable
+conditions, are possible of accomplishment in a brief period,
+and such testimony as you could bring, in the present state of
+human knowledge, would only add to the proof of your lunacy."</p>
+
+<p>"I see, I see," I said; "and I submit. Lead on, I am ready.
+Whatever my destined career may be, wherever it may be, it can
+only lead to the grave."<span class="pagenum">[Pg 73]</span></p>
+
+<p>"Do not be so sure of that," was the reply.</p>
+
+<p>I shuddered instinctively, for this answer seemed to imply
+that the stillness of the grave would be preferable to my destiny.</p>
+
+<p>We got into the wagon again, and a deep silence followed
+as we rode along, gazing abstractedly on the quiet fields and
+lonely farm-houses. Finally we reached a little village. Here
+my companion dismissed the farmer, our driver, paying him
+liberally, and secured lodgings in a private family (I believe we
+were expected), and after a hearty supper we retired. From the
+time we left the jailer I never again attempted to reveal my
+identity. I had lost my interest in the past, and found myself
+craving to know what the future had in store for me.<span class="pagenum">[Pg 74]</span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74"></a>CHAPTER X.<br />
+<br />
+MY JOURNEY TOWARDS THE END OF EARTH BEGINS.&mdash;THE
+ADEPTS' BROTHERHOOD.</h2>
+
+
+<p>My companion did not attempt to watch over my motions or
+in any way to interfere with my freedom.</p>
+
+<p>"I will for a time necessarily be absent," he said, "arranging
+for our journey, and while I am getting ready you must employ
+yourself as best you can. I ask you, however, now to swear
+that, as you have promised, you will not seek your wife and
+children."</p>
+
+<p>To this I agreed.</p>
+
+<p>"Hold up your hand," he said, and I repeated after him:
+"All this I most solemnly and sincerely promise and swear, with
+a firm and steadfast resolution to keep and perform my oath,
+without the least equivocation, mental reservation or self-evasion
+whatever."</p>
+
+<p>"That will answer; see that you keep your oath this time,"
+he said, and he departed. Several days were consumed before
+he returned, and during that time I was an inquisitive and silent
+listener to the various conjectures others were making regarding
+my abduction which event was becoming of general interest.
+Some of the theories advanced were quite near the truth, others
+wild and erratic. How preposterous it seemed to me that the
+actor himself could be in the very seat of the disturbance, willing,
+anxious to testify, ready to prove the truth concerning his
+position, and yet unable even to obtain a respectful hearing from
+those most interested in his recovery. Men gathered together
+discussing the "outrage"; women, children, even, talked of little
+else, and it was evident that the entire country was aroused.
+New political issues took their rise from the event, but the man
+who was the prime cause of the excitement was for a period a
+willing and unwilling listener, as he had been a willing and
+unwilling actor in the tragedy.<span class="pagenum">[Pg 75]</span></p>
+
+<p>One morning my companion drove up in a light carriage,
+drawn by a span of fine, spirited, black horses.</p>
+
+<p>"We are ready now," he said, and my unprecedented journey
+began.</p>
+
+<p>Wherever we stopped, I heard my name mentioned. Men
+combined against men, brother was declaiming against brother,
+neighbor was against neighbor, everywhere suspicion was in
+the air.</p>
+
+<p>"The passage of time alone can quiet these people," said I.</p>
+
+<p>"The usual conception of the term Time&mdash;an indescribable
+something flowing at a constant rate&mdash;is erroneous," replied my
+comrade. "Time is humanity's best friend, and should be pictured
+as a ministering angel, instead of a skeleton with hour-glass
+and scythe. Time does not fly, but is permanent and quiescent,
+while restless, force-impelled matter rushes onward. Force and
+matter fly; Time reposes. At our birth we are wound up like a
+machine, to move for a certain number of years, grating against
+Time. We grind against that complacent spirit, and wear not
+Time but ourselves away. We hold within ourselves a certain
+amount of energy, which, an evanescent form of matter, is the
+opponent of Time. Time has no existence with inanimate
+objects. It is a conception of the human intellect. Time is
+rest, perfect rest, tranquillity such as man never realizes unless
+he becomes a part of the sweet silences toward which human life
+and human mind are drifting. So much for Time. Now for Life.
+Disturbed energy in one of its forms, we call Life; and this Life
+is the great enemy of peace, the opponent of steadfast perfection.
+Pure energy, the soul of the universe, permeates all things with
+which man is now acquainted, but when at rest is imperceptible
+to man, while disturbed energy, according to its condition, is
+apparent either as matter or as force. A substance or material
+body is a manifestation resulting from a disturbance of energy.
+The agitating cause removed, the manifestations disappear, and
+thus a universe may be extinguished, without unbalancing the
+cosmos that remains. The worlds known to man are conditions
+of abnormal energy moving on separate planes through what
+men call space. They attract to themselves bodies of similar
+description, and thus influence one another&mdash;they have each a
+separate existence, and are swayed to and fro under the influence<span class="pagenum">[Pg 76]</span>
+of the various disturbances in energy common to their rank
+or order, which we call forms of forces. Unsettled energy also
+assumes numerous other expressions that are unknown to man,
+but which in all perceptible forms is characterized by motion.
+Pure energy can not be appreciated by the minds of mortals.
+There are invisible worlds besides those perceived by us in our
+planetary system, unreachable centers of ethereal structure about
+us that stand in a higher plane of development than earthly
+matter which is a gross form of disturbed energy. There are
+also lower planes. Man's acquaintance with the forms of energy
+is the result of his power of perceiving the forms of matter of
+which he is a part. Heat, light, gravitation, electricity and
+magnetism are ever present in all perceivable substances, and,
+although purer than earth, they are still manifestations of absolute
+energy, and for this reason are sensible to men, but more evanescent
+than material bodies. Perhaps you can conceive that if these
+disturbances could be removed, matter or force would be resolved
+back into pure energy, and would vanish. Such a dissociation
+is an ethereal existence, and as pure energy the life spirit of all
+material things is neither cold nor hot, heavy nor light, solid,
+liquid nor gaseous&mdash;men can not, as mortals now exist, see,
+feel, smell, taste, or even conceive of it. It moves through
+space as we do through it, a world of itself as transparent to
+matter as matter is to it, insensible but ever present, a reality to
+higher existences that rest in other planes, but not to us
+an essence subject to scientific test, nor an entity. Of these
+problems and their connection with others in the unseen depths
+beyond, you are not yet in a position properly to judge, but
+before many years a new sense will be given you or a development
+of latent senses by the removal of those more gross, and a
+partial insight into an unsuspected unseen, into a realm to you
+at present unknown.</p>
+
+<p>"It has been ordained that a select few must from time to time
+pass over the threshold that divides a mortal's present life from
+the future, and your lot has been cast among the favored ones.
+It is or should be deemed a privilege to be permitted to pass
+farther than human philosophy has yet gone, into an investigation
+of the problems of life; this I say to encourage you. We
+have in our order a handful of persons who have received the<span class="pagenum">[Pg 77]</span>
+accumulated fruits of the close attention others have given to
+these subjects which have been handed to them by the generations
+of men who have preceded. You are destined to become
+as they are. This study of semi-occult forces has enabled those
+selected for the work to master some of the concealed truths of
+being, and by the partial development of a new sense or new
+senses, partly to triumph over death. These facts are hidden from
+ordinary man, and from the earth-bound workers of our brotherhood,
+who can not even interpret the words they learn. The
+methods by which they are elucidated have been locked from man
+because the world is not prepared to receive them, selfishness
+being the ruling passion of debased mankind, and publicity, until
+the chain of evidence is more complete, would embarrass their
+further evolutions, for man as yet lives on the selfish plane."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you mean that, among men, there are a few persons
+possessed of powers such as you have mentioned?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; they move here and there through all orders of society,
+and their attainments are unknown, except to one another, or, at
+most, to but few persons. These adepts are scientific men, and
+may not even be recognized as members of our organization;
+indeed it is often necessary, for obvious reasons, that they should
+not be known as such. These studies must constantly be
+prosecuted in various directions, and some monitors must teach
+others to perform certain duties that are necessary to the grand
+evolution. Hence, when a man has become one of our brotherhood,
+from the promptings that made you one of us, and has
+been as ready and determined to instruct outsiders in our work
+as you have been, it is proper that he should in turn be compelled
+to serve our people, and eventually, mankind."</p>
+
+<p>"Am I to infer from this," I exclaimed, a sudden light
+breaking upon me, "that the alchemistic manuscript that led
+me to the fraternity to which you are related may have been
+artfully designed to serve the interest of that organization?" To
+this question I received no reply. After an interval, I again
+sought information concerning the order, and with more success.</p>
+
+<p>"I understand that you propose that I shall go on a journey
+of investigation for the good of our order and also of humanity."</p>
+
+<p>"True; it is necessary that our discoveries be kept alive, and
+it is essential that the men who do this work accept the trust of<span class="pagenum">[Pg 78]</span>
+their own accord. He who will not consent to add to the common
+stock of knowledge and understanding, must be deemed a drone
+in the hive of nature&mdash;but few persons, however, are called upon
+to serve as you must serve. Men are scattered over the world
+with this object in view, and are unknown to their families or
+even to other members of the order; they hold in solemn trust
+our sacred revelations, and impart them to others as is ordained,
+and thus nothing perishes; eventually humanity will profit.</p>
+
+<p>"Others, as you soon will be doing, are now exploring
+assigned sections of this illimitable field, accumulating further
+knowledge, and they will report results to those whose duty it is
+to retain and formulate the collected sum of facts and principles.
+So it is that, unknown to the great body of our brotherhood, a
+chosen number, under our esoteric teachings, are gradually
+passing the dividing line that separates life from death, matter
+from spirit, for we have members who have mastered these
+problems. We ask, however, no aid of evil forces or of necromancy
+or black art, and your study of alchemy was of no avail,
+although to save the vital truths alchemy is a part of our work.
+We proceed in exact accordance with natural laws, which will
+yet be known to all men. Sorrow, suffering, pain of all
+descriptions, are enemies to the members of our order, as they
+are to mankind broadly, and we hope in the future so to control
+the now hidden secrets of Nature as to be able to govern the
+antagonistic disturbances in energy with which man now is
+everywhere thwarted, to subdue the physical enemies of the race,
+to affiliate religious and scientific thought, cultivating brotherly
+love, the foundation and capstone, the cement and union of this
+ancient fraternity."</p>
+
+<p>"And am I really to take an important part in this scheme?
+Have I been set apart to explore a section of the unknown for a
+bit of hidden knowledge, and to return again?"</p>
+
+<p>"This I will say," he answered, evading a direct reply, "you
+have been selected for a part that one in a thousand has been
+required to undertake. You are to pass into a field that will
+carry you beyond the present limits of human observation.
+This much I have been instructed to impart to you in order to
+nerve you for your duty. I seem to be a young man; really I
+am aged. You seem to be infirm and old, but you are young.<span class="pagenum">[Pg 79]</span>
+Many years ago, cycles ago as men record time, I was promoted
+to do a certain work because of my zealous nature; like you, I
+also had to do penance for an error. I disappeared, as you are
+destined to do, from the sight of men. I regained my youth;
+yours has been lost forever, but you will regain more than your
+former strength. We shall both exist after this generation of
+men has passed away, and shall mingle with generations yet to
+be born, for we shall learn how to restore our youthful vigor, and
+will supply it time and again to earthly matter. Rest assured
+also that the object of our labors is of the most laudable nature,
+and we must be upheld under all difficulties by the fact that multitudes
+of men who are yet to come will be benefited thereby."<span class="pagenum">[Pg 80]</span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80"></a>CHAPTER XI.<br />
+<br />
+MY JOURNEY CONTINUES.&mdash;INSTINCT.</h2>
+
+
+<p>It is unnecessary for me to give the details of the first part
+of my long journey. My companion was guided by a perceptive
+faculty that, like the compass, enabled him to keep in the proper
+course. He did not question those whom we met, and made no
+endeavor to maintain a given direction; and yet he was traveling
+in a part of the country that was new to himself. I marveled at
+the accuracy of his intuitive perception, for he seemed never to
+be at fault. When the road forked, he turned to the right or
+the left in a perfectly careless manner, but the continuity of his
+course was never interrupted. I began mentally to question
+whether he could be guiding us aright, forgetting that he was
+reading my thoughts, and he answered: "There is nothing
+strange in this self-directive faculty. Is not man capable of
+following where animals lead? One of the objects of my special
+study has been to ascertain the nature of the instinct-power of
+animals, the sagacity of brutes. The carrier pigeon will fly to its
+cote across hundreds of miles of strange country. The young
+pig will often return to its pen by a route unknown to it; the
+sluggish tortoise will find its home without a guide, without
+seeing a familiar object; cats, horses and other animals possess
+this power, which is not an unexplainable instinct, but a natural
+sense better developed in some of the lower creatures than it is in
+man. The power lies dormant in man, but exists, nevertheless.
+If we develop one faculty we lose acuteness in some other power.
+Men have lost in mental development in this particular direction
+while seeking to gain in others. If there were no record of the
+fact that light brings objects to the recognition of the mind
+through the agency of the eye, the sense of sight in an animal
+would be considered by men devoid of it as adaptability to extraordinary
+circumstances, or instinct. So it is that animals often
+see clearly where to the sense of man there is only darkness;<span class="pagenum">[Pg 81]</span>
+such sight is not irresponsive action without consciousness of a
+purpose. Man is not very magnanimous. Instead of giving
+credit to the lower animals for superior perception in many
+directions, he denies to them the conscious possession of powers
+imperfectly developed in mankind. We egotistically aim to raise
+ourselves, and do so in our own estimation by clothing the actions
+of the lower animals in a garment of irresponsibility. Because
+we can not understand the inwardness of their power, we assert
+that they act by the influence of instinct. The term instinct, as
+I would define it, is an expression applied by men to a series
+of senses which man possesses, but has not developed. The
+word is used by man to characterize the mental superiority of
+other animals in certain directions where his own senses are
+defective. Instead of crediting animals with these, to them,
+invaluable faculties, man conceitedly says they are involuntary
+actions. Ignorant of their mental status, man is too arrogant to
+admit that lower animals are superior to him in any way. But we
+are not consistent. Is it not true that in the direction in which
+you question my power, some men by cultivation often become
+expert beyond their fellows? and such men have also given very
+little systematic study to subjects connected with these undeniable
+mental qualities. The hunter will hold his course in utter darkness,
+passing inequalities in the ground, and avoiding obstructions
+he can not see. The fact of his superiority in this way, over
+others, is not questioned, although he can not explain his methods
+nor understand how he operates. His quickened sense is often
+as much entitled to be called instinct as is the divining power of
+the carrier pigeon. If scholars would cease to devote their entire
+energies to the development of the material, artistic, or scientific
+part of modern civilization, and turn their attention to other
+forms of mental culture, many beauties and powers of Nature
+now unknown would be revealed. However, this can not be, for
+under existing conditions, the strife for food and warmth is the
+most important struggle that engages mankind, and controls our
+actions. In a time that is surely to come, however, when the
+knowledge of all men is united into a comprehensive whole, the
+book of life, illuminated thereby, will contain many beautiful
+pages that may be easily read, but which are now not suspected
+to exist. The power of the magnet is not uniform&mdash;engineers<span class="pagenum">[Pg 82]</span>
+know that the needle of the compass inexplicably deviates from
+time to time as a line is run over the earth's surface, but they
+also know that aberrations of the needle finally correct themselves.
+The temporary variations of a few degrees that occur in
+the running of a compass line are usually overcome after a time,
+and without a change of course, the disturbed needle swerves
+back, and again points to the calculated direction, as is shown
+by the vernier. Should I err in my course, it would be by a
+trifle only, and we could not go far astray before I would
+unconsciously discover the true path. I carry my magnet in
+my mind."</p>
+
+<p>Many such dissertations or explanations concerning related
+questions were subsequently made in what I then considered a
+very impressive, though always unsatisfactory, manner. I recall
+those episodes now, after other more remarkable experiences
+which are yet to be related, and record them briefly with little
+wonderment, because I have gone through adventures which
+demonstrate that there is nothing improbable in the statements,
+and I will not consume time with further details of this part
+of my journey.</p>
+
+<p>We leisurely traversed State after State, crossed rivers, mountains
+and seemingly interminable forests. The ultimate object
+of our travels, a location in Kentucky, I afterward learned, led
+my companion to guide me by a roundabout course to Wheeling,
+Virginia, by the usual mountain roads of that day, instead of
+going, as he might perhaps have much more easily done, via
+Buffalo and the Lake Shore to Northern Ohio, and then southerly
+across the country. He said in explanation, that the time lost
+at the beginning of our journey by this route, was more than
+recompensed by the ease of the subsequent Ohio River trip.
+Upon reaching Wheeling, he disposed of the team, and we
+embarked on a keel boat, and journeyed down the Ohio to Cincinnati.
+The river was falling when we started, and became
+very low before Cincinnati was reached, too low for steamers,
+and our trip in that flat-bottomed boat, on the sluggish current
+of the tortuous stream, proved tedious and slow. Arriving at
+Cincinnati, my guide decided to wait for a rise in the river,
+designing then to complete our journey on a steamboat. I
+spent several days in Cincinnati quite pleasantly, expecting to<span class="pagenum">[Pg 83]</span>
+continue our course on the steamer "Tecumseh," then in port,
+and ready for departure. At the last moment my guide changed
+his mind, and instead of embarking on that boat, we took passage
+on the steamer "George Washington," leaving Shipping-Port
+Wednesday, December 13, 1826.</p>
+
+<p>During that entire journey, from the commencement to our
+final destination, my guide paid all the bills, and did not want
+either for money or attention from the people with whom we
+came in contact. He seemed everywhere a stranger, and yet
+was possessed of a talisman that opened every door to which he
+applied, and which gave us unlimited accommodations wherever
+he asked them. When the boat landed at Smithland, Kentucky,
+a village on the bank of the Ohio, just above Paducah, we disembarked,
+and my guide then for the first time seemed mentally
+disturbed.</p>
+
+<p>"Our journey together is nearly over," he said; "in a few
+days my responsibility for you will cease. Nerve yourself for
+the future, and bear its trials and its pleasures manfully. I may
+never see you again, but as you are even now conspicuous in our
+history, and will be closely connected with the development of
+the plan in which I am also interested, although I am destined
+to take a different part, I shall probably hear of you again."<span class="pagenum">[Pg 84]</span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84"></a>CHAPTER XII.<br />
+<br />
+A CAVERN DISCOVERED.&mdash;BISWELL'S HILL.</h2>
+
+
+<p>We stopped that night at a tavern in Smithland. Leaving
+this place after dinner the next day, on foot, we struck through
+the country, into the bottom lands of the Cumberland River.
+traveling leisurely, lingering for hours in the course of a circuitous
+tramp of only a few miles. Although it was the month
+of December, the climate was mild and balmy. In my former
+home, a similar time of year would have been marked with
+snow, sleet, and ice, and I could not but draw a contrast
+between the two localities. How different also the scenery from
+that of my native State. Great timber trees, oak, poplar, hickory,
+were in majestic possession of large tracts of territory, in the
+solitude of which man, so far as evidences of his presence were
+concerned, had never before trodden. From time to time we
+passed little clearings that probably were to be enlarged to
+thrifty plantations in the future, and finally we crossed the
+Cumberland River. That night we rested with Mr. Joseph
+Watts, a wealthy and cultured land owner, who resided on
+the river's bank. After leaving his home the next morning,
+we journeyed slowly, very slowly, my guide seemingly passing
+with reluctance into the country. He had become a very
+pleasant companion, and his conversation was very entertaining.
+We struck the sharp point of a ridge the morning we left Mr.
+Watts' hospitable house. It was four or five miles distant, but
+on the opposite side of the Cumberland, from Smithland. Here
+a steep bluff broke through the bottom land to the river's edge,
+the base of the bisected point being washed by the Cumberland
+River, which had probably cut its way through the stony
+mineral of this ridge in ages long passed. We climbed to its
+top and sat upon the pinnacle, and from that point of commanding
+observation I drank in the beauties of the scene around me.
+The river at our feet wound gracefully before us, and disappeared<span class="pagenum">[Pg 85]</span>
+in both directions, its extremes dissolving in a bed of forest. A
+great black bluff, far up the stream, rose like a mountain, upon
+the left side of the river; bottom lands were about us, and
+hills appeared across the river in the far distance&mdash;towards the
+Tennessee River. With regret I finally drew my eyes from the
+vision, and we resumed the journey. We followed the left bank
+of the river to the base of the black bluff,&mdash;"Biswell's Hill," a
+squatter called it,&mdash;and then skirted the side of that hill, passing
+along precipitous stone bluffs and among stunted cedars. Above
+us towered cliff over cliff, almost perpendicularly; below us rolled
+the river.</p>
+<p><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85"></a></p>
+
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/m1016.png" width="600" height="516" alt="" title="SECTION OF KENTUCKY, NEAR SMITHLAND" />
+<span class="caption">SECTION OF KENTUCKY, NEAR SMITHLAND, IN WHICH THE ENTRANCE TO
+THE KENTUCKY CAVERN IS SAID TO BE LOCATED.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg 86]</span></p>
+<div class="center">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td align="left"> 1. Paducah.</td><td align="left">15. Salem.</td><td align="left">29. Hurricane Creek.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"> 2. Smithland.</td><td align="left">16. Hampton.</td><td align="left">30. Ford's Ferry.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"> 3. Old Smithland.</td><td align="left">17. Faulkner.</td><td align="left">31. Weston.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"> 4. Patterson.</td><td align="left">18. Mullikin.</td><td align="left">32. Caseyville.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"> 5. Frenchtown.</td><td align="left">19. Back Creek.</td><td align="left">33. Tradewater River.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"> 6. Hickory Creek.</td><td align="left">20. Carrsville.</td><td align="left">34. Dycusburgh.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"> 7. Underwood.</td><td align="left">21. Given's Creek.</td><td align="left">35. Livingstone Creek.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"> 8. Birdsville.</td><td align="left">22. Golconda.</td><td align="left">36. Francis.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left" >9. Bayou Mills.</td><td align="left">23. Elizabethtown.</td><td align="left">37. Harrold. (View.)</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">10. Oak Ridge.</td><td align="left">24. Metropolis City.</td><td align="left">38. Crider.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">11. Moxley's Landing.</td><td align="left">25. Hamletsburgh.</td><td align="left">39. Levias.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">12. Kildare.</td><td align="left">26. Sheridan.</td><td align="left">40. Crayneville.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">13. Lola.</td><td align="left">27. Deer Creek.</td><td align="left">41. Marion.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">14. Pinckneyville.</td><td align="left">28. Hurricane.</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg 87]</span></p>
+
+<p>I was deeply impressed by the changing beauties of this
+strange Kentucky scenery, but marveled at the fact that while I
+became light-hearted and enthusiastic, my guide grew correspondingly
+despondent and gloomy. From time to time he
+lapsed into thoughtful silence, and once I caught his eye directed
+toward me in a manner that I inferred to imply either pity
+or envy. We passed Biswell's Bluff, and left the Cumberland
+River at its upper extremity, where another small creek empties
+into the river. Thence, after ascending the creek some distance,
+we struck across the country, finding it undulating and fertile,
+with here and there a small clearing. During this journey we
+either camped out at night, or stopped with a resident, when
+one was to be found in that sparsely settled country. Sometimes
+there were exasperating intervals between our meals; but
+we did not suffer, for we carried with us supplies of food, such
+as cheese and crackers, purchased in Smithland, for emergencies.
+We thus proceeded a considerable distance into Livingston
+County, Kentucky.</p>
+
+<p>I observed remarkable sinks in the earth, sometimes cone-shaped,
+again precipitous. These cavities were occasionally of
+considerable size and depth, and they were more numerous in
+the uplands than in the bottoms. They were somewhat like
+the familiar "sink-holes" of New York State, but monstrous
+in comparison. The first that attracted my attention was near
+the Cumberland River, just before we reached Biswell's Hill. It
+was about forty feet deep and thirty in diameter, with precipitous
+stone sides, shrubbery growing therein in exceptional spots where
+loose earth had collected on shelves of stone that cropped out<span class="pagenum">[Pg 88]</span>
+along its rugged sides. The bottom of the depression was flat
+and fertile, covered with a luxuriant mass of vegetation. On
+one side of the base of the gigantic bowl, a cavern struck down
+into the earth. I stood upon the edge of this funnel-like sink,
+and marveled at its peculiar appearance. A spirit of curiosity,
+such as often influences men when an unusual natural scene
+presents itself, possessed me. I clambered down, swinging from
+brush to brush, and stepping from shelving-rock to shelving-rock,
+until I reached the bottom of the hollow, and placing my hand
+above the black hole in its center, I perceived that a current of
+cold air was rushing therefrom, upward. I probed with a long
+stick, but the direction of the opening was tortuous, and would
+not admit of examination in that manner. I dropped a large
+pebble-stone into the orifice; the pebble rolled and clanked
+down, down, and at last, the sound died away in the distance.</p>
+
+<p>"I wish that I could go into the cavity as that stone has
+done, and find the secrets of this cave," I reflected, the natural
+love of exploration possessing me as it probably does most men.</p>
+
+<p>My companion above, seated on the brink of the stone wall,
+replied to my thoughts: "Your wish shall be granted. You
+have requested that which has already been laid out for you.
+You will explore where few men have passed before, and will
+have the privilege of following your destiny into a realm of
+natural wonders. A fertile field of investigation awaits you,
+such as will surpass your most vivid imaginings. Come and
+seat yourself beside me, for it is my duty now to tell you
+something about the land we are approaching, the cavern fields
+of Kentucky."<span class="pagenum">[Pg 89]</span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89"></a>CHAPTER XIII.<br />
+<br />
+THE PUNCH-BOWLS AND CAVERNS OF KENTUCKY.&mdash;"INTO THE
+UNKNOWN COUNTRY."</h2>
+
+
+<p>"This part of Kentucky borders a field of caverns that reaches
+from near the State of Tennessee to the Ohio River, and from
+the mouth of the Cumberland, eastward to and beyond the
+center of the State. This great area is of irregular outline, and
+as yet has been little explored. Underneath the surface are
+layers of limestone and sandstone rock, the deposits ranging
+from ten to one hundred and fifty feet in thickness, and often
+great masses of conglomerate appear. This conglomerate sometimes
+caps the ridges, and varies in thickness from a few feet
+only, to sixty, or even a hundred, feet. It is of a diversified
+character, sometimes largely composed of pebbles cemented
+together by iron ore into compact beds, while again it passes
+abruptly into gritty sandstone, or a fine-grained compact rock
+destitute of pebbles. Sometimes the conglomerate rests directly
+on the limestone, but in the section about us, more often argillaceous
+shales or veins of coal intervene, and occasionally inferior
+and superior layers of conglomerate are separated by a bed of
+coal. In addition, lead-bearing veins now and then crop up, the
+crystals of galena being disseminated through masses of fluor-spar,
+calc-spar, limestone and clay, which fill fissures between
+tilted walls of limestone and hard quartzose sandstone. Valleys,
+hills, and mountains, grow out of this remarkable crust. Rivers
+and creeks flow through and under it in crevices, either directly
+upon the bedstone or over deposits of clay which underlie it. In
+some places, beds of coal or slate alternate with layers of the lime
+rock; in others, the interspace is clay and sand. Sometimes the
+depth of the several limestone and conglomerate deposits is great,
+and they are often honeycombed by innumerable transverse and
+diagonal spaces. Water drips have here and there washed out
+the more friable earth and stone, forming grottoes which are<span class="pagenum">[Pg 90]</span>
+as yet unknown to men, but which will be discovered to be
+wonderful and fantastic beyond anything of a like nature now
+familiar. In other places cavities exist between shelves of rock
+that lie one above the other&mdash;monstrous openings caused by
+the erosive action of rivers now lost, but that have flowed
+during unnumbered ages past; great parallel valleys and gigantic
+chambers, one over the other, remaining to tell the story of
+these former torrents. Occasionally the weight of a portion of
+the disintegrating rock above becomes too great for its tensile
+strength and the material crumbles and falls, producing caverns
+sometimes reaching so near to the earth's surface, as to cause
+sinks in its crust. These sinks, when first formed, as a rule, present
+clear rock fractures, and immediately after their formation
+there is usually a water-way beneath. In the course of time
+soil collects on their sides, they become cone-shaped hollows
+from the down-slidings of earth, and then vegetation appears on
+the living soil; trees grow within them, and in many places the
+sloping sides of great earth bowls of this nature are, after untold
+years, covered with the virgin forest; magnificent timber trees
+growing on soil that has been stratified over and upon decayed
+monarchs of the forest whose remains, imbedded in the earth,
+speak of the ages that have passed since the convulsions that
+made the depressions which, notwithstanding the accumulated
+debris, are still a hundred feet or more in depth. If the drain
+or exit at the vortex of one of these sinks becomes clogged,
+which often occurs, the entire cavity fills with water, and a pond
+results. Again, a slight orifice reaching far beneath the earth's
+surface may permit the soil to be gradually washed into a
+subterranean creek, and thus are formed great bowls, like
+funnels sunk in the earth&mdash;Kentucky punch-bowls.</p>
+
+<p>"Take the country about us, especially towards the Mammoth
+Cave, and for miles beyond, the landscape in certain localities is
+pitted with this description of sinks, some recent, others very
+old. Many are small, but deep; others are large and shallow.
+Ponds often of great depth, curiously enough overflowing and
+giving rise to a creek, are to be found on a ridge, telling of
+underground supply springs, not outlets, beneath. Chains of
+such sinks, like a row of huge funnels, often appear; the soil
+between them is slowly washed through their exit into the river,<span class="pagenum">[Pg 91]</span>
+flowing in the depths below, and as the earth that separates them
+is carried away by the subterranean streams, the bowls coalesce
+and a ravine, closed at both ends, results. Along the bottom of
+such a ravine, a creek may flow, rushing from its natural tunnel
+at one end of the line, and disappearing in a gulf at the other.
+The stream begins in mystery, and ends in unfathomed darkness.
+Near Marion, Hurricane Creek thus disappears, and, so far as
+men know, is lost to sight forever. Near Cridersville, in this
+neighborhood, a valley such as I have described, takes in the
+surface floods of a large tract of country. The waters that run
+down its sides, during a storm form a torrent, and fence-rails,
+timbers, and other objects are gulped into the chasm where the
+creek plunges into the earth, and they never appear again. This
+part of Kentucky is the most remarkable portion of the known
+world, and although now neglected, in a time to come is surely
+destined to an extended distinction. I have referred only to the
+surface, the skin formation of this honeycombed labyrinth, the
+entrance to the future wonderland of the world. Portions of such
+a superficial cavern maze have been traversed by man in the
+ramifications known as the Mammoth Cave, but deeper than
+man has yet explored, the subcutaneous structure of that series
+of caverns is yet to be investigated. The Mammoth Cave as now
+traversed is simply a superficial series of grottoes and passages
+overlying the deeper cavern field that I have described. The
+explored chain of passages is of great interest to men, it is true,
+but of minor importance compared to others yet unknown, being
+in fact, the result of mere surface erosion. The river that bisects
+the cave, just beneath the surface of the earth, and known as
+Echo River, is a miniature stream: there are others more magnificent
+that flow majestically far, far beneath it. As we descend
+into the earth in that locality, caverns multiply in number and
+increase in size, retaining the general configuration of those I
+have described. The layers of rock are thicker, the intervening
+spaces broader; and the spaces stretch in increasingly expanded
+chambers for miles, while high above each series of caverns the
+solid ceilings of stone arch and interarch. Sheltered under these
+subterrene alcoves are streams, lakes, rivers and water-falls. Near
+the surface of the earth such waters often teem with aquatic life,
+and some of the caves are inhabited by species of birds, reptiles<span class="pagenum">[Pg 92]</span>
+and mammals as yet unknown to men, creatures possessed of
+senses and organs that are different from any we find with surface
+animals, and also apparently defective in particulars that would
+startle persons acquainted only with creatures that live in the
+sunshine. It is a world beneath a world, a world within a
+world&mdash;" My guide abruptly stopped.</p>
+
+<p>I sat entranced, marveling at the young-old adept's knowledge,
+admiring his accomplishments. I gazed into the cavity
+that yawned beneath me, and imagined its possible but to me
+invisible secrets, enraptured with the thought of searching into
+them. Who would not feel elated at the prospect of an exploration,
+such as I foresaw might be pursued in my immediate
+future? I had often been charmed with narrative descriptions
+of discoveries, and book accounts of scientific investigations, but
+I had never pictured myself as a participant in such fascinating
+enterprises.</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed, indeed," I cried exultingly; "lead me to this Wonderland,
+show me the entrance to this Subterranean World, and
+I promise willingly to do as you bid."</p>
+
+<p>"Bravo!" he replied, "your heart is right, your courage
+sufficient; I have not disclosed a thousandth part of the wonders
+which I have knowledge of, and which await your research, and
+probably I have not gained even an insight into the mysteries that,
+if your courage permits, you will be privileged to comprehend.
+Your destiny lies beyond, far beyond that which I have pictured
+or experienced; and I, notwithstanding my opportunities, have
+no conception of its end, for at the critical moment my heart
+faltered&mdash;I can therefore only describe the beginning."</p>
+
+<p>Thus at the lower extremity of Biswell's Hill, I was made
+aware of the fact that, within a short time, I should be separated
+from my sympathetic guide, and that it was to be my duty
+to explore alone, or in other company, some portion of these
+Kentucky cavern deeps, and I longed for the beginning of my
+underground journey. Heavens! how different would have been
+my future life could I then have realized my position! Would
+that I could have seen the end. After a few days of uneventful
+travel, we rested, one afternoon, in a hilly country that before
+us appeared to be more rugged, even mountainous. We had
+wandered leisurely, and were now at a considerable distance from<span class="pagenum">[Pg 93]</span>
+the Cumberland River, the aim of my guide being, as I surmised,
+to evade a direct approach to some object of interest which I must
+not locate exactly, and yet which I shall try to describe accurately
+enough for identification by a person familiar with the topography
+of that section. We stood on the side of a stony, sloping
+hill, back of which spread a wooded, undulating valley.</p>
+
+<p>"I remember to have passed along a creek in that valley," I
+remarked, looking back over our pathway. "It appeared to rise
+from this direction, but the source ends abruptly in this chain
+of hills."</p>
+
+<p>"The stream is beneath us," he answered. Advancing a few
+paces, he brought to my attention, on the hillside, an opening
+in the earth. This aperture was irregular in form, about the
+diameter of a well, and descended perpendicularly into the stony
+crust. I leaned far over the orifice, and heard the gurgle of
+rushing water beneath. The guide dropped a heavy stone into
+the gloomy shaft, and in some seconds a dull splash announced
+its plunge into underground water. Then he leaned over the
+stony edge, and&mdash;could I be mistaken?&mdash;seemed to signal to
+some one beneath; but it must be imagination on my part, I
+argued to myself, even against my very sense of sight. Rising,
+and taking me by the hand, my guardian spoke:</p>
+
+<p>"Brother, we approach the spot where you and I must
+separate. I serve my masters and am destined to go where
+I shall next be commanded; you will descend into the earth, as
+you have recently desired to do. Here we part, most likely
+forever. This rocky fissure will admit the last ray of sunlight
+on your path."</p>
+
+<p>My heart failed. How often are we courageous in daylight
+and timid by night? Men unflinchingly face in sunshine
+dangers at which they shudder in the darkness.</p>
+
+<p>"How am I to descend into that abyss?" I gasped. "The
+sides are perpendicular, the depth is unknown!" Then I cried
+in alarm, the sense of distrust deepening: "Do you mean to drown
+me; is it for this you have led me away from my native State,
+from friends, home and kindred? You have enticed me into this
+wilderness. I have been decoyed, and, like a foolish child, have
+willingly accompanied my destroyer. You feared to murder me
+in my distant home; the earth could not have hidden me;<span class="pagenum">[Pg 94]</span>
+Niagara even might have given up my body to dismay the murderers!
+In this underground river in the wilds of Kentucky, all
+trace of my existence will disappear forever."</p>
+
+<p>I was growing furious. My frenzied eyes searched the ground
+for some missile of defense. By strange chance some one had
+left, on that solitary spot, a rude weapon, providentially dropped
+for my use, I thought. It was a small iron bolt or bar, somewhat
+rusted. I threw myself upon the earth, and, as I did so, picked
+this up quickly, and secreted it within my bosom. Then I arose
+and resumed my stormy denunciation:</p>
+
+<p>"You have played your part well, you have led your unresisting
+victim to the sacrifice, but if I am compelled to plunge
+into this black grave, you shall go with me!" I shrieked in
+desperation, and suddenly threw my arms around the gentle
+adept, intending to hurl him into the chasm. At this point I
+felt my hands seized from behind in a cold, clammy, irresistible
+embrace, my fingers were loosed by a strong grasp, and I turned,
+to find myself confronted by a singular looking being, who
+quietly said:</p>
+
+<p>"You are not to be destroyed; we wish only to do your
+bidding."</p>
+
+<p>The speaker stood in a stooping position, with his face
+towards the earth as if to shelter it from the sunshine. He was
+less than five feet in height. His arms and legs were bare, and
+his skin, the color of light blue putty, glistened in the sunlight
+like the slimy hide of a water dog. He raised his head, and I
+shuddered in affright as I beheld that his face was not that of
+a human. His forehead extended in an unbroken plane from
+crown to cheek bone, and the chubby tip of an abortive nose
+without nostrils formed a short projection near the center of the
+level ridge which represented a countenance. There was no
+semblance of an eye, for there were no sockets. Yet his voice
+was singularly perfect. His face, if face it could be called, was
+wet, and water dripped from all parts of his slippery person.
+Yet, repulsive as he looked, I shuddered more at the remembrance
+of the touch of that cold, clammy hand than at the sight
+of his figure, for a dead man could not have chilled me as he had
+done, with his sappy skin, from which the moisture seemed to
+ooze as from the hide of a water lizard.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 402px;">
+<img src="images/gs1017.jpg" width="402" height="600" alt="" title="&quot;CONFRONTED BY A SINGULAR LOOKING BEING.&quot;" />
+<span class="caption">"CONFRONTED BY A SINGULAR LOOKING BEING."</span>
+</div>
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg 97]</span></p>
+
+<p>Turning to my guide, this freak of nature said, softly:</p>
+
+<p>"I have come in obedience to the signal."</p>
+
+<p>I realized at once that alone with these two I was powerless,
+and that to resist would be suicidal. Instantly my effervescing
+passion subsided, and I expressed no further surprise at this
+sudden and remarkable apparition, but mentally acquiesced. I
+was alone and helpless; rage gave place to inertia in the
+despondency that followed the realization of my hopeless condition.
+The grotesque newcomer who, though sightless, possessed
+a strange instinct, led us to the base of the hill a few hundred
+feet away, and there, gushing into the light from the rocky bluff, I
+saw a magnificent stream issuing many feet in width. This was
+the head-waters of the mysterious brook that I had previously
+noticed. It flowed from an archway in the solid stone, springing
+directly out of the rock-bound cliff; beautiful and picturesque in
+its surroundings. The limpid water, clear and sparkling, issued
+from the unknown source that was typical of darkness, but the
+brook of crystal leaped into a world of sunshine, light and
+freedom.</p>
+
+<p>"Brother," said my companion, "this spring emerging from
+this prison of earth images to us what humanity will be when
+the prisoning walls of ignorance that now enthrall him are
+removed. Man has heretofore relied chiefly for his advancement,
+both mental and physical, on knowledge gained from so-called
+scientific explorations and researches with matter, from material
+studies rather than spiritual, all his investigations having been
+confined to the crude, coarse substance of the surface of the
+globe. Spiritualistic investigations, unfortunately, are considered
+by scientific men too often as reaching backward only. The
+religions of the world clasp hands with, and lean upon, the dead
+past, it is true, but point to a living future. Man must yet search
+by the agency of senses and spirit, the unfathomed mysteries
+that lie beneath his feet and over his head, and he who refuses
+to bow to the Creator and honor his handiwork discredits himself.
+When this work is accomplished, as it yet will be, the future
+man, able then to comprehend the problem of life in its broader
+significance, drawing from all directions the facts necessary to
+his mental advancement, will have reached a state in which he
+can enjoy bodily comfort and supreme spiritual perfection,<span class="pagenum">[Pg 98]</span>
+while he is yet an earth-bound mortal. In hastening this
+consummation, it is necessary that an occasional human life
+should be lost to the world, but such sacrifices are noble&mdash;yes,
+sublime, because contributing to the future exaltation of our
+race. The secret workers in the sacred order of which you are
+still a member, have ever taken an important part in furthering
+such a system of evolution. This feature of our work
+is unknown to brethren of the ordinary fraternity, and the
+individual research of each secret messenger is unguessed, by
+the craft at large. Hence it is that the open workers of our
+order, those initiated by degrees only, who in lodge rooms carry
+on their beneficent labors among men, have had no hand other
+than as agents in your removal, and no knowledge of your
+present or future movements. Their function is to keep together
+our organization on earth, and from them only an occasional
+member is selected, as you have been, to perform special duties
+in certain adventurous studies. Are you willing to go on this
+journey of exploration? and are you brave enough to meet the
+trials you have invited?"</p>
+
+<p>Again my enthusiasm arose, and I felt the thrill experienced
+by an investigator who stands on the brink of an important
+discovery, and needs but courage to advance, and I answered,
+"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Then, farewell; this archway is the entrance that will admit
+you into your arcanum of usefulness. This mystic Brother,
+though a stranger to you, has long been apprised of our coming,
+and it was he who sped me on my journey to seek you, and who
+has since been waiting for us, and is to be your guide during the
+first stages of your subterrene progress. He is a Friend, and, if
+you trust him, will protect you from harm. You will find the
+necessaries of life supplied, for I have traversed part of your
+coming road; that part I therefore know, but, as I have said,
+you are to go deeper into the unexplored,&mdash;yes, into and beyond
+the Beyond, until finally you will come to the gateway that
+leads into the 'Unknown Country.'"<span class="pagenum">[Pg 99]</span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99"></a>CHAPTER XIV.<br />
+<br />
+FAREWELL TO GOD'S SUNSHINE.&mdash;THE ECHO OF THE CRY.</h2>
+
+
+<p>Thus speaking, my quiet leader, who had so long been as a
+shepherd to my wandering feet, on the upper earth, grasped my
+hands tightly, and placed them in those of my new companion,
+whose clammy fingers closed over them as with a grip of iron.
+The mysterious being, now my custodian, turned towards the
+creek, drawing me after him, and together we silently and
+solemnly waded beneath the stone archway. As I passed under
+the shadow of that dismal, yawning cliff, I turned my head to
+take one last glimpse of the world I had known&mdash;that "warm
+precinct of the cheerful day,"&mdash;and tears sprang to my eyes. I
+thought of life, family, friends,&mdash;of all for which men live&mdash;and
+a melancholy vision arose, that of my lost, lost home. My
+dear companion of the journey that had just ended stood in
+the sunlight on the banks of the rippling stream, gazing at us
+intently, and waved an affectionate farewell. My uncouth new
+associate (guide or master, whichever he might be), of the
+journey to come, clasped me firmly by the arms, and waded
+slowly onward, thrusting me steadily against the cold current,
+and with irresistible force pressed me into the thickening darkness.
+The daylight disappeared, the pathway contracted, the
+water deepened and became more chilly. We were constrained
+to bow our heads in order to avoid the overhanging vault of
+stone; the water reached to my chin, and now the down-jutting
+roof touched the crown of my head; then I shuddered convulsively
+as the last ray of daylight disappeared.</p>
+
+<p>Had it not been for my companion, I know that I should
+have sunk in despair, and drowned; but with a firm hand he
+held my head above the water, and steadily pushed me onward.
+I had reached the extreme of despondency: I neither feared nor
+cared for life nor death, and I realized that, powerless to control
+my own acts, my fate, the future, my existence depended on the<span class="pagenum">[Pg 100]</span>
+strange being beside me. I was mysteriously sustained, however,
+by a sense of bodily security, such as comes over us as when in
+the hands of an experienced guide we journey through a wilderness,
+for I felt that my pilot of the underworld did not purpose
+to destroy me. We halted a moment, and then, as a faint light
+overspread us, my eyeless guide directed me to look upward.</p>
+
+<p>"We now stand beneath the crevice which you were told by
+your former guide would admit the last ray of sunlight on your
+path. I also say to you, this struggling ray of sunlight is to be
+your last for years."</p>
+
+<p>I gazed above me, feeling all the wretchedness of a dying
+man who, with faculties intact, might stand on the dark edge of
+the hillside of eternity, glancing back into the bright world; and
+that small opening far, far overhead, seemed as the gate to
+Paradise Lost. Many a person, assured of ascending at will,
+has stood at the bottom of a deep well or shaft to a mine, and
+even then felt the undescribable sensation of dread, often terror,
+that is produced by such a situation. Awe, mystery, uncertainty
+of life and future superadded, may express my sensation. I
+trembled, shrinking in horror from my captor and struggled
+violently.</p>
+
+<p>"Hold, hold," I begged, as one involuntarily prays a surgeon
+to delay the incision of the amputating knife, "just one
+moment." My companion, unheeding, moved on, the light
+vanished instantly, and we were surrounded by total darkness.
+God's sunshine was blotted out.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span></p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/gs1018.jpg" width="400" height="600" alt="" title="&quot;THIS STRUGGLING RAY OF SUNLIGHT IS TO BE YOUR LAST
+FOR YEARS.&quot;" />
+<span class="caption">"THIS STRUGGLING RAY OF SUNLIGHT IS TO BE YOUR LAST
+FOR YEARS."</span>
+</div>
+<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg 102]</span></p>
+
+<p>Then I again became unconcerned; I was not now responsible
+for my own existence, and the feeling that I experienced when a
+prisoner in the closed carriage returned. I grew careless as to
+my fate, and with stolid indifference struggled onward as we progressed
+slowly against the current of water. I began to interest
+myself in speculations regarding our surroundings, and the object
+or outcome of our journey. In places the water was shallow,
+scarce reaching to our ankles; again it was so deep that we could
+wade only with exertion, and at times the passage up which we
+toiled was so narrow, that it would scarcely admit us. After a
+long, laborious stemming of the unseen brook, my companion
+directed me to close my mouth, hold my nostrils with my fingers,
+and stoop; almost diving with me beneath the water, he drew
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg 103]</span>me through the submerged crevice, and we ascended into an open
+chamber, and left the creek behind us. I fancied that we were
+in a large room, and as I shouted aloud to test my hypothesis,
+echo after echo answered, until at last the cry reverberated and
+died away in distant murmurs. We were evidently in a great
+pocket or cavern, through which my guide now walked rapidly;
+indeed, he passed along with unerring footsteps, as certain of his
+course as I might be on familiar ground in full daylight. I
+perceived that he systematically evaded inequalities that I could
+not anticipate nor see. He would tell me to step up or down,
+as the surroundings required, and we ascended or descended
+accordingly. Our path turned to the right or the left from time to
+time, but my eyeless guide passed through what were evidently
+the most tortuous windings without a mishap. I wondered
+much at this gift of knowledge, and at last overcame my reserve
+sufficiently to ask how we could thus unerringly proceed in utter
+darkness. The reply was:</p>
+
+<p>"The path is plainly visible to me; I see as clearly in pitch
+darkness as you can in sunshine."</p>
+
+<p>"Explain yourself further," I requested.</p>
+
+<p>He replied, "Not yet;" and continued, "you are weary, we
+will rest."</p>
+
+<p>He conducted me to a seat on a ledge, and left me for a
+time. Returning soon, he placed in my hands food which I ate
+with novel relish. The pabulum seemed to be of vegetable
+origin, though varieties of it had a peculiar flesh-like flavor.
+Several separate and distinct substances were contained in the
+queer viands, some portions savoring of wholesome flesh, while
+others possessed the delicate flavors of various fruits, such as the
+strawberry and the pineapple. The strange edibles were of a
+pulpy texture, homogeneous in consistence, parts being juicy and
+acid like grateful fruits. Some portions were in slices or films
+that I could hold in my hand like sections of a velvet melon,
+and yet were in many respects unlike any other food that I had
+ever tasted. There was neither rind nor seed; it seemed as
+though I were eating the gills of a fish, and in answer to my
+question the guide remarked:</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; it is the gill, but not the gill of a fish. You will be
+instructed in due time." I will add that after this, whenever<span class="pagenum">[Pg 104]</span>
+necessary, we were supplied with food, but both thirst and
+hunger disappeared altogether before our underground journey
+was finished.</p>
+
+<p>After a while we again began our journey, which we continued
+in what was to me absolute darkness. My strength
+seemed to endure the fatigue to a wonderful degree, notwithstanding
+that we must have been walking hour after hour, and
+I expressed a curiosity about the fact. My guide replied that
+the atmosphere of the cavern possessed an intrinsic vitalizing
+power that neutralized fatigue, "or," he said, "there is here an
+inherent constitutional energy derived from an active gaseous
+substance that belongs to cavern air at this depth, and sustains
+the life force by contributing directly to its conservation, taking
+the place of food and drink."</p>
+
+<p>"I do not understand," I said.</p>
+
+<p>"No; and you do not comprehend how ordinary air supports
+mind and vitalizes muscle, and at the same time wears out both
+muscle and all other tissues. These are facts which are not
+satisfactorily explained by scientific statements concerning oxygenation
+of the blood. As we descend into the earth we find an
+increase in the life force of the cavern air."</p>
+
+<p>This reference to surface earth recalled my former life, and
+led me to contrast my present situation with that I had forfeited.
+I was seized with an uncontrollable longing for home, and a painful
+craving for the past took possession of my heart, but with a
+strong effort I shook off the sensations. We traveled on and on
+in silence and in darkness, and I thought again of the strange
+remark of my former guide who had said: "You are destined to
+go deeper into the unknown; yes, into and beyond the Beyond."<span class="pagenum">[Pg 105]</span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105"></a>CHAPTER XV.<br />
+<br />
+A ZONE OF LIGHT DEEP WITHIN THE EARTH.</h2>
+
+
+<p>"Oh! for one glimpse of light, a ray of sunshine!"</p>
+
+<p>In reply to this my mental ejaculation, my guide said: "Can
+not you perceive that the darkness is becoming less intense?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," I answered, "I can not; night is absolute."</p>
+
+<p>"Are you sure?" he asked. "Cover your eyes with your
+hands, then uncover and open them." I did so and fancied that
+by contrast a faint gray hue was apparent.</p>
+
+<p>"This must be imagination."</p>
+
+<p>"No; we now approach a zone of earth light; let us hasten on."</p>
+
+<p>"A zone of light deep in the earth! Incomprehensible! Incredible!"
+I muttered, and yet as we went onward and time
+passed the darkness was less intense. The barely perceptible
+hue became gray and somber, and then of a pearly translucence,
+and although I could not distinguish the outline of objects, yet I
+unquestionably perceived light.</p>
+
+<p>"I am amazed! What can be the cause of this phenomenon?
+What is the nature of this mysterious halo that surrounds us?"
+I held my open hand before my eyes, and perceived the darkness
+of my spread fingers.</p>
+
+<p>"It is light, it is light," I shouted, "it is really light!" and
+from near and from far the echoes of that subterranean cavern
+answered back joyfully, "It is light, it is light!"</p>
+
+<p>I wept in joy, and threw my arms about my guide, forgetting
+in the ecstasy his clammy cuticle, and danced in hysterical glee
+and alternately laughed and cried. How vividly I realized then
+that the imprisoned miner would give a world of gold, his former
+god, for a ray of light.</p>
+
+<p>"Compose yourself; this emotional exhibition is an evidence
+of weakness; an investigator should neither become depressed
+over a reverse, nor unduly enthusiastic over a fortunate discovery."<span class="pagenum">[Pg 106]</span></p>
+
+<p>"But we approach the earth's surface? Soon I will be back
+in the sunshine again."</p>
+
+<p>"Upon the contrary, we have been continually descending
+into the earth, and we are now ten miles or more beneath the
+level of the ocean."</p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 457px;">
+<img src="images/gs1019.jpg" width="457" height="600" alt="" title="&quot;WE APPROACH DAYLIGHT, I CAN SEE YOUR FORM.&quot;" />
+<span class="caption">"WE APPROACH DAYLIGHT, I CAN SEE YOUR FORM."</span>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>I shrank back, hesitated, and in despondency gazed at his
+hazy outline, then, as if palsied, sank upon the stony floor; but
+as I saw the light before me, I leaped up and shouted:</p>
+
+<p>"What you say is not true; we approach daylight, I can see
+your form."</p>
+
+<p>"Listen to me," he said. "Can not you understand that I
+have led you continually down a steep descent, and that for
+hours there has been no step upward? With but little exertion<span class="pagenum">[Pg 107]</span>
+you have walked this distance without becoming wearied, and
+you could not, without great fatigue, have ascended for so long
+a period. You are entering a zone of inner earth light; we are
+in the surface, the upper edge of it. Let us hasten on, for when
+this cavern darkness is at an end&mdash;and I will say we have nearly
+passed that limit&mdash;your courage will return, and then we will
+rest."</p>
+
+<p>"You surely do not speak the truth; science and philosophy,
+and I am somewhat versed in both, have never told me of such
+a light."</p>
+
+<p>"Can philosophers more than speculate about that which
+they have not experienced if they have no data from which to
+calculate? Name the student in science who has reached this
+depth in earth, or has seen a man to tell him of these facts?"</p>
+
+<p>"I can not."</p>
+
+<p>"Then why should you have expected any of them to
+describe our surroundings? Misguided men will torture science
+by refuting facts with theories; but a fact is no less a fact when
+science opposes."</p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/m1020.png" width="600" height="354" alt="" title="&quot;SEATED HIMSELF ON A NATURAL BENCH OF STONE.&quot;" />
+<span class="caption">"SEATED HIMSELF ON A NATURAL BENCH OF STONE."</span>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>I recognized the force of his arguments, and cordially grasped
+his hand in indication of submission. We continued our journey,
+and rapidly traveled downward and onward. The light gradually
+increased in intensity, until at length the cavern near about us
+seemed to be as bright as diffused daylight could have made it.
+There was apparently no central point of radiation; the light
+was such as to pervade and exist in the surrounding space, somewhat
+as the vapor of phosphorus spreads a self-luminous haze
+throughout the bubble into which it is blown. The visual agent
+surrounding us had a permanent, self-existing luminosity, and
+was a pervading, bright, unreachable essence that, without an
+obvious origin, diffused itself equally in all directions. It
+reminded me of the form of light that in previous years I
+had seen described as epipolic dispersion, and as I refer to the
+matter I am of the opinion that man will yet find that the same
+cause produces both phenomena. I was informed now by the
+sense of sight, that we were in a cavern room of considerable
+size. The apartment presented somewhat the appearance of the
+usual underground caverns that I had seen pictured in books, and
+yet was different. Stalactites, stalagmites, saline incrustations,<span class="pagenum">[Pg 108]</span>
+occurring occasionally reminded me of travelers' stories, but
+these objects were not so abundant as might be supposed. Such
+accretions or deposits of saline substances as I noticed were also
+disappointing, in that, instead of having a dazzling brilliancy,
+like frosted snow crystals, they were of a uniform gray or brown
+hue. Indeed, my former imaginative mental creations regarding
+underground caverns were dispelled in this somber stone temple,
+for even the floor and the fragments of stone that, in considerable
+quantities, strewed the floor, were of the usual rock formations
+of upper earth. The glittering crystals of snowy white or rainbow
+tints (fairy caverns) pictured by travelers, and described as
+inexpressibly grand and beautiful in other cavern labyrinths,
+were wanting here, and I saw only occasional small clusters of
+quartz crystals that were other than of a dull gray color. Finally,
+after hours or perhaps days of travel, interspersed with restings,
+conversations, and arguments, amid which I could form no idea
+of the flight of time, my companion seated himself on a natural
+bench of stone, and directed me to rest likewise. He broke the
+silence, and spoke as follows:</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg 109]</span></p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109"></a>CHAPTER XVI.<br />
+<br />
+VITALIZED DARKNESS.&mdash;THE NARROWS IN SCIENCE.</h2>
+
+
+<p>"In studying any branch of science men begin and end with
+an unknown. The chemist accepts as data such conditions of
+matter as he finds about him, and connects ponderable matter
+with the displays of energy that have impressed his senses,
+building therefrom a span of theoretical science, but he can not
+formulate as yet an explanation regarding the origin or the end
+of either mind, matter, or energy. The piers supporting his
+fabric stand in a profound invisible gulf, into which even his
+imagination can not look to form a theory concerning basic
+formations&mdash;corner-stones.</p>
+
+<p>"The geologist, in a like manner, grasps feebly the lessons
+left in the superficial fragments of earth strata, impressions that
+remain to bear imperfect record of a few of the disturbances that
+have affected the earth's crust, and he endeavors to formulate a
+story of the world's life, but he is neither able to antedate the
+records shown by the meager testimony at his command, scraps
+of a leaf out of God's great book of history, nor to anticipate
+coming events. The birth, as well as the death, of this planet is
+beyond his page.</p>
+
+<p>"The astronomer directs his telescope to the heavens, records
+the position of the planets, and hopes to discover the influences
+worlds exert upon one another. He explores space to obtain data
+to enable him to delineate a map of the visible solar universe,
+but the instruments he has at command are so imperfect, and
+mind is so feeble that, like mockery seems his attempt to study
+behind the facts connected with the motions and conditions of
+the nearest heavenly bodies, and he can not offer an explanation
+of the beginning or cessation of their movements. He can
+neither account for their existence, nor foretell their end."</p>
+
+<p>"Are you not mistaken?" I interrupted; "does not the
+astronomer foretell eclipses, and calculate the orbits of the<span class="pagenum">[Pg 110]</span>
+planets, and has he not verified predictions concerning their
+several motions?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; but this is simply a study of passing events. The
+astronomer is no more capable of grasping an idea that reaches
+into an explanation of the origin of motion, than the chemist or
+physicist, from exact scientific data, can account for the creation
+of matter. Give him any amount of material at rest, and he
+can not conceive of any method by which motion can disturb
+any part of it, unless such motion be mass motion communicated
+from without, or molecular motion, already existing within. He
+accounts for the phases of present motion in heavenly bodies,
+not for the primal cause of the actual movements or intrinsic
+properties they possess. He can neither originate a theory that
+will permit of motion creating itself, and imparting itself to
+quiescent matter, nor imagine how an atom of quiescent matter
+can be moved, unless motion from without be communicated
+thereto. The astronomer, I assert, can neither from any data at
+his command postulate nor prove the beginning nor the end of
+the reverberating motion that exists in his solar system, which is
+itself the fragment of a system that is circulating and revolving
+in and about itself, and in which, since the birth of man, the
+universe he knows has not passed the first milestone in the road
+that universe is traveling in space immensity.</p>
+
+<p>"The mathematician starts a line from an imaginary point
+that he informs us exists theoretically without occupying any
+space, which is a contradiction of terms according to his human
+acceptation of knowledge derived from scientific experiment, if
+science is based on verified facts. He assumes that straight lines
+exist, which is a necessity for his calculation; but such a line he
+has never made. Even the beam of sunshine, radiating through
+a clear atmosphere or a cloud bank, widens and contracts again
+as it progresses through the various mediums of air and vapor
+currents, and if it is ever spreading and deflecting can it be
+straight? He begins his study in the unknown, it ends with the
+unknowable.</p>
+
+<p>"The biologist can conceive of no rational, scientific beginning
+to life of plant or animal, and men of science must admit
+the fact. Whenever we turn our attention to nature's laws and
+nature's substance, we find man surrounded by the infinity that<span class="pagenum">[Pg 111]</span>
+obscures the origin and covers the end. But perseverance, study
+of nature's forces, and comparison of the past with the present,
+will yet clarify human knowledge and make plain much of this
+seemingly mysterious, but never will man reach the beginning
+or the end. The course of human education, to this day, has
+been mostly materialistic, although, together with the study of
+matter, there has been more or less attention given to its moving
+spirit. Newton was the dividing light in scientific thought; he
+stepped between the reasonings of the past and the provings of
+the present, and introduced problems that gave birth to a new
+scientific tendency, a change from the study of matter from the
+material side to that of force and matter, but his thought has
+since been carried out in a mode too realistic by far. The study
+of material bodies has given way, it is true, in a few cases to
+the study of the spirit of matter, and evolution is beginning to
+teach men that matter is crude. As a result, thought will in its
+sequence yet show that modifications of energy expression are
+paramount. This work is not lost, however, for the consideration
+of the nature of sensible material, is preliminary and necessary
+to progression (as the life of the savage prepares the way for
+that of the cultivated student), and is a meager and primitive
+child's effort, compared with the richness of the study in unseen
+energy expressions that are linked with matter, of which men
+will yet learn."</p>
+
+<p>"I comprehend some of this," I replied; "but I am neither
+prepared to assent to nor dissent from your conclusions, and my
+mind is not clear as to whether your logic is good or bad. I am
+more ready to speak plainly about my own peculiar situation
+than to become absorbed in abstruse arguments in science, and I
+marvel more at the soft light that is here surrounding us than
+at the metaphysical reasoning in which you indulge."</p>
+
+<p>"The child ignorant of letters wonders at the resources of
+those who can spell and read, and, in like manner, many obscure
+natural phenomena are marvelous to man only because of his
+ignorance. You do not comprehend the fact that sunlight is simply
+a matter-bred expression, an outburst of interrupted energy,
+and that the modification this energy undergoes makes it visible
+or sensible to man. What, think you, becomes of the flood of
+light energy that unceasingly flows from the sun? For ages, for<span class="pagenum">[Pg 112]</span>
+an eternity, it has bathed this earth and seemingly streamed
+into space, and space it would seem must have long since have
+been filled with it, if, as men believe, space contains energy of
+any description. Man may say the earth casts the amount intercepted
+by it back into space, and yet does not your science teach
+that the great bulk of the earth is an absorber, and a poor
+radiator of light and heat? What think you, I repeat, becomes
+of the torrent of light and heat and other forces that radiate
+from the sun, the flood that strikes the earth? It disappears,
+and, in the economy of nature, is not replaced by any known
+force or any known motion of matter. Think you that earth
+substance really presents an obstacle to the passage of the sun's
+energy? Is it not probable that most of this light producing
+essence, as a subtle fluid, passes through the surface of the earth
+and into its interior, as light does through space, and returns
+thence to the sun again, in a condition not discernible by man?"
+He grasped my arm and squeezed it as though to emphasize
+the words to follow. "You have used the term sunshine freely;
+tell me what is sunshine? Ah! you do not reply; well, what
+evidence have you to show that sunshine (heat and light) is not
+earth-bred, a condition that exists locally only, the result of contact
+between matter and some unknown force expression? What
+reason have you for accepting that, to other forms unknown and
+yet transparent to this energy, your sunshine may not be as
+intangible as the ether of space is to man? What reason have
+you to believe that a force torrent is not circulating to and from
+the sun and earth, inappreciable to man, excepting the mere
+trace of this force which, modified by contact action with matter
+appears as heat, light, and other force expressions? How can
+I, if this is true, in consideration of your ignorance, enter into
+details explanatory of the action that takes place between matter
+and a portion of this force, whereby in the earth, first at the
+surface, darkness is produced, and then deeper down an earth
+light that man can perceive by the sense of sight, as you now
+realize? I will only say that this luminous appearance about
+us is produced by a natural law, whereby the flood of energy,
+invisible to man, a something clothed now under the name of
+darkness, after streaming into the crust substance of the earth,
+is at this depth, revivified, and then is made apparent to mortal<span class="pagenum">[Pg 113]</span>
+eye, to be modified again as it emerges from the opposite earth
+crust, but not annihilated. For my vision, however, this central
+light is not a necessity; my physical and mental development
+is such that the energy of darkness is communicable; I can
+respond to its touches on my nerves, and hence I can guide
+you in this dark cavern. I am all eye."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah!" I exclaimed, "that reminds me of a remark made by
+my former guide who, referring to the instinct of animals, spoke
+of that as a natural power undeveloped in man. Is it true that
+by mental cultivation a new sense can be evolved whereby
+darkness may become as light?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; that which you call light is a form of sensible energy
+to which the faculties of animals who live on the surface of the
+earth have become adapted, through their organs of sight. The
+sun's energy is modified when it strikes the surface of the earth;
+part is reflected, but most of it passes onward into the earth's
+substance, in an altered or disturbed condition. Animal organisms
+within the earth must possess a peculiar development to
+utilize it under its new form, but such a sense is really possessed
+in a degree by some creatures known to men. There is consciousness
+behind consciousness; there are grades and depths of
+consciousness. Earth worms, and some fishes and reptiles in
+underground streams (lower organizations, men call them) do not
+use the organ of sight, but recognize objects, seek their food, and
+flee from their enemies."</p>
+
+<p>"They have no eyes," I exclaimed, forgetting that I spoke to
+an eyeless being; "how can they see?"</p>
+
+<p>"You should reflect that man can not offer a satisfactory
+explanation of the fact that he can see with his eyes. In one
+respect, these so-called lower creatures are higher in the scale of
+life than man is, for they see (appreciate) without eyes. The
+surfaces of their bodies really are sources of perception, and
+seats of consciousness. Man must yet learn to see with his
+skin, taste with his fingers, and hear with the surface of his
+body. The dissected nerve, or the pupil of man's eye, offers to
+the physiologist no explanation of its intrinsic power. Is not
+man unfortunate in having to risk so much on so frail an organ?
+The physiologist can not tell why or how the nerve of the
+tongue can distinguish between bitter and sweet, or convey any<span class="pagenum">[Pg 114]</span>
+impression of taste, or why the nerve of the ear communicates
+sound, or the nerve of the eye communicates the impression of
+sight. There is an impassable barrier behind all forms of nerve
+impressions, that neither the microscope nor other methods of
+investigation can help the reasoning senses of man to remove.
+The void that separates the pulp of the material nerve from
+consciousness is broader than the solar universe, for even from
+the most distant known star we can imagine the never-ending
+flight of a ray of light, that has once started on its travels into
+space. Can any man outline the bridge that connects the intellect
+with nerve or brain, mind, or with any form of matter? The fact
+that the surface of the bodies of some animals is capable of
+performing the same functions for these animals that the eye of
+man performs for him, is not more mysterious than is the function
+of that eye itself. The term darkness is an expression used
+to denote the fact that to the brain which governs the eye of
+man, what man calls the absence of light, is unrecognizable.
+If men were more magnanimous and less egotistical, they would
+open their minds to the fact that some animals really possess
+certain senses that are better developed than they are in man.
+The teachers of men too often tell the little they know and
+neglect the great unseen. The cat tribe, some night birds, and
+many reptiles can see better in darkness than in daylight. Let
+man compare with the nerve expanse of his own eye that of the
+highly developed eye of any such creature, and he will understand
+that the difference is one of brain or intellect, and not
+altogether one of optical vision surface. When men are able to
+explain how light can affect the nerves of their own eyes and
+produce such an effect on distant brain tissues as to bring to his
+senses objects that he is not touching, he may be able to explain
+how the energy in darkness can affect the nerve of the eye in the
+owl and impress vision on the brain of that creature. Should
+not man's inferior sense of light lead him to question if, instead
+of deficient visual power, there be not a deficiency of the brain
+capacity of man? Instead of accepting that the eye of man
+is incapable of receiving the impression of night energy, and
+making no endeavor to improve himself in the direction of his
+imperfection, man should reflect whether or not his brain may, by
+proper cultivation or artificial stimulus, be yet developed so as<span class="pagenum">[Pg 115]</span>
+to receive yet deeper nerve impressions, thereby changing darkness
+into daylight. Until man can explain the modus operandi
+of the senses he now possesses, he can not consistently question
+the existence of a different sight power in other beings, and
+unquestioned existing conditions should lead him to hope for a
+yet higher development in himself."</p>
+
+<p>"This dissertation is interesting, very," I said. "Although
+inclined toward agnosticism, my ideas of a possible future in
+consciousness that lies before mankind are broadened. I therefore
+accept your reasoning, perhaps because I can not refute it,
+neither do I wish to do so. And now I ask again, can not you
+explain to me how darkness, as deep as that of midnight, has
+been revivified so as to bring this great cavern to my view?"</p>
+
+<p>"That may be made plain at a future time," he answered;
+"let us proceed with our journey."</p>
+
+<p>We passed through a dry, well ventilated apartment. Stalactite
+formations still existed, indicative of former periods of
+water drippings, but as we journeyed onward I saw no evidence
+of present percolations, and the developing and erosive
+agencies that had worked in ages past must long ago have
+been suspended. The floor was of solid stone, entirely free from
+loose earth and fallen rocky fragments. It was smooth upon
+the surface, but generally disposed in gentle undulations. The
+peculiar, soft, radiant light to which my guide referred as "vitalized
+darkness" or "revivified sunshine," pervaded all the space
+about me, but I could not by its agency distinguish the sides
+of the vast cavern. The brightness was of a species that
+while it brought into distinctness objects that were near at
+hand, lost its unfolding power or vigor a short distance beyond.
+I would compare the effect to that of a bright light shining
+through a dense fog, were it not that the medium about us was
+transparent&mdash;not milky. The light shrunk into nothingness.
+It passed from existence behind and about me as if it were
+annihilated, without wasting away in the opalescent appearance
+once familiar as that of a spreading fog. Moreover, it seemed
+to detail such objects as were within the compass of a certain
+area close about me, but to lose in intensity beyond. The buttons
+on my coat appeared as distinct as they ever did when I stood
+in the sunlight, and fully one-half larger than I formerly knew<span class="pagenum">[Pg 116]</span>
+them to be. The corrugations on the palms of my hands stood
+out in bold serpentine relief that I observed clearly when I held
+my hands near my eye, my fingers appeared clumsy, and all
+parts of my person were magnified in proportion. The region
+at the limits of my range of perception reminded me of nothingness,
+but not of darkness. A circle of obliteration defined the
+border of the luminous belt which advanced as we proceeded,
+and closed in behind us. This line, or rather zone of demarkation,
+that separated the seen from the unseen, appeared to be about
+two hundred feet away, but it might have been more or less, as I
+had no method of measuring distances.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 405px;">
+<img src="images/gs1021.jpg" width="405" height="600" alt="" title="&quot;I WAS IN A FOREST OF COLOSSAL FUNGI.&quot;" />
+<span class="caption">"I WAS IN A FOREST OF COLOSSAL FUNGI."</span>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg 119]</span></p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119"></a>CHAPTER XVII.<br />
+<br />
+THE FUNGUS FOREST.&mdash;ENCHANTMENT.</h2>
+
+
+<p>Along the chamber through which we now passed I saw by
+the mellow light great pillars, capped with umbrella-like covers,
+some of them reminding me of the common toadstool of upper
+earth, on a magnificent scale. Instead, however, of the gray or
+somber shades to which I had been accustomed, these objects
+were of various hues and combined the brilliancy of the primary
+prismatic colors, with the purity of clean snow. Now they would
+stand solitary, like gigantic sentinels; again they would be
+arranged in rows, the alignment as true as if established by
+the hair of a transit, forming columnar avenues, and in other
+situations they were wedged together so as to produce masses,
+acres in extent, in which the stems became hexagonal by compression.
+The columnar stems, larger than my body, were often
+spiral; again they were marked with diamond-shaped figures, or
+other regular geometrical forms in relief, beautifully exact, drawn
+as by a master's hand in rich and delicately blended colors, on
+pillars of pure alabaster. Not a few of the stems showed deep
+crimson, blue, or green, together with other rich colors combined;
+over which, as delicate as the rarest of lace, would be thrown, in
+white, an enamel-like intricate tracery, far surpassing in beauty
+of execution the most exquisite needle-work I had ever seen.
+There could be no doubt that I was in a forest of colossal fungi,
+the species of which are more numerous than those of upper
+earth cryptomatic vegetation. The expanded heads of these
+great thallogens were as varied as the stems I have described,
+and more so. Far above our path they spread like beautiful
+umbrellas, decorated as if by masters from whom the great
+painters of upper earth might humbly learn the art of mixing
+colors. Their under surfaces were of many different designs,
+and were of as many shapes as it is conceivable could be
+made of combinations of the circle and hyperbola. Stately and<span class="pagenum">[Pg 120]</span>
+picturesque, silent and immovable as the sphinx, they studded
+the great cavern singly or in groups, reminding me of a grown
+child's wild imagination of fairy land. I stopped beside a group
+that was of unusual conspicuity and gazed in admiration on the
+huge and yet graceful, beautiful spectacle. I placed my hand
+on the stem of one plant, and found it soft and impressible;
+but instead of being moist, cold, and clammy as the repulsive
+toadstool of upper earth, I discovered, to my surprise, that it was
+pleasantly warm, and soft as velvet.</p>
+
+<p>"Smell your hand," said my guide.</p>
+
+<p>I did so, and breathed in an aroma like that of fresh strawberries.
+My guide observed (I had learned to judge of his emotions
+by his facial expressions) my surprised countenance with indifference.</p>
+
+<p>"Try the next one," he said.</p>
+
+<p>This being of a different species, when rubbed by my hand
+exhaled the odor of the pineapple.</p>
+
+<p>"Extraordinary," I mused.</p>
+
+<p>"Not at all. Should productions of surface earth have a
+monopoly of nature's methods, all the flavors, all the perfumes?
+You may with equal consistency express astonishment at the
+odors of the fruits of upper earth if you do so at the fragrance of
+these vegetables, for they are also created of odorless elements."</p>
+
+<p>"But toadstools are foul structures of low organization.<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a>
+
+They are neither animals nor true vegetables, but occupy a
+station below that of plants proper," I said.</p>
+
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a>
+The fungus Polyporus graveolens was neglected by the guide. This
+fungus exhales a delicate odor, and is used in Kentucky to perfume a
+room. Being quite large, it is employed to hold a door open, thus being
+useful as well as fragrant.&mdash;J. U. L.</p></div>
+
+<p>"You are acquainted with this order of vegetation under the
+most unfavorable conditions; out of their native elements these
+plants degenerate and become then abnormal, often evolving
+into the poisonous earth fungi known to your woods and fields.
+Here they grow to perfection. This is their chosen habitat.
+They absorb from a pure atmosphere the combined foods of
+plants and animals, and during their existence meet no scorching
+sunrise. They flourish in a region of perfect tranquillity, and
+without a tremor, without experiencing the change of a fraction
+of a degree in temperature, exist for ages. Many of these
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg 121]</span>specimens are probably thousands of years old, and are still
+growing; why should they ever die? They have never been disturbed
+by a breath of moving air, and, balanced exactly on their
+succulent, pedestal-like stems, surrounded by an atmosphere of
+dead nitrogen, vapor, and other gases, with their roots imbedded
+in carbonates and minerals, they have food at command, nutrition
+inexhaustible."</p>
+
+<p>"Still I do not see why they grow to such mammoth
+proportions."</p>
+
+<p>"Plants adapt themselves to surrounding conditions," he
+remarked. "The oak tree in its proper latitude is tall and
+stately; trace it toward the Arctic circle, and it becomes
+knotted, gnarled, rheumatic, and dwindles to a shrub. The
+castor plant in the tropics is twenty or thirty feet in height, in
+the temperate zone it is an herbaceous plant, farther north it
+has no existence. Indian corn in Kentucky is luxuriant, tall,
+and graceful, and each stalk is supplied with roots to the second
+and third joint, while in the northland it scarcely reaches to the
+shoulder of a man, and, in order to escape the early northern
+frost, arrives at maturity before the more southern variety
+begins to tassel. The common jimson weed (datura stramonium)
+planted in early spring, in rich soil, grows luxuriantly,
+covers a broad expanse and bears an abundance of fruit; planted
+in midsummer it blossoms when but a few inches in height, and
+between two terminal leaves hastens to produce a single capsule
+on the apex of the short stem, in order to ripen its seed before
+the frost appears. These and other familiar examples might
+be cited concerning the difference some species of vegetation of
+your former lands undergo under climatic conditions less marked
+than between those that govern the growth of fungi here and on
+surface earth. Such specimens of fungi as grow in your former
+home have escaped from these underground regions, and are as
+much out of place as are the tropical plants transplanted to the
+edge of eternal snow. Indeed, more so, for on the earth the
+ordinary fungus, as a rule, germinates after sunset, and often
+dies when the sun rises, while here they may grow in peace
+eternally. These meandering caverns comprise thousands of
+miles of surface covered by these growths which shall yet fulfill
+a grand purpose in the economy of nature, for they are destined<span class="pagenum">[Pg 122]</span>
+to feed tramping multitudes when the day appears in which the
+nations of men will desert the surface of the earth and pass
+as a single people through these caverns on their way to the
+immaculate existence to be found in the inner sphere."</p>
+
+<p>"I can not disprove your statement," I again repeated;
+"neither do I accept it. However, it still seems to me unnatural
+to find such delicious flavors and delicate odors connected with
+objects associated in memory with things insipid, or so disagreeable
+as toadstools and the rank forest fungi which I abhorred
+on earth."<span class="pagenum">[Pg 123]</span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123"></a>CHAPTER XVIII.<br />
+<br />
+THE FOOD OF MAN.</h2>
+
+
+<p>"This leads me to remark," answered the eyeless seer, "that
+you speak without due consideration of previous experience.
+You are, or should be, aware of other and as marked differences
+in food products of upper earth, induced by climate, soil and
+cultivation. The potato which, next to wheat, rice, or corn, you
+know supplies nations of men with starchy food, originated as
+a wild weed in South America and Mexico, where it yet exists
+as a small, watery, marble-like tuber, and its nearest kindred,
+botanically, is still poisonous. The luscious apple reached its
+present excellence by slow stages from knotty, wild, astringent
+fruit, to which it again returns when escaped from cultivation.
+The cucumber is a near cousin of the griping, medicinal cathartic
+bitter-apple, or colocynth, and occasionally partakes yet of the
+properties that result from that unfortunate alliance, as too often
+exemplified to persons who do not peel it deep enough to remove
+the bitter, cathartic principle that exists near the surface.
+Oranges, in their wild condition, are bitter, and are used principally
+as medicinal agents. Asparagus was once a weed, native
+to the salty edges of the sea, and as this weed has become a
+food, so it is possible for other wild weeds yet to do. Buckwheat
+is a weed proper, and not a cereal, and birds have learned that
+the seeds of many other weeds are even preferable to wheat. The
+wild parsnip is a poison, and the parsnip of cultivation relapses
+quickly into its natural condition if allowed to escape and roam
+again. The root of the tapioca plant contains a volatile poison,
+and is deadly; but when that same root is properly prepared, it
+becomes the wholesome food, tapioca. The nut of the African
+anacardium (cachew nut) contains a nourishing kernel that is
+eaten as food by the natives, and yet a drop of the juice of the
+oily shell placed on the skin will blister and produce terrible
+inflammations; only those expert in the removal of the kernel<span class="pagenum">[Pg 124]</span>
+dare partake of the food. The berry of the berberis vulgaris is
+a pleasant acid fruit; the bough that bears it is intensely bitter.
+Such examples might be multiplied indefinitely, but I have cited
+enough to illustrate the fact that neither the difference in size
+and structure of the species in the mushroom forest through
+which we are passing, nor the conditions of these bodies, as
+compared with those you formerly knew, need excite your astonishment.
+Cultivate a potato in your former home so that the
+growing tuber is exposed to sunshine, and it becomes green
+and acrid, and strongly virulent. Cultivate the spores of the
+intra-earth fungi about us, on the face of the earth, and although
+now all parts of the plants are edible, the species will degenerate,
+and may even become poisonous. They lose their flavor under
+such unfavorable conditions, and although some species still
+retain vitality enough to resist poisonous degeneration, they
+dwindle in size, and adapt themselves to new and unnatural
+conditions. They have all degenerated. Here they live on
+water, pure nitrogen and its modifications, grasping with their
+roots the carbon of the disintegrated limestone, affiliating these
+substances, and evolving from these bodies rich and delicate
+flavors, far superior to the flavor of earth surface foods. On the
+surface of the earth, after they become abnormal, they live only
+on dead and devitalized organic matter, having lost the power of
+assimilating elementary matter. They then partake of the nature
+of animals, breathe oxygen and exhale carbonic acid, as animals
+do, being the reverse of other plant existences. Here they breathe
+oxygen, nitrogen, and the vapor of water; but exhale some of
+the carbon in combination with hydrogen, thus evolving these
+delicate ethereal essences instead of the poisonous gas, carbonic
+acid. Their substance is here made up of all the elements necessary
+for the support of animal life; nitrogen to make muscle,
+carbon and hydrogen for fat, lime for bone. This fungoid forest
+could feed a multitude. It is probable that in the time to come
+when man deserts the bleak earth surface, as he will some day
+be forced to do, as has been the case in frozen planets that are
+not now inhabited on the outer crust; nations will march through
+these spaces on their way from the dreary outside earth to the
+delights of the salubrious inner sphere. Here then, when that
+day of necessity appears, as it surely will come under inflexible<span class="pagenum">[Pg 125]</span>
+climatic changes that will control the destiny of outer earth life,
+these constantly increasing stores adapted to nourish humanity,
+will be found accumulated and ready for food. You have already
+eaten of them, for the variety of food with which I supplied you
+has been selected from different portions of these nourishing
+products which, flavored and salted, ready for use as food, stand
+intermediate between animal and vegetable, supplying the place
+of both."</p>
+
+<p>My instructor placed both hands on my shoulders, and in
+silence I stood gazing intently into his face. Then, in a smooth,
+captivating, entrancing manner, he continued:</p>
+
+<p>"Can you not see that food is not matter? The material part
+of bread is carbon, water, gas, and earth; the material part of
+fat is charcoal and gas; the material part of flesh is water and
+gas; the material part of fruits is mostly water with a little
+charcoal and gas.<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a>
+ The material constituents of all foods are
+plentiful, they abound everywhere, and yet amid the unlimited,
+unorganized materials that go to form foods man would starve.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a>
+ By the term gas, it is evident that hydrogen and nitrogen were
+designated, and yet, since the instructor insists that other gases form
+part of the atmosphere, so he may consistently imply that unknown gases
+are parts of food.&mdash;J. U. L.</p></div>
+
+<p>"Give a healthy man a diet of charcoal, water, lime salts,
+and air; say to him, 'Bread contains no other substance, here
+is bread, the material food of man, live on this food,' and yet
+the man, if he eat of these, will die with his stomach distended.
+So with all other foods; give man the unorganized materialistic
+constituents of food in unlimited amounts, and starvation results.
+No! matter is not food, but a carrier of food."</p>
+
+<p>"What is food?"</p>
+
+<p>"Sunshine. The grain of wheat is a food by virtue of the
+sunshine fixed within it. The flesh of animals, the food of living
+creatures, are simply carriers of sunshine energy. Break out
+the sunshine and you destroy the food, although the material
+remains. The growing plant locks the sunshine in its cells, and
+the living animal takes it out again. Hence it is that after the
+sunshine of any food is liberated during the metamorphosis of
+the tissues of an animal although the material part of the food
+remains, it is no longer a food, but becomes a poison, and then,
+if it is not promptly eliminated from the animal, it will destroy
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg 126]</span>the life of the animal. This material becomes then injurious,
+but it is still material.</p>
+
+<p>"The farmer plants a seed in the soil, the sunshine sprouts
+it, nourishes the growing plant, and during the season locks
+itself to and within its tissues, binding the otherwise dead
+materials of that tissue together into an organized structure.
+Animals eat these structures, break them from higher to lower
+compounds, and in doing so live on the stored up sunshine and
+then excrete the worthless material side of the food. The farmer
+spreads these excluded substances over the earth again to once
+more take up the sunshine in the coming plant organization, but
+not until it does once more lock in its cells the energy of sunshine
+can it be a food for that animal."</p>
+
+<p>"Is manure a food?" he abruptly asked.</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>"Is not manure matter?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"May it not become a food again, as the part of another
+plant, when another season passes?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"In what else than energy (sunshine) does it differ from
+food?"</p>
+
+<p>"Water is a necessity," I said.</p>
+
+<p>"And locked in each molecule of water there is a mine of
+sunshine. Liberate suddenly the sun energy from the gases
+of the ocean held in subjection thereby, and the earth would
+disappear in an explosion that would reverberate throughout the
+universe. The water that you truly claim to be necessary to
+the life of man, is itself water by the grace of this same sun, for
+without its heat water would be ice, dry as dust. 'Tis the sun
+that gives life and motion to creatures animate and substances
+inanimate; he who doubts distrusts his Creator. Food and drink
+are only carriers of bits of assimilable sunshine. When the fire
+worshipers kneeled to their god, the sun, they worshiped the great
+food reservoir of man. When they drew the quivering entrails
+from the body of a sacrificed victim they gave back to their God
+a spark of sunshine&mdash;it was due sooner or later. They builded
+well in thus recognizing the source of all life, and yet they acted
+badly, for their God asked no premature sacrifice, the inevitable<span class="pagenum">[Pg 127]</span>
+must soon occur, and as all organic life comes from that Sun-God,
+so back to that Creator the sun-spark must fly."</p>
+
+<p>"But they are heathen; there is a God beyond their narrow
+conception of God."</p>
+
+<p>"As there is also a God in the Beyond, past your idea of God.
+Perhaps to beings of higher mentalities, we may be heathen;
+but even if this is so, duty demands that we revere the God
+within our intellectual sphere. Let us not digress further; the
+subject now is food, not the Supreme Creator, and I say to you
+the food of man and the organic life of man is sunshine."</p>
+
+<p>He ceased, and I reflected upon his words. All he had said
+seemed so consistent that I could not deny its plausibility, and
+yet it still appeared altogether unlikely as viewed in the light of
+my previous earth knowledge. I did not quite comprehend all
+the semi-scientific expressions, but was at least certain that I
+could neither disprove nor verify his propositions. My thoughts
+wandered aimlessly, and I found myself questioning whether
+man could be prevailed upon to live contentedly in situations
+such as I was now passing through. In company with my
+learned and philosophical but fantastically created guardian and
+monitor, I moved on.<span class="pagenum">[Pg 128]</span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128"></a>CHAPTER XIX.<br />
+<br />
+THE CRY FROM A DISTANCE.&mdash;I REBEL AGAINST CONTINUING
+THE JOURNEY.</h2>
+
+
+<p>As we paced along, meditating, I became more sensibly
+impressed with the fact that our progress was down a rapid
+declination. The saline incrustations, fungi and stalagmites,
+rapidly changed in appearance, an endless variety of stony
+figures and vegetable cryptogams recurring successively before
+my eyes. They bore the shape of trees, shrubs, or animals,
+fixed and silent as statues: at least in my distorted condition
+of mind I could make out resemblances to many such familiar
+objects; the floor of the cavern became increasingly steeper, as
+was shown by the stalactites, which, hanging here and there
+from the invisible ceiling, made a decided angle with the floor,
+corresponding with a similar angle of the stalagmites below.
+Like an accompanying and encircling halo the ever present
+earth-light enveloped us, opening in front as we advanced, and
+vanishing in the rear. The sound of our footsteps gave back
+a peculiar, indescribable hollow echo, and our voices sounded
+ghost-like and unearthly, as if their origin was outside of our
+bodies, and at a distance. The peculiar resonance reminded me
+of noises reverberating in an empty cask or cistern. I was
+oppressed by an indescribable feeling of mystery and awe that
+grew deep and intense, until at last I could no longer bear the
+mental strain.</p>
+
+<p>"Hold, hold," I shouted, or tried to shout, and stopped
+suddenly, for although I had cried aloud, no sound escaped my
+lips. Then from a distance&mdash;could I believe my senses?&mdash;from
+a distance as an echo, the cry came back in the tones of my own
+voice, "Hold, hold."</p>
+
+<p>"Speak lower," said my guide, "speak very low, for now an
+effort such as you have made projects your voice far outside your
+body; the greater the exertion the farther away it appears."<span class="pagenum">[Pg 129]</span></p>
+
+<p>I grasped him by the arm and said slowly, determinedly, and
+in a suppressed tone: "I have come far enough into the secret
+caverns of the earth, without knowing our destination; acquaint
+me now with the object of this mysterious journey, I demand,
+and at once relieve this sense of uncertainty; otherwise I shall
+go no farther."</p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/gs1022.jpg" width="600" height="445" alt="" title="&quot;AN ENDLESS VARIETY OF STONY FIGURES.&quot;" />
+<span class="caption">"AN ENDLESS VARIETY OF STONY FIGURES."</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>"You are to proceed to the Sphere of Rest with me," he
+replied, "and in safety. Beyond that an Unknown Country lies,
+into which I have never ventured."</p>
+
+<p>"You speak in enigmas; what is this Sphere of Rest? Where
+is it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Your eyes have never seen anything similar; human philosophy
+has no conception of it, and I can not describe it," he said.
+"It is located in the body of the earth, and we will meet it about
+one thousand miles beyond the North Pole."</p>
+
+<p>"But I am in Kentucky," I replied; "do you think that I
+propose to walk to the North Pole, man&mdash;if man you be; that
+unreached goal is thousands of miles away."<span class="pagenum">[Pg 130]</span></p>
+
+<p>"True," he answered, "as you measure distance on the
+surface of the earth, and you could not walk it in years of time;
+but you are now twenty-five miles below the surface, and you
+must be aware that instead of becoming more weary as we
+proceed, you are now and have for some time been gaining
+strength. I would also call to your attention that you neither
+hunger nor thirst."</p>
+
+<p>"Proceed," I said, "'tis useless to rebel; I am wholly in your
+power," and we resumed our journey, and rapidly went forward
+amid silences that were to me painful beyond description. We
+abruptly entered a cavern of crystal, every portion of which was
+of sparkling brilliancy, and as white as snow. The stalactites,
+stalagmites and fungi disappeared. I picked up a fragment of
+the bright material, tasted it, and found that it resembled pure
+salt. Monstrous, cubical crystals, a foot or more in diameter,
+stood out in bold relief, accumulations of them, as conglomerated
+masses, banked up here and there, making parts of great
+columnar cliffs, while in other formations the crystals were small,
+resembling in the aggregate masses of white sandstone.</p>
+
+<p>"Is not this salt?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; we are now in the dried bed of an underground
+lake."</p>
+
+<p>"Dried bed?" I exclaimed; "a body of water sealed in the
+earth can not evaporate."</p>
+
+<p>"It has not evaporated; at some remote period the water has
+been abstracted from the salt, and probably has escaped upon the
+surface of the earth as a fresh water spring."</p>
+
+<p>"You contradict all laws of hydrostatics, as I understand that
+subject," I replied, "when you speak of abstracting water from a
+dissolved substance that is part of a liquid, and thus leaving the
+solids."</p>
+
+<p>"Nevertheless this is a constant act of nature," said he;
+"how else can you rationally account for the great salt beds and
+other deposits of saline materials that exist hermetically sealed
+beneath the earth's surface?"</p>
+
+<p>"I will confess that I have not given the subject much
+thought; I simply accept the usual explanation to the effect that
+salty seas have lost their water by evaporation, and afterward
+the salt formations, by some convulsions of nature, have been
+covered with earth, perhaps sinking by earthquake convulsions
+bodily into the earth."<span class="pagenum">[Pg 131]</span></p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 404px;">
+<img src="images/gs1023.jpg" width="404" height="600" alt="" title="&quot;MONSTROUS CUBICAL CRYSTALS.&quot;" />
+<span class="caption">"MONSTROUS CUBICAL CRYSTALS."</span>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg 132]</span></p>
+
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg 133]</span>"These explanations are examples of some of the erroneous
+views of scientific writers," he replied; "they are true only to a
+limited extent. The great beds of salt, deep in the earth, are
+usually accumulations left there by water that is drawn from
+brine lakes, from which the liberated water often escaped as pure
+spring water at the surface of the earth. It does not escape by
+evaporation, at least not until it reaches the earth's surface."</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg 134]</span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>INTERLUDE&mdash;THE STORY INTERRUPTED.</h2>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<h2><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134"></a>CHAPTER XX.<br />
+<br />
+MY UNBIDDEN GUEST PROVES HIS STATEMENT AND REFUTES
+MY PHILOSOPHY.</h2>
+
+
+<p>Let the reader who has followed this strange story which I
+am directed to title "The End of Earth," and who, in imagination,
+has traversed the cavernous passages of the underworld
+and listened to the conversation of those two personages who
+journeyed towards the secrets of the Beyond, return now to
+upper earth, and once more enter my secluded lodgings, the
+home of Llewellen Drury, him who listened to the aged guest
+and who claims your present attention. Remember that I relate
+a story within a story. That importunate guest of mine, of the
+glittering knife and the silvery hair, like another Ancient Mariner,
+had constrained me to listen to his narrative, as he read it
+aloud to me from the manuscript. I patiently heard chapter
+after chapter, generally with pleasure, often with surprise, sometimes
+with incredulity, or downright dissent. Much of the
+narrative, I must say,&mdash;yes, most of it, appeared possible, if not
+probable, as taken in its connected sequence. The scientific
+sections were not uninteresting; the marvels of the fungus
+groves, the properties of the inner light, I was not disinclined to
+accept as true to natural laws; but when The-Man-Who-Did-It
+came to tell of the intra-earth salt deposits, and to explain the
+cause of the disappearance of lakes that formerly existed underground,
+and their simultaneous replacement by beds of salt, my
+credulity was overstrained.</p>
+
+<p>"Permit me to interrupt your narrative," I remarked, and
+then in response to my request the venerable guest laid down
+his paper.</p>
+
+<p>"Well?" he said, interrogatively.<span class="pagenum">[Pg 135]</span></p>
+
+<p>"I do not believe that last statement concerning the salt
+lake, and, to speak plainly, I would not have accepted it as you
+did, even had I been in your situation."</p>
+
+<p>"To what do you allude?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"The physical abstraction of water from the salt of a solution
+of salt; I do not believe it possible unless by evaporation of the
+water."</p>
+
+<p>"You seem to accept as conclusive the statements of men
+who have never investigated beneath the surface in these directions,
+and you question the evidence of a man who has seen the
+phenomenon. I presume you accept the prevailing notions
+about salt beds, as you do the assertion that liquids seek a
+common level, which your scientific authorities also teach as a
+law of nature?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; I do believe that liquids seek a common level, and I
+am willing to credit your other improbable statements if you can
+demonstrate the principle of liquid equilibrium to be untrue."</p>
+
+<p>"Then," said he, "to-morrow evening I will show you that
+fluids seek different levels, and also explain to you how liquids
+may leave the solids they hold in solution without evaporating
+from them."</p>
+
+<p>He arose and abruptly departed. It was near morning, and
+yet I sat in my room alone pondering the story of my unique
+guest until I slept to dream of caverns and seances until daylight,
+when I was awakened by their vividness. The fire was
+out, the room was cold, and, shivering in nervous exhaustion,
+I crept into bed to sleep and dream again of horrible things I
+can not describe, but which made me shudder in affright at their
+recollection. Late in the day I awoke.</p>
+
+<p>On the following evening my persevering teacher appeared
+punctually, and displayed a few glass tubes and some blotting
+or bibulous paper.</p>
+
+<p>"I will first show you that liquids may change their levels
+in opposition to the accepted laws of men, not contrary to
+nature's laws; however, let me lead to the experiments by a
+statement of facts, that, if you question, you can investigate at
+any time. If two vessels of water be connected by a channel
+from the bottom of each, the water surfaces will come to a
+common level."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>He selected a curved glass tube, and poured water into it.
+The water assumed the position shown in Figure 11.</p>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 209px;">
+<img src="images/m1024a.png" width="209" height="300" alt="" title="Fig. 11." />
+<span class="caption"><span class="smcap">Fig.</span> 11.&mdash;A A, water in tube
+seeks a level.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>"You have not shown me anything
+new," I said; "my text-books taught me
+this."</p>
+
+<p>"True, I have but exhibited that which
+is the foundation of your philosophy regarding
+the surface of liquids. Let me
+proceed:</p>
+
+<p>"If we pour a solution of common salt
+into such a U tube, as I do now, you
+perceive that it also rises to the same
+level in both ends."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course it does."</p>
+
+<p>"Do not interrupt me. Into one arm
+of the tube containing the brine I now
+carefully pour pure water. You observe that the surfaces do not
+seek the same level." (Figure 12.)</p>
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 209px;">
+<img src="images/m1024b.png" width="209" height="300" alt="" title="Fig. 12." />
+<span class="caption"><span class="smcap">Fig.</span> 12.&mdash;A, surface of water.
+B, surface of brine.</span>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>"Certainly not," I said; "the weight
+of the liquid in each arm is the same, however;
+the columns balance each other."</p>
+
+<p>"Exactly; and on this assumption you
+base your assertion that connected liquids
+of the same gravity must always seek a
+common level, but you see from this test
+that if two liquids of different gravities
+be connected from beneath, the surface of
+the lighter one will assume a higher level
+than the surface of the heavier."</p>
+
+<p>"Agreed; however tortuous the channel
+that connects them, such must be the
+case."</p>
+
+<p>"Is it not supposable," said he, "that there might be two
+pockets in the earth, one containing salt water, the other fresh
+water, which, if joined together, might be represented by such a
+figure as this, wherein the water surface would be raised above
+that of the brine?" And he drew upon the paper the accompanying
+diagram. (Figure 13.)<span class="pagenum">[Pg 137]</span></p>
+
+<p>"Yes," I admitted; "providing, of course, there was an equal
+pressure of air on the surface of each."</p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137"></a></p>
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 300px;">
+<img src="images/gs1025a.png" width="300" height="209" alt="" title="Fig. 13." />
+<span class="caption"><span class="smcap">Fig.</span> 13.&mdash;B, surface of brine.<br />
+W, surface of water.<br />
+S, sand strata connecting them.</span>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>"Now I will draw a figure in which one pocket is above
+the other, and ask you to imagine
+that in the lower pocket we
+have pure water, in the upper
+pocket brine (Figure 14); can
+you bring any theory of your
+law to bear upon these liquids
+so that by connecting them
+together the water will rise and
+run into the brine?"</p>
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 300px;">
+<img src="images/gs1025b.png" width="300" height="235" alt="" title="Fig. 14." />
+<span class="caption"><span class="smcap">Fig.</span> 14.&mdash;B, brine.<br />
+W, water.<br />
+S, sand stratum.<br />
+(The difference in altitude is somewhat exaggerated
+to make the phenomenon clear. A
+syphon may result under such circumstances.&mdash;L.)</span>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>"No," I replied; "connect
+them, and then the brine will
+flow into the water."</p>
+
+<p>"Upon the contrary," he said; "connect them, as innumerable
+cavities in the earth are joined, and the water will flow into
+the brine."</p>
+
+<p>"The assertion is opposed to applied philosophy and
+common sense," I said.</p>
+
+<p>"Where ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise, you know to
+be a maxim with mortals," he
+replied; "but I must pardon
+you; your dogmatic education
+narrows your judgment. I now
+will prove you in error."</p>
+
+<p>He took from his pocket two
+slender glass tubes, about an
+eighth of an inch in bore and
+four inches in length, each
+closed at one end, and stood
+them in a perforated cork that
+he placed upon the table.</p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138"></a></p>
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 173px;">
+<img src="images/m1026a.png" width="173" height="300" alt="" title="Fig. 15." />
+<span class="caption"><span class="smcap">Fig.</span> 15.<br />
+
+A A, glass tubes.<br />
+F, brine surface.<br />
+E, water surface.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Into one tube he poured
+water, and then dissolving some
+salt in a cup, poured brine into
+the other, filling both nearly to the top (Figure 15). Next he
+produced a short curved glass tube, to each end of which was
+attached a strip of flexible rubber tubing. Then, from a piece<span class="pagenum">[Pg 138]</span>
+of blotting paper such as is used to blot ink, he cut a narrow
+strip and passed it through the arrangement, forming the apparatus
+represented by Figure 16.</p>
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 164px;">
+<img src="images/m1026b.png" width="164" height="300" alt="" title="Fig. 16." />
+<span class="caption"><span class="smcap">Fig.</span> 16.<br />
+B, curved glass tube.<br />
+C C, rubber tubes.<br />
+D D D, bibulous paper.</span>
+</div>
+<p>Then he inserted the two tubes (Figure 15)
+into the rubber, the extremities of the paper being
+submerged in the liquids, producing a combination
+that rested upright in the cork as shown by
+Figure 17.</p>
+
+<p>The surfaces of both liquids were at once
+lowered by reason of the suction of the bibulous
+paper, the water decreasing most rapidly, and soon
+the creeping liquids met by absorption in the
+paper, the point of contact, as the liquids met,
+being plainly discernible. Now the old man gently
+slid the tubes upon each other, raising one a little, so as to bring
+the surfaces of the two liquids exactly on a plane; he then
+marked the glass at the surface of each with a pen.</p>
+
+<p>"Observe the result," he remarked as he replaced the tubes
+in the cork with their liquid surfaces on a line.</p>
+
+<p>Together we sat and watched, and soon it became apparent
+that the surface of the water had decreased in
+height as compared with that of the brine. By
+fixing my gaze on the ink mark on the glass I also
+observed that the brine in the opposing tube was
+rising.</p>
+
+<p>"I will call to-morrow evening," he said, "and
+we shall then discover which is true, man's theory
+or nature's practice."</p>
+
+<p>Within a short time enough of the water in the
+tube had been transferred to the brine to raise its
+surface considerably above its former level, the surface
+of the water being lowered to a greater degree.
+(Figure 18.) I was discomfited at the result, and upon his
+appearance next evening peevishly said to the experimenter:</p>
+
+<p>"I do not know that this is fair."</p>
+
+<p>"Have I not demonstrated that, by properly connecting the
+liquids, the lighter flows into the heavier, and raises itself above
+the former surface?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; but there is no porous paper in the earth."<span class="pagenum">[Pg 139]</span></p>
+
+<p>"True; I used this medium because it was convenient.
+There are, however, vast subterranean beds of porous materials,
+stone, sand, clay, various other earths, many of which will
+answer the same purpose. By perfectly natural laws, on a large
+scale, such molecular transfer of liquids is constantly taking
+place within the earth, and in these phenomena the law of
+gravitation seems ignored, and the rule which man
+believes from narrow experience, governs the flow
+of liquids, is reversed. The arched porous medium
+always transfers the lighter liquid into the heavier
+one until its surface is raised considerably above
+that of the light one. In the same way you can
+demonstrate that alcohol passes into water, sulphuric
+ether into alcohol, and other miscible light
+liquids into those heavier."</p>
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 112px;">
+<img src="images/m1027a.png" width="112" height="300" alt="" title="Fig. 17." />
+<span class="caption"><span class="smcap">Fig.</span> 17.<br />
+A A, glass tubes.<br />
+B, curved glass tube.<br />
+C C, rubber tubes.<br />
+D, bibulous paper.<br />
+E, water surface.<br />
+F, brine surface.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>"I have seen you exemplify the statement on a
+small scale, with water and brine, and can not question
+but that it is true on a large one," I replied.</p>
+
+<p>"So you admit that the assertion governing the
+surfaces of liquids is true only when the liquids
+are connected from beneath. In other words, your
+thought is one-sided, as science thought often is."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 113px;">
+<img src="images/m1027b.png" width="113" height="300" alt="" title="Fig. 18." />
+<span class="caption"><span class="smcap">Fig.</span> 18.<br />
+E, water surface.<br />
+F, brine surface.</span>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>"Now as to the beds of salt deep within the earth. You are
+also mistaken concerning their origin. The water
+of the ocean that runs through an open channel
+from the one side may flow into an underground
+lake, that by means of the contact action (suction)
+of the overlying and surrounding strata is being
+continually emptied of its water, but not its salt.
+Thus by absorption of water the brine of the lake
+becomes in time saturated, starting crystallization
+regularly over the floor and sides of the basin.
+Eventually the entire cavity is filled with salt, and
+a solid mass of rock salt remains. If, however,
+before the lake becomes solid, the brine supply
+is shut off by some natural cause as by salt crystals
+closing the passage thereto, the underground lake is at
+last drained of its water, the salt crystallizing over the bottom,<span class="pagenum">[Pg 140]</span>
+and upon the cliffs, leaving great crevices through the saline
+deposits, as chances to have been the case with the salt formations
+through which I passed with my guide, and have recently
+described to you."</p>
+
+<p>"Even now I have my doubts as to the correctness of your
+explanations, especially concerning the liquid surfaces."</p>
+
+<p>"They are facts, however; liquids capable of being mixed,
+if connected by porous arches (bibulous paper is convenient for
+illustrating by experiment) reverse the rule men have accepted
+to explain the phenomena of liquid equilibrium, for I repeat, the
+lighter one rushes into that which is heavier, and the surface
+of the heavier liquid rises. You can try the experiment with
+alcohol and water, taking precautions to prevent evaporation, or
+you can vary the experiment with solutions of various salts of
+different densities; the greater the difference in gravity between
+the two liquids, the more rapid will be the flow of the lighter
+one into the heavier, and after equilibrium, the greater will be
+the contrast in the final height of the resultant liquid surfaces."</p>
+
+<p>"Men will yet explain this effect by natural laws," I said.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he answered; "when they learn the facts; and they
+will then be able to solve certain phenomena connected with
+diffusion processes that they can not now understand. Did I
+not tell you that after the fact had been made plain it was easy
+to see how Columbus stood the egg on its end? What I have
+demonstrated by experiment is perhaps no new principle in
+hydrostatics. But I have applied it in a natural manner to the
+explanation of obscure natural phenomena, that men now seek
+unreasonable methods to explain."</p>
+
+<p>"You may proceed with your narrative. I accept that when
+certain liquids are connected, as you have shown, by means of
+porous substances, one will pass into the other, and the surface
+of the lighter liquid in this case will assume a position below
+that of the heavier."</p>
+
+<p>"You must also accept," said he, "that when solutions of
+salt are subjected to earth attraction, under proper conditions,
+the solids may by capillary attraction be left behind, and pure
+water finally pass through the porous medium. Were it not for
+this law, the only natural surface spring water on earth would
+be brine, for the superficial crust of the earth is filled with saline<span class="pagenum">[Pg 141]</span>
+solutions. All the spring-fed rivers and lakes would also be salty
+and fetid with sulphur compounds, for at great depths brine and
+foul water are always present. Even in countries where all the
+water below the immediate surface of the earth is briny, the
+running springs, if of capillary origin, are pure and fresh. You
+may imagine how different this would be were it not for the law
+I have cited, for the whole earth's crust is permeated by brine
+and saline waters. Did your 'philosophy' never lead you to
+think of this?"</p>
+
+<p>Continuing, my guest argued as follows: "Do not lakes exist
+on the earth's surface into which rivers and streams flow, but
+which have no visible outlet? Are not such lakes saline, even
+though the source of supply is comparatively fresh? Has it
+never occurred to you to question whether capillarity assisted by
+surface evaporation (not evaporation only as men assert) is not
+separating the water of these lakes from the saline substances
+carried into them by the streams, thus producing brine lakes?
+Will not this action after a great length of time result in crystalline
+deposits over portions of the bottoms of such lakes, and
+ultimately produce a salt bed?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is possible," I replied.</p>
+
+<p>"Not only possible, but probable. Not only probable, but
+true. Across the intervening brine strata above the salt crystals
+the surface rivers may flow, indeed, owing to differences in
+specific gravity the surface of the lake may be comparatively
+fresh, while in the quiet depths below, beds of salt crystals are
+forming, and between these extremes may rest strata after strata
+of saline solutions, decreasing in gravity towards the top."</p>
+
+<p>Then he took his manuscript, and continued to read in a
+clear, musical voice, while I sat a more contented listener than I
+had been previously. I was not only confuted, but convinced.
+And I recalled the saying of Socrates, that no better fortune can
+happen a man than to be confuted in an error.<span class="pagenum">[Pg 142]</span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>MY UNBIDDEN GUEST CONTINUES READING HIS MANUSCRIPT.</h2>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<h2><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142"></a>CHAPTER XXI.<br />
+<br />
+MY WEIGHT DISAPPEARING.</h2>
+
+
+<p>We halted suddenly, for we came unexpectedly to the edge
+of a precipice, twenty feet at least in depth.</p>
+
+<p>"Let us jump down," said my guide.</p>
+
+<p>"That would be dangerous," I answered; "can not we
+descend at some point where it is not so deep?"</p>
+
+<p>"No; the chasm stretches for miles across our path, and at
+this point we will meet with the least difficulty; besides, there is
+no danger. The specific gravity of our bodies is now so little
+that we could jump twice that distance with impunity."</p>
+
+<p>"I can not comprehend you; we are in the flesh, our bodies
+are possessed of weight, the concussion will be violent."</p>
+
+<p>"You reason again from the condition of your former life,
+and, as usual, are mistaken; there will be little shock, for, as I
+have said, our bodies are comparatively light now. Have you
+forgotten that your motion is continuously accelerated, and that
+without perceptible exertion you move rapidly? This is partly
+because of the loss of weight. Your weight would now be only
+about fifty pounds if tested by a spring balance."</p>
+
+<p>I stood incredulous.</p>
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 153px;">
+<a id="Page_143" name="Page_143"></a>
+<img src="images/m1028.png" width="153" height="300" alt="" title="quot;I BOUNDED UPWARD FULLY SIX FEET.&quot;" />
+<span class="caption">"I BOUNDED UPWARD FULLY SIX FEET."</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>"You trifle with me; I weigh over one hundred and fifty
+pounds; how have I lost weight? It is true that I have noticed
+the ease with which we have recently progressed on our journey,
+especially the latter part of it, but I attribute this, in part, to
+the fact that our course is down an incline, and also to the
+vitalizing power of this cavern air."</p>
+
+<p>"This explains part of the matter," he said; "it answered
+at the time, and I stated a fact; but were it not that you are
+really consuming a comparatively small amount of energy, you<span class="pagenum">[Pg 143]</span>
+would long before this have been completely exhausted. You
+have been gaining strength for some hours; have really been
+growing younger. Your wrinkled face has become more smooth,
+and your voice
+is again natural.
+You were prematurely
+aged by
+your brothers on
+the surface of the
+earth, in order
+that when you
+pass the line
+of gravity, you
+might be vigorous
+and enjoying
+manhood again.
+Had this aging
+process not been
+accomplished
+you would now
+have become as
+a child in many
+respects."</p>
+
+
+<p>He halted before
+me. "Jump
+up," he said. I
+promptly obeyed
+the unexpected
+command, and
+sprung upward
+with sufficient
+force to carry
+me, as I supposed,
+six inches
+from the earth;
+however I bounded
+upward fully
+six feet. My look
+of surprise as I<span class="pagenum">[Pg 144]</span>
+gently alighted, for there was no concussion on my return,
+seemed lost on my guide, and he quietly said:</p>
+
+<p>"If you can leap six feet upward without excessive exertion,
+or return shock, can not you jump twenty feet down? Look!"</p>
+
+
+<p>And he leaped lightly over the precipice and stood unharmed
+on the stony floor below.</p>
+
+<p>Even then I hesitated, observing which, he cried:</p>
+
+<p>"Hang by your hands from the edge then, and drop."</p>
+
+<p>I did so, and the fourteen feet of fall seemed to affect me as
+though I had become as light as cork. I fluttered to the earth
+as a leaf would fall, and leaned against the precipice in surprised
+meditation.</p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144"></a></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/gs1029.jpg" width="600" height="441" alt="" title="&quot;I FLUTTERED TO THE EARTH AS A LEAF WOULD FALL.&quot;" />
+<span class="caption">"I FLUTTERED TO THE EARTH AS A LEAF WOULD FALL."</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>"Others have been through your experience," he remarked,
+"and I therefore can overlook your incredulity; but experiences
+such as you now meet, remove distrust. Doing is believing."
+He smiled benignantly.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 160px;">
+<img src="images/m1030.png" width="160" height="300" alt="" title="&quot;WE LEAPED OVER GREAT INEQUALITIES.&quot;" />
+<span class="caption">"WE LEAPED OVER GREAT INEQUALITIES."</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>I pondered, revolving in my mind the fact that persons had
+in mental abstraction, passed through unusual experiences in
+ignorance of conditions
+about them,
+until their attention
+had been called to
+the seen and yet
+unnoticed surroundings,
+and they had
+then beheld the facts
+plainly. The puzzle
+picture (see p. 129)
+stares the eye and
+impresses the retina,
+but is devoid of
+character until the
+hidden form is developed
+in the mind,
+and then that form is
+always prominent to
+the eye. My remarkably
+light step, now
+that my attention
+had been directed
+thereto, was constantly
+in my mind,
+and I found myself
+suddenly possessed
+of the strength of a
+man, but with the
+weight of an infant.
+I raised my feet
+without an effort;
+they seemed destitute
+of weight; I
+leaped about, tumbled, and rolled over and over on the smooth
+stone floor without injury. It appeared that I had become the
+airy similitude of my former self, my material substance having
+wasted away without a corresponding impairment of strength.<span class="pagenum">[Pg 146]</span>
+I pinched my flesh to be assured that all was not a dream,
+and then endeavored to convince myself that I was the victim
+of delirium; but in vain. Too sternly my self-existence confronted
+me as a reality, a cruel reality. A species of intoxication
+possessed me once more, and I now hoped for the end, whatever
+it might be. We resumed our journey, and rushed on with
+increasing rapidity, galloping hand in hand, down, down, ever
+downward into the illuminated crevice of the earth. The spectral
+light by which we were aureoled increased in intensity,
+as by arithmetical progression, and I could now distinguish
+objects at a considerable distance before us. My spirits rose as
+if I were under the influence of a potent stimulant; a liveliness
+that was the opposite of my recent despondency had gained
+control, and I was again possessed of a delicious mental
+sensation, to which I can only refer as a most rapturous
+exhilaration. My guide grasped my hand firmly, and his touch,
+instead of revolting me as formerly it had done, gave pleasure.
+We together leaped over great inequalities in the floor, performing
+these aerial feats almost as easily as a bird flies. Indeed,
+I felt that I possessed the power of flight, for we bounded
+fearlessly down great declivities and over abysses that were
+often perpendicular, and many times our height. A very slight
+muscular exertion was sufficient to carry us rods of distance, and
+almost tiptoeing we skimmed with ever-increasing speed down
+the steeps of that unknown declivity. At length my guide held
+back; we gradually lessened our velocity, and, after a time,
+rested beside a horizontal substance that lay before us, apparently
+a sheet of glass, rigid, immovable, immeasurably great,
+that stretched as a level surface before us, vividly distinct in the
+brightness of an earth light, that now proved to be superior to
+sunshine. Far as the eye could reach, the glassy barrier to our
+further progress spread as a crystal mirror in front, and vanishing
+in the distance, shut off the beyond.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 405px;">
+<img src="images/gs1031.jpg" width="405" height="600" alt="" title="&quot;FAR AS THE EYE COULD REACH THE GLASSY BARRIER SPREAD
+AS A CRYSTAL MIRROR.&quot;" />
+<span class="caption">"FAR AS THE EYE COULD REACH THE GLASSY BARRIER SPREAD
+AS A CRYSTAL MIRROR."</span>
+</div>
+<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg 149]</span></p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>INTERLUDE.&mdash;THE STORY AGAIN INTERRUPTED.</h2>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<h2><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149"></a>CHAPTER XXII.<br />
+<br />
+MY UNBIDDEN GUEST DEPARTS.</h2>
+
+
+<p>Once more I must presume to interrupt this narrative, and
+call back the reader's thoughts from those mysterious caverns
+through which we have been tracing the rapid footsteps of the
+man who was abducted, and his uncouth pilot of the lower
+realms. Let us now see and hear what took place in my room,
+in Cincinnati, just after my visitor, known to us as The-Man-Who-Did-It,
+had finished reading to me, Lewellyn Drury, the
+custodian of this manuscript, the curious chapter relating how the
+underground explorers lost weight as they descended in the
+hollows of the earth. My French clock struck twelve of its
+clear silvery notes before the gray-bearded reader finished his
+stint for the occasion, and folded his manuscript preparatory to
+placing it within his bosom.</p>
+
+<p>"It is past midnight," he said, "and it is time for me to
+depart; but I will come to you again within a year.</p>
+
+<p>"Meanwhile, during my absence, search the records, question
+authorities, and note such objections as rise therefrom concerning
+the statements I have made. Establish or disprove historically,
+or scientifically, any portion of the life history that I have given,
+and when I return I will hear what you have to say, and meet
+your argument. If there is a doubt concerning the authenticity
+of any part of the history, investigate; but make no mention to
+others of the details of our meetings."</p>
+
+<p>I sat some time in thought, then said: "I decline to concern
+myself in verifying the historical part of your narrative. The
+localities you mention may be true to name, and it is possible
+that you have related a personal history; but I can not perceive
+that I am interested in either proving or disproving it. I will<span class="pagenum">[Pg 150]</span>
+say, however, that it does not seem probable that at any time a
+man can disappear from a community, as you claim to have
+done, and have been the means of creating a commotion in his
+neighborhood that affected political parties, or even led to an
+unusual local excitement, outside his immediate circle of acquaintances,
+for a man is not of sufficient importance unless he is very
+conspicuous. By your own admission, you were simply a
+studious mechanic, a credulous believer in alchemistic vagaries,
+and as I revolve the matter over, I am afraid that you are now
+trying to impose on my credulity. The story of a forcible
+abduction, in the manner you related, seems to me incredible,
+and not worthy of investigation, even had I the inclination to
+concern myself in your personal affairs. The statements, however,
+that you make regarding the nature of the crust of the
+earth, gravitation, light, instinct, and human senses are highly
+interesting, and even plausible as you artfully present the
+subjects, I candidly admit, and I shall take some pains to make
+inquiries concerning the recorded researches of experts who
+have investigated in that direction."</p>
+
+<p>"Collect your evidence," said he, "and I shall listen to your
+views when I return."</p>
+
+<p>He opened the door, glided away, and I was alone again.<span class="pagenum">[Pg 151]</span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151"></a>CHAPTER XXIII.<br />
+<br />
+I QUESTION SCIENTIFIC MEN.&mdash;ARISTOTLE'S ETHER.</h2>
+
+
+<p>Days and weeks passed. When the opportunity presented,
+I consulted Dr. W. B. Chapman, the druggist and student of
+science, regarding the nature of light and earth, who in turn
+referred me to Prof. Daniel Vaughn. This learned man, in
+reply to my question concerning gravitation, declared that there
+was much that men wished to understand in regard to this
+mighty force, that might yet be explained, but which may never
+become known to mortal man.</p>
+
+<p>"The correlation of forces," said he, "was prominently introduced
+and considered by a painstaking scientific writer named
+Joule, in several papers that appeared between 1843 and 1850,
+and he was followed by others, who engaged themselves in
+experimenting and theorizing, and I may add that Joule was
+indeed preceded in such thought by Mayer. This department
+of scientific study just now appears of unusual interest to
+scientists, and your questions embrace problems connected with
+some phases of its phenomena. We believe that light, heat,
+and electricity are mutually convertible, in fact, the evidences
+recently opened up to us show that such must be the case.
+These agencies or manifestations are now known to be so related
+that whenever one disappears others spring into existence.
+Study the beautiful experiments and remarkable investigations
+of Sir William Thomson in these directions."</p>
+
+<p>"And what of gravitation?" I asked, observing that Prof.
+Vaughn neglected to include gravitation among his numerous
+enumerated forces, and recollecting that the force gravitation
+was more closely connected with my visitor's story than perhaps
+were any of the others, excepting the mysterious mid-earth
+illumination.</p>
+
+<p>"Of that force we are in greater ignorance than of the
+others," he replied. "It affects bodies terrestrial and celestial,<span class="pagenum">[Pg 152]</span>
+drawing a material substance, or pressing to the earth; also
+holds, we believe, the earth and all other bodies in position in
+the heavens, thus maintaining the equilibrium of the planets.
+Seemingly gravitation is not derived from, or sustained by, an
+external force, or supply reservoir, but is an intrinsic entity, a
+characteristic of matter that decreases in intensity at the rate
+of the square of the increasing distance, as bodies recede from
+each other, or from the surface of the earth. However, gravitation
+neither escapes by radiation from bodies nor needs to be
+replenished, so far as we know, from without. It may be
+compared to an elastic band, but there is no intermediate tangible
+substance to influence bodies that are affected by it, and it
+remains in undying tension, unlike all elastic material substances
+known, neither losing nor acquiring energy as time passes.
+Unlike cohesion, or chemical attraction, it exerts its influence
+upon bodies that are out of contact, and have no material
+connection, and this necessitates a purely fanciful explanation
+concerning the medium that conducts such influences, bringing
+into existence the illogical, hypothetical, fifth ether, made conspicuous
+by Aristotle."</p>
+
+<p>"What of this ether?" I queried.</p>
+
+<p>"It is a necessity in science, but intangible, undemonstrated,
+unknown, and wholly theoretical. It is accepted as an existing
+fluid by scientists, because human theory can not conceive of a
+substance capable of, or explain how a substance can be capable
+of affecting a separate body unless there is an intermediate
+medium to convey force impressions. Hence to material substances
+Aristotle added (or at least made conspicuous) a
+speculative ether that, he assumed, pervades all space, and all
+material bodies as well, in order to account for the passage of
+heat and light to and from the sun, stars, and planets."</p>
+
+<p>"Explain further," I requested.</p>
+
+<p>"To conceive of such an entity we must imagine a material
+that is more evanescent than any known gas, even in its most
+diffused condition. It must combine the solidity of the most
+perfect conductor of heat (exceeding any known body in this
+respect to an infinite degree), with the transparency of an
+absolute vacuum. It must neither create friction by contact
+with any substance, nor possess attraction for matter; must<span class="pagenum">[Pg 153]</span>
+neither possess weight (and yet carry the force that produces
+weight), nor respond to the influence of any chemical agent, or
+exhibit itself to any optical instrument. It must be invisible,
+and yet carry the force that produces the sensation of sight. It
+must be of such a nature that it can not, according to our
+philosophy, affect the corpuscles of earthly substances while
+permeating them without contact or friction, and yet, as a
+scientific incongruity, it must act so readily on physical bodies
+as to convey to the material eye the sensation of sight, and from
+the sun to creatures on distant planets it must carry the heat
+force, thus giving rise to the sensation of warmth. Through
+this medium, yet without sensible contact with it, worlds must
+move, and planetary systems revolve, cutting and piercing it in
+every direction, without loss of momentum. And yet, as I have
+said, this ether must be in such close contact as to convey to
+them the essence that warms the universe, lights the universe,
+and must supply the attractive bonds that hold the stellar worlds
+in position. A nothing in itself, so far as man's senses indicate,
+the ether of space must be denser than iridium, more mobile
+than any known liquid, and stronger than the finest steel."</p>
+
+<p>"I can not conceive of such an entity," I replied.</p>
+
+<p>"No; neither can any man, for the theory is irrational, and
+can not be supported by comparison with laws known to man,
+but the conception is nevertheless a primary necessity in scientific
+study. Can man, by any rational theory, combine a vacuum
+and a substance, and create a result that is neither material nor
+vacuity, neither something nor nothing, and yet an intensified
+all; being more attenuated than the most perfect of known
+vacuums, and a conductor better than the densest metal? This
+we do when we attempt to describe the scientists' all-pervading
+ether of space, and to account for its influence on matter. This
+hypothetical ether is, for want of a better theory of causes, as
+supreme in philosophy to-day as the alkahest of the talented old
+alchemist Van Helmont was in former times, a universal spirit
+that exists in conception, and yet does not exist in perception,
+and of which modern science knows as little as its speculative
+promulgator, Aristotle, did. We who pride ourselves on our
+exact science, smile at some of Aristotle's statements in other
+directions, for science has disproved them, and yet necessity<span class="pagenum">[Pg 154]</span>
+forces us to accept this illogical ether speculation, which is,
+perhaps, the most unreasonable of all theories. Did not this
+Greek philosopher also gravely assert that the lion has but one
+vertebra in his neck; that the breath of man enters the heart;
+that the back of the head is empty, and that man has but eight
+ribs?"</p>
+
+<p>"Aristotle must have been a careless observer," I said.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he answered; "it would seem so, and science, to-day,
+bases its teachings concerning the passage of all forces from
+planet to planet, and sun to sun, on dicta such as I have cited,
+and no more reasonable in applied experiment."</p>
+
+<p>"And I have been referred to you as a conscientious scientific
+teacher," I said; "why do you speak so facetiously?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am well enough versed in what we call science, to have
+no fear of injuring the cause by telling the truth, and you asked
+a direct question. If your questions carry you farther in the
+direction of force studies, accept at once, that, of the intrinsic
+constitution of force itself, nothing is known. Heat, light,
+magnetism, electricity, galvanism (until recently known as
+imponderable bodies) are now considered as modifications of
+force; but, in my opinion, the time will come when they will
+be known as disturbances."</p>
+
+<p>"Disturbances of what?"</p>
+
+<p>"I do not know precisely; but of something that lies behind
+them all, perhaps creates them all, but yet is in essence unknown
+to men."</p>
+
+<p>"Give me a clearer idea of your meaning."</p>
+
+<p>"It seems impossible," he replied; "I can not find words
+in which to express myself; I do not believe that forces, as
+we know them (imponderable bodies), are as modern physics
+defines them. I am tempted to say that, in my opinion, forces
+are disturbance expressions of a something with which we are
+not acquainted, and yet in which we are submerged and permeated.
+Aristotle's ether perhaps. It seems to me, that,
+behind all material substances, including forces, there is an
+unknown spirit, which, by certain influences, may be ruffled
+into the exhibition of an expression, which exhibition of temper
+we call a force. From this spirit these force expressions (wavelets
+or disturbances) arise, and yet they may become again<span class="pagenum">[Pg 155]</span>
+quiescent, and again rest in its absorbing unity. The water
+from the outlet of a calm lake flows over a gentle decline in
+ripples, or quiet undulations, over the rapids in musical laughings,
+over a precipice in thunder tones,&mdash;always water, each a
+different phase, however, to become quiet in another lake (as
+ripples in this universe may awaken to our perception, to repose
+again), and still be water."</p>
+
+<p>He hesitated.</p>
+
+<p>"Go on," I said.</p>
+
+<p>"So I sometimes have dared to dream that gravitation may be
+the reservoir that conserves the energy for all mundane forces,
+and that what we call modifications of force are intermediate
+conditions, ripples, rapids, or cascades, in gravitation."</p>
+
+<p>"Continue," I said, eagerly, as he hesitated.</p>
+
+<p>He shook his head.<span class="pagenum">[Pg 156]</span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg 157]</span></p>
+<h2><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156"></a>CHAPTER XXIV.<br />
+<br />
+THE SOLILOQUY OF PROF. DANIEL VAUGHN.&mdash;"GRAVITATION
+IS THE BEGINNING AND GRAVITATION IS THE END: ALL
+EARTHLY BODIES KNEEL TO GRAVITATION."</h2>
+
+
+<p>"Please continue, I am intensely interested; I wish that I
+could give you my reasons for the desire; I can not do so, but I
+beg you to continue."</p>
+
+<p>"I should add," continued Vaughn, ignoring my remarks,
+"that we have established rules to measure the force of gravitation,
+and have estimated the decrease of attraction as we
+leave the surfaces of the planets. We have made comparative
+estimates of the weight of the earth and planets, and have
+reason to believe that the force expression of gravitation attains
+a maximum at about one-sixth the distance toward the center of
+the earth, then decreases, until at the very center of our planet,
+matter has no weight. This, together with the rule I repeated
+a few moments ago, is about all we know, or think we know, of
+gravitation. Gravitation is the beginning and gravitation is the
+end; all earthly bodies kneel to gravitation. I can not imagine
+a Beyond, and yet gravitation," mused the rapt philosopher,
+"may also be an expression of"&mdash;he hesitated again, forgetting
+me completely, and leaned his shaggy head upon his hands. I
+realized that his mind was lost in conjecture, and that he was
+absorbed in the mysteries of the scientific immensity. Would
+he speak again? I could not think of disturbing his reverie,
+and minutes passed in silence. Then he slowly, softly, reverently
+murmured: "Gravitation, Gravitation, thou art seemingly
+the one permanent, ever present earth-bound expression of
+Omnipotence. Heat and light come and go, as vapors of water
+condense into rain and dissolve into vapor to return again to
+the atmosphere. Electricity and magnetism appear and disappear;
+like summer storms they move in diversified channels, or
+even turn and fly from contact with some bodies, seemingly
+forbidden to appear, but thou, Gravitation, art omnipresent
+and omnipotent. Thou createst motion, and yet maintainest
+the equilibrium of all things mundane and celestial. An attempt
+to imagine a body destitute of thy potency, would be to bankrupt
+and deaden the material universe. O! Gravitation, art thou a
+voice out of the Beyond, and are other forces but echoes&mdash;tremulous
+reverberations that start into life to vibrate for a spell
+and die in the space caverns of the universe while thou continuest
+supreme?"</p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_157a" id="Page_157a"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 461px;">
+<img src="images/gs1032.jpg" width="461" height="600" alt="" title="&quot;SOLILOQUY OF PROF. DANIEL VAUGHN.&quot;" />
+<span class="caption">"SOLILOQUY OF PROF. DANIEL VAUGHN.<br />
+'GRAVITATION IS THE BEGINNING, AND GRAVITATION IS THE END; ALL
+EARTHLY BODIES KNEEL TO GRAVITATION.'"</span>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg 158]</span></p>
+
+<p>His bowed head and rounded shoulders stooped yet lower;
+he unconsciously brushed his shaggy locks with his hand, and
+seemed to confer with a familiar Being whom others could not
+see.
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg 159]</span></p>
+
+<p>"A voice from without," he repeated; "from beyond our
+realm! Shall the subtle ears of future scientists catch yet
+lighter echoes? Will the brighter thoughts of more gifted men,
+under such furtherings as the future may bring, perchance commune
+with beings who people immensity, distance disappearing
+before thy ever-reaching spirit? For with thee, who holdest the
+universe together, space is not space, and there is no word
+expressing time. Art thou a voice that carriest the history of
+the past from the past unto and into the present, and for which
+there is no future, all conditions of time being as one to thee,
+thy self covering all and connecting all together? Art thou,
+Gravitation, a voice? If so, there must be a something farther
+out in those fathomless caverns, beyond mind imaginings, from
+which thou comest, for how could nothingness have formulated
+itself into a voice? The suns and universe of suns about us,
+may be only vacant points in the depths of an all-pervading
+entity in which even thyself dost exist as a momentary echo,
+linked to substances ponderous, destined to fade away in the
+inter-stellar expanse outside, where disturbances disappear,
+and matter and gravitation together die; where all is pure,
+quiescent, peaceful and dark. Gravitation, Gravitation, imperishable
+Gravitation; thou seemingly art the ever-pervading,
+unalterable, but yet moving spirit of a cosmos of solemn mysteries.
+Art thou now, in unperceived force expressions, speaking
+to dumb humanity of other universes; of suns and vortices of
+suns; bringing tidings from the solar planets, or even infinitely<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span>
+distant star mists, the silent unresolved nebul�, and spreading
+before earth-bound mortal minds, each instant, fresh tidings
+from without, that, in ignorance, we can not read? May not
+beings, perhaps like ourselves but higher in the scale of intelligence,
+those who people some of the planets about us, even now
+beckon and try to converse with us through thy subtle, ever-present
+self? And may not their efforts at communication fail
+because of our ignorance of a language they can read? Are not
+light and heat, electricity and magnetism plodding, vacillating
+agents compared with thy steady existence, and is it even further
+possible?"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>His voice had gradually lowered, and now it became inaudible;
+he was oblivious to my presence, and had gone forth from
+his own self; he was lost in matters celestial, and abstractedly
+continued unintelligibly to mutter to himself as, brushing his
+hair from his forehead, he picked up his well-worn felt hat, and
+placed it awkwardly on his shaggy head, and then shuffled away
+without bidding me farewell. The bent form, prematurely
+shattered by privation; uncouth, unkempt, typical of suffering
+and neglect, impressed me with the fact that in him man's life
+essence, the immortal mind, had forgotten the material part of
+man. The physical half of man, even of his own being, in
+Daniel Vaughn's estimation, was an encumbrance unworthy of
+serious attention, his spirit communed with the pure in nature,
+and to him science was a study of the great Beyond.<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a>
+</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> Mr. Drury can not claim to have recorded verbatim Prof. Vaughn's
+remarks, but has endeavored to give the substance. His language was
+faultless, his word selections beautiful, his soliloquy impressive
+beyond description. Perhaps Drury even misstated an idea, or more than
+one, evolved then by the great mind of that patient man. Prof. Daniel
+Vaughn was fitted for a scientific throne, a position of the highest
+honor; but, neglected by man, proud as a king, he bore uncomplainingly
+privations most bitter, and suffered alone until finally he died from
+starvation and neglect in the city of his adoption. Some persons are
+ready to cry, "Shame! Shame!" at wealthy Cincinnati; others assert that
+men could not give to Daniel Vaughn, and since the first edition of
+<span class="smcap">Etidorhpa</span> appeared, the undersigned has learned of one vain attempt to
+serve the interests of this peculiar man. He would not beg, and knowing
+his capacities, if he could not procure a position in which to earn a
+living, he preferred to starve. The only bitterness of his nature, it is
+said, went out against those who, in his opinion, kept from him such
+employment as returns a livelihood to scientific men; for he well knew
+his intellect earned for him such a right in Cincinnati. Will the spirit
+of that great man, talented Daniel Vaughn, bear malice against the
+people of the city in which none who knew him will deny that he perished
+from cold and privation? Commemorated is he not by a bust of bronze that
+distorts the facts in that the garments are not seedy and unkempt, the
+figure stooping, the cheek hollow and the eye pitifully expressive of an
+empty stomach? That bust modestly rests in the public library he loved
+so well, in which he suffered so uncomplainingly, and starved so
+patiently.</p>
+
+<p>J. U. L.</p></div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span></p><p>I embraced the first opportunity that presented itself to read
+the works that Prof. Vaughn suggested, and sought him more
+than once to question further. However, he would not commit
+himself in regard to the possible existence of other forces than
+those with which we are acquainted, and when I interrogated him
+as to possibilities in the study of obscure force expressions, he
+declined to express an opinion concerning the subject. Indeed,
+I fancied that he believed it probable, or at least not impossible,
+that a closer acquaintance with conditions of matter and energy
+might be the heirloom of future scientific students. At last I
+gave up the subject, convinced that all the information I was
+able to obtain from other persons whom I questioned, and whose
+answers were prompt and positive, was evolved largely from
+ignorance and self-conceit, and such information was insufficient
+to satisfy my understanding, or to command my attention. After
+hearing Vaughn, all other voices sounded empty.</p>
+
+<p>I therefore applied myself to my daily tasks, and awaited the
+promised return of the interesting, though inscrutable being
+whose subterranean sojourneying was possibly fraught with so
+much potential value to science and to man.<span class="pagenum">[Pg 162]</span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>THE UNBIDDEN GUEST RETURNS TO READ HIS MANUSCRIPT.<br />
+CONTINUING HIS NARRATIVE.</h2>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<h2><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162"></a>CHAPTER XXV.<br />
+<br />
+THE MOTHER OF A VOLCANO.&mdash;"YOU CAN NOT DISPROVE, AND
+YOU DARE NOT ADMIT."</h2>
+
+
+<p>A year from the evening of the departure of the old man,
+found me in my room, expecting his presence; and I was not
+surprised when he opened the door, and seated himself in his
+accustomed chair.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you ready to challenge my statements?" he said, taking
+up the subject as though our conversation had not been interrupted.</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you accept my history?"</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>"You can not disprove, and you dare not admit. Is not that
+your predicament?" he asked. "You have failed in every
+endeavor to discredit the truth, and your would-be scientists,
+much as they would like to do so, can not serve you. Now we
+will continue the narrative, and I shall await your next attempt
+to cast a shadow over the facts."</p>
+
+<p>Then with his usual pleasant smile, he read from his manuscript
+a continuation of the intra-earth journey as follows:</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>"Be seated," said my eyeless guide, "and I will explain some
+facts that may prove of interest in connection with the nature of
+the superficial crust of the earth. This crystal liquid spreading
+before us is a placid sheet of water, and is the feeder of the
+volcano, Mount Epomeo."</p>
+
+<p>"Can that be a surface of water?" I interrogated. "I find it
+hard to realize that water can be so immovable. I supposed the
+substance before us to be a rigid material, like glass, perhaps."<span class="pagenum">[Pg 163]</span></p>
+
+<p>"There is no wind to ruffle this aqueous surface,&mdash;why should
+it not be quiescent? This is the only perfectly smooth sheet of
+water that you have ever seen. It is in absolute rest, and thus
+appears a rigid level plane."</p>
+
+<p>"Grant that your explanation is correct," I said, "yet I can
+not understand how a quiet lake of water can give rise to a convulsion
+such as the eruption of a volcano."</p>
+
+<p>"Not only is this possible," he responded, "but water usually
+causes the exhibition of phenomena known as volcanic action.
+The Island of Ischia, in which the volcanic crater Epomeo is
+situated, is connected by a tortuous crevice with the peaceful
+pool by which we now stand, and at periods, separated by great
+intervals of time, the lake is partly emptied by a simple natural
+process, and a part of its water is expelled above the earth's
+surface in the form of super-heated steam, which escapes through
+that distant crater."</p>
+
+<p>"But I see no evidence of heat or even motion of any kind."</p>
+
+<p>"Not here," he replied; "in this place there is none. The
+energy is developed thousands of miles away, but since the
+phenomena of volcanic action are to be partially explained to
+you at a future day, I will leave that matter for the present.
+We shall cross this lake."</p>
+
+<p>I observed as we walked along its edge that the shore of
+the lake was precipitous in places, again formed a gradually
+descending beach, and the dead silence of the space about us, in
+connection with the death-like stillness of that rigid mass of
+water and its surroundings, became increasingly impressive and
+awe-inspiring. Never before had I seen such a perfectly quiet
+glass-like surface. Not a vibration or undulation appeared in
+any direction. The solidity of steel was exemplified in its
+steady, apparently inflexible contour, and yet the pure element
+was so transparent that the bottom of the pool was as clearly
+defined as the top of the cavern above me. The lights and
+shades of the familiar lakes of Western New York were wanting
+here, and it suddenly came to my mind that there were surface
+reflections, but no shadows, and musing on this extraordinary
+fact, I stood motionless on a jutting cliff absorbed in meditation,
+abstractedly gazing down into that transparent depth. Without
+sun or moon, without apparent source of light, and yet perfectly<span class="pagenum">[Pg 164]</span>
+illuminated, the lofty caverns seemed cut by that aqueous plane
+into two sections, one above and one below a transparent, rigid
+surface line. The dividing line, or horizontal plane, appeared as
+much a surface of air as a surface of water, and the material
+above that plane seemed no more nor less a gas, or liquid, than
+that beneath it. If two limpid, transparent liquids, immiscible,
+but of different gravities, be poured into the same vessel, the line
+of demarkation will be as a brilliant mirror, such as I now beheld
+parting and yet uniting the surfaces of air and water.</p>
+
+<p>Lost in contemplation, I unconsciously asked the mental
+question:</p>
+
+<p>"Where are the shadows?"</p>
+
+<p>My guide replied:</p>
+
+<p>"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."</p>
+
+<p>Musingly, I said:</p>
+
+<p>"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."</p>
+
+<p>"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&mdash;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."</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 404px;">
+<img src="images/gs1033.jpg" width="404" height="600" alt="" title="&quot;WE CAME TO A METAL BOAT.&quot;" />
+<span class="caption">"WE CAME TO A METAL BOAT."</span>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg 167]</span></p>
+
+<p>"Am I destined to deal with these problems?"</p>
+
+<p>"Only in part."</p>
+
+<p>"Are still greater wonders before us?"</p>
+
+<p>"If your courage is sufficient to carry you onward, you have
+yet to enter the portal of the expanse we approach."</p>
+
+<p>"Lead on, my friend," I cried; "lead on to these undescribed
+scenes, the occult wonderland that"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>He interrupted me almost rudely, and in a serious manner
+said:</p>
+
+<p>"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."</p>
+
+<p>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 shore. 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.</p>
+
+<p>"We have been on our way since we have been seated," he
+answered.</p>
+
+<p>I gazed behind with incredulity: the shore had disappeared,
+and the diverging wake of the ripples showed that we were
+rapidly skimming the water.</p>
+
+<p>"This is marvelous," I said; "incomprehensible, for without
+sail or oar, wind or steam, we are fleeing over a lake that has
+no current."<span class="pagenum">[Pg 168]</span></p>
+
+<p>"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 assume 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?"<span class="pagenum">[Pg 169]</span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169"></a>CHAPTER XXVI.<br />
+<br />
+MOTION FROM INHERENT ENERGY.&mdash;"LEAD ME DEEPER INTO
+THIS EXPANDING STUDY."</h2>
+
+
+<p>"I partly comprehend that such would be the case," I said.</p>
+
+<p>"If a series of knife blades on pivot ends be set in a frame,
+and turned edgewise to a rapid current of water, the swiftly
+moving stream flows through this sieve of metallic edges about
+as easily as if there were no obstructions. Slowly turn the
+blades so as to present their oblique sides to the current, and an
+immediate pressure is apparent upon the frame that holds them;
+turn the blades so as to shut up the space, and they will be torn
+from their sockets, or the entire frame will be shattered into
+pieces."</p>
+
+<p>"I understand; go on."</p>
+
+<p>"The ethereal current that generates the magnetic force
+passes through material bodies with inconceivable rapidity, and
+the molecules of a few substances only, present to it the least
+obstruction. Material molecules are edgewise in it, and meet
+no retardation in the subtle flood. This force is a disturbance
+of space energy that is rushing into the earth in one form, and
+out of it in another. But your mind is not yet in a condition to
+grasp the subject, for at best there is no method of explaining
+to men that which their experimental education has failed to
+prepare them to receive, and for which first absolutely new
+ideas, and next words with new meaning, must be formed. Now
+we, (by we I mean those with whom I am connected) have
+learned to disturb the molecules in matter so as to turn them
+partly, or entirely, across the path of this magnetic current, and
+thus interrupt the motion of this ever-present energy. We can
+retard its velocity without, however, producing either magnetism
+(as is the case in a bar of steel), electricity, or heat, but motion
+instead, and thus a portion of this retarded energy springs into
+its new existence as motion of my boat. It is force changed<span class="pagenum">[Pg 170]</span>
+into movement of matter, for the molecules of the boat, as a
+mass, must move onward as the force disappears as a current.
+Perhaps you can accept now that instead of light, heat, electricity,
+magnetism, and gravitation being really modifications of
+force they are disturbances."</p>
+
+<p>"Disturbances of what?"</p>
+
+<p>"Disturbances of motion."</p>
+
+<p>"Motion of what?"</p>
+
+<p>"Motion of itself, pure and simple."</p>
+
+<p>"I can not comprehend, I can not conceive of motion pure
+and simple."</p>
+
+<p>"I will explain at a future time so that you can comprehend
+more clearly. Other lessons must come first, but never will you
+see the end. Truth is infinite."</p>
+
+<p>Continuing, he said:</p>
+
+<p>"Let me ask if there is anything marvelous in this statement.
+On the earth's surface men arrest the fitful wind, and by so
+doing divert the energy of its motion into movement of
+machinery; they induce it to turn mills and propel vessels.
+This motion of air is a disturbance, mass motion transmitted to
+the air by heat, heat in turn being a disturbance or interruption
+of pure motion. When men learn to interrupt this unperceived
+stream of energy so as to change directly into material motion
+the spirit that saturates the universe, and that produces force
+expressions, as it is constantly rushing from earth into space, and
+from space back again, they will have at command wherever
+they may be an endless source of power, light, and heat; mass
+motion, light and heat being convertible. Motion lies behind
+heat, light, and electricity, and produces them, and so long as
+the earth revolves on its axis, and circles in its orbit, man needs
+no light and heat from such indirect sources as combustion.
+Men will, however, yet obtain motion of molecules (heat), and
+material mass motion as well, from earth motion, without the
+other dangerous intermediate force expressions now deemed
+necessary in their production."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you wish me to understand that on all parts of the
+earth's surface there is a continual expenditure of energy, an
+ever-ready current, that is really distinct from the light and
+heat of the sun, and also that the imponderable bodies that we<span class="pagenum">[Pg 171]</span>
+call heat, light, electricity, and magnetism are not substances
+at all?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he replied.</p>
+
+<p>"And that this imperceptible something&mdash;fluid I will say, for
+want of a better term&mdash;now invisible and unknown to man, is as
+a medium in which the earth, submerged, floats as a speck of
+dust in a flood of space?"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly," he replied.</p>
+
+<p>"Am I to infer from your remarks that, in the course of time,
+man will be able to economize this force, and adapt it to his
+wants?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Go on with your exposition, I again beg of you; lead me
+deeper into this expanding study."</p>
+
+<p>"There is but little more that you can comprehend now, as
+I have said," he answered. "All materials known to man are of
+coarse texture, and the minds of men are not yet in a condition
+to comprehend finer exhibitions of force, or of motion modifications.
+Pure energy, in all its modifications, is absolutely
+unknown to man. What men call heat, gravitation, light,
+electricity, and magnetism are the grosser attributes attending
+alterations in an unknown, attenuated, highly developed force
+producer. They are results, not causes. The real force, an
+unreached energy, is now flooding all space, pervading all
+materials. Everywhere there exists an infinite sea of motion
+absolute. Since this primeval entity can not now affect matter,
+as matter is known to man, man's sense can only be influenced by
+secondary attributes of this energy. Unconscious of its all-pervading
+presence, however, man is working towards the power that
+will some day, upon the development of latent senses, open to him
+this new world. Then at last he will move without muscular
+exertion, or the use of heat as an agent of motion, and will, as
+I am now doing, bridle the motion of space. Wherever he
+may be situated, there will then be warmth to any degree that he
+wishes, for he will be able to temper the seasons, and mass motion
+illimitable, also, for this energy, I reiterate, is omnipresent.
+However, as you will know more of this before long, we will
+pass the subject for the present."<span class="pagenum">[Pg 172]</span></p>
+
+<p>My guide slowly moved the lever. I sat in deep reflection,
+beginning to comprehend somewhat of his reasoning, and yet my
+mind was more than clouded. The several ambiguous repetitions
+he had made since our journey commenced, each time
+suggesting the same idea, clothing it in different forms of
+expression, impressed me vaguely with the conception of a
+certain something for which I was gradually being prepared,
+and that I might eventually be educated to grasp, but which he
+believed my mind was not yet ready to receive. I gathered
+from what he said that he could have given clearer explanations
+than he was now doing, and that he clothed his language intentionally
+in mysticism, and that, for some reason, he preferred to
+leave my mind in a condition of uncertainty. The velocity of
+the boat increased as he again and again cautiously touched the
+lever, and at last the responsive craft rose nearly out of the
+water, and skimmed like a bird over its surface. There was no
+object in that lake of pure crystal to govern me in calculating
+as to the rapidity of our motion, and I studied to evolve a
+method by which I could time our movements. With this
+object in view I tore a scrap from my clothing and tossed it into
+the air. It fell at my feet as if in a calm. There was no breeze.
+I picked the fragment up, in bewilderment, for I had expected
+it to fall behind us. Then it occurred to me, as by a flash, that
+notwithstanding our apparently rapid motion, there was an
+entire absence of atmospheric resistance. What could explain
+the paradox? I turned to my guide and again tossed the fragment
+of cloth upward, and again it settled at my feet. He
+smiled, and answered my silent inquiry.</p>
+
+<p>"There is a protecting sheet before us, radiating, fan-like, from
+the bow of our boat as if a large pane of glass were resting on edge,
+thus shedding the force of the wind. This diaphragm catches
+the attenuated atmosphere and protects us from its friction."</p>
+
+<p>"But I see no such protecting object," I answered.</p>
+
+<p>"No; it is invisible. You can not see the obstructing power, for
+it is really a gyrating section of force, and is colorless. That spray
+of metal on the brow of our boat is the developer of this protecting
+medium. Imagine a transverse section of an eddy of water
+on edge before us, and you can form a comparison. Throw the
+bit of garment as far as you can beyond the side of the boat."<span class="pagenum">[Pg 173]</span></p>
+
+<p>I did so, and saw it flutter slowly away to a considerable
+distance parallel with our position in the boat as though in a
+perfect calm, and then it disappeared. It seemed to have been
+dissolved. I gazed at my guide in amazement.</p>
+
+<p>"Try again," said he.</p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/gs1034.jpg" width="600" height="443" alt="" title="&quot;THE BIT OF GARMENT FLUTTERED LISTLESSLY AWAY TO THE SAME
+DISTANCE, AND THEN&mdash;VACANCY.&quot;" />
+<span class="caption">"THE BIT OF GARMENT FLUTTERED LISTLESSLY AWAY TO THE SAME
+DISTANCE, AND THEN&mdash;VACANCY."</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>I tore another and a larger fragment from my coat sleeve. I
+fixed my eyes closely upon it, and cast it from me. The bit of
+garment fluttered listlessly away to the same distance, and
+then&mdash;vacancy. Wonders of wonderland, mysteries of the
+mysterious! What would be the end of this marvelous journey?
+Suspicion again possessed me, and distrust arose. Could not
+my self-existence be blotted out in like manner? I thought
+again of my New York home, and the recollection of upper
+earth, and those broken family ties brought to my heart a flood
+of bitter emotions. I inwardly cursed the writer of that
+alchemistic letter, and cursed myself for heeding the contents.<span class="pagenum">[Pg 174]</span>
+The tears gushed from my eyes and trickled through my fingers
+as I covered my face with my hands and groaned aloud. Then,
+with a gentle touch, my guide's hand rested on my shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>"Calm yourself," he said; "this phenomenon is a natural
+sequence to a deeper study of nature than man has reached. It
+is simply the result of an exhibition of rapid motion. You are
+upon a great underground lake, that, on a shelf of earth substance
+one hundred and fifty miles below the earth's surface,
+covers an area of many thousand square miles, and which has an
+average depth of five miles. We are now crossing it diagonally
+at a rapid rate by the aid of the force that man will yet use in
+a perfectly natural manner on the rough upper ocean and bleak
+lands of the earth's coarse surface. The fragments of cloth
+disappeared from sight when thrown beyond the influence of
+our protecting diaphragm, because when they struck the outer
+motionless atmosphere they were instantly left behind; the eye
+could not catch their sudden change in motion. A period of
+time is necessary to convey from eye to mind the sensation of
+sight. The bullet shot from a gun is invisible by reason of the
+fact that the eye can not discern the momentary interruption to
+the light. A cannon ball will compass the field of vision of the
+eye, moving across it without making itself known, and yet the
+fact does not excite surprise. We are traveling so fast that
+small, stationary objects outside our track are invisible."</p>
+
+<p>Then in a kind, pathetic tone of voice, he said:</p>
+
+<p>"An important lesson you should learn, I have mentioned it
+before. Whatever seems to be mysterious, or marvelous, is only
+so because of the lack of knowledge of associated natural
+phenomena and connected conditions. All that you have
+experienced, all that you have yet to meet in your future
+journey, is as I have endeavored to teach you, in exact accordance
+with the laws that govern the universe, of which the earth
+constitutes so small a portion that, were the conditions favorable,
+it could be blotted from its present existence as quickly as that
+bit of garment disappeared, and with as little disturbance of the
+mechanism of the moving universe."</p>
+
+<p>I leaned over, resting my face upon my elbow; my thoughts
+were immethodically wandering in the midst of multiplying
+perplexities; I closed my eyes as a weary child, and slept.<span class="pagenum">[Pg 175]</span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175"></a>CHAPTER XXVII.<br />
+<br />
+SLEEP, DREAMS, NIGHTMARE.&mdash;"STRANGLE THE LIFE FROM
+MY BODY."</h2>
+
+
+<p>I know not how long I sat wrapped in slumber. Even if
+my body had not been wearing away as formerly, my mind had
+become excessively wearied. I had existed in a state of abnormal
+mental intoxication far beyond the period of accustomed
+wakefulness, and had taxed my mental organization beyond
+endurance. In the midst of events of the most startling
+description, I had abruptly passed into what was at its commencement
+the sweetest sleep of my recollection, but which
+came to a horrible termination.</p>
+
+<p>In my dream I was transported once more to my native land,
+and roamed in freedom throughout the streets of my lost home.
+I lived over again my early life in Virginia, and I seemed
+to have lost all recollection of the weird journey which I had
+lately taken. My subsequent connection with the brotherhood
+of alchemists, and the unfortunate letter that led to my
+present condition, were forgotten. There came no thought
+suggestive of the train of events that are here chronicled,
+and as a child I tasted again the pleasures of innocence, the
+joys of boyhood.</p>
+
+<p>Then my dream of childhood vanished, and the scenes of
+later days spread themselves before me. I saw, after a time,
+the scenes of my later life, as though I viewed them from a
+distance, and was impressed with the idea that they were not
+real, but only the fragments of a dream. I shuddered in my
+childish dreamland, and trembled as a child would at confronting
+events of the real life that I had passed through on
+earth, and that gradually assuming the shape of man approached
+and stood before me, a hideous specter seemingly ready to absorb
+me. The peaceful child in which I existed shrunk back, and
+recoiled from the approaching living man.<span class="pagenum">[Pg 176]</span></p>
+
+<p>"Away, away," I cried, "you shall not grasp me, I do not
+wish to become a man; this can not, must not be the horrible
+end to a sweet existence."</p>
+
+<p>Gradually the Man Life approached, seized and enveloped
+me, closing around me as a jelly fish surrounds its living victim,
+while the horrors of a nightmare came over my soul.</p>
+
+<p>"Man's life is a fearful dream," I shouted, as I writhed in
+agony; "I am still a child, and will remain one; keep off! Life
+of man, away! let me live and die a child."</p>
+
+<p>The Specter of Man's Life seized me more firmly as I
+struggled to escape, and holding me in its irresistible clutch
+absorbed my substance as a vampire might suck the blood of
+an infant, and while the childish dream disappeared in that
+hideous embrace, the miserable man awoke.</p>
+
+<p>I found myself on land. The guide, seated at my side,
+remarked:</p>
+
+<p>"You have slept."</p>
+
+<p>"I have lived again," I said in bitterness.</p>
+
+<p>"You have not lived at all as yet," he replied; "life is a
+dream, usually it is an unsatisfied nightmare."</p>
+
+<p>"Then let me dream again as at the beginning of this slumber,"
+I said; "and while I dream as a child, do you strangle the
+life from my body,&mdash;spare me the nightmare, I would not live to
+reach the Life of Man."</p>
+
+<p>"This is sarcasm," he replied; "you are as changeable as
+the winds of the earth's surface. Now as you are about to
+approach a part of our journey where fortitude is necessary,
+behold, you waver as a little child might. Nerve yourself; the
+trials of the present require a steady mind, let the future care
+for itself; you can not recall the past."</p>
+
+<p>I became attentive again; the depressing effects of that
+repulsive dream rapidly lifted, and wasted away, as I realized
+that I was a man, and was destined to see more than can be seen
+in the future of other mortals. This elevation of my spirit was
+evidently understood by my guide. He turned to the lake, and
+pointing to its quiet bosom, remarked:</p>
+
+<p>"For five hours we have journeyed over this sheet of water at
+the average rate of nine hundred miles an hour. At the time
+you threw the fragments of cloth overboard, we were traveling<span class="pagenum">[Pg 177]</span>
+at a speed of not less than twenty miles per minute. You
+remember that some hours ago you criticised my assertion when
+I said that we would soon be near the axis of the earth beneath
+the North Pole, and now we are beyond that point, and are
+about six thousand miles from where we stood at that time."</p>
+
+<p>"You must have your way," I replied; "I can not disprove
+your assertion, but were it not that I have passed through so
+many marvelous experiences since first we met, I would question
+the reliability of your information."</p>
+
+<p>My guide continued:</p>
+
+<p>"The surface of this lake lies as a mirror beneath both the
+ocean and the land. The force effect that preserves the configuration
+of the ocean preserves the form of this also, but influences
+it to a less extent, and the two surfaces lie nearly parallel with
+each other, this one being one hundred and fifty miles beneath
+the surface of the earth. The shell of the earth above us is
+honeycombed by caverns in some places, in others it is compact,
+and yet, in most places, is impervious to water. At the farther
+extremity of the lake, a stratum of porous material extends
+through the space intervening between the bottom of the ocean
+and this lake. By capillary attraction, assisted by gravitation,
+part of the water of the ocean is being transferred through
+this stratum to the underground cavity. The lake is slowly
+rising."</p>
+
+<p>At this remark I interrupted him: "You say the water in the
+ocean is being slowly transferred down to this underground lake
+less by gravity than by capillarity."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"I believe that I have reason to question that statement, if
+you do not include the salt," I replied.</p>
+
+<p>"Pray state your objections."</p>
+
+<p>I answered: "Whether a tube be long or short, if it penetrate
+the bottom of a vessel of brine, and extend downward, the brine
+will flow into and out of it by reason of its weight."</p>
+
+<p>"You mistake," he asserted; "the attraction of the sides of
+the capillary tube, if the tube is long enough, will eventually
+separate the water from the salt, and at length a downward flow
+of water only will result."</p>
+
+<p>I again expressed my incredulity.<span class="pagenum">[Pg 178]</span></p>
+
+<p>"More than this, by perfectly natural laws the water that is
+freed from the tubes might again force itself upward perfectly
+fresh, to the surface of the earth&mdash;yes, under proper conditions,
+above the surface of the ocean."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you take me for a fool?" I said. "Is it not self-evident
+that a fountain can not rise above its source?"</p>
+
+<p>"It often does," he answered.</p>
+
+<p>"You trifle with me," I said, acrimoniously.</p>
+
+<p>"No," he replied; "I am telling you the truth. Have you
+never heard of what men call artesian wells?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, and" (here I attempted in turn to become sarcastic)
+"have you never learned that they are caused by water flowing
+into crevices in uplands where layers of stone or of clay strata
+separated by sand or gravel slant upward. The water conducted
+thence by these channels afterwards springs up in the valleys to
+which it has been carried by means of the crevices in these
+strata, but it never rises above its source."</p>
+
+<p>To my surprise he answered:</p>
+
+<p>"This is another of man's scientific speculations, based on
+some facts, it is true, and now and then correct, but not invariably.
+The water of an artesian well on an elevated plane may
+flow into the earth from a creek, pond, or river, that is lower
+than the mouth of the well it feeds, and still it may spout into
+the air from either a near or distant elevation that is higher than
+its source."</p>
+
+<p>"I can not admit the truth of this," I said; "I am willing to
+listen to reason, but such statements as these seem altogether
+absurd."</p>
+
+<p>"As you please," he replied; "we will continue our journey."<span class="pagenum">[Pg 179]</span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>INTERLUDE.&mdash;THE STORY INTERRUPTED.</h2>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<h2><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179"></a>CHAPTER XXVIII.<br />
+<br />
+A CHALLENGE.&mdash;MY UNBIDDEN GUEST ACCEPTS IT.</h2>
+
+
+<p>The white-haired reader, in whom I had now become deeply
+interested, no longer an unwelcome stranger, suspended his reading,
+laid down his manuscript, and looking me in the face, asked:</p>
+
+<p>"Are you a believer?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," I promptly answered.</p>
+
+<p>"What part of the narrative do you question?"</p>
+
+<p>"All of it."</p>
+
+<p>"Have you not already investigated some of the statements
+I previously made?" he queried.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," I said; "but you had not then given utterance to
+such preposterous expressions."</p>
+
+<p>"Is not the truth, the truth?" he answered.</p>
+
+<p>"You ask me to believe impossibilities," I replied.</p>
+
+<p>"Name one."</p>
+
+<p>"You yourself admit," I said warmly, "that you were incredulous,
+and shook your head when your guide asserted that the
+bottom of the ocean might be as porous as a sieve, and still hold
+water. A fountain can not rise above its source."</p>
+
+<p>"It often does, however," he replied.</p>
+
+<p>"I do not believe you," I said boldly. "And, furthermore, I
+assert that you might as reasonably ask me to believe that I can
+see my own brain, as to accept your fiction regarding the production
+of light, miles below the surface of the earth."</p>
+
+<p>"I can make your brain visible to you, and if you dare to
+accompany me, I will carry you beneath the surface of the
+earth and prove my other statement," he said. "Come!" He
+arose and grasped my arm.</p>
+
+<p>I hesitated.<span class="pagenum">[Pg 180]</span></p>
+
+<p>"You confess that you fear the journey."</p>
+
+<p>I made no reply.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, since you fear that method, I am ready to convince
+you of the facts by any rational course you may select, and if
+you wish to stake your entire argument on the general statement
+that a stream of water can not rise above its head, I will accept
+the challenge; but I insist that you do not divulge the nature
+of the experiment until, as you are directed, you make public
+my story."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course a fluid can be pumped up," I sarcastically
+observed. "However, I promise the secrecy you ask."</p>
+
+<p>"I am speaking seriously," he said, "and I have accepted
+your challenge; your own eyes shall view the facts, your own
+hands prepare the conditions necessary. Procure a few pints of
+sand, and a few pounds of salt; to-morrow evening I will be
+ready to make the experiment."</p>
+
+<p>"Agreed; if you will induce a stream of water to run up
+hill, a fountain to rise above its head, I will believe any statement
+you may henceforth make."</p>
+
+<p>"Be ready, then," he replied, "and procure the materials
+named." So saying he picked up his hat and abruptly departed.</p>
+
+<p>These substances I purchased the next day, procuring the silver
+sand from Gordon's pharmacy, corner of Eighth and Western
+Row, and promptly at the specified time we met in my room.</p>
+
+<p>He came, provided with a cylindrical glass jar about eighteen
+inches high and two inches in diameter (such as I have since
+learned is called a hydrometer jar), and a long, slender drawn
+glass tube, the internal diameter of which was about one-sixteenth
+of an inch.</p>
+
+<p>"You have deceived me," I said; "I know well enough that
+capillary attraction will draw a liquid above its surface. You
+demonstrated that quite recently to my entire satisfaction."</p>
+
+<p>"True, and yet not true of this experiment," he said. "I
+propose to force water through and out of this tube; capillary
+attraction will not expel a liquid from a tube if its mouth be
+above the surface of the supply."</p>
+
+<p>He dipped the tip of a capillary tube into a tumbler of water;
+the water rose inside the tube about an inch above the surface of
+the water in the tumbler.<span class="pagenum">[Pg 181]</span></p>
+
+<p>"Capillary attraction can do no more," he said. "Break
+the tube one-eighth of an inch above the water (far below the
+present capillary surface), and it will not overflow. The exit of
+the tube must be lower than the surface of the liquid if circulation
+ensues."</p>
+
+<p>He broke off a fragment, and the result was as predicted.</p>
+
+<p>Then he poured water into the glass jar to the depth of about
+six inches, and selecting a piece of very thin muslin, about an
+inch square, turned it over the end of the glass tube, tied it in
+position, and dropped that end of the tube into the cylinder.</p>
+
+<p>"The muslin simply prevents the tube from filling with
+sand," he explained. Then he poured sand into the cylinder
+until it reached the surface of the water. (See <a href="#Figure_23">Figure 23.</a>)</p>
+
+<p>"Your apparatus is simple enough," I remarked, I am afraid
+with some sarcasm.</p>
+
+<p>"Nature works with exceeding simplicity," he replied;
+"there is no complex apparatus in her laboratory, and I copy
+after nature."</p>
+
+<p>Then he dissolved the salt in a portion of water that he drew
+from the hydrant into my wash bowl, making a strong brine,
+and stirred sand into the brine to make a thick mush. This
+mixture of sand and brine he then poured into the cylinder,
+filling it nearly to the top. (See Figure 23, B. The sand settling
+soon left a layer of brine above it, as shown by A.) I had
+previously noticed that the upper end of the glass tube was
+curved, and my surprise can be imagined when I saw that at
+once water began to flow through the tube, dropping quite
+rapidly into the cylinder. The lower end of the curve of the
+glass tube was fully half an inch above the surface of the liquid
+in the cylinder.</p>
+
+<p>I here present a figure of the apparatus. (Figure 23.)</p>
+
+<p>The strange man, or man image, I do not know which, sat
+before me, and in silence we watched the steady flow of water,
+water rising above its surface and flowing into the reservoir
+from which it was being continually derived.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you give up?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Let me think," I said.</p>
+
+<p>"As you please," he replied.</p>
+
+<p>"How long will this continue?" I inquired.<span class="pagenum">[Pg 182]</span></p>
+
+<p>"Until strong salt water flows from the tube."</p>
+
+<p>Then the old man continued:</p>
+
+<p>"I would suggest that after I depart you repeat these experiments.
+The observations of those interested in science must
+be repeated time and again by separate individuals.
+It is not sufficient that one person should
+observe a phenomenon; repeated experiments are
+necessary in order to overcome error of manipulation,
+and to convince others of their correctness.
+Not only yourself, but many others, after this
+manuscript appears, should go through with
+similar investigations, varied in detail as mind
+expansion may suggest. This experiment is but
+the germ of a thought which will be enlarged
+upon by many minds under other conditions. An
+event meteorological may occur in the experience
+of one observer, and never repeat itself. This is
+possible. The results of such experiments as you
+are observing, however, must be followed by similar
+results in the hands of others, and in behalf
+of science it is necessary that others should be able
+to verify your experience. In the time to come it will be
+necessary to support your statements in order to demonstrate
+that your perceptive faculties are now in a normal condition.
+Are you sure that your conceptions of these results are justified
+by normal perception? May you not be in an exalted state of
+mind that hinders clear perception, and compels you to imagine
+and accept as fact that which does not exist? Do you see what
+you think you see? After I am gone, and the influences that
+my person and mind exert on your own mind have been
+removed, will these results, as shown by my experiments, follow
+similar experimental conditions? In the years that are to pass
+before this paper is to be made public, it will be your duty to
+verify your present sense faculty. This you must do as opportunities
+present, and with different devices, so that no question
+may arise as to what will follow when others repeat our
+experiments. To-morrow evening I will call again, but remember,
+you must not tell others of this experiment, nor show the
+devices to them."</p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182"></a></p>
+<p><a name="Figure_23" id="Figure_23"></a></p>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 112px;">
+<img src="images/m1035.png" width="112" height="300" alt="" title="Fig. 23." />
+<span class="caption"><span class="smcap">Fig. 23.</span><br />
+A, brine.<br />
+B, sand and brine mixed.<br />
+C, sand and water.</span>
+
+</div>
+<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg 183]</span></p>
+
+<p>"I have promised," I answered.</p>
+
+<p>He gathered his manuscript and departed, and I sat in meditation
+watching the mysterious fountain.</p>
+
+<p>As he had predicted, finally, after a long time, the flow
+slackened, and by morning, when I arose from my bed, the
+water had ceased to drip, and then I found it salty to the taste.</p>
+
+<p>The next evening he appeared as usual, and prepared to
+resume his reading, making no mention of the previous test of
+my faith. I interrupted him, however, by saying that I had
+observed that the sand had settled in the cylinder, and that in
+my opinion his experiment was not true to appearances, but was
+a deception, since the sand by its greater weight displaced the
+water, which escaped through the tube, where there was least
+resistance.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah," he said, "and so you refuse to believe your own
+eyesight, and are contriving to escape the deserved penalty; I
+will, however, acquiesce in your outspoken desire for further
+light, and repeat the experiment without using sand. But I tell
+you that mother earth, in the phenomena known as artesian
+wells, uses sand and clay, pools of mineral waters of different
+gravities, and running streams. The waters beneath the earth
+are under pressure, induced by such natural causes as I have
+presented you in miniature, the chief difference being that the
+supplies of both salt and fresh water are inexhaustible, and by
+natural combinations similar to what you have seen; the streams
+within the earth, if a pipe be thrust into them, may rise continuously,
+eternally, from a reservoir higher than the head. In
+addition, there are pressures of gases, and solutions of many
+salts, other than chloride of soda, that tend to favor the phenomenon.
+You are unduly incredulous, and you ask of me more
+than your right after staking your faith on an experiment of
+your own selection. You demand more of me even than nature
+often accomplishes in earth structure; but to-morrow night I
+will show you that this seemingly impossible feat is possible."</p>
+
+<p>He then abruptly left the room. The following evening he
+presented himself with a couple of one-gallon cans, one of them
+without a bottom. I thought I could detect some impatience of
+manner as he filled the perfect can (D) with water from the
+hydrant, and having spread a strip of thin muslin over the<span class="pagenum">[Pg 184]</span>
+mouth of the other can (B), pressed it firmly over the mouth
+(C) of the can of water, which it fitted tightly, thus connecting
+them together, the upper (bottomless) can being inverted. Then
+he made a narrow slit in the center of the muslin with his
+pen-knife, and through it thrust a glass tube like that of our
+former experiment. Next he wrapped a string
+around the open top of the upper can, crossed
+it over the top, and tied the glass tube to the
+center of the cross string.</p>
+
+<p>"Simply to hold this tube in position," he
+explained.</p>
+
+<p>The remainder of the bag of salt left from
+the experiment of the preceding evening was
+then dissolved in water, and the brine poured
+into the upper can, filling it to the top. Then
+carefully thrusting the glass tube downward,
+he brought the tip of the curve to within about
+one-half inch of the surface of the brine, when
+immediately a rapid flow of liquid exhibited
+itself. (Figure 24.)</p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184"></a></p>
+<div class="figright" style="width: 110px;">
+<img src="images/m1036.png" width="110" height="300" alt="" title="Fig. 24." />
+<span class="caption">Fig. 24.<br />
+A, surface of brine.<br />
+B, upper can filled with
+brine.<br />
+C, necks of cans telescoped.<br />
+D, lower can full of water.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>"It rises above its source without sand,"
+he observed.</p>
+
+<p>"I can not deny the fact," I replied, "and
+furthermore I am determined that I shall not
+question any subsequent statement that you
+may make." We sat in silence for some time,
+and the water ran continuously through the
+tube. I was becoming alarmed, afraid of my occult guest, who
+accepted my self-selected challenges, and worked out his results
+so rapidly; he seemed to be more than human.</p>
+
+<p>"I am a mortal, but a resident of a higher plane than you,"
+he replied, divining my thoughts. "Is not this experiment a
+natural one?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," I said.</p>
+
+<p>"Did not Shakspeare write, 'There are more things in heaven
+and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy'?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," I said.</p>
+
+<p>And my guest continued:</p>
+
+<p>"He might have added, 'and always will be'."<span class="pagenum">[Pg 185]</span></p>
+
+<p>"Scientific men will explain this phenomenon," I suggested.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, when they observe the facts," he replied, "it is very
+simple. They can now tell, as I have before remarked, how
+Columbus stood the egg on end; however, given the problem
+before Columbus expounded it, they would probably have
+wandered as far from the true solution as the mountain with
+its edgewise layers of stone is from the disconnected artesian
+wells on a distant sea coast where the underground fresh and
+salt water in overlying currents and layers clash together. The
+explanation, of course, is simple. The brine is of greater specific
+gravity than the pure water; the pressure of the heavier
+fluid forces the lighter up in the tube. This action continues
+until, as you will see by this experiment, in the gradual diffusion
+of brine and pure water the salt is disseminated equally throughout
+the vessels, and the specific gravity of the mixed liquid
+becomes the same throughout, when the flow will cease. However,
+in the earth, where supplies are inexhaustible, the fountain
+flows unceasingly."<span class="pagenum">[Pg 186]</span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186"></a>CHAPTER XXIX.<br />
+<br />
+BEWARE OF BIOLOGY, THE SCIENCE OF THE LIFE OF MAN.<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a>
+</h2>
+
+<p class="center">(The old man relates a story as an object lesson.)</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> The reader is invited to skip this chapter of horrors.&mdash;J. U. L.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>"But you have not lived up to the promise; you have evaded
+part of the bargain," I continued. "While you have certainly
+performed some curious experiments in physics which seem to
+be unique, yet, I am only an amateur in science, and your
+hydrostatic illustrations may be repetitions of investigations
+already recorded, that have escaped the attention of the scientific
+gentlemen to whom I have hitherto applied."</p>
+
+<p>"Man's mind is a creature of doubts and questions," he
+observed. "Answer one query, and others rise. His inner self
+is never satisfied, and you are not to blame for wishing for a sign,
+as all self-conscious conditions of your former existence compel.
+Now that I have brushed aside the more prominent questionings,
+you insist upon those omitted, and appeal to me to"&mdash;he hesitated.</p>
+
+<p>"To what?" I asked, curious to see if he had intuitively
+grasped my unspoken sentence.</p>
+
+<p>"To exhibit to you your own brain," he replied.</p>
+
+<p>"That is it exactly," I said; "you promised it, and you shall
+be held strictly to your bargain. You agreed to show me my
+own brain, and it seems evident that you have purposely evaded
+the promise."</p>
+
+<p>"That I have made the promise and deferred its completion
+can not be denied, but not by reason of an inability to fulfill the
+contract. I will admit that I purposely deferred the exhibition,
+hoping on your own account that you would forget the hasty
+promise. You would better release me from the promise; you
+do not know what you ask."</p>
+
+<p>"I believe that I ask more than you can perform," I answered,
+"and that you know it."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg 187]</span></p><p>"Let me give you a history," he said, "and then perhaps you
+will relent. Listen. A man once became involved in the study
+of anatomy. It led him to destruction. He commenced the
+study in order to learn a profession; he hoped to become a
+physician. Materia medica, pharmacy, chemistry, enticed him at
+first, but after a time presented no charms. He was a dull student
+in much that men usually consider essential to the practice
+of medicine. He was not fitted to be a physician. Gradually
+he became absorbed in two branches, physiology and anatomy.
+Within his mental self a latent something developed that neither
+himself nor his friends had suspected. This was an increasing
+desire for knowledge concerning the human body. The insatiable
+craving for anatomy grew upon him, and as it did so other
+sections of medicine were neglected. Gradually he lost sight of
+his professional object; he dropped chemistry, materia medica,
+pharmacy, and at last, morbidly lived only in the aforenamed
+two branches.</p>
+
+<p>"His first visit to the dissecting room was disagreeable.
+The odor of putrid flesh, the sight of the mutilated bodies
+repulsed him. When first his hand, warm in life, touched the
+clammy flesh of a corpse, he shuddered. Then when his fingers
+came in contact with the viscera of a cadaver, that of a little
+child, he cried out in horror. The demonstrator of anatomy
+urged him on; he finally was induced to dissect part of the
+infant. The reflex action on his sensitive mind first stunned,
+and then warped his senses. His companions had to lead him
+from the room. 'Wash it off, wash it off,' he repeated, trying to
+throw his hand from his person. 'Horrid, horrible, unclean.
+The child is yet before me,' he insisted. Then he went into
+a fever and raved. 'Some mother will meet me on the street
+and curse me,' he cried. "That hand is red with the blood of my
+darling; it has desecrated the innocent dead, and mutilated that
+which is most precious to a mother." Take the hand away, wash
+it,' he shouted. 'The mother curses me; she demands retribution.
+Better that a man be dead than cursed by a mother whose
+child has been desecrated.' So the unfortunate being raved,
+dreaming all manner of horrid imaginings. But at last he
+recovered, a different man. He returned voluntarily to the
+dissecting-room, and wrapped himself in the uncouth work.<span class="pagenum">[Pg 188]</span>
+Nothing in connection with corpse-mutilation was now offensive
+or unclean. He threw aside his other studies, he became a slave
+possessed of one idea. He scarcely took time to dine respectably;
+indeed, he often ate his lunch in the dissecting-room. The blood
+of a child was again and again on his fingers; it mattered not,
+he did not take the trouble to wash it off. 'The liver of man is
+not more sacred than the liver of a hog,' he argued; 'the flesh of
+a man is the same as other forms of animal food. When a person
+dies the vital heat escapes, consciousness is dissipated, and the
+cold, rigid remains are only animal. Consciousness and life are
+all that is of man&mdash;one is force, the other matter; when man dies
+both perish and are dissipated.' His friends perceived his
+fondness for dissection, and argued with him again, endeavoring
+now to overcome his infatuation; he repelled them. 'I learned
+in my vision,' he said, referring to his fever, 'that Pope was
+right in saying that the "proper study of mankind is man";
+I care nothing for your priestly superstitions concerning the
+dead. These fables are the invention of designing churchmen
+who live on the superstitions of the ignorant. I am an infidel,
+and believe in no spirit intangible; that which can be seen, felt,
+and weighed is, all else is not. Life is simply a sensation. All
+beyond is chimerical, less than fantastic, believed in only by
+dupes and weak-minded, credulous tools of knaves, or creatures
+of blind superstition.' He carried the finely articulated,
+bleached skull of a cadaver to his room, and placed it beside
+a marble statue that was a valued heirloom, the model of Venus
+of Milo. 'Both are lime compounds,' he cynically observed,
+'neither is better than the other.' His friends protested. 'Your
+superstitious education is at fault,' he answered; 'you mentally
+clothe one of these objects in a quality it does not deserve, and
+the thought creates a pleasant emotion. The other, equally as
+pure, reminds you of the grave that you fear, and you shudder.
+These mental pulsations are artificial, both being either survivals
+of superstition, or creations of your own mind. The lime in
+the skull is now as inanimate as that of the statue; neither
+object is responsible for its form, neither is unclean. To me,
+the delicate configuration, the exact articulation, the perfect
+adaptation for the office it originally filled, makes each bone of
+this skull a thing of beauty, an object of admiration. As a<span class="pagenum">[Pg 189]</span>
+whole, it gives me pleasure to think of this wonderful, exquisitely
+arranged piece of mechanism. The statue you admire is
+in every respect outrivaled by the skull, and I have placed the
+two together because it pleases me to demonstrate that man's
+most artistic creation is far inferior to material man. Throw
+aside your sentimental prejudices, and join with me in the
+admiration of this thing of beauty;' and he toyed with the
+skull as if it were a work of art. So he argued, and arguing
+passed from bone to bone, and from organ to organ. He filled
+his room with abnormal fragments of the human body, and
+surrounded himself with jars of preserved anatomical specimens.
+His friends fled in disgust, and he smiled, glad to be
+alone with his ghastly subjects. He was infatuated in one of
+the alcoves of science."</p>
+
+<p>The old man paused.</p>
+
+<p>"Shall I proceed?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," I said, but involuntarily moved my chair back, for I
+began again to be afraid of the speaker.</p>
+
+<p>"At last this scientific man had mastered all that was known
+concerning physiology and anatomy. He learned by heart the
+wording of great volumes devoted to these subjects. The human
+frame became to him as an open book. He knew the articulation
+of every muscle, could name a bone from a mere fragment.
+The microscope ceased to be an object of interest, the secrets of
+pathology and physiology had been mastered. Then, unconsciously,
+he was infected by another tendency; a new thought was
+destined to dominate his brain. 'What is it that animates this
+frame? What lies inside to give it life?' He became enthused
+again: 'The dead body, to which I have given my time, is not
+the conscious part of man,' he said to himself; 'I must find this
+thing of life within; I have been only a butcher of the dead.
+My knowledge is superficial.'"</p>
+
+<p>Again the old man hesitated and looked at me inquiringly.</p>
+
+<p>"Shall I proceed?" he repeated.</p>
+
+<p>I was possessed by horror, but yet fascinated, and answered
+determinedly: "Go on."</p>
+
+<p>"Beware," he added, "beware of the Science of Life."</p>
+
+<p>Pleadingly he looked at me.</p>
+
+<p>"Go on," I commanded.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>He continued:</p>
+
+<p>"With the cunning of a madman, this person of profound
+learning, led from the innocence of ignorance to the heartlessness
+of advanced biological science, secretly planned to seek the
+vital forces. 'I must begin with a child, for the life essence
+shows its first manifestations in children,' he reasoned. He
+moved to an unfrequented locality, discharged his servants, and
+notified his former friends that visitors were unwelcome. He
+had determined that no interruption to his work should occur.
+This course was unnecessary, however, for now he had neither
+friends nor visitors. He employed carpenters and artisans, and
+perfected a series of mechanical tables, beautiful examples of
+automatic mechanism. From the inner room of that house no
+cry could be heard by persons outside....</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>[It will be seen, by referring to the epilogue, that Mr. Drury agreed to
+mutilate part of the book. This I have gladly done, excising the heart-rending
+passages that follow. To use the words of Prof. Venable, they do not "comport
+with the general delicacy of the book."&mdash;J. U. L.]</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>"Hold, old man, cease," I cried aghast; "I have had enough
+of this. You trifle with me, demon; I have not asked for nightmare
+stories, heart-curdling accounts of maniacal investigators,
+who madly pursue their revolting calling, and discredit the name
+of science."</p>
+
+<p>"You asked to see your own brain," he replied.</p>
+
+<p>"And have been given a terrible story instead," I retorted.</p>
+
+<p>"So men perverted, misconstruing the aim of science, answer
+the cry of humanity," he said. "One by one the cherished
+treasures of Christianity have been stolen from the faithful.
+What, to the mother, can replace the babe that has been lost?"</p>
+
+<p>"The next world," I answered, "offers a comfort."</p>
+
+<p>"Bah," he said; "does not another searcher in that same
+science field tell the mother that there is no personal hereafter,
+that she will never see her babe again? One man of science
+steals the body, another man of science takes away the soul, the
+third annihilates heaven; they go like pestilence and famine,
+hand in hand, subsisting on all that craving humanity considers
+sacred, and offering no tangible return beyond a materialistic
+present. This same science that seems to be doing so much for<span class="pagenum">[Pg 191]</span>
+humanity will continue to elevate so-called material civilization
+until, as the yeast ferment is smothered in its own excretion, so
+will science-thought create conditions to blot itself from existence,
+and destroy the civilization it creates. Science is heartless, notwithstanding
+the personal purity of the majority of her helpless
+votaries. She is a thief, not of ordinary riches, but of treasures
+that can not be replaced. Before science provings the love of a
+mother perishes, the hope of immortality is annihilated. Beware
+of materialism, the end of the science of man. Beware of the
+beginning of biological inquiry, for he who commences, can not
+foresee the termination. I say to you in candor, no man ever
+engaged in the part of science lore that questions the life
+essence, realizing the possible end of his investigations. The
+insidious servant becomes a tyrannical master; the housebreaker
+is innocent, the horse thief guiltless in comparison. Science
+thought begins in the brain of man; science provings end all
+things with the end of the material brain of man. Beware of
+your own brain."</p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 536px;">
+<img src="images/gs1037.jpg" width="536" height="600" alt="" title="&quot;RISING ABRUPTLY, HE GRASPED MY HAND.&quot;" />
+<span class="caption">"RISING ABRUPTLY, HE GRASPED MY HAND."</span>
+</div>
+<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg 192]</span></p>
+
+<p>"I have no fear," I replied, "that I will ever be led to disturb
+the creeds of the faithful, and I will not be diverted. I demand
+to see my brain."</p>
+
+<p>"Your demand shall now be fulfilled; you have been warned
+of the return that may follow the commencement of this study;
+you force the issue; my responsibility ceases. No man of
+science realized the end when he began to investigate his
+throbbing brain, and the end of the fabric that science is
+weaving for man rests in the hidden future. The story I have
+related is a true one, as thousands of faithful men who unconsciously
+have been led into infidelity have experienced; and as the
+faithful followers of sacred teachings can also perceive, who
+recognize that their religion and the hope of heaven is slipping
+away beneath the steady inroad of the heartless materialistic
+investigator, who clothes himself in the garb of science."</p>
+
+<p>Rising abruptly from his chair, he grasped my hand. "You
+shall see your brain, man; come."<span class="pagenum">[Pg 193]</span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193"></a>CHAPTER XXX.<br />
+<br />
+LOOKING BACKWARD.&mdash;THE LIVING BRAIN.</h2>
+
+
+<p>The old man accompanied his word "come," as I have said,
+by rising from his chair, and then with a display of strength
+quite out of proportion to his age, he grasped my wrist and drew
+me toward the door. Realizing at once that he intended I
+should accompany him into the night, I protested, saying that I
+was quite unprepared.</p>
+
+<p>"My hat, at least," I insisted, as he made no recognition of
+my first demur.</p>
+
+<p>"Your hat is on your head," he replied.</p>
+
+<p>This was true, although I am sure the hat had been previously
+hung on a rack in a distant part of the room, and I
+am equally certain that neither my companion nor myself had
+touched it. Leaving me no time for reflection, he opened the
+door, and drew me through the hall-way and into the gloom. As
+though perfectly familiar with the city, he guided me from my
+cozy home, on the retired side street in which I resided, eastwardly
+into the busy thoroughfare, Western Row. Our course
+led us down towards the river, past Ninth, Eighth, Seventh
+Streets. Now and then a pedestrian stopped to gaze in surprise
+at the unique spectacle, the old man leading the young one, but
+none made any attempt to molest us. We passed on in silence,
+out of the busy part of the thoroughfare and into the shady
+part of the city, into the darkness below Fifth Street. Here the
+residences were poorer, and tenement-houses and factories began
+to appear. We were now in a quarter of the city into which
+strangers seldom, if ever, penetrated after night, and in which
+I would not have cared to be found unprotected at any time
+after sunset, much less in such questionable company. I protested
+against the indiscretion; my leader made no reply, but
+drew me on past the flickering gas lights that now and then
+appeared at the intersection of Third, Pearl, Second, and<span class="pagenum">[Pg 194]</span>
+Water Streets, until at last we stood, in darkness, on the bank
+of the Ohio River.</p>
+
+<p>Strange, the ferry-boat at that time of night only made a
+trip every thirty minutes, and yet it was at the landing as
+though by appointment. Fear began to possess me, and as my
+thoughts recur to that evening, I can not understand how it
+was that I allowed myself to be drawn without cry or resistance
+from my secure home to the Ohio River, in such companionship.
+I can account for the adventure only by the fact that I
+had deliberately challenged my companion to make the test
+he was fulfilling, and that an innate consciousness of pride and
+justice compelled me to permit him to employ his own methods.
+We crossed the river without speaking, and rapidly ascending
+the levee we took our course up Main Street into Covington.
+Still in the lead, my aged guide, without hesitation, went onward
+to the intersection of Main and Pike Streets; thence he turned
+to the right, and following the latter thoroughfare we passed
+the old tannery, that I recalled as a familiar landmark, and
+then started up the hill. Onward we strode, past a hotel
+named "Niemeyer's," and soon were in the open country on the
+Lexington Pike, treading through the mud, diagonally up the
+hill back of Covington. Then, at a sharp curve in the road
+where it rounded the point of the hill, we left the highway,
+and struck down the hillside into a ravine that bounded the
+lower side of the avenue. We had long since left the city
+lamps and sidewalks behind us, and now, when we left the roadway,
+were on the muddy pike at a considerable elevation upon
+the hillside and, looking backward, I beheld innumerable
+lights throughout the cities of Cincinnati, Covington, and the
+village of Newport, sparkling away in the distance behind and
+below us.</p>
+
+<p>"Come," my companion said again, as I hesitated, repeating
+the only word he had uttered since telling his horrible story,
+"Come!"</p>
+
+<p>Down the hill into the valley we plunged, and at last he
+opened the door of an isolated log cabin, which we entered.
+He lighted a candle that he drew from his pocket, and together
+we stood facing each other.</p>
+
+<p>"Be seated," he said dryly.<span class="pagenum">[Pg 195]</span></p>
+
+<p>And then I observed that the cold excuse for furniture in
+that desolate room consisted of a single rude, hand-made chair
+with corn-shuck bottom. However, I did not need a second
+invitation, but sank exhausted and disconsolate upon the welcome
+object.</p>
+
+<p>My companion lost no time, but struck at once into the
+subject that concerned us, arguing as follows:</p>
+
+<p>"One of the troubles with humanity is that of changing a
+thought from the old to a new channel; to grasp at one effort an
+entirely new idea is an impossibility. Men follow men in trains
+of thought expression, as in bodily form generations of men
+follow generations. A child born with three legs is a freak of
+nature, a monstrosity, yet it sometimes appears. A man
+possessed of a new idea is an anomaly, a something that may
+not be impossible, but which has never appeared. It is almost
+as difficult to conceive of a new idea as it is to create out of
+nothing a new material or an element. Neither thoughts nor
+things can be invented, both must be evolved out of a pre�xisting
+something which it necessarily resembles. Every advanced
+idea that appears in the brain of man is the result of a suggestion
+from without. Men have gone on and on ceaselessly, with their
+minds bent in one direction, ever looking outwardly, never
+inwardly. It has not occurred to them to question at all in the
+direction of backward sight. Mind has been enabled to read
+the impressions that are made in and on the substance of brain
+convolutions, but at the same time has been and is insensible to
+the existence of the convolutions themselves. It is as though we
+could read the letters of the manuscript that bears them without
+having conceived of a necessity for the existence of a printed
+surface, such as paper or anything outside the letters. Had
+anatomists never dissected a brain, the human family would
+to-day live in absolute ignorance of the nature of the substance
+that lies within the skull. Did you ever stop to think that
+the mind can not now bring to the senses the configuration, or
+nature, of the substance in which mind exists? Its own house
+is unknown. This is in consequence of the fact that physical
+existence has always depended upon the study of external surroundings,
+and consequently the power of internal sight lies
+undeveloped. It has never been deemed necessary for man to<span class="pagenum">[Pg 196]</span>
+attempt to view the internal construction of his body, and hence
+the sense of feeling only advises him of that which lies within
+his own self. This sense is abstract, not descriptive. Normal
+organs have no sensible existence. Thus an abnormal condition
+of an organ creates the sensation of pain or pleasure, but discloses
+nothing concerning the appearance or construction of the
+organ affected. The perfect liver is as vacancy. The normal
+brain never throbs and aches. The quiescent arm presents no
+evidence to the mind concerning its shape, size, or color. Man
+can not count his fingers unless some outside object touches
+them, or they press successively against each other, or he perceives
+them by sight. The brain of man, the seat of knowledge,
+in which mind centers, is not perceptible through the senses.
+Does it not seem irrational, however, to believe that mind itself
+is not aware, or could not be made cognizant, of the nature of
+its material surroundings?"</p>
+
+<p>"I must confess that I have not given the subject a thought,"
+I replied.</p>
+
+<p>"As I predicted," he said. "It is a step toward a new idea,
+and simple as it seems, now that the subject has been suggested,
+you must agree that thousands of intelligent men have not been
+able to formulate the thought. The idea had never occurred to
+them. Even after our previous conversation concerning the
+possibility of showing you your own brain, you were powerless
+and could not conceive of the train of thought which I started,
+and along which I shall now further direct your senses."</p>
+
+<p>"The eye is so constituted that light produces an impression
+on a nervous film in the rear of that organ, this film is named
+the retina, the impression being carried backward therefrom
+through a magma of nerve fibers (the optic nerve), and reaching
+the brain, is recorded on that organ and thus affects the mind.
+Is it not rational to suppose it possible for this sequence to be
+reversed? In other words, if the order were reversed could not
+the same set of nerves carry an impression from behind to the
+retina, and picture thereon an image of the object which lies
+anterior thereto, to be again, by reflex action, carried back to
+the brain, thus bringing the brain substance itself to the view
+of the mind, and thus impress the senses? To recapitulate: If
+the nerve sensation, or force expression, should travel from the<span class="pagenum">[Pg 197]<br />[Pg 198]</span>brain to the retina, instead of from an outward object, it will on
+the reverse of the retina produce the image of that which lies
+behind, and then if the optic nerve carry the image back to the
+brain, the mind will bring to the senses the appearance of the
+image depicted thereon."<span class="pagenum">[Pg 199]</span></p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 403px;">
+<img src="images/gs1038.jpg" width="403" height="600" alt="" title="&quot;FACING THE OPEN WINDOW HE TURNED THE PUPILS OF HIS
+EYES UPWARD.&quot;" />
+<span class="caption">"FACING THE OPEN WINDOW HE TURNED THE PUPILS OF HIS
+EYES UPWARD."</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>"This is my first consideration of the subject," I replied.</p>
+
+<p>"Exactly," he said; "you have passed through life looking
+at outside objects, and have been heedlessly ignorant of your
+own brain. You have never made an exclamation of surprise at
+the statement that you really see a star that exists in the depths
+of space millions of miles beyond our solar system, and yet you
+became incredulous and scornful when it was suggested that I
+could show you how you could see the configuration of your
+brain, an object with which the organ of sight is nearly in
+contact. How inconsistent."</p>
+
+<p>"The chain of reasoning is certainly novel, and yet I can
+not think of a mode by which I can reverse my method of sight
+and look backward," I now respectfully answered.</p>
+
+<p>"It is very simple; all that is required is a counter excitation
+of the nerve, and we have with us to-night what any person
+who cares to consider the subject can employ at any time, and
+thus behold an outline of a part of his own brain. I will give
+you the lesson."</p>
+
+<p>Placing himself before the sashless window of the cabin,
+which opening appeared as a black space pictured against the
+night, the sage took the candle in his right hand, holding it so
+that the flame was just below the tip of the nose, and about six
+inches from his face. Then facing the open window he turned
+the pupils of his eyes upward, seeming to fix his gaze on the
+upper part of the open window space, and then he slowly moved
+the candle transversely, backward and forward, across, in front
+of his face, keeping it in such position that the flickering flame
+made a parallel line with his eyes, and as just remarked, about
+six inches from his face, and just below the tip of his nose.
+Speaking deliberately, he said:</p>
+
+<p>"Now, were I you, this movement would produce a counter
+irritation of the retina; a rhythm of the optic nerve would
+follow, a reflex action of the brain accompanying, and now a
+figure of part of the brain that rests against the skull in the<span class="pagenum">[Pg 200]</span>
+back of my head would be pictured on the retina. I would see
+it plainly, apparently pictured or thrown across the open space
+before me."</p>
+
+<p>"Incredible!" I replied.</p>
+
+<p>"Try for yourself," quietly said my guide.</p>
+
+<p>Placing myself in the position designated, I repeated the
+maneuver, when slowly a shadowy something seemed to be
+evolved out of the blank space before me. It seemed to be as a
+gray veil, or like a corrugated sheet as thin as gauze, which as
+I gazed upon it and discovered its outline, became more apparent
+and real. Soon the convolutions assumed a more decided form,
+the gray matter was visible, filled with venations, first gray and
+then red, and as I became familiar with the sight, suddenly the
+convolutions of a brain in all its exactness, with a network of
+red blood venations, burst into existence.<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a>
+</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a>This experiment is not claimed as original. See Purkinje's Beitr�ge
+zur Kenntniss des Sehens in subjectiver Hinsicht (Prague, 1823 and
+1825), whose conclusions to the effect that the shadow of the retina is
+seen, I-Am-The-Man ignores.&mdash;J. U. L.</p></div>
+
+<p><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/gs1039.jpg" width="600" height="315" alt="" title="&quot;A BRAIN, A LIVING BRAIN, MY OWN BRAIN.&quot;" />
+<span class="caption">"A BRAIN, A LIVING BRAIN, MY OWN BRAIN."</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>I beheld a brain, a brain, a living brain, my own brain, and
+as an uncanny sensation possessed me I shudderingly stopped
+the motion of the candle, and in an instant the shadowy figure
+disappeared.</p>
+
+<p>"Have I won the wager?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," I answered.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg 201]</span></p>
+<p>"Then," said my companion, "make no further investigations
+in this direction."</p>
+
+<p>"But I wish to verify the experiment," I replied. "Although
+it is not a pleasant test, I can not withstand the temptation to
+repeat it."</p>
+
+<p>And again I moved the candle backward and forward, when
+the figure of my brain sprung at once into existence.</p>
+
+<p>"It is more vivid," I said; "I see it plainer, and more quickly
+than before."</p>
+
+<p>"Beware of the science of man, I repeat," he replied; "now,
+before you are deep in the toils, and can not foresee the end,
+beware of the science of human biology. Remember the story
+recently related, that of the physician who was led to destruction
+by the alluring voice."</p>
+
+<p>I made no reply, but stood with my face fixed, slowly moving
+the candle backward and forward, gazing intently into the
+depths of my own brain.</p>
+
+<p>After a time the old man removed the candle from my hand,
+and said: "Do you accept the fact? Have I demonstrated the
+truth of the assertion?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," I replied; "but tell me further, now that you have
+excited my interest, have I seen and learned all that man can
+discover in this direction?"</p>
+
+<p>"No; you have seen but a small portion of the brain convolutions,
+only those that lie directly back of the optic nerve. By
+systematic research, under proper conditions, every part of the
+living brain may become as plainly pictured as that which you
+have seen."</p>
+
+<p>"And is that all that could be learned?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"No," he continued. "Further development may enable men
+to picture the figures engraved on the convolutions, and at last
+to read the thoughts that are engraved within the brains of
+others, and thus through material investigation the observer will
+perceive the recorded thought of another person. An instrument
+capable of searching and illuminating the retina could be easily
+affixed to the eye of a criminal, after which, if the mind of the
+person operated upon were stimulated by the suggestion of an
+occurrence either remote or recent, the mind facility would excite
+the brain, produce the record, and spread the circumstances as a<span class="pagenum">[Pg 202]</span>
+picture before the observer. The brain would tell its own story,
+and the investigator could read the truth as recorded in the brain
+of the other man. A criminal subjected to such an examination
+could not tell an untruth, or equivocate; his very brain would
+present itself to the observer."</p>
+
+<p>"And you make this assertion, and then ask me to go no
+further into the subject?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; decidedly yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Tell me, then, could you not have performed this experiment
+in my room, or in the dark cellar of my house?"</p>
+
+<p>"Any one can repeat it with a candle in any room not otherwise
+lighted, by looking at a blackboard, a blank wall, or black
+space," he said.</p>
+
+<p>I was indignant.</p>
+
+<p>"Why have you treated me so inhumanly? Was there a
+necessity for this journey, these mysterious movements, this
+physical exertion? Look at the mud with which I am covered,
+and consider the return trip which yet lies before me, and which
+must prove even more exhausting?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ah," he said, "you overdraw. The lesson has been easily
+acquired. Science is not an easy road to travel. Those who
+propose to profit thereby must work circuitously, soil their hands
+and person, meet discouragements, and must expect hardships,
+reverses, abuse, and discomfort. Do not complain, but thank me
+for giving you the lesson without other tribulations that might
+have accompanied it. Besides, there was another object in my
+journey, an object that I have quietly accomplished, and which
+you may never know. Come, we must return."</p>
+
+<p>He extinguished the light of the candle, and we departed
+together, trudging back through the mud and the night.<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a>
+</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a>We must acquiesce in the explanation given for this seemingly
+uncalled-for journey, and yet feel that it was unnecessarily exacting.</p></div>
+
+<p>Of that wearisome return trip I have nothing to say beyond
+the fact that before reaching home my companion disappeared in
+the darkness of a side street, and that the Cathedral chimes were
+playing for three o'clock <span class="smcap">a.m.</span>, as I passed the corner of Eighth
+Street and Western Row.</p>
+
+<p>The next evening my visitor appeared as usual, and realizing
+his complete victory, he made no reference to the occurrences
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg 203]</span>of the previous night. In his usual calm and deliberate manner
+he produced the roll of manuscript saying benignantly, and in a
+gentle tone:</p>
+
+<p>"Do you recollect where I left off reading?"</p>
+
+<p>"You had reached that point in your narrative," I answered,
+"at which your guide had replaced the boat on the surface of
+the lake."</p>
+
+<p>And the mysterious being resumed his reading.<span class="pagenum">[Pg 204]</span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>THE MANUSCRIPT CONTINUED.</h2>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204"></a>CHAPTER XXXI.<br />
+<br />
+A LESSON ON VOLCANOES.&mdash;PRIMARY COLORS ARE CAPABLE OF
+FARTHER SUBDIVISION.</h2>
+
+
+<p>"Get into the boat," said my eyeless pilot, "and we will
+proceed to the farther edge of the lake, over the barrier of which
+at great intervals of time, the surface water flows, and induces
+the convulsion known as Mount Epomeo."</p>
+
+<p>We accordingly embarked, and a gentle touch of the lever
+enabled us rapidly to skirt the shore of the underground sea.
+The soft, bright, pleasant earth-light continually enveloped us,
+and the absence of either excessive heat or cold, rendered
+existence delightful. The weird forms taken by the objects
+that successively presented themselves on the shore were a
+source of continual delight to my mind. The motion of our
+boat was constantly at the will of my guide. Now we would
+skim across a great bay, flashing from point to point; again we
+wound slowly through tortuous channels and among partly
+submerged stones.</p>
+
+<p>"What a blessing this mode of locomotion would be to
+humanity," I murmured.</p>
+
+<p>"Humanity will yet attain it," he replied. "Step by step
+men have stumbled along towards the goal that the light of
+coming centuries is destined to illuminate. They have studied,
+and are still engaged in studying, the properties of grosser
+forces, such as heat and electricity, and they will be led by the
+thread they are following, to this and other achievements yet
+unthought of, but which lie back of those more conspicuous."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span></p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 405px;">
+<img src="images/gs1040.jpg" width="405" height="600" alt="" title="&quot;WE FINALLY REACHED A PRECIPITOUS BLUFF.&quot;" />
+<span class="caption">"WE FINALLY REACHED A PRECIPITOUS BLUFF."</span>
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg 206]</span></div>
+
+<p>We finally reached a precipitous bluff, that sprung to my
+view as by magic, and which, with a glass-like surface, stretched
+upward to a height beyond the scope of my vision, rising
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg 207]</span>straight from the surface of the lake. It was composed of a
+material seemingly black as jet, and yet when seen under varying
+spectacular conditions as we skirted its base it reflected, or
+emitted, most gorgeously the brilliant hues of the rainbow, and
+also other colors hitherto unknown to me.</p>
+
+<p>"There is something unique in these shades; species of color
+appear that I can not identify; I seem to perceive colors utterly
+unlike any that I know as the result of deflected, or transmitted,
+sunlight rays, and they look unlike the combinations of primary
+colors with which I am familiar."</p>
+
+<p>"Your observations are true; some of these colors are
+unknown on earth."</p>
+
+<p>"But on the surface of the earth we have all possible combinations
+of the seven prismatic rays," I answered. "How can
+there be others here?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because, first, your primary colors are capable of further
+subdivision.</p>
+
+<p>"Second, other rays, invisible to men under usual conditions,
+also emanate from the sun, and under favorable circumstances
+may be brought to the sense of sight."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you assert that the prism is capable of only partly
+analyzing the sunlight?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; what reason have you to argue that, because a
+triangular bit of glass resolves a white ray into seven fractions
+that are, as men say, differently colored, you could not by
+proper methods subdivide each of these so-called primary shades
+into others? What reason have you to doubt that rays now
+invisible to man accompany those capable of impressing his
+senses, and might by proper methods become perceptible as new
+colors?"</p>
+
+<p>"None," I answered; "only that I have no proof that such
+rays exist."</p>
+
+<p>"But they do exist, and men will yet learn that the term
+'primitive' ray, as applied to each of the seven colors of the
+rainbow, is incorrect. Each will yet be resolved, and as our
+faculties multiply and become more subtle, other colors will be
+developed, possessed of a delicacy and richness indescribable
+now, for as yet man can not comprehend the possibilities of
+education beyond the limits of his present condition."<span class="pagenum">[Pg 208]</span></p>
+
+<p>During this period of conversation we skirted the richly
+colored bluff with a rapid motion, and at last shot beyond it,
+as with a flash, into seeming vacancy. I was sitting with
+my gaze directed toward the bluff, and when it instantly
+disappeared, I rubbed my eyes to convince myself of their
+truthfulness, and as I did so our boat came gradually to a stand
+on the edge of what appeared to be an unfathomable abyss.
+Beneath me on the side where had risen the bluff that disappeared
+so abruptly, as far as the eye could reach, was an absolute
+void. To our right, and before and behind us, stretched the
+surface of that great smooth lake on whose bosom we rested.
+To our left, our boat brushing its rim, a narrow ledge, a continuation
+of the black, glass-like material, reached only a foot above
+the water, and beyond this narrow brink the mass descended
+perpendicularly to seemingly infinite depths. Involuntarily I
+grasped the sides of the boat, and recoiled from the frightful
+chasm, over which I had been so suddenly suspended, and
+which exceeded anything of a similar description that I had
+ever seen. The immeasurable depth of the abyss, in connection
+with the apparently frail barrier that held the great lake in its
+bounds, caused me to shudder and shrink back, and my brain
+reeled in dizzy fright. An inexplicable attraction, however,
+notwithstanding my dread, held me spell-bound, and although I
+struggled to shut out that view, the endeavor failed. I seemed
+to be drawn by an irresistible power, and yet I shuddered at the
+awful majesty of that yawning gulf which threatened to end the
+world on which I then existed. Fascinated, entranced, I could
+not help gazing, I knew not how long, down, down into that
+fathomless, silent profundity. Composing myself, I turned a
+questioning glance on my guide.</p>
+
+<p>He informed me that this hard, glass-like dam confined the
+waters of the slowly rising lake that we were sailing over, and
+which finally would rise high enough to overflow the barrier.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span></p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 407px;">
+<img src="images/gs1041.jpg" width="407" height="600" alt="" title="&quot;THE WALL DESCENDED PERPENDICULARLY TO SEEMINGLY
+INFINITE DEPTHS.&quot;" />
+<span class="caption">"THE WALL DESCENDED PERPENDICULARLY TO SEEMINGLY
+INFINITE DEPTHS."</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>"The cycle of the periodic overflow is measured by great
+intervals," he said; "centuries are required to raise the level of
+the lake a fraction of an inch, and thousands of years may elapse
+before its surface will again reach the top of the adamantine
+wall. Then, governed by the law that attracts a liquid to itself,
+and heaps the teaspoon with liquid, the water of the quiet lake
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg 210]</span>piles upon this narrow wall, forming a ledge along its summit.
+Finally the superimposed surface water gives way, and a skim
+of water pours over into the abyss."<span class="pagenum">[Pg 211]</span></p>
+
+<p>He paused; I leaned over and meditated, for I had now
+accustomed myself to the situation.</p>
+
+<p>"There is no bottom," I exclaimed.</p>
+
+<p>"Upon the contrary," he answered, "the bottom is less than
+ten miles beneath us, and is a great funnel-shaped orifice, the
+neck of the funnel reaching first down and then upward from us
+diagonally toward the surface of the earth. Although the light
+by which we are enveloped is bright, yet it is deficient in penetrating
+power, and is not capable of giving the contour of objects
+even five miles away, hence the chasm seems bottomless, and
+the gulf measureless."</p>
+
+<p>"Is it not natural to suppose that a mass of water like this
+great lake would overflow the barrier immediately, as soon as
+the surface reached the upper edge, for the pressure of the
+immense volume must be beyond calculation."</p>
+
+<p>"No, for it is height, not expanse, which, as hydrostatic
+engineers understand, governs the pressure of water. A liquid
+column, one foot in width, would press against the retaining dam
+with the force of a body of the same liquid, the same depth, one
+thousand miles in extent. Then the decrease of gravity here
+permits the molecular attraction of the water's molecules
+to exert itself more forcibly than would be the
+case on the surface of the earth, and this holds the
+liquid mass together more firmly."</p>
+
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 98px;">
+<img src="images/m1042.png" width="98" height="300" alt="" title="Fig. 27." />
+<span class="caption"><span class="smcap">Fig.</span> 27.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>"See," he observed, and dipping his finger into
+the water he held it before him with a drop of water
+attached thereto (Figure 27), the globule being of
+considerable size, and lengthened as though it consisted
+of some glutinous liquid.</p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211"></a></p>
+
+<p>"How can a thin stratum of water give rise to a
+volcanic eruption?" I next queried. "There seems
+to be no melted rock, no evidence of intense heat,
+either beneath or about us."</p>
+
+<p>"I informed you some time ago that I would partially explain
+these facts. Know then, that the theories of man concerning
+volcanic eruptions, in connection with a molten interior of the<span class="pagenum">[Pg 212]</span>
+earth, are such as are evolved in ignorance of even the sub-surface
+of the globe. The earth's interior is to mankind a
+sealed chamber, and the wise men who elucidate the curious
+theories concerning natural phenomena occurring therein are
+forced to draw entirely upon their imagination. Few persons
+realize the paucity of data at the command of workers in
+science. Theories concerning the earth are formulated from so
+little real knowledge of that body, that our science may be said
+to be all theory, with scarcely a trace of actual evidence to
+support it. If a globe ten inches in diameter be covered with
+a sheet of paper, such as I hold in my hand, the thickness of that
+sheet will be greater in proportion to that of such a globe than
+the depth men have explored within the earth is compared with
+the thickness of the crust of the earth. The outer surface of a
+pencil line represents the surface of the earth; the inner surface
+of the line represents the depth of man's explorations; the highest
+mountain would be represented by a comma resting on the
+line. The geologist studies the substances that are thrust from
+the crater of an active volcano, and from this makes conjectures
+regarding the strata beneath, and the force that casts the
+excretions out. The results must with men, therefore, furnish
+evidence from which to explain the cause. It is as though an
+anatomist would form his idea of the anatomy of the liver by
+the secretion thrown out of that organ, or of the lung texture
+by the breath and sputum. In fact, volcanoes are of several
+descriptions, and usually are extremely superficial. This lake,
+the surface of which is but one hundred and fifty miles underground,
+is the mother of an exceptionally deep one. When
+the water pours over this ledge it strikes an element below
+us, the metallic base of salt, which lies in great masses in some
+portions of the earth's crust.<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a>
+ Then an immediate chemical
+reaction ensues, the water is dissociated, intense heat results,
+part of the water combines with the metal, part is vaporized
+as steam, while part escapes as an inflammable gas. The
+sudden liberation of these gases causes an irregular pressure
+of vapor on the surface of the lake, the result being a throbbing
+and rebounding of the attenuated atmosphere above, which,
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg 213]</span>in gigantic waves, like swelling tides, dashes great volumes
+of water over the ledge beside us, and into the depth below.
+This water in turn reacts on fresh portions of the metallic base,
+and the reflex action increases the vapor discharges, and as a
+consequence the chamber we are in becomes a gasholder, containing
+vapors of unequal gas pressures, and the resultant
+agitation of the lake from the turmoil continues, and the pulsations
+are repeated until the surface of the lake is lowered to
+such a degree as at last to prevent the water from overflowing
+the barrier. Finally the lake quiets itself, the gases slowly
+disappear by earth absorption, and by escape from the volcanic
+exit, and for an unrecorded period of time thereafter the surface
+of the lake continues to rise slowly as it is doing now."</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> This view is supported in theory by a note I believe to have
+somewhere seen recorded. Elsewhere other bases are mentioned also.&mdash;J.
+U. L.</p></div>
+
+<p>"But what has this phenomenon to do with the volcano?"</p>
+
+<p>"It produces the eruption; the water that rushes down into
+the chasm, partly as steam, partly as gas, is forced onward and
+upward through a crevice that leads to the old crater of the
+presumed extinct but periodically active Mount Epomeo. These
+gases are intensely heated, and they move with fearful velocity.
+They tear off great masses of stone, which the resultant energy
+disturbances, pressure, gas, and friction, redden with heat. The
+mixture of gases from the decomposed water is in large amount,
+is burning and exploding, and in this fiery furnace amid such
+convulsions as have been described, the adjacent earth substance
+is fused, and even clay is melted, and carried on with the fiery
+blast. Finally the current reaches the earth's surface through
+the funnel passage, the apex of which is a volcano&mdash;the blast
+described a volcanic eruption."</p>
+
+<p>"One thing is still obscure in my mind," I said. "You
+assert that the reaction which follows the contact of the flowing
+water and metallic bases in the crevice below us liberates the
+explosive gases, and also volumes of vapor of water. These
+gases rush, you say, and produce a volcanic eruption in a distant
+part of the crust of the earth. I can not understand why they
+do not rush backward as well, and produce another eruption in
+Kentucky. Surely the pressure of a gas in confinement is the
+same in all directions, is it not?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he replied, "but the conditions in the different
+directions are dissimilar. In the direction of the Kentucky<span class="pagenum">[Pg 214]</span>
+cavern, the passage is tortuous, and often contracts to a narrow
+crevice. In one place near the cavern's mouth, as you will
+remember, we had to dive beneath the surface of a stream of
+water. That stratum of water as effectually closed the exit from
+the earth as the stopper prevents water escaping from a bottle.
+Between the point we now occupy and that water stopper, rest
+thousands of miles of quiescent air. The inertia of a thousand
+miles of air is great beyond your comprehension. To move that
+column of air by pushing against this end of it, and thus shoving
+it instantly out of the other end, would require greater force
+than would burst the one hundred and fifty miles of inelastic
+stone above us. Then, the friction of the sides is another thing
+that prevents its accomplishment. While a gradually applied
+pressure would in time overcome both the inertia of the air and
+the friction of the stone passages, it would take a supply of
+energy greater than you can imagine to start into motion the
+elastic mass that stands as solid and immovable as a sentinel of
+adamant, between the cavern you entered, and the spot we now
+occupy. Time and energy combined would be able to accomplish
+the result, but not under present conditions.</p>
+
+<p>"In the other direction a broad open channel reaches directly
+to and connects with the volcanic shaft. Through this channel
+the air is in motion, moving towards the extinct crater, being
+supplied from another surface orifice. The gases liberated in
+the manner I have described, naturally follow the line of least
+resistance. They turn at once away from the inert mass of air
+that rests behind us, and move with increasing velocity towards
+the volcanic exit. Before the pressure that might be exerted
+towards the Kentucky cavern would have more than compressed
+the intervening column of air enough to raise the water of a well
+from its usual level to the surface of the earth, the velocity in the
+other direction would have augmented prodigiously, and with its
+increased rapidity a suction would follow more than sufficient to
+consume the increasingly abundant gases from behind."</p>
+
+<p>"Volcanoes are therefore local, and the interior of the earth
+is not a molten mass as I have been taught," I exclaimed.</p>
+
+<p>He answered: "If men were far enough along in their
+thought journey (for the evolution of the mental side of man is
+a journey in the world of thought), they would avoid such<span class="pagenum">[Pg 215]</span>
+theories as that which ascribes a molten interior to the earth.
+Volcanoes are superficial. They are as a rule, when in activity
+but little blisters or excoriations upon the surface of the earth,
+although their underground connections may be extensive.
+Some of them are in a continual fret with frequent eruptions,
+others, like the one under consideration, awaken only after great
+periods of time. The entire surface of this globe has been or will
+be subject to volcanic action. The phenomenon is one of the
+steps in the world-making, matter-leveling process. When the
+deposit of substances that I have indicated, and of which much
+of the earth's interior is composed, the bases of salt, potash, and
+lime and clay is exhausted, there will be no further volcanic
+action from this cause, and in some places, this deposit has
+already disappeared, or is covered deeply by layers of earth that
+serve as a protection."</p>
+
+<p>"Is water, then, the universal cause of volcanoes?"</p>
+
+<p>"Water and air together cause most of them. The action of
+water and its vapor produces from metallic space dust, limestone,
+and clay soil, potash and soda salts. This perfectly rational and
+natural action must continue as long as there is water above,
+and free elementary bases in contact with the earth bubbles.
+Volcanoes, earthquakes, geysers, mud springs, and hot springs,
+are the natural result of that reaction. Mountains are thereby
+forming by upheavals from beneath, and the corresponding
+surface valleys are consequently filling up, either by the slow
+deposit of the matter from the saline water of hot springs,
+or by the sudden eruption of a new or presumably extinct
+volcano."</p>
+
+<p>"What would happen if a crevice in the bottom of the ocean
+should conduct the waters of the ocean into a deposit of metallic
+bases?"</p>
+
+<p>"That often occurs," was the reply; "a volcanic wave results,
+and a volcano may thus rise from the ocean's depths."</p>
+
+<p>"Is there any danger to the earth itself? May it not be
+riven into fragments from such a convulsion?" I hesitatingly
+questioned.</p>
+
+<p>"No; while the configuration of continents is continually
+being altered, each disturbance must be practically superficial,
+and of limited area."<span class="pagenum">[Pg 216]</span></p>
+
+<p>"But," I persisted, "the rigid, solid earth may be blown to
+fragments; in such convulsions a result like that seems not
+impossible."</p>
+
+<p>"You argue from an erroneous hypothesis. The earth is
+neither rigid nor solid."</p>
+
+<p>"True," I answered. "If it were solid I could not be a
+hundred miles beneath its surface in conversation with another
+being; but there can not be many such cavities as that which
+we are now traversing, and they can not surely extend entirely
+through its mass; the great weight of the superincumbent
+material would crush together the strongest materials, if a globe
+as large as our earth were extensively honeycombed in this
+manner."</p>
+
+<p>"Quite the contrary," he replied; "and here let me, for the
+first time, enlighten you as to the interior structure of the
+terrestrial globe. The earth-forming principle consists of an
+invisible sphere of energy that, spinning through space, supports
+the space dust which collects on it, as dust on a bubble. By
+gradual accumulation of substance on that sphere a hollow
+ball has resulted, on the outer surface of which you have
+hitherto dwelt. The crust of the earth is comparatively thin,
+not more than eight hundred miles in average thickness, and is
+held in position by the central sphere of energy that now exists
+at a distance about seven hundred miles beneath the ocean
+level. The force inherent to this sphere manifests itself upon
+the matter which it supports on both sides, rendering matter the
+lighter the nearer it lies to the center sphere. In other words,
+let me say to you: "The crust, or shell, which I have just
+described as being but about eight hundred miles in thickness,
+is firm and solid on both its convex and concave surface, but
+gradually loses in weight, whether we penetrate from the outer
+surface toward the center, or from any point of the inner surface
+towards the outside, until at the central sphere matter has no
+weight at all. Do you conceive my meaning?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," I replied; "I understand you perfectly."</p>
+
+<p>After a pause my pilot asked me abruptly:</p>
+
+<p>"What do you most desire?"</p>
+
+<p>The question caused my mind to revert instantly to my old
+home on the earth above me, and although I felt the hope of<span class="pagenum">[Pg 217]</span>
+returning to it spring up in my heart, the force of habit caused
+me involuntarily to answer, "More light!"</p>
+
+<p>"More light being your desire, you shall receive it."</p>
+
+<p>Obedient to his touch, the bow of the boat turned from the
+gulf we had been considering towards the center of the lake;
+the responsive craft leaped forward, and in an instant the obsidian
+parapet disappeared behind us. On and over the trackless waste
+of glass-like water we sped, until the dead silence became painfully
+oppressive, and I asked:</p>
+
+<p>"Whither are we bound?"</p>
+
+<p>"Towards the east."</p>
+
+<p>The well-timed answer raised my spirits; I thought again
+that in this man, despite his repulsive shape, I beheld a friend, a
+brother; suspicion vanished, and my courage rose. He touched
+the lever, and the craft, subject to his will, nearly rose from the
+water, and sped with amazing velocity, as was evident from the
+appearance of the luminous road behind us. So rapid was our
+flight that the wake of the boat seemed as if made of rigid
+parallel lines that disappeared in the distance, too quick for the
+eye to catch the tremor.</p>
+
+<p>Continuing his conversation, my companion informed me
+that he had now directed the bark toward a point east of the
+spot where we struck the shore, after crossing the lake, in order
+that we might continue our journey downward, diagonally to
+the under surface of the earth crust.</p>
+
+<p>"This recent digression from our journey proper," said he,
+"has been made to acquaint you with a subject, regarding which
+you have exhibited a curiosity, and about which you have heretofore
+been misinformed; now you understand more clearly part
+of the philosophy of volcanoes and earthquakes. You have yet
+much to learn in connection with allied phenomena, but this
+study of the crude exhibition of force-disturbed matter, the
+manipulation of which is familiar to man under the above
+names, is an introduction to the more wonderful study destined
+yet to be a part of your field, an investigation of quiescent
+matter, and pure motion."</p>
+
+<p>"I can not comprehend you," I replied, "as I stated once
+before when you referred to what you designated as pure
+motion."<span class="pagenum">[Pg 218]</span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218"></a>CHAPTER XXXII.<br />
+<br />
+MATTER IS RETARDED MOTION.</h2>
+
+
+<p>"It is possible&mdash;is it not?&mdash;for you to imagine a continuous
+volley of iron balls passing near you in one line, in a
+horizontal direction, with considerable velocity. Suppose that a
+pane of glass were to be gradually moved so that a corner of
+it would be struck by one of the balls; then the entire sheet
+of glass would be shivered by the concussion, even though the
+bullet struck but a single spot of glass, the point of contact
+covering only a small area. Imagine now that the velocity of
+the volley of bullets be increased a thousand fold; then a plate
+of glass thrust into their track would be smoothly cut, as though
+with a file that would gnaw its way without producing a single
+radiating fracture. A person standing near the volley would
+now hear a deep purr or growling sound, caused by the friction
+between the bullets and the air. Increase gradually the rapidity
+of their motion, and this growl would become more acute,
+passing from a deep, low murmur, into one less grave, and as
+the velocity increased, the tone would become sharper, and at
+last piercingly shrill. Increase now the rapidity of the train of
+bullets again, and again the notes would decrease in turn, passing
+back again successively through the several keys that had preceded,
+and finally would reach the low growl which first struck
+the ear, and with a further increase of speed silence would ensue,
+silence evermore, regardless of increasing velocity.<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a>
+ From
+these hundreds of miles in a second at which the volley is now
+passing, let the rapidity be augmented a thousand times, reaching
+in their flight into millions of miles each second, and to the eye,
+from the point where the sound disappeared, as the velocity
+increased, a dim redness would appear, a glow just perceptible,
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg 219]</span>indicating to the sense of sight, by a continuous line, the track
+of the moving missiles. To all appearance, the line would be
+as uniform as an illuminated pencil mark, even though the
+several integral bullets of the trail might be separated one from
+another by miles of space. Let a pane of glass now be thrust
+across their track, and from the point of contact a shower of
+sparks would fly, and the edges of glass close to either side of
+the orifice would be shown, on withdrawing the glass, to have
+been fused. Conceive now that the velocity of the bullets be
+doubled and trebled, again and again, the line of red light
+becomes brighter, then brilliant, and finally as the velocity
+increases, at a certain point pure white results, and to man's
+sense the trail would now be a continuous something, as solid as
+a bar of metal if at a white heat, and (even if the bullets were a
+thousand miles apart) man could not bring proof of their separate
+existence to his senses. That portion of a pane of glass or other
+substance, even steel or adamant, which should cross its track
+now would simply melt away, the portion excised and carried out
+of that pathway neither showing itself as scintillations, nor as
+fragments of matter. The solid would instantly liquefy, and
+would spread itself as a thin film over the surface of each ball of
+that white, hot mass of fleeing metal, now to all essential
+conditions as uniform as a bar of iron. Madly increase the
+velocity to millions upon millions of miles per second, and the
+heat will disappear gradually as did the sound, while the bright
+light will pass backward successively through the primary
+shades of color that are now known to man, beginning with
+violet, and ending with red, and as the red fades away the train
+of bullets will disappear to the sense of man. Neither light nor
+sound now accompanies the volley, neither the human eye nor
+the human ear can perceive its presence. Drop a pane of glass or
+any other object edgewise through it, and it gives to the sense of
+man no evidence; the molecules of the glass separate from in
+front to close in from behind, and the moving train passes through
+it as freely as light, leaving the surface of the glass unaffected."</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> A scientific critic seems to think that the shrill cry would cease
+instantly and not gradually. However, science has been at fault more
+than once, and I do not care to take liberties with this statement.&mdash;J.
+U. L.</p></div>
+
+<p>"Hold," I interrupted; "that would be as one quality of
+matter passing through another quality of matter without
+disturbance to either, and it is a law in physics that two substances
+can not occupy the same space at the same time."<span class="pagenum">[Pg 220]</span></p>
+
+<p>"That law holds good as man understands the subject, but
+bullets are no longer matter. Motion of mass was first changed
+into motion of molecules, and motion of molecule became finally
+augmented into motion of free force entities 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&mdash;nothing,
+vacancy.</p>
+
+<p>"This result is the all-pervading spirit of space (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 retardation 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 space can
+generate elemental dirt. If you can conceive of an intermediate
+condition whereby pure space 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 space 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."</p>
+
+<p>"I fear that I can not comprehend all this," I answered.</p>
+
+<p>"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 assertion 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<span class="pagenum">[Pg 221]</span>
+to the blissful insight possessed by superior beings who do not
+have to contend with the rasping elements that encompass all
+who dwell upon the surface of the earth."</p>
+
+<p>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:</p>
+
+<p>"Because we are leaving one of the undiscovered conditions
+of the upper atmosphere that disturbs the sunlight."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you say that the atmosphere is composed of substances
+unknown to man?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; several of them are gases, and others are qualities of
+space condition, neither gas, liquid, nor solid.<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> One particularly
+interferes with light in its passage. It is an entity 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
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg 222]</span>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."</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> 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' Association, 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] assertion.&mdash;J. U. L.</p></div>
+
+<p>"I have been told," I answered, "that vapor of water causes
+this obscuration, or absorption, of light."</p>
+
+<p>"Vapor of water, unless in strata of different densities, is
+absolutely transparent, and presents no obstacle to the passage
+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 multitudes of tiny globular water surfaces are
+produced. Pure vapor of water, free from motion, is passive to
+the sunlight."</p>
+
+<p>"I can scarcely believe that a substance such as you describe,
+or that any constituent of the air, can have escaped the perception
+of the chemist," I replied.</p>
+
+<p>In, as I thought, a facetious manner he repeated after me
+the word "chemist," and continued:</p>
+
+<p>"Have chemists detected the ether of Aristotle, that you
+have mentioned, and I have defined, which scientists nevertheless
+accept pervades all space 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 assume 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<span class="pagenum">[Pg 223]</span>
+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"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>He hesitated.</p>
+
+<p>"Go on," I said.</p>
+
+<p>"The passage of mortal man, with the faculties of man
+intact, into communion with the spirit world."<span class="pagenum">[Pg 224]</span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224"></a>CHAPTER XXXIII<br />
+<br />
+"A STUDY OF SCIENCE IS A STUDY OF GOD."&mdash;COMMUNING WITH
+ANGELS.</h2>
+
+
+<p>"This is incredible," I exclaimed.</p>
+
+<p>"You need not be astonished," he answered. "Is there any
+argument that can be offered to controvert the assertion that
+man is ignorant of many natural laws?"</p>
+
+<p>"I can offer none."</p>
+
+<p>"Is there any doubt that a force, distinct and separate from
+matter, influences matter and vivifies it into a living personality?"</p>
+
+<p>"I do not deny that there is such force."</p>
+
+<p>"What then should prevent this force from existing separate
+from the body if it be capable of existing in it?"</p>
+
+<p>"I can not argue against such a position."</p>
+
+<p>"If, as is hoped and believed by the majority of mankind,
+even though some try to deny the fact, it is possible for man to
+exist as an association of earth matters, linked to a personal
+spirit force, the soul, and for the spirit force, after the death
+of the body, to exist independent of the grosser attributes of
+man, free from his mortal body, is it not reasonable to infer that
+the spirit, while it is still in man and linked to his body, may be
+educated and developed so as, under favorable conditions, to
+meet and communicate with other spirits that have been previously
+liberated from earthly bondage?"</p>
+
+<p>"I submit," I answered; "but you shock my sensibilities
+when you thus imply that by cold, scientific investigation we can
+place ourselves in a position to meet the unseen spirit world"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>It was now my turn to hesitate.</p>
+
+<p>"Go on," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"To commune with the angels," I answered.</p>
+
+<p>"A study of true science is a study of God," he continued.
+"Angels are organizations natural in accordance with God's laws.
+They appear superhuman, because of our ignorance concerning<span class="pagenum">[Pg 225]</span>
+the higher natural forces. They exist in exact accordance with
+the laws that govern the universe; but as yet the attraction
+between clay and clay-bound spirit is so great as to prevent the
+enthralled soul of man from communicating with them. The
+faith of the religionist is an example of the unquenchable feeling
+that creates a belief as well as a hope that there is a self-existence
+separate from earthy substances. The scoffing scientific agnostic,
+working for other objects, will yet astonish himself by elaborating
+a method that will practically demonstrate these facts, and then
+empirical religion, as exemplified by the unquestioning faithful
+believer, and systematic science, as typified in the experimental
+materialist, will meet on common ground."<span class="pagenum">[Pg 226]</span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226"></a>CHAPTER XXXIV.<br />
+<br />
+I CEASE TO BREATHE, AND YET LIVE.</h2>
+
+
+<p>During this conversation we had been rapidly walking, or I
+should better say advancing, for we no longer walked as men
+do, but skipped down into the earth, down, ever downward.
+There were long periods of silence, in which I was engaged in
+meditating over the problems that successively demanded solution,
+and even had I desired to do so I could have kept no record
+of time; days, or even weeks, may have been consumed in this
+journey. Neither have I any method of judging of the rapidity
+of our motion. I was sensible of a marked decrease in the
+amount of muscular energy required to carry us onward, and I
+realized that my body was quite exempt from weariness. Motion
+became restful instead of exhausting, and it seemed to me that
+the ratio of the loss of weight, as shown by our free movements,
+in proportion to the distance we traversed, was greater than
+formerly. The slightest exhibition of propelling force cast us
+rapidly forward. Instead of the laborious, short step of upper
+earth, a single leap would carry us many yards. A slight
+spring, and with our bodies in space, we would skip several
+rods, alighting gently, to move again as easily. I marveled, for,
+although I had been led to anticipate something unusual, the
+practical evidence was wonderfully impressive, and I again questioned
+my guide.</p>
+
+<p>"We are now nearing what physicists would call the center
+of gravity," he replied, "and our weight is rapidly diminishing.
+This is in exact accordance with the laws that govern the force
+called gravitation, which, at the earth's surface, is apparently
+uniform, though no instrument known to man can demonstrate
+its exact variation within the field man occupies. Men have
+not, as yet, been in a position to estimate this change, although it
+is known that mountains attract objects, and that a change in
+weight as we descend into the earth is perceptible; but to evolve<span class="pagenum">[Pg 227]</span>
+the true law, observation, at a distance of at least ten miles beneath
+the surface of the ocean is necessary, and man, being a creature
+whose motions are
+confined to a thin,
+horizontal skin of
+earth, has never
+been one mile beneath
+its surface,
+and in consequence
+his opportunities for
+comparison are extremely
+limited."</p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227"></a></p>
+<div class="figright" style="width: 299px;">
+<img src="images/m1043.png" width="299" height="300" alt="" title="&quot;WE WOULD SKIP SEVERAL RODS, ALIGHTING
+ GENTLY.&quot;" />
+<span class="caption">"WE WOULD SKIP SEVERAL RODS, ALIGHTING
+GENTLY."</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>"I have been
+taught," I replied,
+"that the force of
+gravitation decreases
+until the
+center of the earth
+is reached, at which
+point a body is without
+weight; and I
+can scarcely understand how such positive statements from
+scientific men can be far from the truth."</p>
+
+<p>"It is supposed by your surface men that the maximum of
+weight is to be found at one-sixth the distance beneath the
+surface of the earth, and therefrom decreases until at the center
+it is nothing at all," he replied. "This hypothesis, though a
+stagger toward the right, is far from the truth, but as near as
+could be expected, when we consider the data upon which men
+base their calculations. Were it not for the purpose of controverting
+erroneous views, men would have little incentive to
+continue their investigations, and as has been the rule in science
+heretofore, the truth will, in time, appear in this case. One
+generation of students disproves the accepted theories of that
+which precedes, all working to eliminate error, all adding factors
+of error, and all together moving toward a common goal, a grand
+generalization, that as yet can not be perceived. And still each
+series of workers is overlooking phenomena that, though obvious,
+are yet unperceived, but which will make evident to future<span class="pagenum">[Pg 228]</span>
+scientists the mistakes of the present. As an example of the
+manner in which facts are thus overlooked, in your journey you
+have been impressed with certain surprising external conditions,
+or surroundings, and yet are oblivious to conditions more remarkable
+in your own body. So it is with scientists. They overlook
+prominent facts that stare them boldly in the face, facts that
+are so conspicuous as to be invisible by reason of their very
+nearness."</p>
+
+<p>"This statement I can not disprove, and therefore must
+admit under protest. Where there is so much that appears
+mysterious I may have overlooked some things, but I can
+scarcely accept that, in ignorance, I have passed conditions in
+my own organization so marked as this decrease in gravity
+which has so strikingly been called to my attention."</p>
+
+<p>"You have, and to convince you I need only say that you
+have nearly ceased to breathe, and are unconscious of the fact."</p>
+
+<p>I stopped short, in momentary alarm, and now that my
+mind was directed to the fact, I became aware that I did not
+desire to breathe, and that my chest had ceased to heave with
+the alternate inhalation and exhalation of former times. I
+closed my lips firmly, and for a long period there was no desire
+for breath, then a slight involuntary inhalation followed, and an
+exhalation, scarcely noticeable, succeeded by a great interval of
+inaction. I impulsively turned my face toward the passage we
+had trod; a feeling of alarm possessed me, an uncontrollable,
+inexpressible desire to flee from the mysterious earth-being
+beside me, to return to men, and be an earth-surface man again,
+and I started backward through the chamber we had passed.</p>
+
+<p>The guide <a href="#TN"><ins title="Original word was siezed">seized</ins></a> me by the hand, "Hold, hold," he cried;
+"where would you go, fickle mortal?"</p>
+
+<p>"To the surface," I shouted; "to daylight again. Unhand
+me, unearthly creature, abnormal being, man or devil; have you
+not inveigled me far enough into occult realms that should be
+forever sealed from mankind? Have you not taken from me all
+that men love or cherish, and undone every tie of kith or kin?
+Have you not led me into paths that the imagination of the
+novelist dare not conjure, and into experiences that pen in
+human hand would not venture to describe as possible, until
+I now stand with my feet on the boundary line that borders<span class="pagenum">[Pg 229]</span>
+vacancy, and utter loss of weight; with a body nearly lost as a
+material substance, verging into nothing, and lastly with breath
+practically extinguished, I say, and repeat, is it not time that I
+should hesitate and pause in my reckless career?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is not time," he answered.</p>
+
+<p>"When will that hour come?" I asked in desperation, and I
+trembled as he replied:</p>
+
+<p>"When the three Great Lights are closed."</p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;">
+<img src="images/m1044.png" width="500" height="362" alt="" title="&quot;AN UNCONTROLLABLE, INEXPRESSIBLE DESIRE TO FLEE.&quot;" />
+<span class="caption">"AN UNCONTROLLABLE, INEXPRESSIBLE DESIRE TO FLEE."</span>
+</div>
+<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg 230]</span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230"></a>CHAPTER XXXV.<br />
+<br />
+"A CERTAIN POINT WITHIN A SPHERE."&mdash;MEN ARE AS PARASITES
+ON THE ROOF OF EARTH.</h2>
+
+
+<p>I realized again, as I had so many times before, that it was
+useless for me to rebel. "The self-imposed mystery of a sacrificed
+life lies before me," I murmured, "and there is no chance
+to retrace my footsteps. The 'Beyond' of the course that I have
+voluntarily selected, and sworn to follow, is hidden; I must nerve
+myself to pursue it to the bitter end, and so help me God, and
+keep me steadfast."</p>
+
+<p>"Well said," he replied; "and since you have so wisely
+determined, I am free to inform you that these new obligations,
+like those you have heretofore taken, contain nothing which can
+conflict with your duty to God, your country, your neighbor, or
+yourself. In considering the phenomena presented by the suspension
+of the act of breathing, it should occur to you that
+where little labor is to be performed, little consumption of
+energy is required. Where there is such a trifling destruction
+of the vital force (not mind force) as at present is the case with
+us, it requires but slight respiration to retain the normal condition
+of the body. On earth's surface the act of respiration
+alone consumes by far the larger proportion of vital energy,
+and the muscular exertion involved thereby necessitates a
+proportionate amount of breathing in order that breath itself
+may continue. This act of respiration is the result of one of
+the conditions of surface earth life, and consumes most of the
+vital force. If men would think of this, they would understand
+how paradoxical it is for them to breathe in order to
+live, when the very act of respiration wears away their bodies
+and shortens their lives more than all else they have to do,
+and without adding to their mental or physical constitution
+in the least. Men are conversant with physical death as a
+constant result of suspended respiration, and with respiration as<span class="pagenum">[Pg 231]</span>
+an accompaniment of life, which ever constant and connected
+conditions lead them to accept that the act of breathing is a
+necessity of mortal life. In reality, man occupies an unfortunate
+position among other undeveloped creatures of external earth;
+he is an animal, and is constitutionally framed like the other
+animals about him. He is exposed to the warring elements, to
+the vicious attacks of savage beasts and insidious parasites,
+and to the inroads of disease. He is a prey to the elementary
+vicissitudes of the undesirable exposure in which he exists upon
+the outer surface of our globe, where all is war, even among the
+forces of nature about him. These conditions render his lot an
+unhappy one indeed, and in ignorance he overlooks the torments
+of the weary, rasping, endless slavery of respiration in the
+personal struggle he has to undergo in order to retain a brief
+existence as an organized being. Have you never thought of the
+connected tribulations that the wear and tear of respiration alone
+inflict upon the human family? The heaving of the chest, the
+circulation of the blood, the throbbing of the heart, continue
+from mortal birth until death. The heart of man forces about
+two and one-half ounces of blood with each pulsation. At
+seventy beats per minute this amounts to six hundred and fifty-six
+pounds per hour, or nearly eight tons per day. The lungs
+respire over one thousand times an hour, and move over three
+thousand gallons of air a day. Multiply these amounts by three
+hundred and sixty-five, and then by seventy, and you have
+partly computed the enormous life-work of the lungs and heart
+of an adult. Over two hundred thousand tons of blood, and
+seventy-five million gallons of air have been moved by the vital
+force. The energy thus consumed is dissipated. No return is
+made for the expenditure of this life force. During the natural
+life of man, more energy is consequently wasted in material transformation
+resulting from the motion of heart and lungs, than
+would be necessary to sustain the purely vital forces alone for a
+thousand years. Besides, the act of respiration which man is
+compelled to perform in his exposed position, necessitates the
+consumption of large amounts of food, in order to preserve the
+animal heat, and replace the waste of a material body that in
+turn is worn out by these very movements. Add this waste of
+energy to the foregoing, and then you will surely perceive that<span class="pagenum">[Pg 232]</span>
+the possible life of man is also curtailed to another and greater
+degree in the support of the digestive part of his organism.
+His spirit is a slave to his body; his lungs and heart, on which
+he imagines life depends, are unceasing antagonists of life. That
+his act of breathing is now a necessity upon the surface of the
+earth, where the force of gravity presses so heavily, and where
+the elements have men at their command, and show him no
+mercy, I will not deny; but it is exasperating to contemplate
+such a waste of energy, and corresponding loss of human life."</p>
+
+<p>"You must admit, however, that it is necessary?" I queried.</p>
+
+<p>"No; only to an extent. The natural life of man should,
+and yet will be, doubled, trebled, multiplied a dozen, yes a
+thousand fold."</p>
+
+<p>I stepped in front of him; we stood facing each other.</p>
+
+<p>"Tell me," I cried, "how men can so improve their condition
+as to lengthen their days to the limit you name, and let me
+return to surface earth a carrier of the glad tidings."</p>
+
+<p>He shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>I dropped on my knees
+before him.</p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232"></a></p>
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 300px;">
+<img src="images/m1045.png" width="300" height="299" alt="" title="&quot;I DROPPED ON MY KNEES BEFORE HIM.&quot;" />
+<span class="caption">"I DROPPED ON MY KNEES BEFORE HIM."</span>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>"I implore you in behalf
+of that unfortunate humanity,
+of which I am a
+member, give me this boon.
+I promise to return to you
+and do your bidding.
+Whatever may be my subsequent
+fate, I promise to
+acquiesce therein willingly."</p>
+
+<p>He raised me to my feet.</p>
+
+<p>"Be of good cheer," he
+said, "and in the proper
+time you may return to the
+surface of this rind of earth, a carrier of great and good news
+to men."</p>
+
+<p>"Shall I teach them of what you have shown me?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; in part you will be a forerunner, but before you obtain
+the information that is necessary to the comfort of mankind you<span class="pagenum">[Pg 233]</span>
+will have to visit surface earth again, and return again, perhaps
+repeatedly. You must prove yourself as men are seldom proven.
+The journey you have commenced is far from its conclusion,
+and you may not be equal to its subsequent trials; prepare
+yourself, therefore, for a series of events that may unnerve you.
+If you had full confidence and faith in your guide, you would
+have less cause to fear the result, but your suspicious human
+nature can not overcome the shrinking sensation that is natural
+to those who have been educated as you have been amid the
+changing vicissitudes of the earth's surface, and you can not
+but be incredulous by reason of that education."</p>
+
+<p>Then I stopped as I observed before me a peculiar fungus&mdash;peculiar
+because unlike all others I had seen. The convex part
+of its bowl was below, and the great head, as an inverted toadstool,
+stood upright on a short, stem-like pedestal. The gills
+within were of a deep green color, and curved out from the
+center in the form of a spiral. This form, however, was not the
+distinguishing feature, for I had before observed specimens that
+were spiral in structure. The extraordinary peculiarity was
+that the gills were covered with fruit. This fruit was likewise
+green in color, each spore, or berry, being from two to three
+inches in diameter, and honeycombed on the surface, corrugated
+most beautifully. I stopped, leaned over the edge of the great
+bowl, and plucked a specimen of the fruit. It seemed to be
+covered with a hard, transparent shell, and to be nearly full of a
+clear, green liquid. I handled and examined it in curiosity, at
+which my guide seemed not to be surprised. Regarding me
+attentively, he said:</p>
+
+<p>"What is it that impels a mortal towards this fruit?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is curious," I said; "nothing more."</p>
+
+<p>"As for that," said he, "it is not curious at all; the seed of
+the lobelia of upper earth is more curious, because, while it is as
+exquisitely corrugated, it is also microscopically small. In the
+second place you err when you say it is simply curious, 'nothing
+more,' for no mortal ever yet passed that bowl without doing
+exactly as you have done. The vein of curiosity, were it that
+alone that impels you, could not but have an exception."</p>
+
+<p>Then he cracked the shell of the fruit by striking it on the
+stony floor, and carefully opened the shell, handing me one of<span class="pagenum">[Pg 234]</span>
+the halves filled with a green fluid. As he did so he spoke
+the single word, "Drink," and I did as directed. He stood
+upright before me, and as I looked him in the face he seemingly,
+without a reason, struck off into a dissertation, apparently as
+distinct from our line of thought as a disconnected subject could
+be, as follows:</p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/gs1046.jpg" width="600" height="506" alt="" title="&quot;HANDING ME ONE OF THE HALVES, HE SPOKE THE SINGLE WORD, DRINK.&quot;" />
+<span class="caption">"HANDING ME ONE OF THE HALVES, HE SPOKE THE SINGLE WORD, DRINK."</span>
+</div>
+<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg 235]</span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235"></a>CHAPTER XXXVI.<br />
+<br />
+DRUNKENNESS.&mdash;THE DRINKS OF MAN.</h2>
+
+
+<p>"Intemperance has been the vice of every people, and is prevalent
+in all climes, notwithstanding that intoxicants, properly
+employed, may serve humanity's highest aims. Beginning early
+in the history of a people, the disease increases with the growth
+of a nation, until, at last, unless the knife is used, civilization
+perishes. A lowly people becomes more depraved as the use of
+liquor increases; a cultivated people passes backward into barbarism
+with the depravities that come from dissipation. Here
+nations meet, and individuals sink to a common level. No drinking
+man is strong enough to say, 'I can not become dissipated;'
+no nation is rich and cultivated enough to view the debauch of
+its people without alarm.</p>
+
+<p>"The disgusting habit of the drunken African finds its
+counterpart in the lascivious wine-bibber of aristocratic society.
+To picture the indecencies of society, that may be charged to
+debauchery, when the Grecian and Roman empires were at the
+height of greatness, would obscure the orgies of the barbarous
+African, and make preferable the brutality of the drunken American
+Indian. Intemperance brings men to the lowest level, and
+holds its power over all lands and all nations."</p>
+
+<p>"Did the aborigines know how to make intoxicants, and were
+barbarians intemperate before contact with civilized nations?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"But I have understood that drunkenness is a vice inherent
+only in civilized people; are not you mistaken?"</p>
+
+<p>"No. Every clime, unless it be the far North where men
+are scarcely more than animals, furnishes intoxicants, and all
+people use them. I will tell you part of this record of nations.</p>
+
+<p>"The Nubians make a barley beer which they call bouze,
+and also a wine, from the palm tree. The savages of Africa
+draw the clear, sweet juice of the palm oil tree into a gourd, in<span class="pagenum">[Pg 236]</span>
+the morning, and by night it becomes a violent intoxicant. The
+natives of the Malayan Archipelago ferment and drink the sap
+of the flower stems of the cocoanut. The Tartar tribes make
+an intoxicating drink from mare's milk, called koomis. In
+South America the natives drink a vile compound, called cana,
+distilled from sugar cane; and in the Sandwich Islands, the
+shrub kava supplies the intoxicant kava-kava, drunk by all the
+inhabitants, from king to slave, and mother to child. In the
+heart of Africa, cannibal tribes make legyce of a cereal, and
+indulge in wild orgies over their barbaric cup. In North
+America the Indians, before Columbus discovered America,
+made an intoxicating drink of the sap of the maple tree. The
+national drink of the Mexicans is pulque, a beastly intoxicant,
+prepared from the Agave Americana. Mead is an alcoholic
+drink, made of honey, and used in many countries. In China
+wine was indulged in from the earliest day, and in former times,
+had it not been for the influence of their philosophers, especially
+Confucius, who foresaw the end, the Chinese nation would have
+perished from drunkenness. Opium, that fearful enslaver of
+millions of human beings, is in every sense a narcotic intoxicant,
+and stands conspicuous as an agent, capable of being
+either a friend, a companion, or a master, as man permits.
+History fails to indicate the date of its introduction to humanity.
+In South America the leaf of the cocoa plant is a stimulant
+scarcely less to be dreaded than opium. The juice of a species
+of asclepias produces the intoxicant soma, used once by the
+Brahmins, not only as a drink, but also in sacrificial and religious
+ceremonies. Many different flavored liquors made of palm,
+cocoanuts, sugar, pepper, honey, spices, etc., were used by
+native Hindoos, and as intoxicants have been employed from
+the earliest days in India. The Vedic people were fearfully
+dissipated, and page after page of that wonderful sacred book,
+the Rigs-Veda, is devoted to the habit of drunkenness. The
+worst classes of drunkards of India used Indian hemp to make
+bhang, or combined the deadly narcotic stramonium with
+arrack, a native beer, to produce a poisonous intoxicant. In
+that early day the inhabitants of India and China were fearfully
+depraved drunkards, and but for the reforms instituted by their
+wise men, must have perished as a people. Parahaoma, or<span class="pagenum">[Pg 237]</span>
+'homa,' is an intoxicant made from a lost plant that is described
+as having yellow blossoms, used by the ancient dissolute Persians
+from the day of Zoroaster. Cannabis sativa produces an intoxicant
+that in Turkey is known as hadschy, in Arabia and India
+as hashish, and to the Hottentots as dacha, and serves as a
+drunkard's food in other lands. The fruit of the juniper
+produces gin, and the fermented juice of the grape, or malt
+liquors, in all civilized countries are the favorite intoxicants,
+their origin being lost in antiquity. Other substances, such as
+palm, apples, dates, and pomegranates have also been universally
+employed as drink producers.</p>
+
+<p>"Go where you will, man's tendency seems to be towards
+the bowl that inebriates, and yet it is not the use but the abuse
+of intoxicants that man has to dread. Could he be temperate,
+exhilarants would befriend."</p>
+
+<p>"But here," I replied, "in this underground land, where food is
+free, and existence possible without an effort, this shameful vice
+has no existence. Here there is no incentive to intemperance,
+and even though man were present with his inherent passion for
+drink, he could not find means to gratify his appetite."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah," my guide replied, "that is an error. Why should this
+part of the earth prove an exception to the general rule?
+Nature always supplies the means, and man's instinct teaches
+him how to prepare an intoxicant. So long as man is human
+his passions will rule. If you should prove unequal to the task
+you have undertaken, if you shrink from your journey, and turn
+back, the chances are you will fail to reach the surface of the
+earth. You will surely stop in the chamber which we now
+approach, and which I have now prepared you to enter, and will
+then become one of a band of earth drunkards; having all the
+lower passions of a mortal you will yet be lost to the virtues of
+man. In this chamber those who falter and turn back, stop and
+remain for all time, sinking until they become lower in the
+human scale than any drunkard on earth. Without any
+restraining influence, without a care, without necessity of food
+or incentive to exertion, in this habitation where heat and cold
+are unknown, and no motive for self-preservation exists, they
+turn their thoughts toward the ruling passion of mankind and&mdash;Listen!
+Do you not hear them? Listen!"<span class="pagenum">[Pg 238]</span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238"></a>CHAPTER XXXVII.<br />
+<br />
+THE DRUNKARD'S VOICE.</h2>
+
+
+<p>Then I noticed a medley of sounds seemingly rising out of
+the depths beyond us. The noise was not such as to lead me to
+infer that persons were speaking coherently, but rather resembled
+a jargon such as might come from a multitude of persons talking
+indiscriminately and aimlessly. It was a constant volley, now
+rising and now falling in intensity, as though many persons
+regardless of one another were chanting different tunes in that
+peculiar sing-song tone often characteristic of the drunkard. As
+we advanced, the noise became louder and more of a medley,
+until at last we were surrounded by confusion. Then a single
+voice rose up strong and full, and at once, from about us, close to
+us, yes, against our very persons, cries and shrieks unearthly
+smote my ears. I could distinguish words of various tongues,
+English, Irish, German, and many unfamiliar and disjointed
+cries, imprecations, and maledictions. The cavern about seemed
+now to be resonant with voices,&mdash;shrieks, yells, and maniacal
+cries commingled,&mdash;and yet no form appeared. As we rushed
+onward, for now my guide grasped my arm tightly and drew me
+rapidly down the cavern floor, the voices subsided, and at length
+sounded as if behind us. Now however it seemed as though
+innumerable arrows, each possessed of a whistle or tone of its own,
+were in wave-like gusts shrieking by us. Coming from in front,
+they burst in the rear. Stopping to listen, I found that a
+connection could be traced between the screech of the arrow-like
+shriek, and a drunkard's distant voice. It seemed as though
+a rocket made of an escaping voice would scream past, and
+bursting in the cavern behind, liberate a human cry. Now and
+then all but a few would subside, to burst out with increased
+violence, as if a flight of rockets each with a cry of its own
+would rush past, to be followed after their explosion by a medley
+of maniacal cries, songs, shrieks, and groans, commingled. It<span class="pagenum">[Pg 239]</span>
+was as though a shell containing a voice that escaped slowly as
+by pressure from an orifice, were fired past my ears, to explode
+and liberate the voice within my hearing. The dreadful utterance
+was not an echo, was not hallucination, it was real.</p>
+
+<p>I stopped and looked at my guide in amazement. He
+explained: "Did you not sometime back experience that your
+own voice was thrown from your body?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," I answered.</p>
+
+<p>"These crazed persons or rather experiences depraved, are
+shouting in the cavern beyond," he said. "They are in front;
+their voices pass us to burst into expression in the rear."</p>
+
+<p>Then, even as he spoke, from a fungus stalk near us, a hideous
+creature unfolded itself, and shambled to my side. It had the
+frame of a man, and yet it moved like a serpent, writhing towards
+me. I stepped back in horror, but the tall, ungainly creature
+reached out an arm and grasped me tightly. Leaning over he
+placed his hideous mouth close to my ear, and moaned: "Back,
+back, go thou back."</p>
+
+<p>I made no reply, being horror-stricken.</p>
+
+<p>"Back, I say, back to earth, or"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>He hesitated, and still possessed of fear, and unable to reply,
+I was silent.</p>
+
+<p>"Then go on," he said, "on to your destiny, unhappy man,"
+and slinking back to the fungus whence he arose, he disappeared
+from sight.</p>
+
+<p>"Come," said my guide, "let us pass the Drunkard's Den.
+This was but a straggler; nerve yourself, for his companions
+will soon surround us."<span class="pagenum">[Pg 240]</span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240"></a>CHAPTER XXXVIII.<br />
+<br />
+THE DRUNKARD'S DEN.</h2>
+
+
+<p>As we progressed the voices in our rear became more faint,
+and yet the whistling volleys of screeching voice bombs passed
+us as before. I shuddered in anticipation of the sight that was
+surely to meet our gaze, and could not but tremble for fear.
+Then I stopped and recoiled, for at my very feet I beheld a
+huge, living human head. It rested on the solid rock, and had
+I not stopped suddenly when I did, I would have kicked it at
+the next leap. The eyes of the monster were fixed in supplication
+on my face; the great brow indicated intelligence, the finely-cut
+mouth denoted refinement, the well-modeled head denoted
+brain, but the whole constituted a monster. The mouth opened,
+and a whizzing, arrow voice swept past, and was lost in the
+distance.</p>
+
+<p>"What is this?" I gasped.</p>
+
+<p>"The fate of a drunkard," my guide replied. "This was
+once an intelligent man, but now he has lost his body, and
+enslaved his soul, in the den of drink beyond us, and has been
+brought here by his comrades, who thus rid themselves of his
+presence. Here he must rest eternally. He can not move, he
+has but one desire, drink, and that craving, deeper than life, can
+not be satiated."</p>
+
+<p>"But he desires to speak; speak lower, man, or head of
+man, if you wish me to know your wants," I said, and leaned
+toward him.</p>
+
+<p>Then the monster whispered, and I caught the words:</p>
+
+<p>"Back, back, go thou back!"</p>
+
+<p>I made no reply.</p>
+
+<p>"Back I say, back to earth or"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Still I remained silent.</p>
+
+<p>"Then go on," he said; "on to your destiny, unhappy man."</p>
+
+<p>"This is horrible," I muttered.<span class="pagenum">[Pg 241]</span></p>
+
+<p>"Come," said the guide, "let us proceed."</p>
+
+<p>And we moved onward.</p>
+
+<p>Now I perceived many such heads about us, all resting
+upright on the stony floor. Some were silent, others were
+shouting, others still were whispering and endeavoring to attract
+my attention. As we hurried on I saw more and more of these
+abnormal creatures. Some were in rows, resting against each
+other, leaving barely room for us to pass between, but at last,
+much to my relief, we left them behind us.</p>
+
+<p>But I found that I had no cause for congratulation, when I
+felt myself clutched by a powerful hand&mdash;a hand as large as that
+of a man fifty feet in height. I looked about expecting to see a
+gigantic being, but instead beheld a shrunken pigmy. The
+whole man seemed but a single hand&mdash;a Brobdingnag hand
+affixed to the body of a Liliputian.</p>
+
+<p>"Do not struggle," said the guide; "listen to what he wishes
+to impart."</p>
+
+<p>I leaned over, placing my ear close to the mouth of the
+monstrosity.</p>
+
+<p>"Back, back, go thou back," it whispered.</p>
+
+<p>"What have I to fear?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Back, I say, back to earth, or"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Or what?" I said.</p>
+
+<p>"Then go on; on to your destiny, unhappy man," he
+answered, and the hand loosed its grasp.</p>
+
+<p>My guide drew me onward.</p>
+
+<p>Then, from about us, huge hands arose; on all sides they
+waved in the air; some were closed and were shaken as clenched
+fists, others moved aimlessly with spread fingers, others still
+pointed to the passage we had traversed, and in a confusion of
+whispers I heard from the pigmy figures a babble of cries,
+"Back, back, go thou back." Again I hesitated, the strain
+upon my nerves was becoming unbearable; I glanced backward
+and saw a swarm of misshaped diminutive forms, each holding
+up a monstrous arm and hand. The passage behind us was
+closed against retreat. Every form possessed but one hand, the
+other and the entire body seemingly had been drawn into this
+abnormal member. While I thus meditated, momentarily, as
+by a single thought each hand closed, excepting the index finger,<span class="pagenum">[Pg 242]</span>
+and in unison each finger pointed towards the open way in
+front, and like shafts from a thousand bows I felt the voices
+whiz past me, and then from the rear came the reverberation as
+a complex echo, "Then go on; on to your destiny, unhappy
+man."</p>
+
+<p>Instinctively I sprang forward, and had it not been for the
+restraining hand of my guide would have rushed wildly into
+passages that might have ended my misery, for God only knows
+what those unseen corridors contained. I was aware of that
+which lay behind, and was only intent on escaping from the
+horrid figures already passed.</p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/gs1047.jpg" width="600" height="509" alt="" title="&quot;EACH FINGER POINTED TOWARDS THE OPEN WAY IN FRONT.&quot;" />
+<span class="caption">"EACH FINGER POINTED TOWARDS THE OPEN WAY IN FRONT."</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>"Hold," whispered the guide; "as you value your life, stop."</p>
+
+<p>And then exerting a power that I could not withstand, he
+held me a struggling prisoner.<span class="pagenum">[Pg 243]</span></p>
+
+<p>"Listen," he said, "have you not observed that these
+creatures do not seek to harm you? Have not all of them
+spoken kindly, have any offered violence?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," I replied, "but they are horrible."</p>
+
+<p>"That they realize; but fearing that you will prove to be as
+weak as they have been, and will become as they are now, they
+warn you back. However, I say to you, if you have courage
+sufficient, you need have no fear. Come, rely on me, and do not
+be surprised at anything that appears."</p>
+
+<p>Again we went forward. I realized now my utter helplessness.
+I became indifferent again; I could neither retrace my
+footsteps alone, nor guide them forward in the path I was to
+pursue. I submissively relied on my guide, and as stoical as he
+appeared to be, I moved onward to new scenes.</p>
+
+<p>We came to a great chamber which, as we halted on its
+edge, seemed to be a prodigious amphitheater. In its center
+a rostrum-like stone of a hundred feet in diameter, flat and circular
+on the top, reared itself about twelve feet above the floor,
+and to the base of this rostrum the floor of the room sloped
+evenly. The amphitheater was fully a thousand feet in diameter,
+of great height, and the floor was literally alive with grotesque
+beings. Imagination could not depict an abnormal human form
+that did not exhibit itself to my startled gaze. One peculiarity
+now presented itself to my mind; each abnormal part seemed
+to be created at the expense of the remainder of the body.
+Thus, to my right I beheld a single leg, fully twelve feet in
+height, surmounted by a puny human form, which on this leg,
+hopped ludicrously away. I saw close behind this huge limb a
+great ear attached to a small head and body; then a nose so large
+that the figure to which it was attached was forced to hold the
+face upward, in order to prevent the misshaped organ from
+rubbing on the stony floor. Here a gigantic forehead rested on
+a shrunken face and body, and there a pair of enormous feet
+were walking, seemingly attached to the body of a child, and
+yet the face was that of a man. If an artist were to attempt
+to create as many revolting figures as possible, each with some
+member out of proportion to the rest of the body, he could not
+add one form to those upon this floor. And yet, I again observed
+that each exaggerated organ seemed to have drawn itself into<span class="pagenum">[Pg 244]</span>
+existence by absorbing the remainder of the body. We stood on
+the edge of this great room, and I pondered the scene before my
+eyes. At length my guide broke the silence:</p>
+
+<p>"You must cross this floor; no other passage is known.
+Mark well my words, heed my advice."</p>
+
+<p>"This is the Drunkards' Den. These men are lost to themselves
+and to the world. Every member of this assembly once
+passed onward as you are now doing, in charge of a guide.
+They failed to reach the goal to which you aspire, and retreating,
+reached this chamber, to become victims to the drink habit.
+Some of these creatures have been here for ages, others only for
+a short period."</p>
+
+<p>"Why are they so distorted?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Because matter is now only partly subservient to will," he
+replied. "The intellect and mind of a drunkard on surface
+earth becomes abnormal by the influence of an intoxicant, but
+his real form is unseen, although evidently misshapen and partly
+subject to the perception of a few only of his fellow men.
+Could you see the inner form of an earth surface drunkard, you
+would perceive as great a mental monstrosity as is any physical
+monster now before you, and of the two the physically abnormal
+creature is really the least objectionable. Could you see the mind
+configurations of an assembly of surface earth topers, you would
+perceive a class of beings as much distorted mentally as are
+these physically. A drunkard is a monstrosity. On surface
+earth the mind becomes abnormal; here the body suffers."</p>
+
+<p>"Why is it," I asked, "that parts of these creatures shrink
+away as some special organ increases?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because the abnormal member can grow only by abstracting
+its substance from the other portions of the body. An increasing
+arm enlarges itself by drawing its strength from the other
+parts, hence the body withers as the hand enlarges, and in turn
+the hand shrinks when the leg increases in size. The total
+weight of the individual remains about the same.</p>
+
+<p>"Men on earth judge of men not by what they are, but by
+what they seem to be. The physical form is apparent to the
+sense of sight, the real man is unseen. However, as the boot
+that encloses a foot can not altogether hide the form of the foot
+within, so the body that encloses the life entity, can not but<span class="pagenum">[Pg 245]</span>
+exhibit here and there the character of the dominating spirit
+within. Thus a man's features may grow to indicate the nature
+of the enclosed spirit, for the controlling character of that spirit
+will gradually impress itself on the material part of man. Even
+on surface earth, where the matter side of man dominates, a
+vicious spirit will produce a villainous countenance, a mediocre
+mind a vapid face, and an amorous soul will even protrude the
+anterior part of the skull.</p>
+
+<p>"Carry the same law to this location, and it will be seen that
+as mind, or spirit, is here the master, and matter is the slave, the
+same rule should, under natural law, tend to produce such
+abnormal figures as you perceive. Hence the part of a man's
+spirit that is endowed most highly sways the corresponding part
+of his physical body at the expense of the remainder. Gradually
+the form is altered under the relaxing influence of this
+fearful intra-earth intoxicant, and eventually but one organ
+remains to tell of the symmetrical man who formerly existed.
+Then, when he is no longer capable of self-motion, the comrades
+carry the drunkard's fate, which is here the abnormal being
+you have seen, into the selected corridor, and deposit it among
+others of its kind, as in turn the bearers are destined sometime
+to be carried by others. We reached this cavern through a
+corridor in which heads and arms were abnormal, but in others
+may be found great feet, great legs, or other portions of self-abused
+man.</p>
+
+<p>"I should tell you, furthermore, that on surface earth a
+drunkard is not less abnormal than these creatures; but men
+can not see the form of the drunkard's spirit. Could they
+perceive the image of the real man life that corresponds to the
+material part, it would appear not less distorted and hideous.
+The soul of a mortal protrudes from the visible body as down
+expands from a thistle seed, but it is invisible. Drink drives
+the spirit of an earth-surface drunkard to unnatural forms, not
+less grotesque than these physical distortions. Could you see
+the real drunkard on surface earth he would be largely outside
+the body shell, and hideous in the extreme. As a rule, the spirit
+of an earth-surface drunkard dominates the nose and face, and
+if mortal man could be suddenly gifted with the sense of mind-sight,
+they would find themselves surrounded by persons as<span class="pagenum">[Pg 246]</span>
+misshapen as any delirious imagination can conjure. Luckily
+for humanity this scene is as yet withheld from man, for life
+would otherwise be a fearful experience, because man has not
+the power to resist the temptation to abuse drink."</p>
+
+<p>"Tell me," I said, "how long will those beings rest in these
+caverns?"</p>
+
+<p>"They have been here for ages," replied the guide; "they are
+doomed to remain for ages yet."</p>
+
+<p>"You have intimated that if my courage fails I will return
+to this cavern and become as they are. Now that you have
+warned me of my doom, do you imagine that anything, even
+sudden death, can swerve me from my journey? Death is surely
+preferable to such an existence as this."</p>
+
+<p>"Do not be so confident. Every individual before you has
+had the same opportunity, and has been warned as you have
+been. They could not undergo the test to which they were
+subjected, and you may fail. Besides, on surface earth are not
+men constantly confronted with the doom of the drunkard, and
+do they not, in the face of this reality, turn back and seek his
+caverns? The journey of life is not so fearful that they should
+become drunkards to shrink from its responsibilities. You have
+reached this point in safety. You have passed the sentinels
+without, and will soon be accosted by the band before us.
+Listen well now to my advice. A drunkard always seeks to
+gain companions, to draw others down to his own level, and you
+will be tried as never have you been before. Taste not their
+liquor by whatever form or creature presented. They have no
+power to harm him who has courage to resist. If they entreat
+you, refuse; if they threaten, refuse; if they offer inducements,
+refuse to drink. Let your answer be No, and have no fear. If
+your strength fail you, mark well my"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Before he could complete his sentence I felt a pressure, as of
+a great wind, and suddenly found myself seized in an embrace
+irresistible, and then, helpless as a feather, was swept out into
+the cavern of the drunkards.<span class="pagenum">[Pg 247]</span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247"></a>CHAPTER XXXIX.<br />
+<br />
+AMONG THE DRUNKARDS.</h2>
+
+
+<p>I remember once to have stood on the edge of Niagara's
+great whirlpool, but not more fearful did its seething waters then
+seem than did the semi-human whirl into which I had now been
+plunged. Whether my guide had been aware of the coming
+move that separated us I never knew, but, as his words were
+interrupted, I infer that he was not altogether ready to part
+from my company. Be this as it may, he disappeared from
+sight, and, as by a concerted move, the cries of the drunkards
+subsided instantly. I found myself borne high in the air,
+perched on a huge hand that was carried by its semi-human
+comrades. It seemed as though the contents of that vast hall
+had been suddenly thrown beneath me, for, as I looked about, I
+saw all around a sea of human fragments, living, moving parts of
+men. Round and round that hall we circled as an eddy whirls
+in a rock-bound basin, and not less silently than does the water
+of an eddy. Then I perceived that the disjointed mass of
+humanity moved as a spiral, in unison, throbbing like a vitalized
+stream, bearing me submissively on its surface. Gradually
+the distance between myself and the center stone lessened, and
+then I found that, as if carried in the groove of a gigantic
+living spiral, I was being swept towards the stone platform in
+the center of the room. There was method in the movements
+of the drunkards, although I could not analyze the intricacies of
+their complex reel.</p>
+
+<p>Finally I was borne to the center stone, and by a sudden toss
+of the hand, in the palm of which I was seated, I was thrown upon
+the raised platform. Then in unison the troop swung around
+the stone, and I found myself gazing on a mass of vitalized
+fragments of humanity. Quickly a figure sprung upon the
+platform, and in him I discerned a seemingly perfect man. He
+came to my side and grasped my hand as if he were a friend.<span class="pagenum">[Pg 248]</span></p>
+
+<p>"Do not fear," he said; "obey our request, and you will
+not be harmed."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you desire?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>He pointed to the center of the stone, and I saw thereon
+many gigantic, inverted fungus bowls. The gills of some had
+been crushed to a pulp, and had saturated themselves with
+liquid which, perhaps by a species of fermentation, had undergone
+a structural change; others were as yet intact; others still
+contained men intently cutting the gills into fragments and
+breaking the fruit preparatory to further manipulation.</p>
+
+<p>"You are to drink with us," he replied.</p>
+
+<p>"No," I said; "I will not drink."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you must die; to refuse to drink with us is to invite
+death."</p>
+
+<p>"So mote it be; I will not drink."</p>
+
+<p>We stood facing each other, apparently both meditating on
+the situation.</p>
+
+<p>I remember to have been surprised, not that the man
+before me had been able to spring from the floor to the table rock
+on which I stood, but that so fair a personage could have been a
+companion of the monstrosities about me. He was a perfect
+type of manhood, and was exquisitely clothed in a loose, flowing
+robe that revealed and heightened the beauty of his symmetrical
+form. His face was fair, yet softly tinted with rich, fresh color;
+his hair and beard were neatly trimmed; his manner was
+polished, and his countenance frank and attractive. The contrast
+between the preternatural shapes from among whom he
+sprung and himself was as between a demon and an angel. I
+marveled that I had not perceived him before, for such a one
+should have been conspicuous because so fair; but I reflected
+that it was quite natural that among the thousands of grotesque
+persons about me, one attractive form should have escaped
+notice. Presently he spoke again, seemingly having repented
+of his display of temper.</p>
+
+<p>"I am a friend," he said; "a deliverer. I will serve you as
+I have others before you. Lean on me, listen to my story, accept
+my proffered friendship."</p>
+
+<p>Then he continued: "When you have rested, I will guide you
+in safety back to upper earth, and restore you to your friends."<span class="pagenum">[Pg 249]</span></p>
+
+<p>I could not resist his pleasing promise. I suddenly and
+unaccountably believed in his sincerity. He impressed me with
+confidence in his truthfulness, yes, against my better judgment,
+convinced me that he must be a friend, a savior. Grasping him
+by the hand I thanked him for his interest in a disconsolate
+wanderer, and assured him of my confidence.</p>
+
+<p>"I am in your hands," I said; "I will obey you implicitly.
+I thank you, my deliverer; lead me back to surface earth and
+receive the gratitude of a despairing mortal."</p>
+
+<p>"This I will surely do," he said; "rest your case in my
+hands, do not concern yourself in the least about your future.
+Before acquiescing in your desire, however, I will explain part of
+the experiences through which you have recently passed. You
+have been in the control of an evil spirit, and have been deceived.
+The grotesque figures, the abnormal beings about you, exist
+only in your disordered imagination. They are not real. These
+persons are happy and free from care or pain. They live in bliss
+inexpressible. They have a life within a life, and the outward
+expression that you have perceived is as the uncouth hide and
+figure that incloses the calm, peaceful eye of a toad. Look at
+their eyes, not at their seemingly distorted forms."</p>
+
+<p>I turned to the throng and beheld a multitude of upturned
+faces mildly beaming upon me. As I glanced from eye to eye
+of each countenance, the repulsive figure disappeared from my
+view, and a sweet expression of innocence was all that was disclosed
+to me. I realized that I had judged by the outer garment.
+I had wronged these fellow-beings. A sense of remorse came
+over me, a desire to atone for my short-sightedness.</p>
+
+<p>"What can I offer as a retribution?" I asked. "I have
+injured these people."</p>
+
+<p>"Listen," was the reply. "These serene intelligences are
+happy. They are as a band of brothers. They seek to do you
+a kindness, to save you from disaster. One hour of experience
+such as they enjoy is worth a hundred years of the pleasures
+known to you. This delicious favor, an hour of bliss, they freely
+offer you, and after you have partaken of their exquisite joy, I
+will conduct you back to earth's surface whenever you desire to
+leave us." He emphasized the word, desire.</p>
+
+<p>"I am ready," I replied; "give me this promised delight."<span class="pagenum">[Pg 250]</span></p>
+
+<p>The genial allurer turned to the table rock behind us, and
+continued:</p>
+
+<p>"In these fungus bowls we foment the extract of life. The
+precious cordial is as a union of the quintessential spirits of joy,
+peace, tranquillity, happiness, and delight. Could man abstract
+from ecstasy the thing that underlies the sense that gives that
+word a meaning, his product would not approach the power of
+the potent liquids in these vessels."</p>
+
+<p>"Of what are they composed?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Of derivatives of the rarest species of the fungus family,"
+he answered. "They are made by formul� that are the result of
+thousands of years of experimentation. Come, let us not delay
+longer the hour of bliss."</p>
+
+<p>Taking me by the hand, my graceful comrade led me to the
+nearest bowl. Then on closer view I perceived that its contents
+were of a deep green color, and in active commotion, and
+although no vapor was apparent, a delightful sensation impressed
+my faculties. I am not sure that I inhaled at all,&mdash;the feeling
+was one of penetration, of subtile, magic absorption. My
+companion took a tiny shell which he dipped into the strange
+cauldron. Holding the tiny cup before me, he spoke the one
+word, "Drink."</p>
+
+<p>Ready to acquiesce, forgetful of the warning I had received,
+I grasped the cup, and raised it to my lips, and as I did so
+chanced to glance at my tempter's face, and saw not the supposed
+friend I had formerly observed, but, as through a mask fair in outline,
+the countenance of an exulting demon, regarding me with a
+sardonic grin. In an instant he had changed from man to devil.</p>
+
+<p>I dashed the cup upon the rock. "No; I will not drink,"
+I shouted.</p>
+
+<p>Instantly the cavern rung with cries of rage. A thousand
+voices joined as by accord, and simultaneously the throng of
+fragments of men began to revolve again. The mysterious
+spiral seemed to unwind, but I could not catch the method of its
+movement. The motion was like that of an uncoiling serpent
+bisected lengthwise, the two halves of the body seeming to slide
+against each other. Gradually that part of the cavern near the
+stone on which I stood became clear of its occupants, and at last
+I perceived that the throng had receded to the outer edge.<span class="pagenum">[Pg 251]</span></p>
+
+<p>Then the encircling side walls of the amphitheater became
+visible, and as water sinks into sand, the medley of fragments of
+humanity disappeared from view.</p>
+
+<p>I turned to my companion; he, too, had vanished. I glanced
+towards the liquor cauldrons; the stone was bare. I alone occupied
+the gigantic hall. No trace remained to tell of the throng
+that a short time previously had surrounded and mocked me.</p>
+
+<p>Desolate, distracted, I threw myself upon the stone, and
+cursed my miserable self. "Come back," I cried, "come back.
+I will drink, drink, drink."<span class="pagenum">[Pg 252]</span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252"></a>CHAPTER XL.<br />
+<br />
+FURTHER TEMPTATION.&mdash;ETIDORHPA.</h2>
+
+
+<p>Then, as my voice reverberated from the outer recesses, I
+caught a sound as of music in the distance. I raised my head
+and listened&mdash;yes, surely there was music. The melody became
+clearly distinct, and soon my senses were aware that both vocal
+and instrumental music were combined. The airs which came
+floating were sweet, simple, and beautiful. The voices and
+accompanying strains approached, but I could distinguish no
+words. By and by, from the corridors of the cavern, troops of
+bright female forms floated into view. They were clad in robes
+ranging from pure white to every richest hue, contrasting
+strangely, and in the distance their rainbow brilliancy made a
+gorgeous spectacle. Some were fantastically attired in short
+gowns, such as I imagine were worn by the dancing girls of
+sacred history, others had kirtles of a single bright color, others
+of many shades intermingled, while others still were dressed in
+gauze-like fabrics of pure white.</p>
+
+<p>As they filed into the cavern, and approached me, they
+formed into platoons, or into companies, and then, as dissolving
+views come and go, they presented first one and then another
+figure. Sometimes they would stretch in great circling lines
+around the hall, again they would form into squares, and again
+into geometrical figures of all shades and forms, but I observed
+that with every change they drew nearer to the stone on which
+I rested.</p>
+
+<p>They were now so near that their features could be distinguished,
+and never before had I seen such loveliness in human
+mold. Every face was as perfect as a master's picture of the
+Madonna, and yet no two seemed to possess the same type of
+beauty. Some were of dark complexion with glossy, raven
+hair, others were fair with hair ranging from light brown to
+golden. The style of head dress, as a rule, was of the simplest<span class="pagenum">[Pg 253]</span>
+description. A tinted ribbon, or twisted cord, over the head,
+bound their hair with becoming grace, and their silken locks were
+either plaited into braids, curled into ringlets, or hung loosely,
+flowing in wavelets about their shoulders. Some held curious
+musical instruments, others beautiful wands, and altogether
+they produced a scenic effect of rare beauty that the most
+extravagant dream of fairyland could not surpass. Thus it was
+that I became again the center of a throng, not of repulsive
+monsters, but of marvelously lovely beings. They were as
+different from those preceding as darkness is from daylight.</p>
+
+<p>Could any man from the data of my past experiences have
+predicted such a scene? Never before had the semblance of a
+woman appeared, never before had an intimation been given
+that the gentle sex existed in these silent chambers. Now, from
+the grotesque figures and horrible cries of the former occupants
+of this same cavern, the scene had changed to a conception of
+the beautiful and artistic, such as a poetic spirit might evolve in
+an extravagant dream of higher fairy land. I glanced above;
+the great hall was clothed in brilliant colors, the bare rocks had
+disappeared, the dome of that vast arch reaching to an immeasurable
+height, was decorated in all the colors of the rainbow.
+Flags and streamers fluttered in breezes that also moved the
+garments of the angelic throng about me, but which I could not
+sense; profiles of enchanting faces pervaded the glimmering
+space beyond; I alone was but an onlooker, not a participant of
+the joys about me.</p>
+
+<p>The movements of the seraph-like figures continued, innumerable
+forms and figures followed forms and figures innumerable,
+and music indescribable blended with the poetry of motion. I
+was rapt, the past disappeared, my former mind was blotted from
+existence, the world vanished, and I became a thrill of joy, a
+sensation of absolute delight.</p>
+
+<p>The band of spirits or fairy forms reached the rock at my
+feet, but I did not know how long a time they consumed in doing
+this; it may have been a second, and it may have been an
+eternity. Neither did I care. A single moment of existence such
+as I experienced, seemed worth an age of any other pleasure.</p>
+
+<p>Circling about me, these ethereal creatures paused from their
+motions, and, as the music ceased, I stood above them, and yet<span class="pagenum">[Pg 254]</span>
+in their midst, and gazed out into a distance illimitable, but not
+less beautiful in the expanse than was the adjacent part. The
+cavern had altogether disappeared, and in the depths about me
+as far as the eye could reach, seemingly into the broad expanse
+of heaven, I saw the exquisite forms that I have so imperfectly
+described.</p>
+
+<p>Then a single band from the throng lightly sprung upon the
+stony terrace where I stood, and sung and danced before me.
+Every motion was perfect as imagination could depict, every
+sound was concentrated extract of melody. This band retired to
+be replaced by another, which in turn gave way to another, and
+still another, until, as in space we have no standard, time vanished,
+and numbers ceased to be numbers.</p>
+
+<p>No two of the band of dancers were clothed alike, no two
+songs were similar, though all were inexpressibly enchanting.
+The first group seemed perfect, and yet the second was better,
+and each succeeding band sung sweeter songs, were more
+beautiful, and richer in dress than those preceding. I became
+enveloped in the �sthetic atmosphere, my spirit seemed to be
+loosened from the body, it was apparently upon the point of
+escaping from its mortal frame; suddenly the music ceased,
+the figures about became passive, and every form standing
+upright and graceful, gazed upon my face, and as I looked
+at the radiant creatures, each successive face, in turn, seemed
+to grow more beautiful, each form more exquisite than those
+about.</p>
+
+<p>Then, in the distance, I observed the phalanx divide, forming
+into two divisions, separated by a broad aisle, stretching from
+my feet to the limit of space without, and down this aisle I
+observed a single figure advancing toward me.</p>
+
+<p>As she approached, the phalanx closed in behind her, and
+when at last she reached the stone on which I stood, she stepped,
+or was wafted to my side, and the phalanx behind moved together
+and was complete again.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span></p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 489px;">
+<img src="images/gs1048.jpg" width="489" height="600" alt="" title="ETIDORHPA." />
+<span class="caption">ETIDORHPA.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>"My name is Etidorhpa. In me you behold the spirit that
+elevates man, and subdues the most violent of passions. In history,
+so far back in the dim ages as to be known now as legendary
+mythology, have I ruled and blessed the world. Unclasp my
+power over man and beast, and while heaven dissolves, the
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg 256]</span>charms of Paradise will perish. I know no master. The universe
+bows to my authority. Stars and suns enamored pulsate and
+throb in space and kiss each other in waves of light; atoms cold
+embrace and cling together; structures inanimate affiliate with
+and attract inanimate structures; bodies dead to other noble
+passions are not dead to love. The savage beast, under my
+enchantment, creeps to her lair, and gently purrs over her offspring;
+even man becomes less violent, and sheathes his weapon
+and smothers his hatred as I soothe his passions beside the loved
+ones in the privacy of his home.<span class="pagenum">[Pg 257]</span></p>
+
+<p>"I have been known under many titles, and have comforted
+many peoples. Strike my name from Time's record, and the
+lovely daughters of Zeus and Dione would disappear; and with
+them would vanish the grace and beauty of woman; the sweet
+conception of the Froth Child of the Cyprus Sea would be lost;
+Venus, the Goddess of Love, would have no place in song, and
+Love herself, the holiest conception of the poet, man's superlative
+conception of Heaven's most precious charms, would be buried
+with the myrtle and the rose. My name is Etidorhpa; interpret
+it rightly, and you have what has been to humanity the essence
+of love, the mother of all that ennobles. He who loves a wife
+worships me; she, who in turn makes a home happy, is typical
+of me. I am Etidorhpa, the beginning and the end of earth.
+Behold in me the antithesis of envy, the opposite of malice, the
+enemy of sorrow, the mistress of life, the queen of immortal
+bliss.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know," she continued, and her voice, soft and sweet,
+carried with it a pleasurable sense of truthfulness indescribable,
+"do you know that man's idea of heaven, places me, Etidorhpa,
+on the highest throne? With the charm of maiden pure, I
+combine the devotion of wife and the holiness of mother. Take
+from the life of man the treasures I embody, and he will be
+homeless, childless, loveless. The thought of Heaven will in
+such a case be as the dismal conception of a dreary platitude. A
+life in such a Heaven, a Heaven devoid of love (and this the
+Scriptures teach), is one of endless torment.</p>
+
+<p>"Love, by whatever name the conception is designated, rules
+the world. Divest the cold man of science, of the bond that
+binds him to his life-thought, and his work is ended. Strike<span class="pagenum">[Pg 258]</span>
+from the master in music the chord that links his soul to the
+voice he breathes, and his songs will be hushed. Deaden the
+sense of love which the artist bears his art, and as the spirit that
+underlies his thought-scenes vanishes, his touch becomes chilled,
+and his brush inexpressive. The soldier thinks of his home and
+country, and without a murmur sheds his life blood.</p>
+
+<p>"And yet there are debasing phases of love, for as love of
+country builds a nation, so love of pillage may destroy it. Love
+of the holy and the beautiful stands in human life opposed to
+love of the debasing and vicious, and I, Etidorhpa, am typical of
+the highest love of man. As the same force binds the molecules
+of the rose and the violet as well as those of noxious drugs, so
+the same soul conception may serve the love of good or the love
+of evil. Love may guide a tyrant or actuate a saint, may make
+man torture his fellow, or strive to ease his pain.</p>
+
+<p>"Thus, man's propensity to serve his holy or his evil passion
+may each be called a degree in love, and in the serving of that
+passion the love of one heart may express itself as the antithesis
+of love in another. As bitter is to some men's taste more pleasant
+than sweet, and sour is yet more grateful to others, so one man
+may love the beautiful, another delight in the grotesque, and a
+third may love to see his neighbor suffer. Amid these, the phase
+of love that ennobles, brings the greatest degree of pleasure and
+comfort to mankind, but the love that degrades is love nevertheless,
+by whatever name the expression of the passion may be
+called. Love rules the world, and typical of man's intensest,
+holiest love, I, Etidorhpa, stand the Soul of Love Supreme."
+She hesitated.</p>
+
+<p>"Go on."</p>
+
+<p>"I have already said, and in saying this have told the truth,
+I come from beyond the empty shell of a materialistic gold and
+silver conception of Heaven. Go with me, and in my home you
+will find man's soul devotion, regardless of material surroundings.
+I have said, and truly, the corridors of the Heaven mansion,
+enriched by precious stones and metals fine, but destitute of
+my smiles and graces, are deserted. The golden calf is no longer
+worshiped, cobwebs cling in festoons motionless, and the dust
+of selfish thoughts perverted, dry and black as the soot from
+Satan's fires settling therein, as the dust of an antiquated<span class="pagenum">[Pg 259]</span>
+sarcophagus, rest undisturbed. Place on one side the Heaven
+of which gold-bound misers sing, and on the other Etidorhpa
+and the treasures that come with me to man and woman, (for
+without me neither wife, child, nor father could exist,) and from
+any other heaven mankind will turn away. The noblest gift of
+Heaven to humanity is the highest sense of love, and I, Etidorhpa,
+am the soul of love."</p>
+
+<p>She ceased speaking, and as I looked at the form beside me
+I forgot myself in the rapture of that gaze.</p>
+
+<p>Crush the colors of the rainbow into a single hue possessed
+of the attributes of all the others, and multiply that entity to
+infinity, and you have less richness than rested in any of the
+complex colors shown in the trimming of her raiment. Lighten
+the softness of eiderdown a thousand times, and yet maintain
+its sense of substance, and you have not conceived of the softness
+of the gauze that decked her simple, flowing garments.
+Gather the shadows cast by a troop of radiant angels, then
+sprinkle the resultant shade with star dust, and color therewith
+a garment brighter than satin, softer than silk, and more ethereal
+than light itself, and you have less beauty than reposed in the
+modest dress that enveloped her figure. Abstract the perfume
+from the sweetest oriental grasses, and combine with it the
+essential spirit of the wild rose, then add thereto the soul of
+ambergris, and the quintessential extracts of the finest aromatics
+of the East, and you have not approached the exquisite
+fragrance that penetrated my very being at her approach. She
+stood before me, slender, lithe, symmetrical, radiant. Her hair
+was more beautiful than pen can depict; it was colorless because
+it can not be described by colors known to mortals. Her face
+paled the beauty of all who had preceded her. She could not be a
+fairy, for no conception of a fairy can approach such loveliness;
+she was not a spirit, for surely material substance was a part of
+her form; she was not an angel, for no abnormal, irrational
+wing protruded from her shoulder to blemish her seraphic figure.</p>
+
+<p>"No," I said musingly; "she is a creature of other climes;
+the Scriptures tell of no such being; she is neither human nor
+angelic, but"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"But what?" she said.</p>
+
+<p>"I do not know," I answered.<span class="pagenum">[Pg 260]</span></p>
+
+<p>"Then I will tell you," she replied. "Yes; I will tell you of
+myself and of my companions. I will show you our home,
+carrying you through the shadows of heaven to exhibit that fair
+land, for heaven without Etidorhpa casts a shadow in comparison
+therewith. See," she said, as with her dainty fingers she
+removed from her garment a fragment of transparent film that
+I had not previously observed; "see, this is a cobweb that clung
+to my skirt, as, on my way to meet you, I passed through the
+dismal corridors of the materialists' loveless heaven."</p>
+
+<p>She dropped it on the floor, and I stooped to pick it up, but
+vainly&mdash;my fingers passed through it as through a mist.</p>
+
+<p>"You must be an angel," I stammered.</p>
+
+<p>She smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"Come," she said, "do not consume your time with thoughts
+of materialistic heaven; come with me to that brighter land
+beyond, and in those indescribable scenes we, you and I, will
+wander together forever."</p>
+
+<p>She held out her hand; I hesitatingly touched it, and then
+raised it to my lips. She made no resistance.</p>
+
+<p>I dropped upon my knees. "Are you to be mine?" I cried.
+"Mine forever?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," she answered; "if you will it, for he who loves will be
+loved in turn."</p>
+
+<p>"I will do it," I said; "I give myself to you, be you what you
+may, be your home where it may, I give up the earth behind me,
+and the hope of heaven before me; the here and the hereafter I
+will sacrifice. Let us hasten," I said, for she made no movement.</p>
+
+<p>She shook her head. "You must yet be tempted as never
+before, and you must resist the tempter. You can not pass into
+the land of Etidorhpa until you have suffered as only the damned
+can suffer, until you have withstood the pangs of thirst, and have
+experienced heat and cold indescribable. Remember the warning
+of your former guide, mark well the words of Etidorhpa:
+you must not yield. 'Twas to serve you that I came before you
+now, 'twas to preserve you from the Drunkard's Cavern that I
+have given you this vision of the land beyond the End of Earth
+where, if you will serve yourself, we will meet again."</p>
+
+<p>She held aloft two tiny cups; I sprung to my feet and
+grasped one of them, and as I glanced at the throng in front of<span class="pagenum">[Pg 261]</span>
+me, every radiant figure held aloft in the left hand a similar cup.
+All were gazing in my face. I looked at the transparent cup in
+my hand; it appeared to be partly filled with a green liquid. I
+looked at her cup and saw that it contained a similar fluid.</p>
+
+<p>Forgetting the warning she had so recently given, I raised
+the cup to my lips, and just before touching it glanced again at
+her face. The fair creature stood with bowed head, her face
+covered with her hand; her very form and attitude spoke of
+sorrow and disappointment, and she trembled in distress. She
+held one hand as though to thrust back a form that seemed
+about to force itself beyond her figure, for peering exultingly
+from behind, leered the same Satanic face that met my gaze on
+the preceding occasion, when in the presence of the troop of
+demons, I had been tempted by the perfect man.</p>
+
+<p>Dashing the cup to the floor I shouted:</p>
+
+<p>"No; I will not drink."</p>
+
+<p>Etidorhpa dropped upon her knees and clasped her hands.
+The Satanic figure disappeared from sight. Realizing that we
+had triumphed over the tempter, I also fell upon my knees in
+thankfulness.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg 262]</span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262"></a>CHAPTER XLI.<br />
+<br />
+MISERY.</h2>
+
+
+<p>As all the bubbles in a glass shrink and vanish when the
+first collapses, so the troop of fairy-like forms before me disintegrated,
+and were gone. The delicate being, whose hand I held,
+fluttered as does a mist in the first gust of a sudden gale, and
+then dissolved into transparency. The gaily decked amphitheater
+disappeared, the very earth cavern passed from existence, and I
+found myself standing solitary and alone in a boundless desert.
+I turned towards every point of the compass only to find that no
+visible object appeared to break the monotony. I stood upon a
+floor of pure white sand which stretched to the horizon in gentle
+wave-like undulations as if the swell of the ocean had been
+caught, transformed to sand, and fixed.</p>
+
+<p>I bent down and scooped a handful of the sand, and raised
+it in the palm of my hand, letting it sift back again to earth; it
+was surely sand. I pinched my flesh, and pulled my hair, I tore
+my garments, stamped upon the sand, and shouted aloud to
+demonstrate that I myself was still myself. It was real, yes,
+real. I stood alone in a desert of sand. Morning was dawning,
+and on one side the great sun rose slowly and majestically.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank God for the sun," I cried. "Thank God for the
+light and heat of the sun."</p>
+
+<p>I was again on surface earth; once more I beheld that glorious
+orb for the sight of which I had so often prayed when I believed
+myself miserable in the dismal earth caverns, and which I had
+been willing to give my very life once more to behold. I fell
+on my knees, and raised my hands in thankfulness. I blessed
+the rising sun, the illimitable sand, the air about me, and the blue
+heavens above. I blessed all that was before me, and again and
+again returned thanks for my delivery from the caverns beneath
+me. I did not think to question by what power this miracle had
+been accomplished. I did not care to do so; had I thought of<span class="pagenum">[Pg 263]</span>
+the matter at all I would not have dared to question for fear the
+transition might prove a delusion.</p>
+
+<p>I turned towards the sun, and walked eastward. As the day
+progressed and the sun rose into the heavens, I maintained my
+journey, aiming as best I could to keep the same direction.
+The heat increased, and when the sun reached the zenith it
+seemed as though it would melt the marrow in my bones. The
+sand, as white as snow and hot as lava, dazzled my eyes, and I
+covered them with my hands. The sun in the sky felt as if it
+were a ball of white hot iron near my head. It seemed small,
+and yet appeared to shine as through a tube directed only
+towards myself. Vainly did I struggle to escape and get
+beyond its boundary, the tube seemed to follow my every
+motion, directing the blazing shafts, and concentrating them
+ever upon my defenseless person. I removed my outer garments,
+and tore my shirt into fibers hoping to catch a waft of
+breeze, and with one hand over my eyes, and the other holding
+my coat above my head, endeavored to escape the mighty flood
+of heat, but vainly. The fiery rays streamed through the garment
+as mercury flows through a film of gauze. They penetrated
+my flesh, and vaporized my blood. My hands, fingers, and arms
+puffed out as a bladder of air expands under the influence of
+heat. My face swelled to twice, thrice its normal size, and at
+last my eyes were closed, for my cheeks and eyebrows met. I
+rubbed my shapeless hand over my sightless face, and found it as
+round as a ball; the nose had become imbedded in the expanded
+flesh, and my ears had disappeared in the same manner.</p>
+
+<p>I could no longer see the sun, but felt the vivid, piercing rays
+I could not evade. I do not know whether I walked or rolled
+along; I only know that I struggled to escape those deadly
+rays. Then I prayed for death, and in the same breath begged
+the powers that had transferred me to surface earth to carry
+me back again to the caverns below. The recollection of their
+cool, refreshing atmosphere was as the thought of heaven must
+be to a lost spirit. I experienced the agony of a damned soul,
+and now, in contradistinction to former times, considered as my
+idea of perfect happiness the dismal earth caverns of other days.
+I thought of the day I had stood at the mouth of the Kentucky
+cave, and waded into the water with my guide; I recalled the<span class="pagenum">[Pg 264]</span>
+refreshing coolness of the stream in the darkness of that cavern
+when the last ray of sunshine disappeared, and I cursed
+myself for longing then for sunshine, and the surface earth.
+Fool that man is, I mentally cried, not to be contented with
+that which is, however he may be situated, and wherever he
+may be placed. This is but a retribution, I am being cursed for
+my discontented mind, this is hell, and in comparison with this
+hell all else on or in earth is happiness. Then I damned the
+sun, the earth, the very God of all, and in my frenzy cursed
+everything that existed. I felt my puffed limbs, and prayed
+that I might become lean again. I asked to shrink to a skeleton,
+for seemingly my misery came with my expanded form;
+but I prayed and cursed in vain. So I struggled on in agony,
+every moment seemingly covering a multitude of years; struggled
+along like a lost soul plodding in an endless expanse of ever-increasing,
+ever-concentrating hell. At last, however, the day
+declined, the heat decreased, and as it did so my distorted body
+gradually regained its normal size, my eyesight returned, and
+finally I stood in that wilderness of sand watching the great red
+sun sink into the earth, as in the morning I had watched it rise.
+But between the sunrise and the sunset there had been an
+eternity of suffering, and then, as if released from a spell, I
+dropped exhausted upon the sand, and seemed to sleep. I
+dreamed of the sun, and that an angel stood before me, and
+asked why I was miserable, and in reply I pointed to the sun.
+"See," I said, "the author of the misery of man."</p>
+
+<p>Said the angel: "Were there no sun there would be no men,
+but were there no men there would still be misery."</p>
+
+<p>"Misery of what?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Misery of mind," replied the angel. "Misery is a thing,
+misery is not a conception&mdash;pain is real, pain is not an impression.
+Misery and pain would still exist and prey upon mind
+substance were there no men, for mind also is real, and not a
+mere conception. The pain you have suffered has not been the
+pain of matter, but the pain of spirit. Matter can not suffer.
+Were it matter that suffered, the heated sand would writhe in
+agony. No; it is only mind and spirit that experience pain, or
+pleasure, and neither mind nor spirit can evade its destiny, even
+if it escape from the body."<span class="pagenum">[Pg 265]</span></p>
+
+<p>Then I awoke and saw once more the great red sun rise from
+the sand-edge of my desolate world, and I became aware of a new
+pain, for now I perceived the fact that I experienced the sense
+of thirst. The conception of the impression drew my mind to
+the subject, and instantly intense thirst, the most acute of bodily
+sufferings, possessed me. When vitalized tissue craves water,
+other physical wants are unfelt; when man parches to death all
+other methods of torture are disregarded. I thought no longer
+of the rising sun, I remembered no more the burning sand of
+yesterday, I felt only the pain of thirst.</p>
+
+<p>"Water, water, water," I cried, and then in the distance as if
+in answer to my cry, I beheld a lake of water.</p>
+
+<p>Instantly every nerve was strained, every muscle stretched,
+and I fled over the sands towards the welcome pool.</p>
+
+<p>On and on I ran, and as I did so, the sun rising higher and
+higher, again began to burn the sands beneath my feet, and
+roast the flesh upon my bones. Once more I experienced that
+intolerable sense of pain, the pain of living flesh disintegrating
+by fire, and now with thirst gnawing at my vitals, and fire drying
+up the residue of my evaporated blood, I struggled in agony
+towards a lake that vanished before my gaze, to reappear just
+beyond.</p>
+
+<p>This day was more horrible than the preceding, and yet it
+was the reverse so far as the action of the sun on my flesh was
+concerned. My prayer of yesterday had been fearfully answered,
+and the curses of the day preceding were being visited upon my
+very self. I had prayed to become lean, and instead of the
+former puffed tissue and expanded flesh, my body contracted as
+does beef when dried. The tightening skin squeezed upon the
+solidifying flesh, and as the moisture evaporated, it left a shriveled
+integument, contracted close upon the bone. My joints
+stood out as great protuberances, my skin turned to a dark amber
+color, and my flesh became transparent as does wetted horn.
+I saw my very vitals throb, I saw the empty blood vessels, the
+shriveled nerves and vacant arteries of my frame. I could not
+close my eyes. I could not shield them from the burning sun. I
+was a mummy, yet living, a dried corpse walking over the sand,
+dead to all save pain. I tried to fall, but could not, and I felt
+that, while the sun was visible, I must stand upright; I could<span class="pagenum">[Pg 266]</span>
+not stop, and could not stoop. Then at last the malevolent sun
+sank beneath the horizon, and as the last ray disappeared again,
+I fell upon the sand.</p>
+
+<p>I did not sleep, I did not rest, I did not breathe nor live a
+human; I only existed as a living pain, the conception of pain
+realized into a conscious nucleus,&mdash;and so the night passed.
+Again the sun arose, and with the light of her first ray I saw
+near at hand a caravan, camels, men, horses, a great cavalcade.
+They approached rapidly and surrounded me. The leader of the
+band alighted and raised me to my feet, for no longer had I the
+power of motion. He spoke to me kindly, and strange as it may
+seem to you, but not at all strange did it seem to me, called me
+by name.</p>
+
+<p>"We came across your tracks in the desert," he said; "we are
+your deliverers."</p>
+
+<p>I motioned for water; I could not speak.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he said, "water you shall have."</p>
+
+<p>Then from one of the skins that hung across the hump of a
+camel he filled a crystal goblet with sparkling water, and held it
+towards me, but just before the goblet touched my lips he withdrew
+it and said:</p>
+
+<p>"I forgot to first extend the greetings of our people."</p>
+
+<p>And then I noticed in his other hand a tiny glass containing
+a green liquid, which he placed to my lips, pronouncing the
+single word, "Drink."</p>
+
+<p>I fastened my gaze upon the water, and opened my lips. I
+smelled the aroma of the powerful narcotic liquid within the
+glass, and hastened to obey, but glanced first at my deliverer,
+and in his stead saw the familiar face of the satanic figure that
+twice before had tempted me. Instantly, without a thought as
+to the consequences, without a fear as to the result, I dashed the
+glass to the sand, and my voice returning, I cried for the third
+time, "No; I will not drink."</p>
+
+<p>The troop of camels instantly disappeared, as had the figures
+in the scenes before, the tempter resolved into clear air, the sand
+beneath my feet became natural again, and I became myself as
+I had been before passing through the hideous ordeal. The fact
+of my deliverance from the earth caverns had, I now realized,
+been followed by temporary aberration of my mind, but at last<span class="pagenum">[Pg 267]</span>
+I saw clearly again, the painful fancy had passed, the delirium
+was over.</p>
+
+<p>I fell upon my knees in thankfulness; the misery through
+which I had passed had proven to be illusory, the earth caverns
+were beneath me, the mirage and temptations were not real, the
+horrors I had experienced were imaginary&mdash;thank God for all
+this&mdash;and that the sand was really sand. Solitary, alone, I
+kneeled in the desert barren, from horizon to horizon desolation
+only surrounded, and yet the scene of that illimitable waste,
+a fearful reality, it is true, was sweet in comparison with the
+misery of body and soul about which I had dreamed so vividly.</p>
+
+<p>"'Tis no wonder," I said to myself, "that in the moment of
+transition from the underground caverns to the sunshine above,
+the shock should have disturbed my mental equilibrium, and in
+the moment of reaction I should have dreamed fantastic and
+horrible imaginings."</p>
+
+<p>A cool and refreshing breeze sprung now, from I know not
+where; I did not care to ask; it was too welcome a gift to
+question, and contrasted pleasantly with the misery of my past
+hallucination. The sun was shining hot above me, the sand
+was glowing, parched beneath me, and yet the grateful breeze
+fanned my brow, and refreshed my spirit.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank God," I cried, "for the breeze, for the coolness that
+it brings; only those who have experienced the silence of the
+cavern solitudes through which I have passed, and added thereto,
+have sensed the horrors of the more recent nightmare scenes,
+can appreciate the delights of a gust of air."</p>
+
+<p>The incongruity of surrounding conditions, as connected
+with affairs rational, did not appeal at all to my questioning
+senses, it seemed as though the cool breeze, coming from out the
+illimitable desolation of a heated waste was natural. I arose
+and walked on, refreshed. From out that breeze my physical
+self drew refreshment and strength.</p>
+
+<p>"'Tis the cold," I said; "the blessed antithesis of heat,
+that supports life. Heat enervates, cold stimulates; heat
+depresses, cold animates. Thank God for breezes, winds,
+waters, cold."</p>
+
+<p>I turned and faced the gladsome breeze. "'Tis the source
+of life, I will trace it to its origin, I will leave the accursed<span class="pagenum">[Pg 268]</span>
+desert, the hateful sunshine, and seek the blissful regions that
+give birth to cool breezes."</p>
+
+<p>I walked rapidly, and the breeze became more energetic and
+cooler. With each increase of momentum on my part, corresponding
+strength seemed to be added to the breeze&mdash;both
+strength and coolness.</p>
+
+<p>"Is not this delightful?" I murmured; "my God at last has
+come to be a just God. Knowing what I wanted, He sent the
+breeze; in answer to my prayer the cool, refreshing breeze arose.
+Damn the heat," I cried aloud, as I thought of the horrid day
+before; "blessed be the cold," and as though in answer to my
+cry the breeze stiffened and the cold strengthened itself, and I
+again returned thanks to my Creator.</p>
+
+<p>With ragged coat wrapped about my form I faced the breeze
+and strode onward towards the home of the gelid wind that now
+dashed in gusts against my person.</p>
+
+<p>Then I heard my footstep crunch, and perceived that the
+sand was hard beneath my feet; I stooped over to examine it
+and found it frozen. Strange, I reflected, strange that dry sand
+can freeze, and then I noticed, for the first time, that spurts of
+snow surrounded me, 'twas a sleety mixture upon which I trod,
+a crust of snow and sand. A sense of dread came suddenly over
+me, and instinctively I turned, affrighted, and ran away from
+the wind, towards the desert behind me, back towards the sun,
+which, cold and bleak, low in the horizon, was sinking. The
+sense of dread grew upon me, and I shivered as I ran. With
+my back towards the breeze I had blessed, I now fled towards
+the sinking sun I had cursed. I stretched out my arms in
+supplication towards that orb, for from behind overhanging
+blackness spread, and about me roared a fearful hurricane.
+Vainly. As I thought in mockery the heartless sun disappeared
+before my gaze, the hurricane surrounded me, and the wind
+about me became intensely cold, and raved furiously. It seemed
+as though the sun had fled from my presence, and with the
+disappearance of that orb, the outline of the earth was blotted
+from existence. It was an awful blackness, and the universe was
+now to me a blank. The cold strengthened and froze my body
+to the marrow of my bones. First came the sting of frost,
+then the pain of cold, then insensibility of flesh. My feet were<span class="pagenum">[Pg 269]</span>
+benumbed, my limbs motionless. I stood a statue, quiescent in
+the midst of the roaring tempest. The earth, the sun, the heavens
+themselves, my very person now had disappeared. Dead to
+the sense of pain or touch, sightless, amid a blank, only the noise
+of the raging winds was to me a reality. And as the creaking
+frost reached my brain and congealed it, the sound of the tempest
+ceased, and then devoid of physical senses, my quickened intellect,
+enslaved, remained imprisoned in the frozen form it could
+not leave, and yet could no longer control.</p>
+
+<p>Reflection after reflection passed through that incarcerated
+thought entity, and as I meditated, the heinous mistakes I had
+committed in the life that had passed, arose to torment. God
+had answered my supplications, successively I had experienced
+the hollowness of earthly pleasures, and had left each lesson
+unheeded. Had I not alternately begged for and then cursed
+each gift of God? Had I not prayed for heat, cold, light, and
+darkness, and anathematized each? Had I not, when in perfect
+silence, prayed for sound; in sheltered caverns, prayed for winds
+and storms; in the very corridors of heaven, and in the presence
+of Etidorhpa, had I not sought for joys beyond?</p>
+
+<p>Had I not found each pleasure of life a mockery, and notwithstanding
+each bitter lesson, still pursued my headstrong
+course, alternately blessing and cursing my Creator, and then
+myself, until now, amid a howling waste, in perfect darkness, my
+conscious intellect was bound to the frozen, rigid semblance of a
+body? All about me was dead and dark, all within was still and
+cold, only my quickened intellect remained as in every corpse
+the self-conscious intellect must remain, while the body has a
+mortal form, for death of body is not attended by the immediate
+liberation of mind. The consciousness of the dead man is still
+acute, and he who thinks the dead are mindless, will realize his
+fearful error when devoid of motion he lies a corpse, conscious
+of all that passes on around him, waiting the liberation that can
+only come by disintegration and destruction of the flesh.</p>
+
+<p>So, unconscious of pain, unconscious of any physical sense,
+I existed on and on, enthralled, age after age passed and piled
+upon one another, for time was to me unchangeable, no more an
+entity. I now prayed for change of any kind, and envied the
+very devils in hell their pleasures, for were they not gifted with<span class="pagenum">[Pg 270]</span>
+the power of motion, could they not hear, and see, and realize
+the pains they suffered? I prayed for death&mdash;death absolute,
+death eternal. Then, at last, the darkness seemed to lessen, and
+I saw the frozen earth beneath, the monstrous crags of ice above,
+the raging tempest about, for I now had learned by reflection to
+perceive by pure intellect, to see by the light within. My body,
+solid as stone, was fixed and preserved in a waste of ice. The
+world was frozen. I perceived that the sun, and moon, and stars,
+nearly stilled, dim and motionless, had paled in the cold depths
+of space. The universe itself was freezing, and amid the desolation
+only my deserted intellect remained. Age after age had
+passed, �ons of ages had fled, nation after nation had grown and
+perished, and in the uncounted epochs behind, humanity had
+disappeared. Unable to free itself from the frozen body, my own
+intellect remained the solitary spectator of the dead silence about.
+At last, beneath my vision, the moon disappeared, the stars faded
+one by one, and then I watched the sun grow dim, until at
+length only a milky, gauze-like film remained to indicate her
+face, and then&mdash;vacancy. I had lived the universe away. And
+in perfect darkness the living intellect, conscious of all that had
+transpired in the ages past, clung still enthralled to the body of
+the frozen mortal. I thought of my record in the distant past, of
+the temptations I had undergone, and called myself a fool, for,
+had I listened to the tempter, I could at least have suffered, I
+could have had companionship even though it were of the
+devils&mdash;in hell. I lived my life over and over, times without
+number; I thought of my tempters, of the offered cups, and
+thinking, argued with myself:</p>
+
+<p>"No," I said; "no, I had made the promise, I have faith in
+Etidorhpa, and were it to do over again I would not drink."</p>
+
+<p>Then, as this thought sped from me, the ice scene dissolved,
+the enveloped frozen form of myself faded from view, the sand
+shrunk into nothingness, and with my natural body, and in
+normal condition, I found myself back in the earth cavern, on
+my knees, beside the curious inverted fungus, of which fruit I
+had eaten in obedience to my guide's directions. Before me the
+familiar figure of my guide stood, with folded arms, and as my
+gaze fell upon him he reached out his hand and raised me to
+my feet.<span class="pagenum">[Pg 271]</span></p>
+
+<p>"Where have you been during the wretched epochs that
+have passed since I last saw you?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"I have been here," he replied, "and you have been there."</p>
+
+<p>"You lie, you villainous sorcerer," I cried; "you lie again as
+you have lied to me before. I followed you to the edge of demon
+land, to the caverns of the drunkards, and then you deserted
+me. Since last we met I have spent a million, billion years of
+agony inexpressible, and have had that agony made doubly
+horrible by contrast with the thought, yes, the very sight and
+touch of Heaven. I passed into a double eternity, and have
+experienced the ecstacies of the blessed, and suffered the torments
+of the damned, and now you dare boldly tell me that I
+have been here, and that you have been there, since last I saw
+you stand by this cursed fungus bowl."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he said, taking no offense at my violence; "yes, neither
+of us has left this spot; you have sipped of the drink of an
+earth-damned drunkard, you have experienced part of the curses
+of intemperance, the delirium of narcotics. Thousands of men
+on earth, in their drunken hallucination, have gone through
+hotter hells than you have seen; your dream has not exaggerated
+the sufferings of those who sup of the delirium of intemperance."</p>
+
+<p>And then he continued:</p>
+
+<p>"Let me tell you of man's conception of eternity."<span class="pagenum">[Pg 272]</span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272"></a>CHAPTER XLII.<br />
+<br />
+ETERNITY WITHOUT TIME.</h2>
+
+
+<p>"Man's conception of eternity is that of infinite duration,
+continuance without beginning or end, and yet everything he
+knows is bounded by two or more opposites. From a beginning,
+as he sees a form of matter, that substance passes to an end."
+Thus spoke my guide.</p>
+
+<p>Then he asked, and showed by his question that he appreciated
+the nature of my recent experiences: "Do you recall the
+instant that you left me standing by this bowl to start, as you
+imagined, with me as a companion, on the journey to the cavern
+of the grotesque?"</p>
+
+<p>"No; because I did not leave you. I sipped of the liquid, and
+then you moved on with me from this spot; we were together,
+until at last we were separated on the edge of the cave of
+drunkards."</p>
+
+<p>"Listen," said he; "I neither left you nor went with you.
+You neither went from this spot nor came back again. You
+neither saw nor experienced my presence nor my absence; there
+was no beginning to your journey."</p>
+
+<p>"Go on."</p>
+
+<p>"You ate of the narcotic fungus; you have been intoxicated."</p>
+
+<p>"I have not," I retorted. "I have been through your accursed
+caverns, and into hell beyond. I have been consumed by eternal
+damnation in the journey, have experienced a heaven of delight,
+and also an eternity of misery."</p>
+
+<p>"Upon the contrary, the time that has passed since you
+drank the liquid contents of that fungus fruit has only been that
+which permitted you to fall upon your knees. You swallowed
+the liquor when I handed you the shell cup; you dropped upon
+your knees, and then instantly awoke. See," he said; "in corroboration
+of my assertion the shell of the fungus fruit at your
+feet is still dripping with the liquid you did not drink. Time<span class="pagenum">[Pg 273]</span>
+has been annihilated. Under the influence of this potent earth-bred
+narcoto-intoxicant, your dream begun inside of eternity;
+you did not pass into it."</p>
+
+<p>"You say," I interrupted, "that I dropped upon my knees,
+that I have experienced the hallucination of intoxication, that
+the experiences of my vision occurred during the second of time
+that was required for me to drop upon my knees."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Then by your own argument you demonstrate that eternity
+requires time, for even a millionth part of a second is time, as
+much so as a million of years."</p>
+
+<p>"You mistake," he replied, "you misinterpret my words. I
+said that all you experienced in your eternity of suffering and
+pleasure, occurred between the point when you touched the
+fungus fruit to your lips, and that when your knees struck the
+stone."</p>
+
+<p>"That consumed time," I answered.</p>
+
+<p>"Did I assert," he questioned, "that your experiences were
+scattered over that entire period?"</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>"May not all that occurred to your mind have been crushed
+into the second that accompanied the mental impression produced
+by the liquor, or the second of time that followed, or any other
+part of that period, or a fraction of any integral second of that
+period?"</p>
+
+<p>"I can not say," I answered, "what part of the period the
+hallucination, as you call it, occupied."</p>
+
+<p>"You admit that so far as your conception of time is concerned,
+the occurrences to which you refer may have existed in
+either an inestimable fraction of the first, the second, or the
+third part of the period."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," I replied, "yes; if you are correct in that, they were
+illusions."</p>
+
+<p>"Let me ask you furthermore," he said; "are you sure that
+the flash that bred your hallucination was not instantaneous, and
+a part of neither the first, second, nor third second?"</p>
+
+<p>"Continue your argument."</p>
+
+<p>"I will repeat a preceding question with a slight modification.
+May not all that occurred to your mind have been crushed into<span class="pagenum">[Pg 274]</span>
+the space between the second of time that preceded the mental
+impression produced by the liquor, and the second that followed
+it? Need it have been a part of either second, or of time at all?
+Indeed, could it have been a part of time if it were instantaneous?"</p>
+
+<p>"Go on."</p>
+
+<p>"Suppose the entity that men call the soul of man were in
+process of separation from the body. The process you will admit
+would occupy time, until the point of liberation was reached.
+Would not dissolution, so far as the separation of matter and
+spirit is concerned at its critical point be instantaneous?"</p>
+
+<p>I made no reply.</p>
+
+<p>"If the critical point is instantaneous, there would be no
+beginning, there could be no end. Therein rests an eternity
+greater than man can otherwise conceive of, for as there is
+neither beginning nor end, time and space are annihilated. The
+line that separates the soul that is in the body from the soul that
+is out of the body is outside of all things. It is a between,
+neither a part of the nether side nor of the upper side; it is
+outside the here and the hereafter. Let us carry this thought a
+little further," said he. "Suppose a good man were to undergo
+this change, could not all that an eternity of happiness might
+offer be crushed into this boundless conception, the critical
+point? All that a mother craves in children dead, could reappear
+again in their once loved forms; all that a good life earns, would
+rest in the soul's experience in that eternity, but not as an
+illusion, although no mental pleasure, no physical pain is equal
+to that of hallucinations. Suppose that a vicious life were
+ended, could it escape the inevitable critical point? Would not
+that life in its previous journey create its own sad eternity? You
+have seen the working of an eternity with an end but not a
+beginning to it, for you can not sense the commencement of
+your vision. You have been in the cavern of the grotesque,&mdash;the
+realms of the beautiful, and have walked over the boundless
+sands that bring misery to the soul, and have, as a statue, seen
+the frozen universe dissolve. You are thankful that it was all an
+illusion as you deem it now; what would you think had only the
+heavenly part been spread before you?"</p>
+
+<p>"I would have cursed the man who dispelled the illusion," I
+answered.<span class="pagenum">[Pg 275]</span></p>
+
+<p>"Then," he said, "you are willing to admit that men who so
+live as to gain such an eternity, be it mental illusion, hallucination
+or real, make no mistake in life."</p>
+
+<p>"I do," I replied; "but you confound me when you argue in
+so cool a manner that eternity may be everlasting to the soul,
+and yet without the conception of time."</p>
+
+<p>"Did I not teach you in the beginning of this journey," he
+interjected, "that time is not as men conceive it. Men can not
+grasp an idea of eternity and retain their sun bred, morning and
+evening, conception of time. Therein lies their error. As the
+tip of the whip-lash passes with the lash, so through life the soul
+of man proceeds with the body. As there is a point just when
+the tip of the whip-lash is on the edge of its return, where all
+motion of the line that bounds the tip ends, so there is a motionless
+point when the soul starts onward from the body of man.
+As the tip of the whip-lash sends its cry through space, not
+while it is in motion either way, but from the point where
+motion ceases, the spaceless, timeless point that lies between
+the backward and the forward, so the soul of man leaves a cry
+(eternity) at the critical point. It is the death echo, and thus
+each snap of the life-thread throws an eternity, its own eternity,
+into eternity's seas, and each eternity is made up of the entities
+thus cast from the critical point. With the end of each soul's
+earth journey, a new eternity springs into existence, occupying
+no space, consuming no time, and not conflicting with any other,
+each being exactly what the soul-earth record makes it, an
+eternity of joy (heaven), or an eternity of anguish (hell). There
+can be no neutral ground."</p>
+
+<p>Then he continued:</p>
+
+<p>"The drunkard is destined to suffer in the drunkard's eternity,
+as you have suffered; the enticement of drink is evanescent,
+the agony to follow is eternal. You have seen that the sub-regions
+of earth supply an intoxicant. Taste not again of any
+intoxicant; let your recent lesson be your last. Any stimulant
+is an enemy to man, any narcotic is a fiend. It destroys its
+victim, and corrupts the mind, entices it into pastures grotesque,
+and even pleasant at first, but destined to eternal misery in the
+end. Beware of the eternity that follows the snapping of the<span class="pagenum">[Pg 276]</span>
+life-thread of a drunkard. Come," he abruptly said, "we will
+pursue our journey."</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>[<span class="smcap">Note</span>.&mdash;Morphine, belladonna, hyoscyamus and cannabis indica are narcotics, and yet each
+differs in its action from the others. Alcohol and methyl alcohol are intoxicants; ether, chloroform,
+and chloral are an�sthetics, and yet no two are possessed of the same qualities. Is there any good
+reason to doubt that combinations of the elements as yet hidden from man can not cause hallucinations
+that combine and intensify the most virulent of narcotics, intoxicants, and an�sthetics, and
+pall the effects of hashish or of opium?</p>
+
+<p>If, in the course of experimentation, a chemist should strike upon a compound that in traces
+only would subject his mind and drive his pen to record such seemingly extravagant ideas as are
+found in the hallucinations herein pictured, would it not be his duty to bury the discovery from
+others, to cover from mankind the existence of such a noxious fruit of the chemist's or pharmaceutist's
+art? Introduce such an intoxicant, and start it to ferment in humanity's blood, and before
+the world were advised of its possible results, might not the ever increasing potency gain such headway
+as to destroy, or debase, our civilization, and even to exterminate mankind?&mdash;J. U. L.]</p></blockquote><p><span class="pagenum">[Pg 277]</span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>INTERLUDE.</h2>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277"></a>CHAPTER XLIII.<br />
+<br />
+THE LAST CONTEST.</h2>
+
+
+<p>I, Lewellyn Drury, had been so absorbed in the fantastic
+story the old man read so fluently from the execrably written
+manuscript, and in the metaphysical argument which followed
+his account of the vision he had introduced so artfully as to lead
+me to think it was a part of his narrative, that I scarcely noted
+the passage of time. Upon seeing him suspend his reading,
+fold the manuscript, and place it in his pocket, I reverted to
+material things, and glancing at the clock, perceived that the
+hands pointed to bed-time.</p>
+
+<p>"To-morrow evening," said he, "I will return at nine o'clock.
+In the interim, if you still question any part of the story, or
+wish further information on any subject connected with my
+journey, I will be prepared to answer your queries. Since, however,
+that will be your last opportunity, I suggest that you make
+notes of all subjects that you wish to discuss."</p>
+
+<p>Then, in his usual self-possessed, exquisitely polite manner,
+he bowed himself out.</p>
+
+<p>I spent the next day reviewing the most questionable features
+of his history, recalling the several statements that had been
+made. Remembering the humiliation I had experienced in my
+previous attempts to confute him, I determined to select such
+subjects as would appear the most difficult to explain, and to
+attack the old man with vehemence.</p>
+
+<p>I confess, that notwithstanding my several failures, and his
+successful and constant elucidation and minute details in regard
+to occurrences which he related, and which anticipated many
+points I had once had in mind to question, misgivings still
+possessed me concerning the truthfulness of the story. If<span class="pagenum">[Pg 278]</span>
+these remarkable episodes were true, could there be such a
+thing as fiction? If not all true, where did fact end and fancy
+begin?</p>
+
+<p>Accordingly I devoted the following day to meditating my
+plan of attack, for I felt that I had been challenged to a final
+contest. Late the next day, I felt confident of my own ability to
+dispossess him, and in order further to test his power, when night
+came I doubly locked the door to my room, first with the key
+and next with the inside bolt. I had determined to force him
+again to induce inert material to obey his command, as he had
+done at our first interview. The reader will remember that
+Prof. Chickering had deemed that occurrence an illusion, and I
+confess that time had dimmed the vividness of the scene in my
+own mind. Hence I proposed to verify the matter. Therefore,
+at the approach of nine o'clock, the evening following, I sat with
+my gaze riveted on the bolt of the door, determined not to
+answer his knock.</p>
+
+<p>He gave me no chance to neglect a response to his rap.
+Exactly at the stroke of nine the door swung noiselessly on its
+hinges, the wizard entered, and the door closed again. The bolt
+had not moved, the knob did not turn. The bar passed through
+the catch and back to its seat,&mdash;I sprung from my chair, and
+excitedly and rudely rushed past my guest. I grasped the knob,
+wrenched it with all my might. Vainly; the door was locked,
+the bolt was fastened. Then I turned to my visitor. He was
+quietly seated in his accustomed place, and apparently failed to
+notice my discomposure, although he must have realized that he
+had withstood my first test.</p>
+
+<p>This pronounced defeat, at the very beginning of our proposed
+contest, produced a depressing effect; nevertheless I made an
+effort at self-control, and seating myself opposite, looked my
+antagonist in the face. Calm, dignified, with the brow of a
+philosopher, and the countenance of a philanthropist, a perfect
+type of the exquisite gentleman, and the cultured scholar, my
+guest, as serene and complacent as though, instead of an intruder,
+he were an invited participant of the comforts of my fireside, or
+even the host himself, laid his hat upon the table, stroked his
+silvery, translucent beard, and said:</p>
+
+<p>"Well?"<span class="pagenum">[Pg 279]</span></p>
+
+<p>I accepted the challenge, for the word, as he emphasized it,
+was a challenge, and hurled at him, in hopes to catch him
+unprepared, the following abrupt sentence:</p>
+
+<p>"I doubt the possibility of the existence of a great cavern
+such as you have described. The superincumbent mass of earth
+would crush the strongest metal. No material known to man
+could withstand a pressure so great as would overlie an arch as
+large as that you depict; material would succumb even if the
+roof were made of steel."</p>
+
+<p>"Do not be so positive," he replied. "By what authority do
+you make this assertion?"</p>
+
+<p>"By the authority of common sense as opposed to an unreasonable
+hypothesis. You should know that there is a limit to
+the strength of all things, and that no substance is capable of
+making an arch of thousands of miles, which, according to your
+assertion, must have been the diameter of the roof of your
+inland sea."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah," he replied, "and so you again crush my facts with
+your theory. Well, let me ask a question."</p>
+
+<p>"Proceed."</p>
+
+<p>"Did you ever observe a bubble resting on a bubble?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Did you ever place a pipe-stem in a partly filled bowl of
+soap water, and by blowing through it fill the bowl with
+bubbles?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Did you ever calculate the tensile strength of the material
+from which you blew the bubble?"</p>
+
+<p>"No; for soap water has no appreciable strength."</p>
+
+<p>"And yet you know that a bubble made of suds has not only
+strength, but elasticity. Suppose a bubble of energy floating in
+space were to be covered to the depth of the thickness of a
+sheet of tissue paper with the dust of space, would that surprise
+you?"</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>"Suppose two such globes of energy, covered with dust, were
+to be telescoped or attached together, would you marvel at the
+fact?"</p>
+
+<p>"No."<span class="pagenum">[Pg 280]</span></p>
+
+<p>He drew a picture on a piece of paper, in which one line was
+inclosed by another, and remarked:</p>
+
+<p>"The pencil mark on this paper is proportionately thicker
+than the crust of the earth over the earth cavern I have
+described. Even if it were made of soap suds, it could revolve
+through space and maintain its contour."</p>
+
+<p>"But the earth is a globe," I interjected.</p>
+
+<p>"You do not mean an exact globe?"</p>
+
+<p>"No; it is flattened at the poles."</p>
+
+<p>He took from his pocket two thin rubber balls, one slightly
+larger than the other. With his knife he divided the larger ball,
+cutting it into halves. He then placed
+one of the sections upon the perfect
+ball, and held the arrangement between
+the gas light and the wall.</p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280"></a></p>
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 248px;">
+<img src="images/m1049.png" width="248" height="300" alt="" title="Fig. 33." />
+<span class="caption"><span class="smcap">Fig.</span> 33.<br />
+A A, telescoped energy spheres.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>"See; is not the shadow flattened,
+as your earth is, at the poles?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; but the earth is not a shadow."</p>
+
+<p>"We will not argue that point now,"
+he replied, and then asked: "Suppose
+such a compound shell as this were to
+revolve through space and continuously
+collect dust, most of it of the earth's
+temperature, forming a fluid (water),
+would not that dust be propelled naturally from the poles?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; according to our theory."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps," said he, "the contact edge of the invisible
+spheres of energy which compose your earth bubbles, for planets
+are bubbles, that have been covered with water and soil
+during the time the energy bubble, which is the real bone of
+the globe, has been revolving through space; perhaps, could
+you reach the foundation of the earth dust, you would find it
+not a perfect sphere, but a compound skeleton, as of two bubbles
+locked, or rather telescoped together. [See Fig. 34.]</p>
+
+<p>"Are you sure that my guide did not lead me through the
+space between the bubbles?"</p>
+
+<p>Then he continued:</p>
+
+<p>"Do not be shocked at what I am about to assert, for, as a
+member of materialistic humanity, you will surely consider me<span class="pagenum">[Pg 281]</span>
+irrational when I say that matter, materials, ponderous substances,
+one and all, so far as the ponderous part is concerned
+have no strength."</p>
+
+<p>"What! no strength?"</p>
+
+<p>"None whatever."</p>
+
+<p>I grasped the poker.</p>
+
+<p>"Is not this matter?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"I can not break it."</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>"Have not I strength?"</p>
+
+<p>"Confine your argument now
+to the poker; we will consider you
+next. You can not break it."</p>
+
+<p>"I can break this pencil,
+though," and I snapped it in his
+face.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>I curled my lip in disdain.</p>
+
+<p>"You carry this argument too far."</p>
+
+<p>"Why?"</p>
+
+<p>"I can break the pencil, I can not break the poker; had
+these materials not different strengths there could be no distinction;
+had I no strength I could not have broken either."</p>
+
+<p>"Are you ready to listen?" he replied.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; but do not exasperate me."</p>
+
+<p>"I did not say that the combination you call a poker had
+no strength, neither did I assert that you could not break a
+pencil."</p>
+
+<p>"A distinction without a difference; you play upon words."</p>
+
+<p>"I said that matter, the ponderous side of material substances,
+has no strength."</p>
+
+<p>"And I say differently."</p>
+
+<p>He thrust the end of the poker into the fire, and soon drew
+it forth red-hot.</p>
+
+<p>"Is it as strong as before?"</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>"Heat it to whiteness and it becomes plastic."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281"></a></p>
+<div class="figright" style="width: 282px;">
+<img src="images/m1050.png" width="282" height="300" alt="" title="Fig. 34." />
+<span class="caption">Fig. 34.<br />
+B B, telescoped energy spheres covered
+with space dirt, inclosing space
+between.</span>
+</div>
+<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg 282]</span></p>
+
+<p>"Heat it still more and it changes to a liquid."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Has liquid iron strength?"</p>
+
+<p>"Very little, if any."</p>
+
+<p>"Is it still matter?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Is it the material of the iron, or is it the energy called heat
+that qualifies the strength of the metal? It seems to me that
+were I in your place I would now argue that absence of heat
+constitutes strength," he sarcastically continued.</p>
+
+<p>"Go on."</p>
+
+<p>"Cool this red-hot poker by thrusting it into a pail of cold
+water, and it becomes very hard and brittle."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Cool it slowly, and it is comparatively soft and plastic."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"The material is the same, is it not?"</p>
+
+<p>"Go on."</p>
+
+<p>"What strength has charcoal?"</p>
+
+<p>"Scarcely any."</p>
+
+<p>"Crystallize it, and the diamond results."</p>
+
+<p>"I did not speak of diamond."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! and is not the same amount of the same material
+present in each, a grain of diamond and a grain of charcoal?
+What is present in a grain of diamond that is not present in a
+grain of charcoal?"</p>
+
+<p>"Go on."</p>
+
+<p>"Answer my question."</p>
+
+<p>"I can not."</p>
+
+<p>"Why does brittle, cold zinc, when heated, become first
+ductile, and then, at an increased temperature, become brittle
+again? In each case the same material is present."</p>
+
+<p>"I do not know; but this I do know: I am an organized
+being, and I have strength of body."</p>
+
+<p>The old man grasped the heavy iron poker with both hands,
+and suddenly rising to his full height, swung it about his head,
+then with a motion so menacing that I shrunk back into my
+chair and cried out in alarm, seemed about to strike, with full
+force, my defenseless brow.<span class="pagenum">[Pg 283]</span></p>
+
+<p>"My God," I shouted, "what have I done that you should
+murder me?"</p>
+
+<p>He lowered the weapon, and calmly asked:</p>
+
+<p>"Suppose that I had crushed your skull&mdash;where then would
+be your vaunted strength?"</p>
+
+<p>I made no reply, for as yet I had not recovered from the
+mental shock.</p>
+
+<p>"Could you then have snapped a pencil? Could you have
+broken a reed? Could you even have blown the down from a
+thistle bloom?"</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>"Would not your material body have been intact?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Listen," said he. "Matter has no strength, matter obeys
+spirit, and spirit dominates all things material. Energy in some
+form holds particles of matter together, and energy in other
+forms loosens them. 'Tis this imponderable force that gives
+strength to substances, not the ponderable side of the material.
+Granite crushed is still granite, but destitute of rigidity. Creatures
+dead are still organic structures, but devoid of strength or
+motion. The spirit that pervades all material things gives to
+them form and existence. Take from your earth its vital spirit,
+the energy that subjects matter, and your so-called adamantine
+rocks would disintegrate, and sift as dust into the interstices of
+space. Your so-called rigid globe, a shell of space dust, would
+dissolve, collapse, and as the spray of a burst bubble, its ponderous
+side would vanish in the depths of force."</p>
+
+<p>I sat motionless.</p>
+
+<p>"Listen," he repeated. "You wrong your own common
+sense when you place dead matter above the spirit of matter.
+Atoms come and go in their ceaseless transmigrations, worlds
+move, universes circulate, not because they are material bodies,
+but because as points of matter, in a flood of force, they obey
+the spirit that can blot out a sun, or dissolve the earth, as easily
+as it can unlink two atoms. Matter is an illusion, spirit is the
+reality."</p>
+
+<p>I felt that he had silenced me against my will, and although
+I could not gainsay his assertions, I determined to study the
+subject carefully, at my leisure.<span class="pagenum">[Pg 284]</span></p>
+
+<p>"As you please," he interjected into my musings; "but since
+you are so determined, you would better study from books that
+are written by authors who know whereof they write, and who
+are not obliged to theorize from speculative data concerning the
+intrastructural earth crust."</p>
+
+<p>"But where can I find such works? I do not know of any."</p>
+
+<p>"Then," said he, "perhaps it would be better to cease doubting
+the word of one who has acquired the knowledge to write
+such a book, and who has no object in misleading you."</p>
+
+<p>"Still other questions arise," I said.</p>
+
+<p>"Well?"</p>
+
+<p>"I consider the account of the intra-earth fungus intoxicant
+beyond the realm of fact."</p>
+
+<p>"In what respect?"</p>
+
+<p>"The perfect loss of self that resulted immediately, in an
+instant, after swallowing the juice of the fungous fruit, so that
+you could not distinguish between the real guide at your side
+and the phantom that sprung into existence, is incredible. [See
+<a href="#Page_234">p. 234.</a>] An element of time is a factor in the operation of
+nerve impressions."<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a></p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> It is well that reference was made to this point. Few readers would
+probably notice that Chapter XXXVI. <a href="#TN"><ins title="Original word was begun">began</ins></a> a narcotic hallucination.&mdash;J.
+U. L.</p></div>
+
+<p>"Have you investigated all possible an�sthetics?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course not."</p>
+
+<p>"Or all possible narcotics?"</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>"How long does it require for pure prussic acid to produce
+its physiological action?"</p>
+
+<p>"I do not know."</p>
+
+<p>He ignored my reply, and continued:</p>
+
+<p>"Since there exists a relative difference between the time that
+is required for ether and chloroform to produce insensibility, and
+between the actions and resultant effects of all known an�sthetics,
+intoxicants, and narcotics, I think you are hypercritical. Some
+nerve excitants known to you act slowly, others quickly; why
+not others still instantaneously? If you can rest your assertion
+on any good basis, I will gladly meet your questions, but I do
+not accept such evidence as you now introduce, and I do not
+care to argue for both parties."</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg 285]</span></p>
+
+
+<p>Again I was becoming irritated, for I was not satisfied with
+the manner in which I upheld my part of the argument, and
+naturally, as is usually the case with the defeated party, became
+incensed at my invincible antagonist.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," I said, "I criticise your credulity. The drunkards
+of the drunkards' cavern were beyond all credence. I can not
+conceive of such abnormal creations, even in illusion. Had I
+met with your experiences I would not have supposed, for an
+instant, that the fantastic shapes could have been aught but a
+dream, or the result of hallucination, while, without a question,
+you considered them real."</p>
+
+<p>"You are certainly pressed for subjects about which to complain
+when you resort to criticising the possibilities in creations
+of a mind under the influence of a more powerful intoxicant
+than is known to surface earth," he remarked. "However, I
+will show you that nature fashions animals in forms more
+fantastic than I saw, and that even these figures were not
+overdrawn"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Without heeding his remark, I interrupted his discourse,
+determined to have my say:</p>
+
+<p>"And I furthermore question the uncouth personage you
+describe as your guide. Would you have me believe that such a
+being has an existence outside an abnormal thought-creation?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ah," he replied, "you have done well to ask these two
+questions in succession, for you permit me to answer both at
+once. Listen: The Monkey, of all animals, seems to approach
+closest to man in figure, the Siamang Gibon of Asia, the Bald-headed
+Saki of South America, with its stub of a tail, being
+nearest. From these types we have great deviations as in the
+Wanderer of India, with its whiskered face, and the Black
+Macaque of the Island of Celebes, with its hairy topknot, and
+hairless stub of a tail, or the well-known Squirrel Monkey, with
+its long supple tail, and the Thumbless Spider Monkey, of South
+America. Between these types we have among monkeys, nearly
+every conceivable shape of limb and figure, and in color of their
+faces and bodies, all the shades of the rainbow.</p>
+
+<p>"Some Squirrels jump and then sail through the air. The
+Sloth can barely move on the earth. Ant-eaters have no teeth at
+all, while the Grizzly Bear can crush a gun barrel with its molars.<span class="pagenum">[Pg 286]</span></p>
+
+<p>"The Duck-billed Platypus of South Australia has the body
+of a mole, the tail of a raccoon, the flat bill of a duck, and the
+flipper of a seal, combined with the feet of a rat. It lays eggs
+as birds do, but suckles its young as do other mammalia. The
+Opossum has a prehensile tail, as have some monkeys, and in
+addition a living bag or pouch in which the female carries her
+tiny young. The young of a kind of tree frog of the genus
+Hylodes, breathe through a special organ in their tails; the
+young of the Pipa, a great South American toad, burrow into
+the skin of the mother, and still another from Chili, as soon as
+hatched, creep down the throat of the father frog, and find below
+the jaw an opening into a false membrane covering the entire
+abdomen, in which they repose in safety. Three species of
+frogs and toads have no tongue at all, while in all the others the
+tongue is attached by its tip to the end of the mouth, and is free
+behind. The ordinary Bullfrog has conspicuous great legs,
+while a relative, the C&#339;cilia (and others as well) have a head
+reminding of the frog, but neither tail nor legs, the body being
+elongated as if it were a worm. The long, slender fingers of a
+Bat are united by means of a membrane that enables it to fly
+like a bird, while as a contrast, the fingers of a Mole, its near
+cousin, are short and stubby, and massive as compared with its
+frame. The former flies through the air, the latter burrows
+(almost flies) through the earth. The Great Ant-eater has a
+curved head which is drawn out into a slender snout, no teeth, a
+long, slender tongue, a great bushy tail, and claws that neither
+allow the creature to burrow in the earth nor climb into trees,
+but which are admirably adapted to tear an ant-hill into fragments.
+Its close relatives, the Apar and Armadillo, have a
+round body covered with bony plates, and a short, horny, curved
+tail, while another relative, the Long-tailed Pangolin, has a
+great alligator-like tail which, together with its body, is covered
+with horny, overlapping scales.</p>
+
+<p>"The Greenland Whale has an enormous head occupying more
+than one-third its length, no teeth, and a throat scarcely larger
+than that of a sucker fish. The Golden Mole has a body so
+nearly symmetrical that, were it not for the snout, it would be
+difficult to determine the location of the head without close
+inspection, and it has legs so short that, were it not for the<span class="pagenum">[Pg 287]</span>
+powerful claws, they would not be observed at all. The Narwhal
+has a straight, twisted tusk, a"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Hold, hold," I interrupted; "do you think that I am concerned
+in these well known contrasts in animal structure?"</p>
+
+<p>"Did you not question the possibility of the description I
+gave of my grotesque drunkards, and of the form of my subterranean
+guide?" my guest retorted.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; but I spoke of men, you describe animals."</p>
+
+<p>"Man is an animal, and between the various species of
+animals that you say are well known, greater distinctions can be
+drawn than between my guide and surface-earth man. Besides,
+had you allowed me to proceed to a description of animal life
+beneath the surface of the earth, I would have shown you that
+my guide partook of their attributes. Of the creatures described,
+one only was of the intra-earth origin&mdash;the Mole,&mdash;and like my
+guide, it is practically eyeless."</p>
+
+<p>"Go on," I said; "'tis useless for me to resist. And yet"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"And yet what?"</p>
+
+<p>"And yet I have other subjects to discuss."</p>
+
+<p>"Proceed."</p>
+
+<p>"I do not like the way in which you constantly criticise
+science, especially in referring thereto the responsibilities of the
+crazed anatomist.<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a>
+ It seems to me that he was a monomaniac,
+gifted, but crazed, and that science was unfortunate in being
+burdened with such an incubus."</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> This section (see <a href="#Page_190">p. 190</a>) was excised, being too painful.&mdash;J. U. L.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>"True, and yet science advances largely by the work of such
+apparently heartless creatures. Were it not for investigators
+who overstep the bounds of established methods, and thus criticise
+their predecessors, science would rust and disintegrate.
+Besides, why should not science be judged by the rule she applies
+to others?"</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean?"</p>
+
+<p>"Who is more free to criticise religion than the materialistic
+man of science?"</p>
+
+<p>"But a religious man is not cruel."</p>
+
+<p>"Have you not read history? Have you not shuddered at
+the crimes recorded in the name of the religions of man?"</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg 288]</span></p>
+<p>"Yes; but these cruelties were committed by misguided men
+under the cloak of the church, or of false religions, during the
+dark ages. Do not blame religion, but the men who abused
+the cause."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he added, "you are right; they were fanatics, crazed
+beings, men; yes, even communities, raving mad. Crazed
+leaders can infuse the minds of the people with their fallacies,
+and thus become leaders of crazed nations. Not, as I have
+depicted in my scientific enthusiast, one man alone in the
+privacy of his home torturing a single child, but whole nations
+pillaging, burning, torturing, and destroying. But this is foreign
+to our subject. Beware, I reiterate, of the science of human
+biology. The man who enters the field can not foresee the end,
+the man who studies the science of life, and records his experiments,
+can not know the extremes to which a fanatical follower
+may carry the thought-current of his leader. I have not overdrawn
+the lesson. Besides, science is now really torturing,
+burning, maiming, and destroying humanity. The act of
+destruction has been transferred from barbarians and the fanatic
+in religion to the follower of the devotees of science."</p>
+
+<p>"No; I say, no."</p>
+
+<p>"Who created the steam engine? Who evolves improved
+machinery? Who creates improved artillery, and explosives?
+Scientific men."</p>
+
+<p>He hesitated.</p>
+
+<p>"Go on."</p>
+
+<p>"Accumulate the maimed and destroyed each year; add
+together the miseries and sorrows that result from the explosions,
+accidents, and catastrophes resulting from science
+improvements, and the dark ages scarcely offer a parallel. Add
+thereto the fearful destruction that follows a war among nations
+scientific, and it will be seen that the scientific enthusiast of the
+present has taken the place of the misguided fanatic of the past.
+Let us be just. Place to the credit of religion the good that
+religion has done, place to the credit of science the good that
+science is doing, and yet do not mistake, both leave in their
+wake an atmosphere saturated with misery, a road whitened
+with humanity's bones. Neither the young nor the old are
+spared, and so far as the sufferer is concerned it matters not<span class="pagenum">[Pg 289]</span>
+whether the person has been racked by the tortures of an inquisition,
+or the sword of an infidel, is shrieking in the agony of a
+scald by super-heated steam, or is mangled by an explosion of
+nitroglycerin."</p>
+
+<p>Again he hesitated.</p>
+
+<p>"Go on."</p>
+
+<p>"One of science's most serious responsibilities, from which
+religion has nearly escaped, is that of supplying thought-food to
+fanatics, and from this science can not escape."</p>
+
+<p>"Explain yourself."</p>
+
+<p>"Who places the infidel in possession of arguments to combat
+sacred teachings? Who deliberately tortures animals, and
+suggests that biological experimentation in the name of science,
+before cultured audiences even, is legitimate, such as making
+public dissections of living creatures?"</p>
+
+<p>"Enough, enough," I cried, thinking of his crazed anatomist,
+and covering my face with my hands; "you make my
+blood creep."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he added sarcastically; "you shudder now and criticise
+my truthful study, and to-morrow you will forget the lesson,
+and perhaps for dinner you will relish your dish of veal, the
+favorite food of mothers, the nearest approach to the flesh of
+babies."</p>
+
+<p>Then his manner changed, and in his usual mild, pleasant
+way, he said:</p>
+
+<p>"Take what I have said kindly; I wish only to induce your
+religious part to have more charity for your scientific self, and
+the reverse. Both religion and science are working towards the
+good of man, although their devotees are human, and by human
+errors bring privations, sufferings, and sorrows to men. Neither
+can fill the place of the other; each should extend a helping
+hand, and have charity for the shortcomings of the other; they
+are not antagonists, but workers in one field; both must stand
+the criticisms of mutual antagonists, and both have cause to fear
+the evils of fanaticism within their own ranks more than the
+attacks of opponents from without. Let the religious enthusiast
+exercise care; his burning, earnest words may lead a weak-minded
+father to murder an innocent family, and yet 'tis not
+religion that commits the crime. Let the zealous scientific man<span class="pagenum">[Pg 290]</span>
+hesitate; he piles up fuel by which minds unbalanced, or dispositions
+perverted, seek to burn and destroy hopes that have
+long served the yearnings of humanity's soul. Neither pure
+religion nor true science is to blame for the acts of its devotees,
+and yet each must share the responsibility of its human
+agents."</p>
+
+<p>"We will discuss the subject no further," I said; "it is not
+agreeable."</p>
+
+<p>Then I continued:</p>
+
+<p>"The idea of eternity without time is not quite clear to me,
+although I catch an imperfect conception of the argument
+advanced. Do you mean to say that when a soul leaves the
+body, the earth life of the individual, dominated by the soul, is
+thrown off from it as is the snap of a whip-lash, and that into
+the point between life and death, the hereafter of that mortal
+may be concentrated?"</p>
+
+<p>"I simply give you the words of my guide," he replied, "but
+you have expressed the idea about as well as your word language
+will admit. Such a conception of eternity is more rational to
+one who, like myself, has lived through an instant that covered,
+so far as mind is concerned, a million years of time, than is an
+attempt to grasp a conception of an eternity, without beginning
+or end, by basing an argument on conditions governing material
+substances, as these substances are known to man. You have
+the germ of the idea which may be simply a thought for you
+to ponder over; you can study the problem at your leisure.
+Do not, however, I warn you, attempt to comprehend the notion
+of eternity by throwing into it the conception of time as men
+accept that term, for the very word time, as men define it,
+demands that there be both a beginning and an end. With the
+sense of time in one's mind, there can be no conception of the
+term eternity."</p>
+
+<p>Then, as I had so often done before, I unwarily gave him an
+opportunity to enlarge on his theme, to my disadvantage. I had
+determined not to ask any questions concerning his replies to my
+criticism, for whenever I had previously done so, the result had
+been disastrous to me. In this case I unwittingly said:</p>
+
+<p>"Why do you say that our language will not permit of clearer
+conceptions than you give?"<span class="pagenum">[Pg 291]</span></p>
+
+<p>"Because your education does not permit you to think outside
+of words; you are word-bound."</p>
+
+<p>"You astonish me by making such an arrogant assertion. Do
+you mean to assert that I can not think without using words?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. Every thought you indulge in is circumscribed. You
+presumably attempt to throw a thought-line forward, and yet
+you step backward and spin it in words that have been handed
+you from the past, and, struggle as you may, you can not liberate
+yourself from the dead incubus. Attempt to originate an idea,
+and see if you can escape your word-master?"</p>
+
+<p>"Go on; I am listening."</p>
+
+<p>"Men scientific think in language scientific. Men poetical
+think in language poetic. All educated men use words in thinking
+of their subjects, words that came to them from the past, and
+enslave their intellect. Thus it is that the novelist can not
+make fiction less real than is fact; that scientists can not
+commence at the outside, and build a theory back to phenomena
+understood. In each case the foundation of a thought is a word
+that in the very beginning carries to the mind a meaning, a
+something from the past. Each thought ramification is an
+offshoot from words that express ideas and govern ideas, yes,
+create ideas, even dominating the mind. Men speak of ideas
+when they intend to refer to an image in the mind, but in reality
+they have no ideas outside of the word sentences they unconsciously
+reformulate. Define the term idea correctly, and it will
+be shown that an idea is a sentence, and if a sentence is made of
+words already created, there can be no new idea, for every word
+has a fixed meaning. Hence, when men think, they only
+rearrange words that carry with themselves networks of ideas,
+and thus play upon their several established meanings. How
+can men so circumscribed construct a new idea or teach a new
+science?"</p>
+
+<p>"New words are being created."</p>
+
+<p>"Language is slowly progressing, but no new word adds
+itself to a language; it is linked to thought-chains that precede.
+In order to create a word, as a rule, roots are used that are as
+established in philology as are building materials in architecture.
+When a new sound is thrust into a language, its intent must
+be introduced by words already known, after which it conveys<span class="pagenum">[Pg 292]</span>
+a meaning derived from the past, and becomes a part of mind
+sentences already constructed, as it does of spoken language.
+Language has thus been painfully and slowly evolved and is
+still being enlarged, but while new impressions may be felt by
+an educated person, the formulated feeling is inseparable, from
+well-known surviving words."</p>
+
+<p>"Some men are dumb."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; and yet they frame mind-impressions into unspoken
+words of their own, otherwise they would be scarcely more than
+animals. Place an uneducated dumb person in a room with a
+complicated instrument, and although he may comprehend its
+uses, he can not do so unless he frames sense-impressions into,
+what is to him, a formulated mind-word sequence."</p>
+
+<p>"But he can think about it."</p>
+
+<p>"No; unless he has already constructed previous impressions
+into word-meanings of his own, he can not think about it at all.
+Words, whether spoken or unspoken, underlie all ideas. Try, if
+you believe I am mistaken, try to think of any subject outside
+of words?"</p>
+
+<p>I sat a moment, and mentally attempted the task, and shook
+my head.</p>
+
+<p>"Then," said the old man, "how can I use words with established
+meanings to convey to your senses an entirely new
+idea? If I use new sounds, strung together, they are not words
+to you, and convey no meaning; if I use words familiar, they
+reach backward as well as forward. Thus it is possible to
+instruct you, by a laborious course of reasoning, concerning
+a phenomenon that is connected with phenomena already
+understood by you, for your word-language can be thrust out
+from the parent stalk, and can thus follow the outreaching
+branches. However, in the case of phenomena that exist
+on other planes, or are separated from any known material,
+or force, as is the true conception that envelops the word
+eternity, there being neither connecting materials, forces, nor
+words to unite the outside with the inside, the known with the
+unknown, how can I tell you more than I have done? You are
+word-bound."</p>
+
+<p>"Nevertheless, I still believe that I can think outside of
+words."<span class="pagenum">[Pg 293]</span></p>
+
+<p>"Well, perhaps after you attempt to do so, and fail again and
+again, you will appreciate that a truth is a truth, humiliating as
+it may be to acknowledge the fact."</p>
+
+<p>"A Digger Indian has scarcely a word-language," I asserted,
+loth to relinquish the argument.</p>
+
+<p>"You can go farther back if you desire, back to primitive man;
+man without language at all, and with ideas as circumscribed as
+those of the brutes, and still you have not strengthened your
+argument concerning civilized man. But you are tired, I see."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; tired of endeavoring to combat your assertions. You
+invariably lead me into the realms of speculation, and then
+throw me upon the defensive by asking me to prove my own
+theories, or with apparent sincerity, you advance an unreasonable
+hypothesis, and then, before I am aware of your purpose, force
+me to acquiesce because I can not find facts to confute you.
+You very artfully throw the burden of proof on me in all cases,
+for either by physical comparisons that I can not make, I
+must demonstrate the falsity of your metaphysical assertions,
+or by abstract reasonings disprove statements you assert to
+be facts."</p>
+
+<p>"You are peevish and exhausted, or you would perceive that
+I have generally allowed you to make the issue, and more than
+once have endeavored to dissuade you from doing so. Besides,
+did I not several times in the past bring experimental proof to
+dispel your incredulity? Have I not been courteous?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," I petulantly admitted; "yes."</p>
+
+<p>Then I determined to imitate his artful methods, and throw
+him upon the defensive as often as he had done with me. I had
+finally become familiar with his process of arguing a question,
+for, instead of coming immediately to his subject, he invariably
+led by circuitous route to the matter under discussion. Before
+reaching the point he would manage to commit me to his own
+side of the subject, or place me in a defenseless position. So
+with covert aim I began:</p>
+
+<p>"I believe that friction is one method of producing heat."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"I have been told that the North American Indians make
+fires by rubbing together two pieces of dry wood."</p>
+
+<p>"True."<span class="pagenum">[Pg 294]</span></p>
+
+<p>"I have understood that the light of a shooting star results
+from the heat of friction, producing combustion of its particles."</p>
+
+<p>"Partly," he answered.</p>
+
+<p>"That when the meteoric fragment of space dust strikes the
+air, the friction resulting from its velocity heats it to redness,
+fuses its surface, or even burns its very substance into ashes."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"I have seen the spindle of a wheel charred by friction."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"I have drawn a wire rapidly through a handkerchief tightly
+grasped in my hands, and have warmed the wire considerably
+in doing so."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>I felt that I had him committed to my side of the question,
+and I prepared to force him to disprove the possibility of one
+assertion that he had made concerning his journey.</p>
+
+<p>"You stated that you rode in a boat on the underground lake."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"With great rapidity?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Rapid motion produces friction, I believe?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"And heat?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Why did not your boat become heated even to redness? You
+rode at the rate of nine hundred miles an hour," I cried exultingly.</p>
+
+<p>"For two reasons," he calmly replied; "two natural causes
+prevented such a catastrophe."</p>
+
+<p>And again he warned me, as he had done before, by saying:</p>
+
+<p>"While you should not seek for supernatural agencies to
+account for any phenomena in life, for all that is is natural,
+neither should you fail to study the differences that varying
+conditions produce in results already known. A miracle ceases
+to be a miracle when we understand the scientific cause underlying
+the wonder; occultism is natural, for if there be occult
+phenomena they must be governed by natural law; mystery is
+not mysterious if the veil of ignorance that envelops the investigator
+is lifted. What you have said is true concerning the heat
+that results from friction, but<span class="pagenum">[Pg 295]</span>&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"First, the attraction of gravitation was inconsiderable
+where the boat, to which you refer, rested on the water.</p>
+
+<p>"Second, the changing water carried away the heat as fast as
+it was produced. While it is true that a cannon ball becomes
+heated in its motion through the air, its surface is cooled when it
+strikes a body of water, notwithstanding that its great velocity is
+altogether overcome by the water. The friction between the water
+and the iron does not result in heated iron, but the contrary.
+The water above the rapids of a river has practically the temperature
+of the water below the rapids, regardless of the friction
+that ensues between these points. Admit, however, that heat
+is liberated as the result of the friction of solids with water,
+and still it does not follow that this heat will perceptibly affect
+the solid. With a boat each particle of water carries the heat
+away, each succeeding portion of water takes up the heat liberated
+by that preceding it. Thus the great body of water, over
+which our boat sped, in obedience to the ordinary law, became
+slightly warmed, but its effect upon the boat was scarcely perceptible.
+Your comparison of the motion of a meteor, with that of
+our boat, was unhappy. We moved rapidly, it is true, in comparison
+with the motion of vessels such as you know, but comparison
+can not be easily drawn between the velocity of a boat and that of
+a meteor. While we moved at the rate of many miles a minute,
+a meteor moves many times faster, perhaps as many miles in a
+second. Then you must remember that the force of gravitation
+was so slight in our position that"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Enough," I interrupted. "We will pass the subject. It
+seems that you draw upon science for knowledge to support your
+arguments, however irrational they may be, and then you sneer
+at this same method of argument when I employ it."</p>
+
+<p>He replied to my peevish complaint with the utmost respect
+by calling to my attention the fact that my own forced argument
+had led to the answer, and that he had simply replied to my
+attacks. Said he:</p>
+
+<p>"If I am wrong in my philosophy, based on your science
+thought, I am right in my facts, and science thought is thus in
+the wrong, for facts overbalance theory. I ask you only to give
+me the attention that my statements merit. I am sincere, and
+aim to serve your interests. Should investigation lead you<span class="pagenum">[Pg 296]</span>
+hereafter to infer that I am in error, at our final interview you
+can have my considerate attention. Be more charitable, please."</p>
+
+<p>Then he added:</p>
+
+<p>"Is there any other subject you wish to argue?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," I answered, and again my combativeness arose; "yes.
+One of the truly edifying features of your narrative is that of
+the intelligent guide," and I emphasized the word intelligent,
+and curled up my lip in a sarcastic manner.</p>
+
+<p>"Proceed."</p>
+
+<p>"He was verily a wonderful being; an eyeless creature, and
+yet possessed of sight and perception beyond that of mortal
+man; a creature who had been locked in the earth, and yet was
+more familiar with its surface than a philosopher; a cavern-bred
+monstrosity, and yet possessed of the mind of a sage; he was a
+scientific expert, a naturalist, a metaphysical reasoner, a critic
+of religion, and a prophet. He could see in absolute darkness
+as well as in daylight; without a compass he could guide a boat
+over a trackless sea, and could accomplish feats that throw Gulliver
+and Munchausen into disrepute."</p>
+
+<p>In perfect composure my aged guest listened to my cynical,
+and almost insulting tirade. He made no effort to restrain my
+impetuous sentences, and when I had finished replied in the
+polished language of a scholarly gentleman.</p>
+
+<p>"You state truly, construe my words properly, as well as
+understand correctly."</p>
+
+<p>Then he continued musingly, as though speaking to himself:</p>
+
+<p>"I would be at fault and deserve censure did I permit doubts
+to be thrown upon so clear a subject, or discredit on so magnanimous
+a person."</p>
+
+<p>Turning to me he continued:</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly I did not intend to mislead or to be misunderstood,
+and am pleased to find you so earnest a scholar."</p>
+
+<p>And then in his soft, mild manner, he commenced his detail
+reply, pouring oil upon the waters of my troubled soul, his sweet,
+melodious voice being so in contrast to my rash harangue. He
+began with his expressive and often repeated word, "listen."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[Pg 297]</a></span></p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 398px;">
+<img src="images/gs1051.jpg" width="398" height="600" alt="" title="&quot;WE PASSED THROUGH CAVERNS FILLED WITH CREEPING
+ REPTILES.&quot;" />
+<span class="caption">"WE PASSED THROUGH CAVERNS FILLED WITH CREEPING
+REPTILES."</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>"Listen. You are right, my guide was a being wonderful to
+mortals. He was eyeless, but as I have shown you before, and
+now swear to the fact, was not sightless; surely," he said,
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg 298]</span>"surely you have not forgotten that long ago I considered the
+phenomenal instinct at length. He predicted the future by
+means of his knowledge of the past&mdash;there is nothing wonderful
+in that. Can not a civil engineer continue a line into the
+beyond, and predict where the projection of that line will strike;
+can he not also calculate the effect that a curve will have on his
+line's destiny? Why should a being conversant with the lines
+and curves of humanity's journey for ages past not be able to
+indicate the lines that men must follow in the future? <span class="pagenum">[Pg 299]</span>Of course
+he could guide the boat, in what was to me a trackless waste of
+water, but you err in asserting that I had said he did not have a
+guide, even if it were not a compass. Many details concerning
+this journey have not been explained to you; indeed, I have
+acquainted you with but little that I experienced. Near surface
+earth we passed through caverns filled with creeping reptiles;
+through others we were surrounded by flying creatures, neither
+beast nor bird; we passed through passages of ooze and labyrinths
+of apparently interminable intra-earth structures; to have
+disported on such features of my journey would have been
+impracticable. From time to time I experienced strains of melody,
+such as never before had I conceived, seemingly choruses of
+angels were singing in and to my very soul. From empty space
+about me, from out the crevices beyond and behind me, from the
+depths of my spirit within me, came these strains in notes clear
+and distinct, but yet indescribable. Did I fancy, or was it real?
+I will not pretend to say. Flowers and structures beautiful,
+insects gorgeous and inexplicable were spread before me. Figures
+and forms I can not attempt to indicate in word descriptions,
+ever and anon surrounded, accompanied, and passed me by.
+The canvas conceptions of earth-bred artists bring to mind no
+forms so strange and weird and yet so beautiful as were these
+compound beings. Restful beyond description was it to drink in
+the indescribable strains of poetry of motion that I appreciated
+in the movements of fair creatures I have not mentioned, and it
+was no less soothing to experience the soul relief wrought by the
+sounds about me, for musicians know no notes so sweet and
+entrancing.</p>
+
+<p>"There were also, in side caverns to which I was led, combinations
+of sounds and scenes in which floating strains and<span class="pagenum">[Pg 300]</span>
+fleeting figures were interwoven and interlaced so closely that
+the senses of both sight and hearing became blended into a
+single sense, new, weird, strange, and inexpressible. As flavor
+is the combination of odor and taste, and is neither taste nor
+odor, so these sounds and scenes combined were neither scenes
+nor sounds, but a complex sensation, new, delicious. Sometimes
+I begged to be permitted to stop and live forever 'mid
+those heavenly charms, but with as firm a hand as when helping
+me through the chambers of mire, ooze, and creeping reptiles,
+my guide drew me onward.</p>
+
+<p>"But to return to the subject. As to my guide being a cavern-bred
+monstrosity, I do not remember to have said that he was
+cavern-bred, and if I have forgotten a fact, I regret my short
+memory. Did I say that he was always a cavern being? Did I
+assert that he had never lived among mortals of upper earth?
+If so, I do not remember our conversation on that subject. He
+was surely a sage in knowledge, as you have experienced from
+my feeble efforts in explaining the nature of phenomena that
+were to you unknown, and yet have been gained by me largely
+through his instruction. He was a metaphysician, as you assert;
+you are surely right; he was a sincere, earnest reasoner and
+teacher. He was a conscientious student, and did not by any
+word lead me to feel that he did not respect all religions, and
+bow to the Creator of the universe, its sciences, and its religions.
+His demeanor was most considerate, his methods faultless, his
+love of nature deep, his patience inexhaustible, his sincerity
+unimpeachable. Yes," the old man said; "you are right in your
+admiration of this lovely personage, and when you come to meet
+this being as you are destined yet to do&mdash;for know now that you
+too will some day pass from surface earth, and leave only your
+name in connection with this story of myself&mdash;you will surely
+then form a still greater love and a deeper respect for one so
+gifted, and yet so self-sacrificing."</p>
+
+<p>"Old man," I cried, "you mock me. I spoke facetiously, and
+you answer literally. Know that I have no confidence in your
+sailor-like tales, your Marco Polo history."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! You discredit Marco Polo? And why do you doubt?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because I have never seen such phenomena, I have never
+witnessed such occurrences. I must see a thing to believe it."<span class="pagenum">[Pg 301]</span></p>
+
+<p>"And so you believe only what you see?" he queried.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Now answer promptly," he commanded, and his manner
+changed as by magic to that of a master. "Did you ever see
+Greenland?"</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>"Iceland?"</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>"A geyser?"</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>"A whale?"</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>"England?"</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>"France?"</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>"A walrus?"</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you do not believe that these conditions, countries,
+and animals have an existence?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course they have."</p>
+
+<p>"Why?"</p>
+
+<p>"Others have seen them."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah," he said; "then you wish to modify your assertion&mdash;you
+only believe what others have seen?"</p>
+
+<p>"Excepting one person," I retorted.</p>
+
+<p>Then he continued, seemingly not having noticed my personal
+allusion:</p>
+
+<p>"Have you ever seen your heart?"</p>
+
+<p>I hesitated.</p>
+
+<p>"Answer," he commanded.</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>"Your stomach?"</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>"Have you seen the stomach of any of your friends?"</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>"The back of your head?"</p>
+
+<p>I became irritated, and made no reply.</p>
+
+<p>"Answer," he again commanded.<span class="pagenum">[Pg 302]</span></p>
+
+<p>"I have seen its reflection in a glass."</p>
+
+<p>"I say no," he replied; "you have not."</p>
+
+<p>"You are impudent," I exclaimed.</p>
+
+<p>"Not at all," he said, good humoredly; "how easy it is to
+make a mistake. I venture to say that you have never seen the
+reflection of the back of your head in a mirror."</p>
+
+<p>"Your presumption astounds me."</p>
+
+<p>"I will leave it to yourself."</p>
+
+<p>He took a hand-glass from the table and held it behind my
+head.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, do you see the reflection?"</p>
+
+<p>"No; the glass is behind me."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, yes; and so is the back of your head."</p>
+
+<p>"Look," I said, pointing to the great mirror on the bureau;
+"look, there is the reflection of the back of my head."</p>
+
+<p>"No; it is the reflection of the reflection in my hand-glass."</p>
+
+<p>"You have tricked me; you quibble!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well," he said, ignoring my remark; "what do you believe?"</p>
+
+<p>"I believe what others have seen, and what I can do."</p>
+
+<p>"Excluding myself as to what others have seen," he said
+facetiously.</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps," I answered, relenting somewhat.</p>
+
+<p>"Has any man of your acquaintance seen the middle of
+Africa?"</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>"The center of the earth?"</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>"The opposite side of the moon?"</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>"The soul of man?"</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>"Heat, light, electricity?"</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you do not believe that Africa has a midland, the earth a
+center, the moon an opposite side, man a soul, force an existence?"</p>
+
+<p>"You distort my meaning."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I ask questions in accord with your suggestions, and
+you defeat yourself. You have now only one point left. You
+believe only what <i>you</i> can do?"</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[Pg 303]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 457px;">
+<img src="images/gs1052.jpg" width="457" height="600" alt="" title="&quot;FLOWERS AND STRUCTURES BEAUTIFUL, INSECTS GORGEOUS.&quot;" />
+<span class="caption">"FLOWERS AND STRUCTURES BEAUTIFUL, INSECTS GORGEOUS."</span>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg 305]</span></p>
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"I will rest this case on one statement, then, and you may be
+the judge."</p>
+
+<p>"Agreed."</p>
+
+<p>"You can not do what any child in Cincinnati can accomplish.
+I assert that any other man, any other woman in the city
+can do more than you can. No cripple is so helpless, no invalid
+so feeble as not, in this respect, to be your superior."</p>
+
+<p>"You insult me," I again retorted, almost viciously.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you dispute the assertion seriously?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, let me see you kiss your elbow."</p>
+
+<p>Involuntarily I twisted my arm so as to bring the elbow
+towards my mouth, then, as I caught the full force of his meaning,
+the ridiculous result of my passionate wager came over me,
+and I laughed aloud. It was a change of thought from the
+sublime to the ludicrous.</p>
+
+<p>The white-haired guest smiled in return, and kindly said:</p>
+
+<p>"It pleases me to find you in good humor at last. I will
+return to-morrow evening and resume the reading of my manuscript.
+In the meantime take good exercise, eat heartily, and
+become more cheerful."</p>
+
+<p>He rose and bowed himself out.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg 306]</span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>THE OLD MAN CONTINUES HIS MANUSCRIPT.</h2>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306"></a>CHAPTER XLIV.<br />
+<br />
+THE FATHOMLESS ABYSS.&mdash;THE EDGE OF THE EARTH SHELL.</h2>
+
+
+<p>Promptly at eight o'clock the next evening the old man
+entered my room. He did not allude to the occurrences of the
+previous evening, and for this considerate treatment I felt thankful,
+as my part in those episodes had not been enviable. He
+placed his hat on the table, and in his usual cool and deliberate
+manner, commenced reading as follows:</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>For a long time thereafter we journeyed on in silence, now
+amid stately stone pillars, then through great cliff openings or
+among gigantic formations that often stretched away like cities or
+towns dotted over a plain, to vanish in the distance. Then the
+scene changed, and we traversed magnificent avenues, bounded
+by solid walls which expanded into lofty caverns of illimitable
+extent, from whence we found ourselves creeping through narrow
+crevices and threading winding passages barely sufficient to
+admit our bodies. For a considerable period I had noted the
+absence of water, and as we passed from grotto to temple reared
+without hands, it occurred to me that I could not now observe
+evidence of water erosion in the stony surface over which we
+trod, and which had been so abundant before we reached the
+lake. My guide explained by saying in reply to my thought
+question, that we were beneath the water line. He said that
+liquids were impelled back towards the earth's surface from a
+point unnoticed by me, but long since passed. Neither did I
+now experience hunger nor thirst, in the slightest degree, a
+circumstance which my guide assured me was perfectly natural
+in view of the fact that there was neither waste of tissue nor
+consumption of heat in my present organism.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[Pg 307]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 404px;">
+<img src="images/gs1053.jpg" width="404" height="600" alt="" title="&quot;WITH FEAR AND TREMBLING I CREPT ON MY KNEES TO HIS
+SIDE.&quot;" />
+<span class="caption">"WITH FEAR AND TREMBLING I CREPT ON MY KNEES TO HIS
+SIDE."</span>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg 309]</span></p>
+
+<p>At last I observed far in the distance a slanting sheet of light
+that, fan-shaped, stood as a barrier across the way; beyond it
+neither earth nor earth's surface appeared. As we approached,
+the distinctness of its outline disappeared, and when we came
+nearer, I found that it streamed into the space above, from what
+appeared to be a crevice or break in the earth that stretched
+across our pathway, and was apparently limitless and bottomless.</p>
+
+<p>"Is this another hallucination?" I queried.</p>
+
+<p>"No; it is a reality. Let us advance to the brink."</p>
+
+<p>Slowly we pursued our way, for I hesitated and held back. I
+had really begun to distrust my own senses, and my guide in the
+lead was even forced to demonstrate the feasibility of the way,
+step by step, before I could be induced to follow. At length we
+neared the edge of the chasm, and while he stood boldly upright
+by the brink, with fear and trembling I crept on my knees to his
+side, and together we faced a magnificent but fearful void that
+stretched beneath and beyond us, into a profundity of space. I
+peered into the chamber of light, that indescribable gulf of
+brilliancy, but vainly sought for an opposite wall; there was
+none. As far as the eye could reach, vacancy, illuminated
+vacancy, greeted my vision. The light that sprung from that
+void was not dazzling, but was possessed of a beauty that no
+words can suggest. I peered downward, and found that we
+stood upon the edge of a shelving ledge of stone that receded
+rapidly beneath us, so that we seemed to rest upon the upper
+side of its wedge-like edge. I strained my vision to catch a
+glimpse of the bottom of this chasm, but although I realized
+that my eyes were glancing into miles and miles of space, there
+was no evidence of earthly material other than the brink upon
+which we stood.</p>
+
+<p>The limit of vision seemed to be bounded by a silvery blending
+of light with light, light alone, only light. The dead silence
+about, and the new light before me, combined to produce a weird
+sensation, inexplicable, overpowering. A speck of dust on the
+edge of immensity, I clung to the stone cliff, gazing into the
+depths of that immeasurable void.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg 310]</span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310"></a>CHAPTER XLV.<br />
+<br />
+MY HEART THROB IS STILLED, AND YET I LIVE.</h2>
+
+
+<p>"It now becomes my duty to inform you that this is one of
+the stages in our journey that can only be passed by the exercise
+of the greatest will force. Owing to our former surroundings
+upon the surface of the earth, and to your inheritance of a so-called
+instinctive education, you would naturally suppose that
+we are now on the brink of an impassable chasm. This sphere
+of material vacuity extends beneath us to a depth that I am
+sure you will be astonished to learn is over six thousand miles.
+We may now look straight into the earth cavity, and this streaming
+light is the reflected purity of the space below. The opposite
+side of this crevice, out of sight by reason of its distance, but
+horizontally across from where we stand, is precipitous and comparatively
+solid, extending upward to the material that forms the
+earth's surface. We have, during our journey, traversed an
+oblique, tortuous natural passage, that extends from the spot at
+which you entered the cave in Kentucky, diagonally down into
+the crust of the globe, terminating in this shelving bluff. I would
+recall to your mind that your journey up to this time has been of
+your own free will and accord. At each period of vacillation&mdash;and
+you could not help but waver occasionally&mdash;you have been at
+liberty to return to surface earth again, but each time you decided
+wisely to continue your course. You can now return if your courage
+is not sufficient to overcome your fear, but this is the last
+opportunity you will have to reconsider, while in my company."</p>
+
+<p>"Have others overcome the instinctive terrors to which you
+allude?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; but usually the dread of death, or an unbearable uncertainty,
+compels the traveler to give up in despair before reaching
+this spot, and the opportunity of a lifetime is lost. Yes; an
+opportunity that occurs only in the lifetime of one person out
+of millions, of but few in our brotherhood."<span class="pagenum">[Pg 311]</span></p>
+
+<p>"Then I can return if I so elect?"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly."</p>
+
+<p>"Will you inform me concerning the nature of the obstacle I
+have to overcome, that you indicate by your vague references?"</p>
+
+<p>"We must descend from this cliff."</p>
+
+<p>"You can not be in earnest."</p>
+
+<p>"Why?"</p>
+
+<p>"Do you not see that the stone recedes from beneath us,
+that we stand on the edge of a wedge overhanging bottomless
+space?"</p>
+
+<p>"That I understand."</p>
+
+<p>"There is no ladder," and then the foolish remark abashed
+me as I thought of a ladder six thousand miles in length.</p>
+
+<p>"Go on."</p>
+
+<p>He made no reference to my confusion.</p>
+
+<p>"There is practically no bottom," I asserted, "if I can
+believe your words; you told me so."</p>
+
+<p>"And that I reiterate."</p>
+
+<p>"The feat is impracticable, impossible, and only a madman
+would think of trying to descend into such a depth of space."</p>
+
+<p>Then an idea came over me; perhaps there existed a route at
+some other point of the earth's crevice by which we could reach
+the under side of the stone shelf, and I intimated as much to the
+guide.</p>
+
+<p>"No; we must descend from this point, for it is the only
+entrance to the hollow beneath."</p>
+
+<p>We withdrew from the brink, and I meditated in silence.
+Then I crept again to the edge of the bluff, and lying flat on my
+chest, craned my head over, and peered down into the luminous
+gulf. The texture of the receding mineral was distinctly visible
+for a considerable distance, and then far, far beneath all semblance
+to material form disappeared&mdash;as the hull of a vessel
+fades in deep, clear water. As I gazed into the gulf it seemed
+evident that, as a board floating in water is bounded by water,
+this rock really ended. I turned to my guide and questioned him.</p>
+
+<p>"Stone in this situation is as cork," he replied; "it is nearly
+devoid of weight; your surmise is correct. We stand on the
+shelving edge of a cliff of earthly matter, that in this spot slants
+upward from beneath like the bow of a boat. We have reached<span class="pagenum">[Pg 312]</span>
+the bottom of the film of space dust on the bubble of energy
+that forms the skeleton of earth."</p>
+
+<p>I clutched the edge of the cliff with both hands.</p>
+
+<p>"Be not frightened; have I not told you that if you wish to
+return you can do so. Now hearken to me:</p>
+
+<p>"A short time ago you endeavored to convince me that we
+could not descend from this precipice, and you are aware that
+your arguments were without foundation. You drew upon your
+knowledge of earth materials, as you once learned them, and
+realized at the time that you deluded yourself in doing so, for
+you know that present conditions are not such as exist above
+ground. You are now influenced by surroundings that are
+entirely different from those that govern the lives of men upon
+the earth's surface. You are almost without weight. You have
+nearly ceased to breathe, as long since you discovered, and soon
+I hope will agree entirely to suspend that harsh and wearying
+movement. Your heart scarcely pulsates, and if you go with
+me farther in this journey, will soon cease to beat."</p>
+
+<p>I started up and turned to flee, but he grasped and held me
+firmly.</p>
+
+<p>"Would you murder me? Do you think I will mutely acquiesce,
+while you coolly inform me of your inhuman intent, and
+gloat over the fact that my heart will soon be as stone, and that
+I will be a corpse?" He attempted to break in, but I proceeded
+in frenzy. "I <i>will</i> return to upper earth, to sunshine and
+humanity. I <i>will</i> retreat while yet in health and strength, and
+although I have in apparent willingness accompanied you to this
+point, learn now that at all times I have been possessed of the
+means to defend myself from personal violence." I drew from
+my pocket the bar of iron. "See, this I secreted about my
+person in the fresh air of upper earth, the sweet sunshine of
+heaven, fearing that I might fall into the hands of men with
+whom I must combat. Back, back," I cried.</p>
+
+<p>He released his hold of my person, and folded his arms upon
+his breast, then quietly faced me, standing directly between
+myself and the passage we had trod, while I stood on the brink,
+my back to that fearful chasm.</p>
+
+<p>By a single push he could thrust me into the fathomless gulf
+below, and with the realization of that fact, I felt that it was now a<span class="pagenum">[Pg 313]</span>
+life and death struggle. With every muscle strained to its utmost
+tension, with my soul on fire, my brain frenzied, I drew back the
+bar of iron to smite the apparently defenseless being in the forehead,
+but he moved not, and as I made the motion, he calmly
+remarked: "Do you remember the history of Hiram Abiff?"</p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/gs1054.jpg" width="600" height="436" alt="" title="&quot;I DREW BACK THE BAR OF IRON TO SMITE THE APPARENTLY DEFENSELESS
+BEING IN THE FOREHEAD.&quot;" />
+<span class="caption">"I DREW BACK THE BAR OF IRON TO SMITE THE APPARENTLY DEFENSELESS
+BEING IN THE FOREHEAD."</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>The hand that held the weapon dropped as if stricken by
+paralysis, and a flood of recollections concerning my lost home
+overcame me. I had raised my hand against a brother, the only
+being of my kind who could aid me, or assist me either to advance
+or recede. How could I, unaided, recross that glassy lake, and
+pass through the grotesque forests of fungi and the labyrinth of
+crystal grottoes of the salt bed? How could I find my way in
+the utter darkness that existed in the damp, soppy, dripping
+upper caverns that I must retrace before I could hope to reach
+the surface of the earth? "Forgive me," I sobbed, and sunk at
+his feet. "Forgive me, my friend, my brother; I have been wild,<span class="pagenum">[Pg 314]</span>
+mad, am crazed." He made no reply, but pointed over my
+shoulder into the space beyond.</p>
+
+<p>I turned, and in the direction indicated, saw, in amazement,
+floating in the distant space a snow- and ice-clad vessel in full
+sail. She was headed diagonally from us, and was moving rapidly
+across the field of vision. Every spar and sail was clearly
+defined, and on her deck, and in the rigging I beheld sailors
+clad in winter garments pursuing their various duties.</p>
+
+<p>As I gazed, enraptured, she disappeared in the distance.</p>
+
+<p>"A phantom vessel," I murmured.</p>
+
+<p>"No," he replied; "the abstraction of a vessel sailing on the
+ocean above us. Every object on earth is the second to an
+imprint in another place. There is an apparent reproduction of
+matter in so-called vacancy, and on unseen pages a recording of
+all events. As that ship sailed over the ocean above us, she
+disturbed a current of energy, and it left its impress as an outline
+on a certain zone beneath, which is parallel with that upon
+which we now chance to stand."</p>
+
+<p>"I can not comprehend," I muttered.</p>
+
+<p>"No," he answered; "to you it seems miraculous, as to all
+men an unexplained phenomenon approaches the supernatural.
+All that is is natural. Have men not been told in sacred writings
+that their every movement is being recorded in the Book of Life,
+and do they not often doubt because they can not grasp the
+problem? May not the greatest scientist be the most apt
+skeptic?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," I replied.</p>
+
+<p>"You have just seen," he said, "the record of an act on
+earth, and in detail it is being printed elsewhere in the Book of
+Eternity. If you should return to earth's surface you could not
+by stating these facts convince even the persons on that same
+ship, of your sanity. You could not make them believe that
+hundreds of miles beneath, both their vessel and its crew had
+been reproduced in fac simile, could you?"</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315"></a></p>
+<div class="figright" style="width: 140px;">
+<img src="images/m1055.png" width="140" height="300" alt="" title="&quot;SPRUNG FROM THE EDGE OF THE CLIFF INTO
+THE ABYSS BELOW, CARRYING ME WITH HIM
+INTO ITS DEPTHS.&quot;" />
+<span class="caption">"SPRUNG FROM THE EDGE OF THE CLIFF INTO
+THE ABYSS BELOW, CARRYING ME WITH HIM
+INTO ITS DEPTHS."</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>"Were you to return to earth you could not convince men
+that you had existed without breath, with a heart dead within
+you. If you should try to impress on mankind the facts that
+you have learned in this journey, what would be the result?"<span class="pagenum">[Pg 315]</span></p>
+
+<p>"I would probably
+be considered mentally
+deranged; this I have
+before admitted."</p>
+
+
+<p>"Would it not be
+better then," he continued,
+"to go with me,
+by your own free will,
+into the unknown future,
+which you need fear less
+than a return to the
+scoffing multitude amid
+the storms of upper
+earth? You know that
+I have not at any time
+deceived you. I have, as
+yet, only opened before
+you a part of one rare
+page out of the boundless
+book of nature; you
+have tasted of the sweets
+of which few persons in
+the flesh have sipped,
+and I now promise you
+a further store of knowledge
+that is rich beyond
+conception, if you wish to
+continue your journey."</p>
+
+
+<p>"What if I decide to
+return?"</p>
+
+<p>"I will retrace my
+footsteps and liberate
+you upon the surface of
+the earth, as I have
+others, for few persons
+have courage enough to
+pass this spot."</p>
+
+<p>"Binding me to an oath of secrecy?"</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg 316]</span></p>
+
+<p>"No," he answered; "for if you relate these events men will
+consider you a madman, and the more clearly you attempt to
+explain the facts that you have witnessed, the less they will
+listen to you; such has been the fate of others."</p>
+
+<p>"It is, indeed, better for me to go with you," I said musingly;
+"to that effect my mind is now made up, my course is clear, I
+am ready."</p>
+
+<p>With a motion so quick in conception, and rapid in execution
+that I was taken altogether by surprise, with a grasp so
+powerful that I could not have repelled him, had I expected the
+movement and tried to protect myself, the strange man, or
+being beside me, threw his arms around my body. Then, as a
+part of the same movement, he raised me bodily from the stone,
+and before I could realize the nature of his intention, sprung
+from the edge of the cliff into the abyss below, carrying me with
+him into its depths.<span class="pagenum">[Pg 317]</span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317"></a>CHAPTER XLVI.<br />
+<br />
+THE INNER CIRCLE, OR THE END OF GRAVITATION.&mdash;IN THE
+BOTTOMLESS GULF.</h2>
+
+
+<p>I recall a whirling sensation, and an involuntary attempt at
+self-preservation, in which I threw my arms wildly about with
+a vain endeavor to clutch some form of solid body, which
+movement naturally ended by a tight clasping of my guide
+in my arms, and locked together we continued to speed down
+into the seven thousand miles of vacancy. Instinctively I
+murmured a prayer of supplication, and awaited the approaching
+hereafter, which, as I believed, would quickly witness the
+extinction of my unhappy life, the end of my material existence;
+but the moments (if time can be so divided when no
+sun marks the division) multiplied without bodily shock or
+physical pain of any description; I retained my consciousness.</p>
+
+<p>"Open your eyes," said my guide, "you have no cause for
+fear."</p>
+
+<p>I acquiesced in an incredulous, dazed manner.</p>
+
+<p>"This unusual experience is sufficient to unnerve you, but
+you need have no fear, for you are not in corporal danger, and
+can relax your grasp on my person."</p>
+
+<p>I cautiously obeyed him, misgivingly, and slowly loosened
+my hold, then gazed about to find that we were in a sea of light,
+and that only light was visible, that form of light which I have
+before said is an entity without source of radiation. In one
+direction, however, a great gray cloud hung suspended and
+gloomy, dark in the center, and shading therefrom in a circle,
+to disappear entirely at an angle of about forty-five degrees.</p>
+
+<p>"This is the earth-shelf from which we sprung," said the
+guide; "it will soon disappear."</p>
+
+<p>Wherever I glanced this radiant exhalation, a peaceful,
+luminous envelope, this rich, soft, beautiful white light appeared.
+The power of bodily motion I found still a factor in my frame,<span class="pagenum">[Pg 318]</span>
+obedient, as before, to my will. I could move my limbs freely,
+and my intellect seemed to be intact. Finally I became
+impressed with the idea that I must be at perfect rest, but if so
+what could be the nature of the substance, or material, upon
+which I was resting so complacently? No; this could not be
+true. Then I thought: "I have been instantly killed by a painless
+shock, and my spirit is in heaven;" but my earthly body
+and coarse, ragged garments were palpable realities; the sense of
+touch, sight, and hearing surely were normal, and a consideration
+of these facts dispelled my first conception.</p>
+
+<p>"Where are we now?"</p>
+
+<p>"Moving into earth's central space."</p>
+
+<p>"I comprehend that a rushing wind surrounds us which is not
+uncomfortable, but otherwise I experience no unusual sensation,
+and can not realize but that I am at rest."</p>
+
+<p>"The sensation, as of a blowing, wind is in consequence of
+our rapid motion, and results from the friction between our bodies
+and the quiescent, attenuated atmosphere which exists even here,
+but this atmosphere becomes less and less in amount until it
+will disappear altogether at a short distance below us. Soon
+we will be in a perfect calm, and although moving rapidly, to all
+appearances will be at absolute rest."</p>
+
+<p>Naturally, perhaps, my mind attempted, as it so often had
+done, to urge objections to his statements, and at first it occurred
+to me that I did not experience the peculiar sinking away sensation
+in the chest that I remembered follows, on earth, the
+downward motion of a person falling from a great height, or
+moving rapidly in a swing, and I questioned him on the absence
+of that phenomenon.</p>
+
+<p>"The explanation is simple," he said; "on the surface of the
+earth a sudden motion, either upward or downward, disturbs the
+equilibrium of the organs of respiration, and of the heart, and
+interferes with the circulation of the blood. This produces a
+change in blood pressure within the brain, and the 'sinking'
+sensation in the chest, or the dizziness of the head of a person
+moving rapidly, or it may even result in unconsciousness, and
+complete suspension of respiration, effects which sometimes follow
+rapid movements, as in a person falling from a considerable
+height. Here circumstances are entirely different. The heart is<span class="pagenum">[Pg 319]</span>
+quiet, the lungs in a comatose condition, and the blood stagnant.
+Mental sensations, therefore, that result from a disturbed condition
+of these organs are wanting, and, although we are experiencing
+rapid motion, we are in the full possession of our physical
+selves, and maintain our mental faculties unimpaired."</p>
+
+<p>Again I interposed an objection:</p>
+
+<p>"If, as you say, we are really passing through an attenuated
+atmosphere with increasing velocity, according to the law that
+governs falling bodies that are acted upon by gravity which
+continually accelerates their motion, the friction between ourselves
+and the air will ultimately become so intense as to wear
+away our bodies."</p>
+
+<p>"Upon the contrary," said he, "this attenuated atmosphere
+is decreasing in density more rapidly than our velocity increases,
+and before long it will have altogether disappeared. You can
+perceive that the wind, as you call it, is blowing less violently
+than formerly; soon it will entirely cease, as I have already
+predicted, and at that period, regardless of our motion, we will
+appear to be stationary."</p>
+
+<p>Pondering over the final result of this strange experience I
+became again alarmed, for accepting the facts to be as he stated,
+such motion would ultimately carry us against the opposite
+crust of the earth, and without a doubt the shock would end our
+existence. I inquired about this, to me, self-evident fact, and he
+replied:</p>
+
+<p>"Long before we reach the opposite crust of the earth, our
+motion will be arrested."</p>
+
+<p>I had begun now to feel a self-confidence that is surprising
+as I recall that remarkable position in connection with my
+narrow experience in true science, and can say that instead
+of despondency, I really enjoyed an elated sensation, a curious
+exhilaration, a feeling of delight, which I have no words to
+describe. Life disturbances and mental worry seemed to have
+completely vanished, and it appeared as if, with mental perception
+lucid, I were under the influence of a powerful soporific;
+the cares of mortals had disappeared. After a while the wind
+ceased to blow, as my guide had predicted, and with the suspension
+of that factor, all that remained to remind me of earth
+phenomena had vanished. There was no motion of material,<span class="pagenum">[Pg 320]</span>
+nothing to mar or disturb the most perfect peace imaginable; I
+was so exquisitely happy that I now actually feared some change
+might occur to interrupt that quiescent existence. It was as a
+deep, sweet sleep in which, with faculties alive, unconsciousness
+was self-conscious, peaceful, restful, blissful. I listlessly turned
+my eyes, searching space in all directions&mdash;to meet vacancy
+everywhere, absolute vacancy. I took from my pocket (into
+which I had hastily thrust it) the bar of iron, and released it;
+the metal remained motionless beside me.</p>
+
+<p>"Traveling through this expanse with the rapidity of ourselves,"
+said my guide.</p>
+
+<p>I closed my eyes and endeavored to convince myself that I was
+dreaming&mdash;vainly, however. I opened my eyes, and endeavored
+to convince myself that I was moving, equally in vain. I
+became oblivious to everything save the delicious sensation of
+absolute rest that enveloped and pervaded my being.</p>
+
+<p>"I am neither alive nor dead," I murmured; "neither asleep
+nor awake; neither moving nor at rest, and neither standing,
+reclining, nor sitting. If I exist I can not bring evidence to
+prove that fact, neither can I prove that I am dead."</p>
+
+<p>"Can any man prove either of these premises?" said the
+guide.</p>
+
+<p>"I have never questioned the matter," said I; "it is a self-evident
+fact."</p>
+
+<p>"Know then," said he, "that existence is a theory, and that
+man is incapable of demonstrating that he has a being. All evidences
+of mortal life are only as the phantasms of hallucination.
+As a moment in dreamland may span a life of time, the dreamer
+altogether unconscious that it is a dream, so may life itself be a
+shadow, the vision of a distempered fancy, the illusion of a
+floating thought."</p>
+
+<p>"Are pain, pleasure, and living, imaginary creations?" I asked
+facetiously.</p>
+
+<p>"Is there a madman who does not imagine, as facts, what
+others agree upon as hallucinations peculiar to himself? Is it
+not impossible to distinguish between different gradations of
+illusions, and is it not, therefore, possible that even self-existence
+is an illusion? What evidence can any man produce to
+prove that his idea of life is not a madman's dream?"<span class="pagenum">[Pg 321]</span></p>
+
+<p>"Proceed," I said.</p>
+
+<p>"At another time, perhaps," he remarked; "we have reached
+the Inner Circle, the Sphere of Rest, the line of gravity, and
+now our bodies have no weight; at this point we begin to
+move with decreased speed, we will soon come to a quiescent
+condition, a state of rest, and then start back on our rebound."<span class="pagenum">[Pg 322]</span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322"></a>CHAPTER XLVII.<br />
+<br />
+HEARING WITHOUT EARS.&mdash;"WHAT WILL BE THE END?"</h2>
+
+
+<p>A flood of recollections came over me, a vivid remembrance
+of my earth-learned school philosophy. "I rebel again," I said,
+"I deny your statements. We can neither be moving, nor can we
+be out of the atmosphere. Fool that I have been not to have
+sooner and better used my reasoning faculties, not to have at once
+rejected your statements concerning the disappearance of the
+atmosphere."</p>
+
+<p>"I await your argument."</p>
+
+<p>"Am I not speaking? Is other argument necessary? Have
+I not heard your voice, and that, too, since you asserted that we
+had left the atmosphere?"</p>
+
+<p>"Continue."</p>
+
+<p>"Have not men demonstrated, and is it not accepted beyond
+the shadow of a doubt, that sound is produced by vibrations of
+the air?"</p>
+
+<p>"You speak truly; as men converse on surface earth."</p>
+
+<p>"This medium&mdash;the air&mdash;in wave vibrations, strikes upon the
+drum of the ear, and thus impresses the brain," I continued.</p>
+
+<p>"I agree that such is the teachings of your philosophy;
+go on."</p>
+
+<p>"It is unnecessary; you admit the facts, and the facts refute
+you; there must be an atmosphere to convey sound."</p>
+
+<p>"Can not you understand that you are not now on the surface
+of the earth? Will you never learn that the philosophy of your
+former life is not philosophy here? That earth-bound science is
+science only with surface-earth men? Here science is a fallacy.
+All that you have said is true of surface earth, but your argument
+is invalid where every condition is different from the
+conditions that prevail thereon. You use the organs of speech
+in addressing me as you once learned to use them, but such
+physical efforts are unnecessary to convey sense-impressions in<span class="pagenum">[Pg 323]</span>
+this condition of rest and complacency, and you waste energy
+in employing them. You assert and believe that the air conveys
+sound; you have been taught such theories in support of a
+restricted philosophy; but may I ask you if a bar of iron, a stick
+of wood, a stream of water, indeed any substance known to you
+placed against the ear will not do the same, and many substances
+even better than the atmosphere?"</p>
+
+<p>"This I admit."</p>
+
+<p>"Will you tell me how the vibration of any of these bodies
+impresses the seat of hearing?"</p>
+
+<p>"It moves the atmosphere which strikes upon the tympanum
+of the ear."</p>
+
+<p>"You have not explained the phenomenon; how does that
+tympanic membrane communicate with the brain?"</p>
+
+<p>"By vibrations, I understand," I answered, and then I began
+to feel that this assertion was a simple statement, and not sufficient
+to explain how matter acts upon mind, whatever mind may
+be, and I hesitated.</p>
+
+<p>"Pray do not stop," he said; "how is it that a delicate
+vibrating film of animal membrane can receive and convey
+sound to a pulpy organic mass that is destitute of elasticity, and
+which consists mostly of water, for the brain is such in structure,
+and vibrations like those you mention, can not, by your own theory,
+pass through it as vibrations through a sonorous material,
+or even reach from the tympanum of the ear to the nearest
+convolution of the brain."</p>
+
+<p>"I can not explain this, I admit," was my reply.</p>
+
+<p>"Pass that feature, then, and concede that this tympanic membrane
+is capable of materially affecting brain tissue by its tiny
+vibrations, how can that slimy, pulpy formation mostly made up
+of water, communicate with the soul of man, for you do not claim,
+I hope, that brain material is either mind, conscience, or soul?"</p>
+
+<p>I confessed my inability to answer or even to theorize on the
+subject, and recognizing my humiliation, I begged him to open
+the door to such knowledge.</p>
+
+<p>"The vibration of the atmosphere is necessary to man, as
+earthy man is situated," he said. "The coarser attributes known
+as matter formations are the crudities of nature, dust swept from
+space. Man's organism is made up of the roughest and lowest<span class="pagenum">[Pg 324]</span>
+kind of space materials; he is surrounded by a turbulent medium,
+the air, and these various conditions obscure or destroy the
+finer attributes of his ethereal nature, and prevent a higher
+spiritual evolution. His spiritual self is enveloped in earth, and
+everywhere thwarted by earthy materials. He is insensible to
+the finer influences of surrounding media by reason of the
+overwhelming necessity of a war for existence with the grossly
+antagonistic materialistic confusion that everywhere confronts,
+surrounds, and pervades him. Such a conflict with extraneous
+matter is necessary in order that he may retain his earthy being,
+for, to remain a mortal, he must work to keep body and soul
+together. His organs of communication and perception are
+of 'earth, earthy'; his nature is cast in a mold of clay, and
+the blood within him gurgles and struggles in his brain, a
+whirlpool of madly rushing liquid substances, creating disorder
+in the primal realms of consciousness. He is ignorant of this
+inward turmoil because he has never been without it, as ignorant
+as he is of the rank odors of the gases of the atmosphere
+that he has always breathed, and can not perceive because of the
+benumbed olfactory nerves. Thus it is that all his subtler senses
+are inevitably blunted and perverted, and his vulgar nature
+preponderates. The rich essential part of his own self is
+unknown, even to himself. The possibility of delight and
+pleasure in an acquaintance with the finer attributes of his own
+soul is clouded by this shrouding materialistic presence that
+has, through countless generations, become a part of man, and
+he even derives most of his mental pleasures from such acts as
+tend to encourage the animal passions. Thus it follows that the
+sensitive, highly developed, extremely attenuated part of his
+inner being has become subservient to the grosser elements.
+The baser part of his nature has become dominant. He remains
+insensible to impressions from the highly developed surrounding
+media which, being incapable of reaching his inner organism
+other than through mechanical agencies, are powerless to impress.
+Alas, only the coarser conditions of celestial phenomena
+can affect him, and the finer expressions of the universe of life
+and force are lost to his spiritual apprehension."</p>
+
+<p>"Would you have me view the soul of man as I would a
+material being?"<span class="pagenum">[Pg 325]</span></p>
+
+<p>"Surely," he answered; "it exists practically as does the
+more gross forms of matter, and in exact accord with natural
+laws. Associated with lower forms of matter, the soul of man is
+a temporary slave to the enveloping substance. The ear of man
+as now constituted can hear only by means of vibrations of such
+media as conduct vibrations in matter&mdash;for example, the air; but
+were man to be deprived of the organs of hearing, and then
+exist for generations subject to evolutions from within, whereby
+the acuteness of the spirit would become intensified, or permitted
+to perform its true function, he would learn to communicate soul
+to soul, not only with mankind, but with beings celestial that
+surround, and are now unknown to him. This he would accomplish
+through a medium of communication that requires neither
+ear nor tongue. To an extent your present condition is what
+men call supernatural, although in reality you have been divested
+of only a part of your former material grossness, which object has
+been accomplished under perfectly natural conditions; your mind
+no longer requires the material medium by which to converse
+with the spiritual. We are conversing now by thought contact,
+there is no atmosphere here, your tongue moves merely from
+habit, and not from necessity. I am reading your mind as you
+in turn are mine, neither of us is speaking as you were accustomed
+to speak."</p>
+
+<p>"I can not accept that assertion," I said; "it is to me
+impossible to realize the existence of such conditions."</p>
+
+<p>"As it is for any man to explain any phenomenon in life," he
+said. "Do you not remember that you ceased to respire, and
+were not conscious of the fact?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"That your heart had stopped beating, your blood no longer
+circulated, while you were in ignorance of the change?"</p>
+
+<p>"That is also true."</p>
+
+<p>"Now I will prove my last assertion. Close your mouth, and
+think of a question you wish to propound."</p>
+
+<p>I did so, and to my perfect understanding and comprehension
+he answered me with closed mouth.</p>
+
+<p>"What will be the end?" I exclaimed, or thought aloud. "I
+am possessed of nearly all the attributes that I once supposed
+inherent only in a corpse, yet I live, I see clearly, I hear plainly,<span class="pagenum">[Pg 326]</span>
+I have a quickened being, and a mental perception intensified
+and exquisite. Why and how has this been accomplished?
+What will be the result of this eventful journey?"</p>
+
+<p>"Restful, you should say," he remarked; "the present is
+restful, the end will be peace. Now I will give you a lesson
+concerning the words Why and How that you have just used."<span class="pagenum">[Pg 327]</span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327"></a>CHAPTER XLVIII.<br />
+<br />
+WHY AND HOW.&mdash;"THE STRUGGLING RAY OF LIGHT FROM
+THOSE FARTHERMOST OUTREACHES."</h2>
+
+
+<p>"Confronting mankind there stands a sphinx&mdash;the vast
+Unknown. However well a man may be informed concerning
+a special subject, his farthermost outlook concerning that subject
+is bounded by an impenetrable infinity."</p>
+
+<p>"Granted," I interrupted, "that mankind has not by any
+means attained a condition of perfection, yet you must admit
+that questions once regarded as inscrutable problems are now
+illuminated by the discoveries of science."</p>
+
+<p>"And the 'discovered,' as I will show, has only transferred
+ignorance to other places," he replied. "Science has confined
+its labors to superficial descriptions, not the elucidation of the
+fundamental causes of phenomena."</p>
+
+<p>"I can not believe you, and question if you can prove what
+you say."</p>
+
+<p>"It needs no argument to illustrate the fact. Science boldly
+heralds her descriptive discoveries, and as carefully ignores her
+explanatory failures. She dare not attempt to explain the why
+even of the simplest things. Why does the robin hop, and the
+snipe walk? Do not tell me this is beneath the notice of men
+of science, for science claims that no subject is outside her
+realm. Search your works on natural history and see if your
+man of science, who describes the habits of these birds, explains
+the reason for this evident fact. How does the tree-frog change
+its color? Do not answer me in the usual superficial manner
+concerning the reflection of light, but tell me why the skin of
+that creature is enabled to perform this function? How does
+the maple-tree secrete a sweet, wholesome sap, and deadly
+nightshade, growing in the same soil and living on the same
+elements, a poison? What is it that your scientific men find in
+the cells of root, or rootlet, to indicate that one may produce a<span class="pagenum">[Pg 328]</span>
+food, and the other a noxious secretion that can destroy life?
+Your microscopist will discuss cell tissues learnedly, will speak
+fluently of physiological structure, will describe organic intercellular
+appearances, but ignore all that lies beyond. Why does
+the nerve in the tongue respond to a sensation, and produce on
+the mind the sense of taste? What is it that enables the nerve
+in the nose to perform its discriminative function? You do not
+answer. Silver is sonorous, lead is not; why these intrinsic
+differences? Aluminum is a light metal, gold a heavy one; what
+reason can you offer to explain the facts other than the inadequate
+term density? Mercury at ordinary temperature is a
+liquid; can your scientist tell why it is not a solid? Of course
+anyone can say because its molecules move freely on each other.
+Such an answer evades the issue; why do they so readily
+exert this action? Copper produces green or blue salts; nickel
+produces green salts; have you ever been told why they observe
+these rules? Water solidifies at about thirty-two degrees above
+your so-called zero; have you ever asked an explanation of your
+scientific authority why it selects that temperature? Alcohol
+dissolves resins, water dissolves gums; have you any explanation
+to offer why either liquid should dissolve anything, much less
+exercise a preference? One species of turtle has a soft shell,
+another a hard shell; has your authority in natural history
+told you why this is so? The albumen of the egg of the
+hen hardens at one hundred and eighty degrees Fahrenheit;
+the albumen of the eggs of some turtles can not be easily
+coagulated by boiling the egg in pure water; why these differences?
+Iceland spar and dog-tooth spar are identical, both
+are crystallized carbonate of lime; has your mineralogist
+explained why this one substance selects these different forms
+of crystallization, or why any crystal of any substance is ever
+produced? Why is common salt white and charcoal black?
+Why does the dog lap and the calf drink? One child has black
+hair, another brown, a third red; why? Search your physiology
+for the answer and see if your learned authority can tell you
+why the life-current makes these distinctions? Why do the
+cells of the liver secrete bile, and those of the mouth saliva?
+Why does any cell secrete anything? A parrot can speak; what
+has your anatomist found in the structure of the brain, tongue,<span class="pagenum">[Pg 329]</span>
+or larynx of that bird to explain why this accomplishment is
+not as much the birthright of the turkey? The elements that
+form morphine and strychnine, also make bread, one a food, the
+other a poison; can your chemist offer any reason for the fact
+that morphine and bread possess such opposite characters?
+The earth has one satellite, Saturn is encompassed by a ring; it
+is not sufficient to attempt to refer to these familiar facts; tell
+me, does your earth-bound astronomer explain why the ring of
+Saturn was selected for that planet? Why are the salts of
+aluminum astringent, the salts of magnesium cathartic, and the
+salts of arsenicum deadly poison? Ask your toxicologist, and
+silence will be your answer. Why will some substances absorb
+moisture from the air, and liquefy, while others become as dry
+as dust under like conditions? Why does the vapor of sulphuric
+ether inflame, while the vapor of chloroform is not combustible,
+under ordinary conditions? Oil of turpentine, oil of lemon,
+and oil of bergamot differ in odor, yet they are composed of
+the same elements, united in the same proportion; why should
+they possess such distinctive, individual characteristics? Further
+search of the chemist will explain only to shove the word why
+into another space, as ripples play with and toss a cork about.
+Why does the newly-born babe cry for food before its intellect
+has a chance for worldly education? Why"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Stop," I interrupted; "these questions are absurd."</p>
+
+<p>"So some of your scientific experts would assert," he replied;
+"perhaps they would even become indignant at my presumption
+in asking them, and call them childish; nevertheless these men
+can not satisfy their own cravings in attempting to search the
+illimitable, and in humiliation, or irritation, they must ignore
+the word Why. That word Why to man dominates the universe.
+It covers all phenomena, and thrusts inquiry back from every
+depth. Science may trace a line of thought into the infinitely
+little, down, down, beyond that which is tangible, and at last in
+that far distant inter-microscopical infinity, monstrous by reason
+of its very minuteness, must rest its labors against the word
+Why. Man may carry his superficial investigation into the
+immeasurably great, beyond our sun and his family of satellites,
+into the outer depths of the solar system, of which our sun is a
+part, past his sister stars, and out again into the depths of the<span class="pagenum">[Pg 330]</span>
+cold space channels beyond; into other systems and out again,
+until at last the nebul� shrink and disappear in the gloom of
+thought-conjecture, and as the straggling ray of light from those
+farthermost outreaches, too feeble to tell of its origin, or carry
+a story of nativity, enters his eye, he covers his face and rests
+his intellect against the word Why. From the remote space
+caverns of the human intellect, beyond the field of perception,
+whether we appeal to conceptions of the unknowable in the
+infinitely little, or the immeasurably great, we meet a circle of
+adamant, as impenetrable as the frozen cliffs of the Antarctic,
+that incomprehensible word&mdash;Why!</p>
+
+<p>"Why did the light wave spring into his field of perception
+by reflection from the microscopic speck in the depths of littleness,
+on the one hand; and how did this sliver of the sun's ray
+originate in the depths of inter-stellar space, on the other?"</p>
+
+<p>I bowed my head.<span class="pagenum">[Pg 331]</span></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">[Pg 332]</a></span></p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 469px;">
+<img src="images/m1056.png" width="469" height="512" alt="" title="DESCRIPTION OF JOURNEY FROM K. [KENTUCKY] TO P.&mdash;&quot;THE END OF EARTH.&quot;" />
+<span class="caption">DESCRIPTION OF JOURNEY FROM K. [KENTUCKY] TO P.&mdash;"THE END OF EARTH."</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>A, B, Diameter of earth, 8,000 miles.</p>
+
+<p>A, D, Thickness of earth crust, 800 miles.</p>
+
+<p>C, D, Distance from inner earth crust to energy
+sphere, 100 miles.</p>
+
+<p>E, Underground lake.</p>
+
+<p>E, F, Distance from surface of lake to earth's
+surface.</p>
+
+<p>G, Inner Circle (the Unknown Country).</p>
+
+<p>H, Middle Circle (Sphere of Energy, or Circle
+of Rest).</p>
+
+<p>L to M, Height of atmosphere, 200 miles.</p>
+
+<p>K, Entrance to cavern in Kentucky.</p>
+
+<p>L, Outer circle, earth's surface.</p>
+
+<p>Mt. E, Mount Epomeo in Italy.</p>
+
+<p>N, North Pole.</p>
+
+<p>O, Rock shelf from which the leap was made
+into the intra-earth space.</p>
+
+<p>P, Junction of earth crust with Circle of
+Rest. Point where I-Am-The-Man
+stepped "onward and upward" in
+"The Unknown Country."</p>
+
+<p>S, South Pole.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg 333]</span></p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333"></a>CHAPTER XLIX.<br />
+<br />
+OSCILLATING THROUGH SPACE.&mdash;EARTH'S SHELL ABOVE ME.<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a>
+</h2>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> For detail illustration of the earth shell, as explained in this
+chapter, see the plate.</p></div>
+
+<p>Continued my companion:</p>
+
+<p>"We have just now crossed the line of gravitation. We
+were drawn downward until at a certain point, to which I called
+your attention at the time, we recently crossed the curved plane
+of perfect rest, where gravity ceases, and by our momentum are
+now passing beyond that plane, and are now pressing against
+the bond of gravitation again. This shell in which gravity
+centers is concentric with that of the earth's exterior, and is
+about seven hundred miles below its surface. Each moment of
+time will now behold us carried farther from this sphere of
+attraction, and thus the increasing distance increases the force
+of the restraining influence. Our momentum is thus retarded,
+and consequently the rapidity of our motion is continually
+decreasing. At last when the forces of gravitation and mass
+motion neutralize each other, we will come to a state of rest
+again. When our motion in this direction ceases, however,
+gravitation, imperishable, continues to exert its equalizing influence,
+the result being a start in the opposite direction, and we
+will then reverse our course, and retrace our path, crossing
+again the central band of attraction, to retreat and fly to the
+opposite side of the power of greater attraction, into the expanse
+from which we came, and that is now above us."</p>
+
+<p>"Can this oscillation ever end? Are we to remain thus,
+as an unceasing pendulum, traversing space, to and fro across
+this invisible shell of attraction from now until the end of
+time?"</p>
+
+<p>"No; there are influences to prevent such an experience;
+one being the friction of the attenuated atmosphere into which
+we plunge each time that we cross the point of greater gravity,
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg 334]</span>and approach the crust of the earth. Thus each succeeding
+vibration is in shorter lines, and at last we will come to a state
+of perfect rest at the center of gravity."</p>
+
+<p>"I can only acquiesce in meek submission, powerless even to
+argue, for I perceive that the foundations for my arguments
+must be based on those observed conditions of natural laws
+formerly known to me, and that do not encompass us here; I
+accept, therefore, your statements as I have several times heretofore,
+because I can not refute them. I must close my eyes to
+the future, and accept it on faith; I cease to mourn the past, I
+can not presage the end."</p>
+
+<p>"Well spoken," he replied; "and while we are undergoing
+this necessary delay, this oscillating motion, to which we must
+both submit before we can again continue our journey, I will
+describe some conditions inherent in the three spheres of which
+the rind of the earth is composed, for I believe that you are now
+ready to receive and profit by facts that heretofore you would
+have rejected in incredulity.</p>
+
+<p>"The outer circle, coat, or contour, of which you have heard
+others besides myself speak, is the surface crust of our globe,
+the great sphere of land and water on which man is at present
+an inhabitant. This is the exposed part of the earth, and is
+least desirable as a residence. It is affected by grievous atmospheric
+changes, and restless physical conditions, such as men,
+in order to exist in, must fortify against at the expense of much
+bodily and mental energy, which leads them, necessarily, to
+encourage the animal at the expense of the ethereal. The
+unmodified rays of the sun produce aerial convulsions that are
+marked by thermal contrasts, and other meteorological variations,
+during which the heat of summer and the cold of winter follow
+each other periodically and unceasingly. These successive solar
+pulsations generate winds, calms, and storms, and in order to
+protect himself against such exposures and changes in material
+surroundings, man toils, suffers, and comes to believe that the
+doom, if not the object, of life on earth is the preservation of
+the earthy body. All conditions and phases of nature on this
+outer crust are in an angry struggle, and this commotion envelops
+the wretched home, and governs the life of man. The
+surrounding cyclones of force and matter have distorted the<span class="pagenum">[Pg 335]</span>
+peaceful side of what human nature might be until the shortened
+life of man has become a passionate, deplorable, sorrowful struggle
+for physical existence, from the cradle to the grave. Of
+these facts man is practically ignorant, although each individual
+is aware he is not satisfied with his condition. If his afflictions
+were obvious to himself, his existence would be typical of a
+life of desolation and anguish. You know full well that the
+condition of the outer sphere is, as I have described it, a bleak,
+turbulent surface, the roof of the earth on which man exists, as
+a creeping parasite does on a rind of fruit, exposed to the fury
+of the ever-present earth storms.</p>
+
+<p>"The central circle, or medial sphere, the shell, or layer of
+gravitation, lies conformably to the outer configuration of the
+globe, about seven hundred miles towards its center. It stretches
+beneath the outer circle (sphere) as a transparent sheet, a shell
+of energy, the center of gravitation. The material crust of
+the earth rests on this placid sphere of vigor, excepting in a few
+places, where, as in the crevice we have entered, gaps, or crevices,
+in matter exist, beginning from near the outer surface and
+extending diagonally through the medial and inner spheres into
+the intra-earth space beyond. This medial sphere is a form of
+pure force, a disturbance of motion, and although without
+weight it induces, or conserves, gravity. It is invisible to
+mortal eyes, and is frictionless, but really is the bone of the
+earth. On it matter, the retarded energy of space, space dust,
+has arranged itself as dust collects on a bubble of water. This
+we call matter. The material portion of the earth is altogether
+a surface film, an insignificant skin over the sphere of purity,
+the center of gravitation. Although men naturally imagine that
+the density and stability of the earth is dependent on the earthy
+particles, of which his own body is a part, such is not the case.
+Earth, as man upon the outer surface, can now know it, is an
+aggregation of material particles, a shell resting on this globular
+sphere of medial force, which attracts solid matter from both the
+outer and inner surfaces of earth, forming thereby the middle of
+the three concentric spheres. This middle sphere is the reverse
+of the outer, or surface, layer in one respect, for, while it attracts
+solids, gases are repelled by it, and thus the atmosphere becomes
+less dense as we descend from the outer surfaces of the earth.<span class="pagenum">[Pg 336]</span>
+The greater degree of attraction for gases belongs, therefore, to
+the earth's exterior surface."</p>
+
+<p>"Exactly at the earth's exterior surface?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Practically so. The greatest density of the air is found a
+few miles below the surface of the ocean; the air becomes more
+attenuated as we proceed in either direction from that point.
+Were this not the case, the atmosphere that surrounds the earth
+would be quickly absorbed into its substance, or expand into
+space and disappear."</p>
+
+<p>"Scientific men claim that the atmosphere is forty-five geographical
+miles in depth over the earth's surface," I said.</p>
+
+<p>"If the earth is eight thousand miles in diameter, how long would
+such an atmosphere, a skin only, over a great ball, resist
+such attraction, and remain above the globe? Were it really
+attracted towards its
+center it would disappear
+as a film of water
+sinks into a sponge."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know," I interrupted,
+"that if these
+statements were made
+to men they would not
+be credited? Scientific
+men have calculated the
+weights of the planets,
+and have estimated
+therefrom the density
+of the earth, showing it
+to be solid, and knowing
+its density, they
+would, on this consideration
+alone, discredit
+your story concerning
+the earth shell."</p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336"></a></p>
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 300px;">
+<img src="images/m1057.png" width="300" height="297" alt="" title="THE EARTH AND ITS ATMOSPHERE." />
+<span class="caption">THE EARTH AND ITS ATMOSPHERE.<br />
+The space between the inner and the outer lines
+represents the atmosphere upon the earth. The depth
+to which man has penetrated the earth is less than the
+thickness of either line, as compared with the diameter
+of the inner circle.</span>
+</div>
+
+
+
+<p>"You mistake, as you will presently see. It is true that
+man's ingenuity has enabled him to ascertain the weights and
+densities of the planets, but do you mean to say that these
+scientific results preclude the possibility of a hollow interior of
+the heavenly bodies?"<span class="pagenum">[Pg 337]</span></p>
+
+<p>"I confess, I do."</p>
+
+<p>"You should know then, that what men define as density of
+the earth, is but an average value, which is much higher than
+that exhibited by materials in the surface layers of the earth
+crust, such as come within the scrutiny of man. This fact
+allows mortals of upper earth but a vague conjecture as to the
+nature of the seemingly much heavier substances that exist in
+the interior of the earth. Have men any data on hand to show
+exactly how matter is distributed below the limited zone that is
+accessible to their investigations?"</p>
+
+<p>"I think not."</p>
+
+<p>"You may safely accept, then, that the earth shell I have
+described to you embraces in a compact form the total weight
+of the earth. Even though men take for granted that matter
+fills out the whole interior of our planet, such material would
+not, if distributed as on earth's surface, give the earth the density
+he has determined for it."</p>
+
+<p>"I must acquiesce in your explanations."</p>
+
+<p>"Let us now go a step further in this argument. What do
+you imagine is the nature of those heavier substances whose
+existence deep within the earth is suggested by the exceedingly
+high total density observed by man on upper earth?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am unable to explain, especially as the materials surrounding
+us here, seemingly, do not differ much from those with
+which my former life experience has made me acquainted."</p>
+
+<p>"Your observation is correct, there is no essential difference
+in this regard. But as we are descending into the interior of
+this globe, and are approaching the central seat of the shell of
+energy, the opposing force into which we plunge becomes
+correspondingly stronger, and as a consequence, matter pressed
+within it becomes really lighter. Your own experience about
+your weight gradually disappearing during this journey should
+convince you of the correctness of this fact."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed, it does," I admitted.</p>
+
+<p>"You will then readily understand, that the heavy material
+to which surface-bred mortals allude as probably constituting
+the interior of the earth, is, in fact, nothing but the manifestation
+of a matter-supporting force, as exemplified in the sphere of
+attractive energy, the seat of which we are soon to encounter on<span class="pagenum">[Pg 338]</span>
+our journey. Likewise the mutual attraction of the heavenly
+bodies is not a property solely of their material part, but an
+expression in which both the force-spheres and the matter collected
+thereon take part.</p>
+
+<p>"Tell me more of the sphere in which gravitation is intensest."</p>
+
+<p>"Of that you are yet to judge," he replied. "When we come
+to a state of rest in the stratum of greater gravity, we will then
+traverse this crevice in the sheet of energy until we reach the
+edge of the earth crust, after which we will ascend towards the
+interior of the earth, until we reach the inner crust, which is, as
+before explained, a surface of matter that lies <a href="#TN"><ins title="Original word was comformably">conformably</ins></a> with
+the external crust of the earth, and which is the interior surface
+of the solid part of the earth. There is a concave world beneath
+the outer convex world."</p>
+
+<p>"I can not comprehend you. You speak of continuing our
+journey towards the center of the earth, and at the same time
+you say that after leaving the Median Circle, we will then
+ascend, which seems contradictory."</p>
+
+<p>"I have endeavored to show you that matter is resting in or
+on a central sphere of energy, which attracts solid bodies towards
+its central plane. From this fundamental and permanent seat of
+gravity we may regard our progress as up-hill, whether we proceed
+towards the hollow center or towards the outer surface of
+the globe. If a stick weighted on one end is floated upright in
+water, an insect on the top of the stick above the water will fall
+to the surface of the liquid, and yet the same insect will rise to
+the surface of the water if liberated beneath the water at the
+bottom of the stick. This comparison is not precisely applicable
+to our present position, for there is no change in medium here,
+but it may serve as an aid to thought and may indicate to you
+that which I wish to convey when I say 'we ascend' in both
+directions as we pull against Gravity. The terms up and down
+are not absolute, but relative."</p>
+
+<p>Thus we continued an undefined period in mind conversation;
+and of the information gained in my experience of that delightful
+condition, I have the privilege now to record but a small
+portion, and even this statement of facts appears, as I glance
+backward into my human existence, as if it may seem to others<span class="pagenum">[Pg 339]</span>
+to border on the incredible. During all that time&mdash;I know not
+how long the period may have been&mdash;we were alternately passing
+and repassing through the partition of division (the sphere of
+gravity) that separated the inner from the outer substantial
+crust of earth. With each vibration our line of travel became
+shorter and shorter, like the decreasing oscillations of a pendulum,
+and at last I could no longer perceive the rushing motion
+of a medium like the air. Finally my guide said that we were
+at perfect rest at a point in that mysterious medial sphere which,
+at a distance of about seven hundred miles below the level of
+the sea, concentrates in its encompassing curvature, the mighty
+power of gravitation. We were fixed seven hundred miles from
+the outer surface of the globe, but more than three thousand
+from the center.<span class="pagenum">[Pg 340]</span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340"></a>CHAPTER L.<br />
+<br />
+MY WEIGHT ANNIHILATED.&mdash;"TELL ME," I CRIED IN ALARM,
+"IS THIS TO BE A LIVING TOMB?"</h2>
+
+
+<p>"If you will reflect upon the condition we are now in,
+you will perceive that it must be one of unusual scientific
+interest. If you imagine a body at rest, in an intangible medium,
+and not in contact with a gas or any substance capable of
+creating friction, that body by the prevailing theory of matter
+and motion, unless disturbed by an impulse from without, would
+remain forever at absolute rest. We now occupy such a position.
+In whatever direction we may now be situated, it seems to us
+that we are upright. We are absolutely without weight, and in
+a perfectly frictionless medium. Should an inanimate body
+begin to revolve here, it would continue that motion forever. If
+our equilibrium should now be disturbed, and we should begin
+to move in a direction coinciding with the plane in which we
+are at rest, we would continue moving with the same rapidity in
+that direction until our course was arrested by some opposing
+object. We are not subject to attraction of matter, for at this
+place gravitation robs matter of its gravity, and has no influence
+on extraneous substances. We are now in the center of gravitation,
+the 'Sphere of Rest.'"</p>
+
+<p>"Let me think it out," I replied, and reasoning from his
+remarks, I mentally followed the chain to its sequence, and was
+startled as suddenly it dawned upon me that if his argument was
+true we must remain motionless in this spot until death (could
+beings in conditions like ourselves die beyond the death we had
+already achieved) or the end of time. We were at perfect rest,
+in absolute vacancy, there being, as I now accepted without
+reserve, neither gas, liquid, nor solid, that we could employ as
+a lever to start us into motion. "Tell me," I cried in alarm, "is
+this to be a living tomb? Are we to remain suspended here
+forever, and if not, by what method can we hope to extricate<span class="pagenum">[Pg 341]</span>
+ourselves from this state of perfect quiescence?" He again took
+the bar of iron from my hand, and cautiously gave it a whirling
+motion, releasing it as he did so. It revolved silently and rapidly
+in space without support or pivot.</p>
+
+<p>"So it would continue," he remarked, "until the end of time,
+were it not for the fact that I could not possibly release it in a
+condition of absolute horizontal rest. There is a slight, slow,
+lateral motion that will carry the object parallel with this sheet
+of energy to the material side of this crevice, when its motion
+will 'be arrested by the earth it strikes.'"</p>
+
+<p>"That I can understand," I replied, and then a ray of light
+broke upon me. "Had not Cavendish demonstrated that, when
+a small ball of lead is suspended on a film of silk, near a mass of
+iron or lead, it is drawn towards the greater body? We will be
+drawn by gravity to the nearest cliff," I cried.</p>
+
+<p>"You mistake," he answered; "Cavendish performed his
+experiments on the surface of the earth, and there gravity is
+always ready to start an object into motion. Here objects have
+no weight, and neither attract nor repel each other. The force
+of cohesion holds together substances that are in contact, but as
+gravitation can not now affect matter out of molecular contact
+with other forms of matter, because of the equilibrium of all
+objects, so it may be likewise said, that bodies out of contact
+have at this point no attraction for one another. If they possessed
+this attribute, long ago we would have been drawn
+towards the earth cliff with inconceivable velocity. However, if
+by any method our bodies should receive an impulse sufficient to
+start them into motion, ever so gently though it be, we in like
+manner would continue to move in this frictionless medium&mdash;until"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"We would strike the material boundary of this crevice,"
+I interrupted.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; but can you conceive of any method by which such
+voluntary motion can now be acquired?"</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>"Does it not seem to you," he continued, "that when skillful
+mechanics on the earth's surface are able to adjust balances so
+delicately that in the face of friction of metal, friction of air,
+inertia of mass, the thousandth part of a grain can produce<span class="pagenum">[Pg 342]</span>
+motion of the great beams and pans of such balances, we, in
+this location where there is no friction and no opposing medium&mdash;none
+at all&mdash;should be able to induce mass motion?"</p>
+
+<p>"I can not imagine how it is possible, unless we shove each
+other apart. There is no other object to push against,&mdash;but why
+do you continue to hold me so tightly?" I interrupted myself to
+ask, for he was clasping me firmly again.</p>
+
+<p>"In order that you may not leave me," he replied.</p>
+
+<p>"Come, you trifle," I said somewhat irritated; "you have
+just argued that we are immovably suspended in a frictionless
+medium, and fixed in our present position; you ask me to suggest
+some method by which we can create motion, and I fail to
+devise it, and almost in the same sentence you say that you fear
+that I will leave you. Cease your incongruities, and advise with
+me rationally."</p>
+
+<p>"Where is the bar of iron?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>I turned towards its former location; it had disappeared.</p>
+
+<p>"Have you not occasionally felt," he asked, "that in your
+former life your mind was a slave in an earthly prison? Have
+you never, especially in your dreams, experienced a sensation of
+mental confinement?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Know then," he replied, "that there is a connection between
+the mind and the body of mortal beings, in which matter confines
+mind, and yet mind governs matter. How else could the will of
+men and animals impart voluntary motion to earthy bodies?
+With beings situated as are the animals on the surface of the
+earth, mind alone can not overcome the friction of matter. A
+person could suspend himself accurately on a string, or balance
+himself on a pivot, and wish with the entire force of his mind
+that his body would revolve, and still he would remain at perfect
+rest."</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly. A man would be considered crazy who attempted
+it," I answered.</p>
+
+<p>"Notwithstanding your opinion, in time to come, human
+beings on the surface of the earth will investigate in this very
+direction," he replied, "and in the proper time mental evolution
+will, by experimentation, prove the fact of this mind and matter
+connection, and demonstrate that even extraneous matter may<span class="pagenum">[Pg 343]</span>
+be made subservient to mind influences. On earth, mind acts
+on the matter of one's body to produce motion of matter, and
+the spirit within, which is a slave to matter, moves with it.
+Contraries rule here. Mind force acts on pure space motion,
+moving itself and matter with it, and that, too, without any
+exertion of the material body which now is a nonentity, mind
+here being the master."</p>
+
+<p>"How can I believe you?" I replied.</p>
+
+<p>"Know, then," he said, "that we are in motion now, propelled
+by my will power."</p>
+
+<p>"Prove it."</p>
+
+<p>"You may prove it yourself," he said; "but be careful, or we
+will separate forever."</p>
+
+<p>Releasing his grasp, he directed me to wish that I were
+moving directly to the right. I did so; the distance widened
+between us.</p>
+
+<p>"Wish intensely that you would move in a circle about me."</p>
+
+<p>I acquiesced, and at once my body began to circle around him.</p>
+
+<p>"Call for the bar of iron."</p>
+
+<p>I did as directed, and soon it came floating out of space into
+my very hand.</p>
+
+<p>"I am amazed," I ejaculated; "yes, more surprised at these
+phenomena than at anything that has preceded."</p>
+
+<p>"You need not be; you move now under the influences of
+natural laws that are no more obscure or wonderful than those
+under which you have always existed. Instead of exercising its
+influence on a brain, and thence indirectly on a material body,
+your mind force is exerting its action through energy on matter
+itself. Matter is here subservient. It is nearly the same as
+vacuity, mind being a comprehensive reality. The positions we
+have heretofore occupied have been reversed, and mind now
+dominates. Know, that as your body is now absolutely without
+weight, and is suspended in a frictionless medium, the most
+delicate balance of a chemist can not approach in sensitiveness
+the adjustment herein exemplified. Your body does not weigh
+the fraction of the millionth part of a grain, and where there is
+neither material weight nor possible friction, even the attrition
+that on surface earth results from a needle point that rests on an
+agate plate is immeasurably greater in comparison. Pure mind<span class="pagenum">[Pg 344]</span>
+energy is capable of disturbing the equilibrium of matter in our
+situation, as you have seen exemplified by our movements and
+extraneous materials, 'dead matter' obeys the spiritual. The
+bar of iron obeyed your call, the spiritless metal is subservient to
+the demands of intelligence. But, come, we must continue our
+journey."</p>
+
+<p>Grasping me again, he exclaimed: "Wish with all intensity
+that we may move forward, and I will do the same."</p>
+
+<p>I did so.</p>
+
+<p>"We are now uniting our energies in the creation of motion,"
+he said; "we are moving rapidly, and with continually accelerated
+speed; before long we will perceive the earthy border of
+this chasm."</p>
+
+<p>And yet it seemed to me that we were at perfect rest.<span class="pagenum">[Pg 345]</span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345"></a>CHAPTER LI.<br />
+<br />
+IS THAT A MORTAL?&mdash;"THE END OF EARTH."</h2>
+
+
+<p>At length I perceived, in the distance, a crescent-shaped
+ring of silver luster. It grew broader, expanding beneath my
+gaze, and appeared to approach rapidly.</p>
+
+<p>"Hold; cease your desire for onward motion," said the guide;
+"we approach too rapidly. Quick, wish with all your mind that
+you were motionless."</p>
+
+<p>I did so, and we rested in front of a ridge of brilliant material,
+that in one direction, towards the earth's outer circle,
+broadened until it extended upward as far as the eye could
+reach in the form of a bold precipice, and in the other towards
+the inner world, shelved gradually away as an ocean beach
+might do.</p>
+
+<p>"Tell me, what is this barrier?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"It is the bisected edge of the earth crevice," he said.
+"That overhanging upright bluff reaches towards the external
+surface of the earth, the land of your former home. That
+shelving approach beneath is the entrance to the 'Inner Circle,'
+the concavity of our world."</p>
+
+<p>Again we approached the visible substance, moving gently
+under the will of my guide. The shore became more distinctly
+outlined as we advanced, inequalities that were before unnoticed
+became perceptible, and the silver-like material resolved itself
+into ordinary earth. Then I observed, upright and motionless,
+on the edge of the shore that reached toward the inner shell of
+earth, towards that "Unknown Country" beyond, a figure in
+human form.</p>
+
+<p>"Is that a mortal?" I asked. "Are we nearing humanity
+again?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is a being of mortal build, a messenger who awaits our
+coming, and who is to take charge of your person and conduct
+you farther," he replied. "It has been my duty to crush, to<span class="pagenum">[Pg 346]</span>
+overcome by successive lessons your obedience to your dogmatic,
+materialistic earth philosophy, and bring your mind to comprehend
+that life on earth's surface is only a step towards a brighter
+existence, which may, when selfishness is conquered, in a time
+to come, be gained by mortal man, and while he is in the flesh.
+The vicissitudes through which you have recently passed should
+be to you an impressive lesson, but the future holds for you a
+lesson far more important, the knowledge of spiritual, or mental
+evolution which men may yet approach; but that I would not
+presume to indicate now, even to you. Your earthly body has
+become a useless shell, and when you lay it aside, as you soon
+can do, as I may say you are destined to do, you will feel a relief
+as if an abnormal excrescence had been removed; but you can
+not now comprehend such a condition. That change will not
+occur until you have been further educated in the purely occult
+secrets for which I have partly prepared you, and the material
+part of your organism will at any time thereafter come and go at
+command of your will. On that adjacent shore, the person you
+have observed, your next teacher, awaits you."</p>
+
+<p>"Am I to leave you?" I cried in despair, for suddenly the
+remembrance of home came into my mind, and the thought, as
+by a flash, that this being alone could guide me back to earth.
+"Recall your words, do not desert me now after leading me
+beyond even alchemistic imaginings into this subterranean
+existence, the result of what you call your natural, or pure,
+ethereal lessons."</p>
+
+<p>He shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"I beg of you, I implore of you, not to abandon me now;
+have you no compassion, no feeling? You are the one tie that
+binds me to earth proper, the only intelligence that I know to be
+related to a human in all this great, bright blank."</p>
+
+<p>Again he shook his head.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_347" id="Page_347">[Pg 347]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/gs1058.jpg" width="600" height="496" alt="" title="&quot;SUSPENDED IN VACANCY, HE SEEMED TO FLOAT.&quot;" />
+<span class="caption">"SUSPENDED IN VACANCY, HE SEEMED TO FLOAT."</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>"Hearken to my pleadings. Listen to my allegation. You
+stood on the edge of the brook spring in Kentucky, your back
+to the darkness of that gloomy cavern, and I voluntarily gave
+you my hand as to a guide; I turned from the verdure of the
+earth, the sunshine of the past, and accompanied you into as
+dismal a cavern as man ever entered. I have since alternately
+rebelled at your methods, and again have trusted you implicitly
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg 348]</span>as we passed through scenes that rational imagination scarce
+could conjure. I have successively lost my voice, my weight,
+my breath, my heart throb, and my soul for aught I know.
+Now an unknown future awaits me on the one hand, in which
+you say my body is to disappear, and on the other you are
+standing, the only link between earth and my self-existence,
+a semi-mortal it may be, to speak mildly, for God only knows
+your true rank in life's scale. Be you man or not, you brought
+me here, and are responsible for my future safety. I plead and
+beg of you either to go on with me into the forthcoming uncertainty
+'Within the Unknown Country' to which you allude, or
+carry me back to upper earth."<span class="pagenum">[Pg 349]</span></p>
+
+<p>He shook his head again, and motioned me onward, and
+his powerful will overcoming my feeble resistance, impelled
+me towards that mysterious shore. I floated helpless, as a
+fragment of camphor whirls and spins on a surface of clear,
+warm water, spinning and whirling aimlessly about, but moving
+onward. My feet rested on solid earth, and I awkwardly
+struggled a short distance onward and upward, and then stepped
+upon the slope that reached, as he had said, inward and upward
+towards the unrevealed "Inner Circle." I had entered now that
+mysterious third circle or sphere, and I stood on the very edge of
+the wonderful land I was destined to explore, "The Unknown
+Country." The strange, peaceful being whom I had observed on
+the shore, stepped to my side, and clasped both my hands, and
+the guide of former days waved me an adieu. I sank upon my
+knees and imploringly raised my arms in supplication, but the
+comrade of my journey turned about, and began to retrace his
+course. Suspended in vacancy, he seemed to float as a spirit
+would if it were wafted diagonally into the heavens, and acquiring
+momentum rapidly, became quickly a bright speck, seemingly a
+silver mote in the occult earth shine of that central sphere, and
+soon vanished from view. In all my past eventful history there
+was nothing similar to or approaching in keenness the agony
+that I suffered at this moment, and I question if shipwrecked
+sailor or entombed miner ever experienced the sense of utter desolation
+that now possessed and overcame me. Light everywhere
+about me, ever-present light, but darkness within, darkness
+indescribable, and mental distress unutterable. I fell upon my<span class="pagenum">[Pg 350]</span>
+face in agony, and thought of other times, and those remembrances
+of my once happy upper earth life became excruciatingly
+painful, for when a person is in misery, pleasant recollections,
+by contrast, increase the pain. "Let my soul die now as my
+body has done," I moaned; "for even mental life, all I now
+possess, is a burden. The past to me is a painful, melancholy
+recollection; the future is"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>I shuddered, for who could foretell my future? I glanced at
+the immovable being with the sweet, mild countenance, who
+stood silent on the strand beside me, and whom I shall not now
+attempt to describe. He replied:</p>
+
+<p>"The future is operative and speculative. It leads the contemplative
+to view with reverence and admiration the glorious
+works of the Creator, and inspires him with the most exalted
+ideas of the perfections of his divine Creator."</p>
+
+<p>Then he added:</p>
+
+<p>"Have you accepted that whatever seems to be is not, and
+that that which seems not to be, is? Have you learned that
+facts are fallacies, and physical existence a delusion? Do you
+accept that material bliss is impossible, and that while humanity
+is working towards the undiscovered land, man is not, can not
+be satisfied?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," I said; "I admit anything, everything. I do not
+know that I am here or that you are there. I do not know that
+I have ever been, or that any form of matter has ever had an
+existence. Perhaps material things are not, perhaps vacuity
+only is tangible."</p>
+
+<p>"Are you willing to relinquish your former associations, to
+cease to concern yourself in the affairs of men? Do you"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>He hesitated, seemed to consider a point that I could not
+grasp; then, without completing his sentence, or waiting for me
+to answer, added:</p>
+
+<p>"Come, my friend, let us enter the expanses of the Unknown
+Country. You will soon behold the original of your vision, the
+hope of humanity, and will rest in the land of Etidorhpa. Come,
+my friend, let us hasten."</p>
+
+<p>Arm in arm we passed into that domain of peace and tranquillity,
+and as I stepped onward and upward perfect rest came
+over my troubled spirit. All thoughts of former times vanished.<span class="pagenum">[Pg 351]</span>
+The cares of life faded; misery, distress, hatred, envy, jealousy,
+and unholy passions, were blotted from existence. Excepting
+my love for dear ones still earth-enthralled, and the strand of
+sorrow that, stretching from soul to soul, linked us together, the
+past became a blank. I had reached the land of Etidorhpa&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="center">THE END OF EARTH.<span class="pagenum">[Pg 352]</span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>INTERLUDE.</h2>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<h2><a name="Page_352" id="Page_352"></a>CHAPTER LII.<br />
+<br />
+THE LAST FAREWELL.</h2>
+
+
+<p>My mysterious guest, he of the silver, flowing beard, read
+the last word of the foregoing manuscript, and then laid the
+sheet of paper on the table, and rested his head upon his hand,
+gazing thoughtfully at the open fire. Thus he sat for a considerable
+period in silence. Then he said:</p>
+
+<p>"You have heard part of my story, that portion which I am
+commanded to make known now, and you have learned how, by
+natural methods, I passed by successive steps while in the body,
+to the door that death only, as yet, opens to humanity. You
+understand also that, although of human form, I am not as other
+men (for with me matter is subservient to mind), and as you
+have promised, so you must act, and do my bidding concerning
+the manuscript."</p>
+
+<p>"But there is surely more to follow. You will tell me of
+what you saw and experienced beyond the end of earth, within
+the possessions of Etidorhpa. Tell me of that Unknown Country."</p>
+
+<p>"No," he answered; "this is the end, at least so far as my
+connection with you is concerned. You still question certain
+portions of my narrative, I perceive, notwithstanding the provings
+I have given you, and yet as time passes investigation will
+show that every word I have read or uttered is true, historically,
+philosophically, and spiritually (which you now doubt), and
+men will yet readily understand how the seemingly profound,
+unfathomable phenomena I have encountered may be verified.
+I have studied and learned by bitter experience in a school that
+teaches from the outgoings of a deeper philosophy than human
+science has reached, especially modern materialistic science<span class="pagenum">[Pg 353]</span>
+which, however, step by step it is destined to reach. And yet I
+have recorded but a small part of the experiences that I have
+undergone. What I have related is only a foretaste of the
+inexhaustible feast which, in the wisdom expanse of the future,
+will yet be spread before man, and which tempts him onward
+and upward. This narrative, which rests against the beginning
+of my real story, the Unknown Country and its possibilities
+should therefore incite to renewed exertions, both mental and
+experimental, those permitted to review it. I have carried my
+history to the point at which I can say to you, very soon afterward
+I gave up my body temporarily, by a perfectly natural
+process, a method that man can yet employ, and passed as a
+spiritual being into the ethereal spaces, through those many
+mansions which I am not permitted to describe at this time, and
+from which I have been forced unwillingly to return and take up
+the semblance of my body, in order to meet you and record
+these events. I must await the development and expansion of
+mind that will permit men to accept this faithful record of my
+history before completing the narrative, for men are yet unprepared.
+Men must seriously consider those truths which, under
+inflexible natural laws, govern the destiny of man, but which, if
+mentioned at this day can only be viewed as the hallucinations
+of a disordered mind. To many this manuscript will prove a
+passing romance, to others an enigma, to others still it will be
+a pleasing study. Men are not now in a condition to receive
+even this paper. That fact I know full well, and I have accordingly
+arranged that thirty years shall pass before it is made
+public. Then they will have begun to study more deeply into
+force disturbances, exhibitions of energy that are now known
+and called imponderable bodies (perhaps some of my statements
+will then even be verified), and to reflect over the connection
+of matter therewith. A few minds will then be capable of
+vaguely conceiving possibilities, which this paper will serve
+to foretell, for a true solution of the great problems of the
+ethereal unknown is herein suggested, the study of which
+will lead to a final elevation of humanity, such as I dare not
+prophesy."</p>
+
+<p>"Much of the paper is obscure to me," I said; "and there are
+occasional phrases and repetitions that appear to be interjected,<span class="pagenum">[Pg 354]</span>
+possibly, with an object, and which are yet disconnected from
+the narrative proper."</p>
+
+<p>"That is true; the paper often contains statements that are
+emblematical, and which you can not understand, but yet such
+portions carry to others a hidden meaning. I am directed to
+speak to many persons besides yourself, and I can not meet
+those whom I address more directly than I do through this communication.
+These pages will serve to instruct many people&mdash;people
+whom you will never know, to whom I have brought
+messages that will in secret be read between the lines."</p>
+
+<p>"Why not give it to such persons?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because I am directed to bring it to you," he replied, "and
+you are required:</p>
+
+<p>"First, To seal the manuscript, and place it in the inner vault
+of your safe.</p>
+
+<p>"Second, To draw up a will, and provide in case of your
+death, that after the expiration of thirty years from this date,
+the seals are to be broken, and a limited edition published in
+book form, by one you select.</p>
+
+<p>"Third, An artist capable of grasping the conceptions will at
+the proper time be found, to whom the responsibility of illustrating
+the volume is to be entrusted, he receiving credit therefor.
+Only himself and yourself (or your selected agent) are to
+presume to select the subjects for illustration.</p>
+
+<p>"Fourth, In case you are in this city, upon the expiration of
+thirty years, you are to open the package and follow the directions
+given in the envelope therein."</p>
+
+<p>And he then placed on the manuscript a sealed envelope
+addressed to myself.</p>
+
+<p>"This I have promised already," I said.</p>
+
+<p>"Very well," he remarked, "I will bid you farewell."</p>
+
+<p>"Wait a moment; it is unjust to leave the narrative thus
+uncompleted. You have been promised a future in comparison
+with which the experiences you have undergone, and have
+related to me, were tame; you had just met on the edge of the
+inner circle that mysterious being concerning whom I am
+deeply interested, as I am in the continuation of your personal
+narrative, and you have evidently more to relate, for you must
+have passed into that Unknown Country. You claim to have<span class="pagenum">[Pg 355]</span>
+done so, but you break the thread in the most attractive part
+by leaving the future to conjecture."</p>
+
+<p>"It must be so. This is a history of man on Earth, the continuation
+will be a history of man within the Unknown Country."</p>
+
+<p>"And I am not to receive the remainder of your story?" I
+reiterated, still loth to give it up.</p>
+
+<p>"No; I shall not appear directly to you again. Your part in
+this work will have ended when, after thirty years, you carry
+out the directions given in the sealed letter which, with this
+manuscript, I entrust to your care. I must return now to the
+shore that separated me from my former guide, and having again
+laid down this semblance of a body, go once more into"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>He buried his face in his hands and sobbed. Yes; this
+strange, cynical being whom I had at first considered an impertinent
+fanatic, and then, more than once afterward, had been
+induced to view as a cunning impostor, or to fear as a cold,
+semi-mortal, sobbed like a child.</p>
+
+<p>"It is too much," he said, seemingly speaking to himself;
+"too much to require of one not yet immortal, for the good of
+his race. I am again with men, nearly a human, and I long to
+go back once more to my old home, my wife, my children. Why
+am I forbidden? The sweets of Paradise can not comfort the
+mortal who must give up his home and family, and yet carry his
+earth-thought beyond. Man can not possess unalloyed joys, and
+blessings spiritual, and retain one backward longing for mundane
+subjects, and I now yearn again for my earth love, my material
+family. Having tasted of semi-celestial pleasures in one of the
+mansions of that complacent, pure, and restful sphere, I now
+exist in the border land, but my earth home is not relinquished,
+I cling as a mortal to former scenes, and crave to meet my lost
+loved ones. All of earth must be left behind if Paradise is ever
+wholly gained, yet I have still my sublunary thoughts.</p>
+
+<p>"Etidorhpa! Etidorhpa!" he pleaded, turning his eyes as if
+towards one I could not see, "Etidorhpa, my old home calls.
+Thou knowest that the beginning of man on earth is a cry born
+of love, and the end of man on earth is a cry for love; love is a
+gift of Etidorhpa, and thou, Etidorhpa, the soul of love, should
+have compassion on a pleading mortal."</p>
+
+<p>He raised his hands in supplication.<span class="pagenum">[Pg 356]</span></p>
+
+<p>"Have mercy on me, Etidorhpa, as I would on you if you
+were I and I were Etidorhpa."</p>
+
+<p>Then with upturned face he stood long and silent, listening.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah," he murmured at last, as if in reply to a voice I could
+not catch, a voice that carried to his ear an answer of deep disappointment;
+"thou spokest truly in the vision, Etidorhpa: it
+is love that enslaves mankind; love that commands; love that
+ensnares and rules mankind, and thou, Etidorhpa, art the soul
+of Love. True it is that were there no Etidorhpa, there would
+still be tears on earth, but the cold, meaningless tears of pain
+only. No mourning people, no sorrowful partings, no sobbing
+mothers kneeling with upturned faces, no planting of the myrtle
+and the rose on sacred graves. There would be no child-love, no
+home, no tomb, no sorrow, no Beyond"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>He hesitated, sank upon his knees, pleadingly raised his
+clasped hands and seemed to listen to that far-off voice, then
+bowed his head, and answered:</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; thou art right, Etidorhpa&mdash;although thou bringest sorrow
+to mortals, without thee and this sorrow-gift there could be
+no bright hereafter. Thou art just, Etidorhpa, and always wise.
+Love is the seed, and sorrow is the harvest, but this harvest of
+sadness is to man the richest gift of love, the golden link that
+joins the spirit form that has fled to the spirit that is still
+enthralled on earth. Were there no earth-love, there could be
+no heart-sorrow; were there no craving for loved ones gone, the
+soul of man would rest forever a brother of the clod. He who
+has sorrowed and not profited by his sorrow-lesson, is unfitted
+for life. He who heeds best his sorrow-teacher is in closest
+touch with humanity, and nearest to Etidorhpa. She who has
+drank most deeply of sorrow's cup has best fitted herself for
+woman's sphere in life, and a final home of immortal bliss. I
+will return to thy realms, Etidorhpa, and this silken strand of
+sorrow wrapped around my heart, reaching from earth to Paradise
+and back to earth, will guide at last my loved ones to the
+realms beyond&mdash;the home of Etidorhpa."</p>
+
+<p>Rising, turning to me, and subduing his emotion, ignoring
+this outburst, he said:<span class="pagenum">[Pg 357]</span></p>
+
+<p>"If time should convince you that I have related a faithful
+history, if in after years you come to learn my name (I have
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg 358]</span>been forbidden to speak it), and are convinced of my identity,
+promise me that you will do your unbidden guest a favor."<span class="pagenum">[Pg 359]</span></p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_357" id="Page_357"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 408px;">
+<img src="images/gs1059.jpg" width="408" height="600" alt="" title="&quot;I STOOD ALONE IN MY ROOM HOLDING THE MYSTERIOUS
+MANUSCRIPT.&quot;" />
+<span class="caption">"I STOOD ALONE IN MY ROOM HOLDING THE MYSTERIOUS
+MANUSCRIPT."</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>"This I will surely do; what shall it be?"</p>
+
+<p>"I left a wife, a little babe, and a two-year-old child when I
+was taken away, abducted in the manner that I have faithfully
+recorded. In my subsequent experience I have not been able to
+cast them from my memory. I know that through my error
+they have been lost to me, and will be until they change to the
+spirit, after which we will meet again in one of the waiting Mansions
+of the Great Beyond. I beg you to ascertain, if possible,
+if either my children, or my children's children live, and should
+they be in want, present them with a substantial testimonial.
+Now, farewell."</p>
+
+<p>He held out his hand, I grasped it, and as I did so, his form
+became indistinct, and gradually disappeared from my gaze, the
+fingers of my hand met the palm in vacancy, and with extended
+arms I stood alone in my room, holding the mysterious manuscript,
+on the back of which I find plainly engrossed:</p>
+
+<div class="poem" style="width: 28em;">
+<span class="i0">"There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio,</span>
+<span class="i1">Than are dreamt of in your philosophy."</span>
+</div>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_360" id="Page_360">[Pg 360]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>EPILOGUE.<br />
+<br />
+LETTER ACCOMPANYING THE MYSTERIOUS MANUSCRIPT.</h2>
+
+
+<p>The allotted thirty years have passed, and as directed, I,
+Llewellyn Drury, now break the seals, and open the envelope
+accompanying the mysterious package which was left in my hand,
+and read as follows:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>Herein find the epilogue to your manuscript. Also a picture
+of your unwelcome guest, I&mdash;Am&mdash;The&mdash;Man, which you are
+directed to have engraved, and to use as a frontispiece to the
+volume. There are men yet living to bear witness to my identity,
+who will need but this picture to convince them of the authenticity
+of the statements in the manuscript, as it is the face of one
+they knew when he was a young man, and will recognize now
+that he is in age. Do not concern yourself about the reception
+of the work, for you are in no wise responsible for its statements.
+Interested persons, if living, will not care to appear in public in
+connection therewith, and those who grasp and appreciate, who
+can see the pertinence of its truths, who can read between the
+lines and have the key to connected conditions, will assuredly
+keep their knowledge of these facts locked in their own bosoms,
+or insidiously oppose them, and by their silence or their attacks
+cover from men outside the fraternity, their connection with the
+unfortunate author. They dare not speak.</p>
+
+<p>Revise the sentences; secure the services of an editor if you
+desire, and induce another to publish the book if you shrink
+from the responsibility, but in your revision do not in any way
+alter the meaning of the statements made in the manuscript;
+have it copied for the printer, and take no part in comments that
+may arise among men concerning its reception.<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a>
+ Those who are
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg 361]</span>best informed regarding certain portions thereof, will seemingly
+be least interested in the book, and those who realize most fully
+these truths, will persistently evade the endorsement of them.
+The scientific enthusiast, like the fraternity to which I belong, if
+appealed to, will obstruct the mind of the student either by criticism
+or ridicule, for many of these revelations are not recorded
+in his books.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> From a review of the fac simile (see <a href="#Page_35">p. 35</a>), it will be seen that an
+exact print word for word could not be expected. In more than one
+instance subsequent study demonstrated that the first conception was
+erroneous, and in the interview with Etidorhpa (see <a href="#Page_252">p. 252</a>), after the
+page had been plated, it was discovered that the conveyed meaning was
+exactly the reverse of the original. Luckily the error was discovered in
+time to change the verse, and leave the spirit of this fair creature
+unblemished.&mdash;J. U. L.</p></div>
+
+<p>You are at liberty to give in your own language as a prologue
+the history of your connection with the author, reserving,
+however, if you desire to do so, your personality, adding an introduction
+to the manuscript, and, as interludes, every detail of our
+several conversations, and of your experience. Introduce such
+illustrations as the selected artist and yourself think proper in
+order to illuminate the statements. Do not question the advisability
+of stating all that you know to have occurred; write the
+whole truth, for although mankind will not now accept as fact
+all that you and I have experienced, strange phases of life
+phenomena are revealing themselves, and humanity will yet
+surely be led to a higher plane. As men investigate the points of
+historical interest, and the ultra-scientific phenomena broached
+in this narrative, the curtain of obscurity will be drawn aside,
+and evidence of the truths contained in these details will be
+disclosed. Finally, you must mutilate a page of the manuscript
+that you may select, and preserve the fragment intact and in
+secret. Do not print another edition unless you are presented
+with the words of the part that is missing.<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a>
+</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> I have excised a portion (see p. 190).&mdash;J. U. L.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="quotsig">
+(Signed.) I&mdash;Am&mdash;The&mdash;Man.
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Note by Mr. Drury.</span>&mdash;Thus the letter ended. After mature
+consideration it has been decided to give verbatim most of the
+letter, and all of the manuscript, and to append, as a prologue, an
+introduction to the manuscript, detailing exactly the record of my
+connection therewith, including my arguments with Professors
+Chickering and Vaughn, whom I consulted concerning the statements
+made to me directly by its author. I will admit that
+perhaps the opening chapter in my introduction may be such as
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg 362]</span>to raise in the minds of some persons a question concerning my
+mental responsibility, for as the principal personage in this drama
+remarks: "Mankind can not now accept as facts what I have
+seen." Yet I walk the streets of my native city, a business man
+of recognized thoughtfulness and sobriety, and I only relate on
+my own responsibility what has to my knowledge occurred. It
+has never been intimated that I am mentally irresponsible, or
+speculative, and even were this the case, the material proof that
+I hold, and have not mentioned as yet, and may not, concerning
+my relations with this remarkable being, effectually disproves
+the idea of mental aberration, or spectral delusion. Besides,
+many of the statements are of such a nature as to be verified
+easily, or disproved by any person who may be inclined to repeat
+the experiments suggested, or visit the localities mentioned. The
+part of the whole production that will seem the most improbable
+to the majority of persons, is that to which I can testify from my
+own knowledge, as related in the first portion and the closing
+chapter. This approaches necromancy, seemingly, and yet in my
+opinion, as I now see the matter, such unexplained and recondite
+occurrences appear unscientific, because of the shortcomings of
+students of science. Occult phenomena, at some future day,
+will be proved to be based on ordinary physical conditions to be
+disclosed by scientific investigations [for "All that is is natural,
+and science embraces all things"], but at present they are beyond
+our perception; yes, beyond our conception.</p>
+
+<p>Whether I have been mesmerized, or have written in a
+trance, whether I have been the subject of mental aberration, or
+have faithfully given a life history to the world, whether this book
+is altogether romance, or carries a vein of prophecy, whether it
+sets in motion a train of wild speculations, or combines playful
+arguments, science problems, and metaphysical reasonings, useful
+as well as entertaining, remains for the reader to determine. So
+far as I, Llewellyn Drury, am concerned, this is&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="center">THE END.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_363" id="Page_363">[Pg 363]</a></span></p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/m1060.png" width="600" height="586" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+
+
+<p>Had the above communication and the missing fragment of manuscript been withheld
+(see <a href="#Page_161">page 161</a>), it is needless to say that this second edition of Etidorhpa would not have appeared.</p>
+
+<p>On behalf of the undersigned, who is being most liberally scolded by friends and acquaintances
+who can not get a copy of the first edition, and on behalf of these same scolding
+mortals, the undersigned extends to I-Am-The-Man the collective thanks of those who scold
+and the scolded.&mdash;J. U. L.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_364" id="Page_364">[Pg 364]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 404px;">
+<img src="images/m1061a.png" width="404" height="1200" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg 365]</span></p>
+<p>This introduction, which in the author's edition was signed by the writer, is here reprinted
+in order that my views of the book be not misconstrued.&mdash;J. U. L.<span class="pagenum">[Pg 366]</span></p>
+<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg 367]</span></p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>THE LIFE OF<br />
+<br />
+PROF. DANIEL VAUGHN<br />
+<br />
+BY PROF. RICHARD NELSON</h2>
+
+<p class="title">TO WHICH IS ADDED<br />
+
+AN ACCOUNT OF HIS DEATH<br />
+
+BY FATHER EUGENE BRADY, S.J.</p><p><span class="pagenum">[Pg 368]</span></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg 369]</span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 367px;">
+<img src="images/gs1063.jpg" width="367" height="600" alt="" title="PROF. DANIEL VAUGHN." />
+<span class="caption">PROF. DANIEL VAUGHN.</span>
+</div>
+<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg 370]</span></p>
+<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg 371]</span></p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p class="title"><big>Story of the Life of Prof. Daniel Vaughn.</big><a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="title">BY PROF. RICHARD NELSON.</p>
+
+<p class="title">HIS VALUABLE LIBRARY SHOWING MARKS
+OF MUCH STUDY.</p>
+
+<p class="title">Twelve Years' Record in the Chair of Chemistry at the Cincinnati
+College of Medicine.</p>
+
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> Reprinted from the Cincinnati Tribune.</p>
+</div>
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+<p class="center">[A paper read before the Literary Club by Prof. Richard Nelson.]</p>
+
+
+<p>Few men, if any, so eminent in science and philosophy have been known to live
+and die in such obscurity as the subject of this paper. A mathematician whose
+knowledge has never been fathomed, an original investigator in terrestrial and celestial
+chemistry, most of whose speculations are now accepted as law; a contributor to
+the philosophical journals of Europe, whose papers were received with distinguished
+favor; an astronomer, who, in those papers, ventured to differ with Laplace, and,
+too, as will be shown, a man skilled in classical scholarship, yet unknown to his
+nearest neighbors and recognized by only a few in his own city. He lived and died
+in obscurity and poverty in a city distinguished for its schools of science and art,
+and the liberality and public spirit of its men of wealth; who, if any, were to blame?
+One object of this paper is to unravel the mystery.</p>
+
+
+<p class="center">HIS BIRTHPLACE AND PARENTAGE.</p>
+
+<p>Daniel Vaughn was born in the year 1818 at Glenomara, four miles from Killaloe,
+County Clare, Ireland. His father's name was John, who had two brothers,
+Daniel and Patrick. John, like Daniel, was educated for the church, but, being the
+eldest son, remained on the farm. Daniel became, subsequently, the parish priest
+of Killaloe, and in 1845 was ordained Bishop.</p>
+
+<p>John Vaughn had three children, Daniel (the subject of this paper), Owen and
+Margaret, afterward Mrs. Kent. The distance to the nearest school being four
+Irish miles, John had his sons educated by a tutor till they were prepared to enter a
+classical academy.</p>
+
+<p>At the age of about sixteen Dan, as he was familiarly called, was placed under
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg 372]</span>the care of his uncle and namesake at Killaloe, where he entered the academy.
+There the young student pursued the study of Greek, Latin and mathematics, giving
+some attention to certain branches of physics, for which he evinced peculiar
+aptitude.</p>
+
+
+<p class="center">HE EMIGRATES AND FINDS A HOME.</p>
+
+<p>About the year 1840 his uncle, desirous of having the young man enter the
+church, advanced him a sum of money to defray his expenses at a theological school
+in Cork, but on seeing the American liners when he reached Queenstown, the temptation
+to take the voyage to the land of promise was too great for the young adventurer
+to resist, so he secured a passage to New York. When at school he made
+wonderful advancement in study, especially in higher mathematics, and felt he ought
+to go to a country where he could be free to pursue his favorite line of thought and
+where attainments in science would not be circumscribed, as in the church.</p>
+
+<p>Of his voyage and subsequent wanderings little is known until he reached Kentucky.
+That he visited many schools and paid his way in part by teaching there is
+no question. The college of the late Dr. Campbell, in Virginia, was one of the institutions
+visited, but he felt he must push on to Kentucky. About 1842 he had
+reached the Blue Grass region, near the home of the late Colonel Stamps, in Bourbon
+County. The Colonel saw him engaged at work and was quick to observe that
+the stranger was no common man. Taking him to his house and supplying his
+wants, the Colonel soon installed him as his guest, and eventually made him instructor
+of his children. Access to the Colonel's library was a boon to the stranger,
+developing in him traits of genius of which his host was very proud.</p>
+
+<p>It was only a short time till the neighboring farmers heard of the distinguished
+young scholar, and desired to have the more mature members of their families under
+his care. A school was opened in the Colonel's house for instruction in the higher
+mathematics, the classics, geology, physical geography and astronomy. The young
+people were pleased with their teacher and made commendable progress, but the
+curriculum was too varied and comprehensive for an instructor, who, though far advanced
+in scholarship, had not yet studied the art of teaching.</p>
+
+
+<p class="center">ACCEPTS A PROFESSORSHIP.</p>
+
+<p>In 1845 he accepted the chair of Greek in a neighboring college, which afforded
+him leisure for his scientific pursuits. After an absence of seven years the
+Professor returned to his old friend, Colonel Stamps and family, where he remained
+some two years, leaving them to settle in Cincinnati.</p>
+
+<p>During his stay at the Colonel's (1851) he became a member of the American
+Association for the Advancement of Science, and in 1852 contributed to it his first
+article, entitled "On the Motions of Numerous Small Bodies and the Phenomena
+Resulting Therefrom." Having accumulated a valuable collection of books on
+science and philosophy and obtained access to several libraries, public and private,
+in the city, he was now in a condition to devote most of his time and energies to his
+favorite sciences. For subsistence he delivered lectures before teachers' institutes
+and colleges till 1856, when an affection of the lungs compelled him to abandon the
+lecture field.</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime he had offered papers for publication to Silliman's Journal,<span class="pagenum">[Pg 373]</span>
+the principal scientific magazine of America at that time, but, receiving no response
+to his communications and being denied publication, he took the advice of a friend
+and sent his subsequent articles to the British Association for the Advancement of
+Science and to the Philosophic Magazine, where they were received with favor.
+He was much gratified to find his article on "Meteoric Astronomy" published in
+the report of the Liverpool meeting of the association in 1854. Six papers, which
+he subsequently sent in 1857, 1859 and 1861, met with similar favor.</p>
+
+<p>For several years he visited schools, colleges and teachers' institutes in Oxford,
+Lebanon, Cleveland and other cities, lecturing on his favorite branches of science.
+It had been his intention to popularize the science of physical astronomy by the
+publication of tracts or pamphlets.</p>
+
+
+<p class="center">PUBLISHES PAMPHLETS.</p>
+
+<p>In the year 1856, at the request of teachers before whom he had lectured at the
+institutes, and with a view to popularize scientific knowledge, the Professor commenced
+the publication of pamphlets. The first number treated of "The Geological
+Agency of Water and Subterranean Forces." Only two of these pamphlets
+came into the possession of the administrator. One of them was a good-sized volume,
+as may be inferred from the following articles it contained:</p>
+
+<ul class="none">
+<li>"The Influence of Magnitude on Stability."</li>
+<li>"The Doctrine of Gravitation."</li>
+<li>"Theory of Tides."</li>
+<li>"Effects of Tides."</li>
+<li>"Cases of Excessive Tidal Action and Planetary Instability."</li>
+<li>"The Rings of Saturn."</li>
+<li>"The Supposed Influence of Satellites in Preserving Planetary Rings."</li>
+<li>"Movements of Comets."</li>
+<li>"The Tails of Comets."</li>
+<li>"Mass and Density of Comets."</li>
+<li>"Cometary Catastrophes."</li>
+<li>"Phenomena Attending the Fall of Meteors."</li>
+<li>"The Origin of Solar and Meteoric Light."</li>
+<li>"Variable Stars and the Sun's Spots."</li>
+<li>"Temporary Stars."</li>
+<li>"Electrical Light and the Aurora Borealis."</li>
+<li>"Proof of the Stability of the Solar System," with an appendix.</li>
+
+</ul>
+
+<p>Some of these subjects had been treated of at greater length and published by
+American and British associations for the advancement of science.</p>
+
+<p>He sent to the British Association for the Advancement of Science:</p>
+
+<ul class="none">
+<li>"Cases of Planetary Instability Indicated by the Appearance of Temporary Stars."</li>
+<li>"Appearance of Temporary Stars."</li>
+</ul>
+
+
+<p>Other papers appeared:</p>
+
+<ul class="none">
+<li>"Note on the Sunspots," Philosophical Magazine for December, 1858.</li>
+<li>"On the Solar Spots and Variable Stars," idem, Vol. 15, p. 359.</li>
+<li>"Changes in the Conditions of Celestial Bodies," an essay.</li>
+<li>"The Origin of Worlds," Popular Science Monthly, May, 1879.
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg 374]</span></li>
+
+
+
+<li>"Planetary Rings and New Stars," Popular Science Monthly, February, 1879.</li>
+<li>"Astronomical History of Worlds," idem, September, 1878.</li>
+<li>"On the Stability of Satellites in Small Orbits and the Theory of Saturn's
+Rings," Philosophical Magazine, May, 1861.</li>
+<li>"On the Origin of the Asteroids." Contributed to the American Association
+for the Advancement of Science.</li>
+<li>"Static and Dynamic Stability in the Secondary Systems," Philosophical Magazine,
+December, 1861.</li>
+<li>"On Phenomena which May be Traced to the Presence of a Medium Pervading
+all Space," idem, May 11, 1861.</li>
+
+</ul>
+
+<p>The Professor contributed to other publications on both sides of the Atlantic,
+but as he failed to retain copies of the articles or of the magazines in which they
+were published, doubtless many papers of interest are among the number.</p>
+
+<p>The year 1860 found the Professor possessed of a valuable collection of books,
+the accumulation of ten or fifteen years, all showing the marks of wear, some of
+them besmeared with the drippings from his candle. Among them were works of
+some of the most prominent authors in branches of theoretical and practical science.
+Those of Laplace, Kepler, Tycho-Brahe, Leibnitz, Herschel, Newton and
+others, together with many pamphlets and periodicals, composed his library. He
+possessed a familiar knowledge of the German, French, Italian and Spanish languages,
+and of ancient Greek and Latin. Many of his papers appeared in the continental
+languages. It may be here stated that for the eminent astronomer, Laplace,
+as a scientist and writer, Prof. Vaughn entertained great respect, though he
+could not accept his nebular hypothesis, because important parts of it would not
+bear mathematical investigation. [The proof is in the papers in my possession.&mdash;N.]
+In an article of the Professor to the Popular Science Monthly (February,
+1879) is a case of the kind, showing that the distinguished astronomer ignored
+his own famous theory. The article reads: "In endeavoring to account for the
+direct motion in secondary systems Laplace contends that, in consequence of friction
+the supposed primitive solar rings would have a greater velocity in their outer
+than in their inner zones. Now, if friction is to counteract to such an extent the
+normal effects of gravitation, it must be an eternal bar against the origin of worlds
+by nebulous dismemberment, and if the ring of attenuated matter were placed under
+the circumstances suggested by the eminent astronomer, it would be ultimately
+doomed, not to form a planet, but to coalesce with the immense spheroid of fiery
+vapor it was supposed to have environed."</p>
+
+<p>It is interesting to know that the theory of our Professor was the correct one,
+as proved by a recent discovery of Prof. James E. Keeler, astronomer of the Allegheny
+Observatory. As announced in a daily paper: "Prof. James E. Keeler, of
+the Allegheny Observatory, has made a wonderful discovery. It is a scientific and
+positive demonstration of the fact that the rings of Saturn are made up of many
+small bodies and that the satellites of the inner edge of the rings move faster than
+the outer."</p>
+
+<p>As to satellites, Prof. Vaughn, in the paper quoted, page 466, states: "The matter
+spread over the wide annular fields is ever urged by its own attraction to collect
+together and form satellites, which are ever destroyed by attractive disturbance of
+the primary, and have their parts scattered once more over a wide space."<span class="pagenum">[Pg 375]</span></p>
+
+
+<p class="center">INSTALLED AS PROFESSOR OF CHEMISTRY.</p>
+
+<p>The Professor was elected to the chair of chemistry in the Cincinnati College
+of Medicine and Surgery in 1860, where he served with distinction for twelve years.
+His scholarly valedictory at that institution is one of the papers reserved for publication
+in his memoirs.</p>
+
+<p>While in the college he continued his investigations in science, applying his
+knowledge of terrestrial chemistry to the chemistry of the heavens, as shown in
+nearly all his writings. Besides the position held in the college, he gave lessons in
+schools and seminaries in geology, astronomy, chemistry, Latin and Greek.</p>
+
+<p>In 1873 he visited Lexington, where he met his old friend, Dr. J. C. Darby, and
+delivered lectures in public, at the Sayre Institute and the Baptist School, returning
+to Cincinnati the following spring. Except from his writings, he seemed to
+have no source of revenue for several years. How he managed to exist his
+most intimate friends could only conjecture. True, he contributed papers to
+monthly publications, but they appeared at such long intervals they could not be
+relied on for support, so, in the autumn of 1878 his friends organized for him a
+course of lectures, which were well patronized by physicians and others versed in
+science. In the meantime, negotiations were opened with prominent citizens of
+suburban towns for other lectures, and efforts were made to retire the Professor on
+an annuity.</p>
+
+
+<p class="center">HIS END DRAWING NEAR.</p>
+
+<p>Enfeebled health, which confined him to his room for several weeks, prevented
+him from entering on the suburban course, so a second course was projected for the
+city and one of the lectures delivered. From what transpired after that lecture his
+friends were again anxious regarding his health, and, as the time approached for the
+delivery of the second, determined to see him. For reasons stated elsewhere it was
+with some difficulty he was found. Prostrated on a couch, he was suffering from a
+hemorrhage of the lungs of a few days previous, with evidences all around of a
+state of extreme destitution. No time was lost in having him removed to comfortable
+quarters in the Good Samaritan Hospital, where his friends arranged for his
+care as a private patient. Next day, April 3, he expressed himself as greatly benefited
+by the change and talked cheerfully and hopefully of the future. Next day,
+Friday, he continued to improve, but on Saturday proof of his forthcoming article
+in the Popular Science Monthly reached him, and, feeling that he ought to return
+it promptly, he sat up to do the work. The effort was too great. Overcome with
+exhaustion after its completion, he sank to sleep and a little after two o'clock next
+morning, April 6, his weary spirit peacefully took its flight. Born in 1818, the Professor
+was then in the sixty-first year of his age.</p>
+
+
+<p class="center">HIS OBSEQUIES.</p>
+
+<p>A committee of the more intimate friends of the deceased was formed, consisting
+of the late Jacob Traber, his nephew, J. C. Sproull, Drs. J. J. and William Taft
+and the writer.</p>
+
+<p>Funeral services were held in the chapel of the Hospital, where, considering the
+suddenness of the Professor's demise, many mourners were present. The interest<span class="pagenum">[Pg 376]</span>
+evinced was profound, while the floral tributes that covered the casket were eloquent
+of affection and esteem.</p>
+
+<p>The remains were interred in a burial lot of Jacob Traber, who generously tendered
+its use until a separate place of interment and a monument could be procured.
+The remains of the two friends now lie side by side.</p>
+
+
+<p class="center">HIS EFFECTS.</p>
+
+<p>After the funeral the committee referred to visited the room occupied by the
+Professor prior to his decease, and had the writer, as his nearest friend, procure letters
+of administration, so that papers of value, if any, would be cared for. A few
+letters, some private relics, unsalable remnants of books and pamphlets and scraps
+of manuscript constituted the effects. The scarcity of manuscript was easily accounted,
+for, as it was the habit of the deceased for years to print articles designed
+for publication and have them mailed to magazines and to savants in different parts
+of Europe and America.</p>
+
+
+<p class="center">CHARACTERISTICS AND HABITS OF STUDY.</p>
+
+<p>A prominent characteristic of Prof. Vaughn was shyness&mdash;a shrinking from
+familiarity or conspicuousness. He never was the first to salute a casual acquaintance
+on the street, and when introduced to a stranger would extend his hand with
+apparent diffidence or reserve&mdash;not with the warmth of a hearty shake, but rather
+with a cautious presentation of the finger tips. Undemonstrative in manner, and
+inexperienced in the customs of social life, his diffidence was taken for coldness, yet
+he was kind and tender hearted almost to a fault, and a most grateful recipient of a
+favor. In his poverty he would part with money or personal property to people
+whom he considered more necessitous than himself. Of the proceeds of his last
+course of lectures he gave to one such a sum so large as to almost discourage his
+friends from helping him.</p>
+
+<p>Then, too, he was glad to render service to professional and public men. He
+made translations for writers and wrote lectures for others and made chemical
+analyses for the city when payment was not expected. As to his placing a commercial
+value upon his services he never learned to do it, though they often cost
+him both time and money that he could not well spare.</p>
+
+<p>His waking hours were always fully occupied in writing or study, either in his
+laboratory, the libraries or in open-air observations. He was thoroughly familiar
+with the geology of the neighborhood and the physical geography of the entire
+continent, as may be seen by his articles on "Volcanoes," "The Origin of Lakes
+and Mountains," "The Absence of Trees on Prairies," "Malaria," etc. His ingenuity
+in the construction of apparatus for his illustrations in chemistry was remarkable.
+Given a few tubes of glass and rubber, a piece of tin, some acid and alkali,
+a blow-pipe, soldering iron and a pair of pinchers, he could construct at will
+enough apparatus for a lesson, a lecture or an analysis.</p>
+
+<p>Considering his poverty, it may be questioned how he was able to maintain a
+laboratory. For twelve years he found a room at the Medical College. At other
+times he extemporized quarters at his humble lodgings, where the same apartment
+was to him laboratory, study and living room. Such a room he could not find in a
+private house, so he sought it elsewhere, as in the tenement in which he was found<span class="pagenum">[Pg 377]</span>
+in his last illness. That life necessarily isolated him from society, its pleasures and
+advantages before he became familiar with the laws by which it was governed.</p>
+
+<p>Having acquired a mastery of Greek and Latin in his youth, he had a good
+preparation for the acquisition of the modern languages; besides, to prosecute his
+studies and investigations, he found it necessary to understand most of the languages
+of Europe.</p>
+
+<p>Exception has been taken to the Professor's manner as a lecturer. When we
+consider his natural diffidence in the presence of strangers we are surprised that
+he attempted to lecture at all. Take his case when he last lectured,&mdash;his lecture
+hall, the operating room of the Dental College, and his platform that of the operator
+with his audience around but elevated a few feet above him. The position
+was an exceedingly trying one, and some time elapsed before he was able to make
+a good start. While hesitating, on such occasions, his eyes would wander around
+the audience till they rested on those of a familiar friend. Immediately he addressed
+himself to that person, and confidence was restored. Like other public
+speakers we know of, he continued to address himself chiefly to the one selected,
+however embarrassing it might be to that individual.</p>
+
+
+<p class="center">HIS RELIGIOUS LIFE.</p>
+
+<p>The Professor was a Bible student, if we judge from fragments found among
+his effects and a well-worn Bible, now a relic in possession of a former student.
+The book is a curiosity, worn as is the cover with marks of his fingers as he held
+it, often with a candle in his hand, as shown by occasional drippings on the page
+and cover.</p>
+
+<p>He was not a member of any church. At least, had not been up to a month
+before his decease, though he visited churches of all denominations and was familiar
+with their doctrines and polity. His religion consisted in his living up to his highest
+ideas of right and truth; hence he was charitable almost to a fault. When he
+had not money to give, he parted with his books.</p>
+
+<p>An eloquent public speaker, referring to his private life, has said: "He was
+social, kind and humane. He took pleasure in instructing the children and communing
+with friends&mdash;good men and women, who loved and admired him&mdash;and his
+humanity was gratified in bestowing what he valued most&mdash;knowledge. To him
+nothing seemed more precious than truth, and to shed the light of it abroad. His
+heart was in his work, and without a glance to the right or left, he pursued his arduous
+quest."</p>
+
+<p>Of the works of creation which occupied so much of his thoughts, the Professor's
+views may be had by reading the following concluding remarks found in his
+"Physical Astronomy:"</p>
+
+<p>"Whatever doubts may hang over all speculations respecting distant events,
+either of past or future time, we have reason to believe that our universe will ever
+exhibit great and useful operations throughout its extensive domains. From the
+ruins of some celestial bodies others will rise to act a part in the drama of the
+physical creation in future ages. Though nature's work may all decay, her laws
+remain the same, and numerous agencies, obedient to their control and aided by
+occasional interventions of creative power, must maintain the heavens forever in a
+harmonious condition and transform innumerable spheres into seats of light and<span class="pagenum">[Pg 378]</span>
+intelligence. While the laws of nature have been thus widely ordained for such
+great ends, their simplicity renders them intelligible to the limited powers of the
+human mind, and the immense universe thus becomes a vast field of intellectual
+enjoyment for man."</p>
+
+
+<p class="center">TESTIMONY OF THE LATE DR. JOHN HANCOCK.</p>
+
+<p>The late Dr. Hancock, in writing to Mrs. J. W. McLaughlin, stated that he
+attended institute lectures of Prof. Vaughn, making his acquaintance at a meeting
+of the Southwestern Ohio Normal Institute. The Professor was engaged to lecture
+on his favorite specialties, physical geography and astronomy. "It is my recollection,"
+says the doctor, "that Prof. Vaughn was a graduate of Trinity Collage, Dublin.
+However that may be, there can be no doubt as to his wide and profound
+scholarship. He was not only deeply versed in the physical sciences, but was
+equally proficient in the classics and mathematics. It is said by competent judges
+that he read Greek and Latin as he would English, as though he thought in those
+languages, and he was one of the few Americans who read through Laplace's
+'Mechanique Celeste.' He had a prodigious memory. At the Oxford Institute,
+to which I have referred, some dozen of the leading members, Prof. Vaughn among
+them, got up some literary games requiring wide reading and retentive memories
+for successful rivalry. In these games the Professor showed a wealth of reading
+and an ability to use it on the instant that I have never seen approached by any
+other scholar. It is needless to say that he was first in the game and the rest
+nowhere.</p>
+
+<p>"Some ten years afterward, when connected with Nelson's Commercial College,
+I edited a little educational paper, the News and Educator, of which Mr.
+Nelson was proprietor. In this relation I came much more frequently in contact
+with Prof. Vaughn than I ever did before. To this paper he contributed a number
+of articles on scientific subjects, but, being printed in an obscure local paper, they
+attracted little attention."</p>
+
+
+<p class="center">REMINISCENCES OF MRS. STAMPS.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Eliza Stamps, widow of the late Colonel Stamps, in giving her experience
+with the Professor, said: "He was a very industrious student, in his profound researches
+pursuing them to the exclusion of every thing else. He would frequently
+forget the demands of hunger and disregard the summons to his meals. As to his
+engaging in innocent amusements, he considered it a sacrifice of valuable time;
+yet, lest he should be accused of selfishness or wanting in social etiquette, he sometimes
+left his books to unite with the children in their games, and, diffident though
+he was, would occasionally take part in the dance.</p>
+
+<p>"He enjoyed the Colonel's library, but soon exhausted its resources and those
+of the neighbors; so, to obtain a supply, he would go on foot to Cincinnati, one
+hundred miles distant, and return in the same manner, loaded with new books."</p>
+
+<p>Throughout his after life he gave evidence of his great respect and affection
+for Colonel Stamps, his benefactor, and his family, and the young ladies and gentlemen
+who had been his pupils, who never ceased to venerate him for his learning,
+or to love and cherish his memory. Some such were among the mourners at his
+funeral.<span class="pagenum">[Pg 379]</span></p>
+
+
+<p class="center">REPUTATION IN ENGLAND.</p>
+
+<p>The late Jacob Traber, one of the most intimate friends of the Professor, has
+written: "In the year 1858 I was in the office of John Sayre, bookseller, High
+Holborn, where I made the purchase of books that were yet in the hands of the
+printer. I gave my address and directions for shipping. When in the act of leaving
+the office I was accosted by an elderly gentleman who, with the apology, 'Beg
+pardon, I overheard you when you gave your address, Cincinnati, and desire to
+make inquiry about one of your distinguished citizens, Daniel Vaughn. Assuming
+that you know him, may I ask how long it is since you have seen him?' I replied
+that I had known the Professor some four years, and had met him but a few months
+ago. At that time I regarded the Professor as a mechanical genius of the speculative
+type, and so expressed myself. A quick rejoinder came in that broad and
+forcible accent of an Englishman: 'If you Cincinnati people vote Vaughn as a
+speculative mechanic, the ripest and profoundest mathematical scholar in England
+may be marked as his apprentice. You have a treasure in that man. Why, sir,
+we send him problems that fail to be mastered here, and speedily have them back
+not only with a solution, but with the demonstration.' The speaker proved to be
+one of the ablest scholars and scientists in Europe."</p>
+
+
+<p class="center">FIXING THE RESPONSIBILITY FOR HIS CONDITION.</p>
+
+<p>The subject of this paper, it will be inferred, did not inherit a patrimony, yet he
+contributed his valuable services to many worthy objects without pecuniary compensation.
+As has been stated, his great pleasure, next to the investigation of truth,
+was to impart useful knowledge and help the needy. When in the medical college
+he was paid with shares of stock on which a dividend was never declared, and when
+engaged in lecturing and teaching his diffidence prevented him from placing a sufficient
+value on his services. Living the life of a recluse, he concealed his poverty
+from his nearest friends, who were ignorant even of his address. Then, he never
+sought a gratuity, and his friends could only learn by conjecture when he was in
+need. When asked if his privations did not cause him much anxiety, he said they
+gave him no concern.</p>
+
+<p>On more than one occasion the writer, at the request of men of wealth and influence,
+proposed to retire him on an annuity, but he modestly but firmly declined
+to accept, and it was not until after the announcement of his last course that he consented.
+Then the proposition was to pay his expenses at a hotel of his choice
+and advance him money for his personal expenses, for which he was to lecture
+when and where he might choose. The gentlemen most active in this project
+were the following, now deceased: Henry Peachy, William F. Corry, Jacob Traber,
+Colonel Geoffrey and others. Favorably known to the public were Drs. J. J. and
+William Taft, Dr. Thad Reamy, J. C. Sproull, etc.</p>
+
+<p>The project had so far matured that the writer and another had arranged with
+Mr. Peachy to make the Lafayette National Bank the custodian of the funds. Had
+the Professor survived, he would have enjoyed a life of leisure and comfort, at one
+of the most prominent hotels in the city.</p>
+
+<p>The people of Cincinnati were, therefore, not responsible for the poverty of our
+friend, nor for the state of destitution in which he was found prior to his removal to
+the hospital.<span class="pagenum">[Pg 380]</span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h3>ACCOUNT OF THE DEATH OF PROF. VAUGHN, BY REV.<br />
+EUGENE BRADY, S.J.</h3>
+
+<blockquote><p>[Concerning the last days of Professor Vaughn, the following from the pen of
+Father Brady, pastor of St. Xavier's Church, is of special interest. This is peculiarly
+appropriate by reason of the fact that Father Brady, while a boy, attended the
+college during the time Professor Vaughn taught in Bardstown, Kentucky, and
+finally comforted him in his last moments.&mdash;J. U. L.]</p></blockquote>
+
+
+<p>
+"<span class="smcap">My Dear Mr. Lloyd</span>:&mdash;<br />
+</p>
+
+<p>"Concerning the foot-note on <a href="#Page_160">page 160</a> of Etidorhpa. The description of
+Daniel Vaughn is correct. The story of his privations is quite true. He was so
+absorbed in science as to be self-neglectful. Moreover, he was grossly neglected by
+those <i>who made use of his labors</i>.</p>
+
+<p>"A servant girl told the venerable Sister Anthony that a poor lodger was dying
+in destitution in the west end of the city. The lodger was Professor Vaughn. The
+Sister had the good man conveyed to the Good Samaritan Hospital on April 1,
+1879. She made him comfortable, as he repeatedly declared. He died on April 6,
+1879. <i>Thoroughly conscious</i> up to the last moment, <i>it was at his request</i> that
+the undersigned had the melancholy pleasure of administering to him the last
+rites of the Catholic Church. It was neither delirium nor senility that revived
+his faith. He was but sixty-one years of age, and as rational as ever in life."</p>
+
+<p class="quotsig">
+&mdash;<span class="smcap">Eugene Brady</span>, S.J.
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg 381]</span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>ETIDORHPA.</h2>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">To The Recipients of The Author's Edition of Etidorhpa:</span></p>
+
+
+<p>That so large an edition as 1,299 copies of an expensive book, previously
+unseen by any subscriber, should have been taken in advance by reason of a
+mere announcement, is complimentary to the undersigned; and yet this very
+confidence occasioned him not a little anxiety. Under such circumstances
+to have failed to give, either in workmanship or subject-matter, more than
+was promised in the announcement of Etidorhpa, would have been painfully
+embarrassing.</p>
+
+<p>Not without deep concern, then, were the returns awaited; for, while neither
+pains nor expense were spared to make the book artistically a prize, still, beautiful
+workmanship and attractive illustrations may serve but to make more
+conspicuous other failings. Humiliating indeed would it have been had the
+recipients, in a spirit of charity, spoken only of artistic merit and neat
+bookwork.</p>
+
+<p>When one not a bookman publishes a book, he treads the danger-line.
+When such a person, without a great publishing-house behind him, issues a
+book like Etidorhpa&mdash;a book that, spanning space, seemingly embraces wild
+imaginings and speculation, and intrudes on science and religion&mdash;he invites
+personal disaster.</p>
+
+<p>That in the case of the Author's Edition of Etidorhpa the reverse happily
+followed, is evidenced by hundreds of complimentary letters, written by men
+versed in this or that section wherein the book intrudes; and in a general way
+the undersigned herein gratefully extends his thanks to all correspondents&mdash;thanks
+for the cordial expressions of approval, and for the graceful oversights
+by critics and correspondents, that none better than he realizes have been extended
+towards blemishes that must, to others, be not less apparent than they
+are to himself.</p>
+
+<p>Since general interest has been awakened in the strange book Etidorhpa,
+and as many readers are soliciting information concerning its reception, it is
+not only as a duty, but as a pleasure, that the undersigned reproduces the following
+abstracts from public print concerning the Author's Edition, adding,
+that as in most cases the reviews were of great length and made by men specially
+selected for the purpose, the brief notes are but fragments and simply
+characteristic of their general tenor.</p>
+
+<p>The personal references indulged by the critics could not be excised without
+destroying the value of the criticisms, and the undersigned can offer no
+other apology for their introduction than to say that to have excluded them
+would have done an injustice to the writers.</p>
+
+<p class="quotsig">
+Respectfully,<br />
+JOHN URI LLOYD.
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg 382]</span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h3>ETIDORHPA AS A WORK OF ART.</h3>
+
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Professor S. W. Williams, Wyoming, Ohio.</span></p>
+
+
+<p>If a fine statue or a stately cathedral is a poem in marble, a
+masterpiece of the printer's art may be called a poem in typography.
+Such is Etidorhpa. In its paper, composition, presswork,
+illustrations, and binding&mdash;it is the perfection of beauty.
+While there is nothing gaudy in its outward appearance, there is
+throughout a display of good taste. The simplicity of its neatness,
+like that of a handsome woman, is its great charm. Elegance
+does not consist in show nor wealth in glitter; so the
+richest as well as the costliest garb may be rich in its very
+plainness. The illustrations were drawn and engraved expressly
+for this work, and consist of twenty-one full-page, half-tone
+cuts, and over thirty half-page and text cuts, besides two photogravures.
+The best artistic skill was employed to produce them,
+and the printing was carefully attended to, so as to secure the
+finest effect. Only enameled book paper is used; and this, with
+the wide margins, gilt top, trimmed edges, and clear impressions
+of the type, makes the pages restful to the eyes in reading or
+looking at them. The jacket, or cover, which protects the binding,
+is of heavy paper, and bears the same imprint as the book
+itself. Altogether, as an elegant specimen of the bookmakers'
+art it is a credit to the trade. All honor to the compositors who
+set the type, the artists who drew and engraved the illustrations,
+the electrotyper who put the forms into plate, the pressman who
+worked off the sheets, and the binder who gathered and bound
+them in this volume.<span class="pagenum">[Pg 383]</span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h3>REVIEWS OF ETIDORHPA.</h3>
+
+
+<div class="sidenote"><b>B. O. Flower,
+Editor of
+The Arena, Boston.</b></div>
+
+<p>The present is an age of expectancy, of anticipation, and of prophecy;
+and the invention or discovery or production that occupies the
+attention of the busy world, as it rushes on its self-observed
+way, for more than the passing nine day's
+wonder, must needs be something great indeed. Such
+a production has now appeared in the literary world
+in the form of the volume entitled "Etidorhpa, or the End of Earth;"
+the very title of which is so striking as to arrest the attention at once.</p>
+
+<p>A most remarkable book.... Surpasses, in my judgment,
+any thing that has been written by the elder Dumas or Jules Verne, while
+in moral purpose it is equal to Hugo at his best.... It appeals to
+the thoughtful scientist no less than to the lover of fascinating romance.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><b>Mr. Herbert Bates,
+in the Commercial
+Gazette, Cincinnati.</b></div>
+
+<p>In summing, I would say that I have found the book distinctly stimulating.
+It is odd, but with the oddity of force. It has passages of uncanny
+imagination, but they excellently evade the enormous and extravagant.
+It is a book that by its title and by such features
+as strike one at a hurried glance might easily
+repel. Yet it is a book that, studied carefully, calls
+for re-reading and deep meditation. Its theories are
+capable of scientific demonstration, its imaginings, while they may not
+be fact, are always consistent with it. The reader who lets the outside
+repel him errs sadly. Let him read it, and he will be as changed in his
+position toward it, as ready to convert others, as is the reviewer, who
+picked it up with foreboding and laid it down with the sense of having
+read great thoughts.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><b>Dr. W. H. Venable.</b></div>
+
+<p>"The End of Earth" is not like any other book. The charm of
+adventure, the excitement of romance, the stimulating heat of controversy,
+the keen pursuit of scientific truth, the glow of moral enthusiasm,
+are all found in its pages. The book may be described
+as a sort of philosophical fiction, containing much exact
+scientific truth, many bold theories, and much ingenious speculation on
+the nature and destiny of man.... The occult and esoteric character
+of the discussions adds a strange fascination to them. We can
+hardly classify, by ordinary rules, a work so unusual in form and purpose,
+so discursive in subject-matter, so unconventional in its appeals to reason,
+religion and morality.... The direct teaching of the book,
+in so far as it aims to influence conduct, is always lofty and pure.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><b>Letter from
+Sir Henry Irving,
+to the Author.</b></div>
+
+<p>"<i>My Dear Sir:</i> Let me thank you most heartily for sending me
+the special copy of your wonderful book 'Etidorhpa,' which I shall ever
+value. I may say that when by chance I found it in
+Cincinnati I read it with the greatest interest and
+pleasure, and was so struck by it that I have sent copies
+to several friends of mine here and at home. I hope
+I may have the pleasure of meeting you some day either here or in
+London. I remain, sincerely yours,</p>
+
+<p class="quotsig">
+HENRY IRVING.<br />
+"20th March, 1896."<br />
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg 384]</span></p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><b>Etidorhpa
+as a work of art.
+Prof. S. W. Williams.</b></div>
+
+<p>If a fine statute or a stately cathedral is a poem in marble, a masterpiece
+of the printer's art may be called a poem in typography. Such is
+"Etidorhpa." In its paper, composition, presswork, illustrations, and
+binding&mdash;it is the perfection of beauty. While there is
+nothing gaudy in its outward appearance, there is
+throughout a display of good taste.</p>
+
+<p>The illustrations were drawn and engraved expressly
+for this work, and consist of twenty-one full-page, half-tone cuts,
+and over thirty half-page and text cuts, besides two photogravures. The
+best artistic skill was employed to produce them, and the printing was
+carefully attended to, so as to secure the finest effect.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><b>Eclectic Medical
+Journal, Cincinnati.</b></div>
+
+<p>No one could have written the chapter on the "Food of Man" but
+Professor Lloyd; no one else knows and thinks of these subjects in a
+similar way.... The "old man's" description of "the spirit of
+stone," "the spirit of plants," and finally, "the spirit
+of man," is very fine, but those who hear Professor
+Lloyd lecture catch Lloyd's impulses throughout. The
+only regret one has in reading this entrancing work is, that it ends unexpectedly,
+for the End of Earth comes without a catastrophe. It should
+have been a hundred pages longer; the reader yearns for more, and
+closes the book wistfully.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><b>New Idea, Detroit.</b></div>
+
+<p>One of the great charms of the book is the space between the lines,
+which only the initiated can thoroughly comprehend. Don't fail to read
+and re-read Etidorhpa. Be sure and read it in the
+light of contemporaneous literature, for without doing
+so, its true beauty will not appear. Aside from its subject-matter, the excellency
+of the workmanship displayed by the printer, and artistic beauty
+of the illustrations, will make Etidorhpa an ornament to any library.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><b>Cincinnati Student.</b></div>
+
+<p>This book, to use the words of the editor of the Chicago Inter-Ocean,
+is "the literary novelty of the year."... In a literary
+sense, according to all reviewers, it abounds with
+"word-paintings of the highest order"&mdash;in some chapters
+being "terrible" in its vividness, several critics asserting that Dante's
+Inferno has nothing more realistic....</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><b>The British and
+Colonial Druggist,
+London, England.</b></div>
+
+<p>We have read it with absorbed interest, the vividly-depicted scenes
+of each stage in the miraculous journey forming a theme which enthralls
+the reader till the last page is turned. Many new
+views of natural laws are given by the communicator,
+and argued between him and Drury, into which, and
+into the ultimate intent of Etidorhpa, we will not attempt
+to enter, but will leave it for each reader to peruse, and draw his
+own conclusions.... Professor Lloyd's style is quaint and polished,
+and perfectly clear. The printing and paper are all that can be desired,
+and an abundance of artistic and striking illustrations are admirably reproduced.<span class="pagenum">[Pg 385]</span></p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><b>New York World.</b></div>
+
+<p>Etidorhpa, the End of the Earth, is in all respects the worthiest presentation
+of occult teachings under the attractive guise of fiction that has
+yet been written. Its author, Mr. John Uri Lloyd, of Cincinnati, as a
+scientist and writer on pharmaceutical topics, has already
+a more than national reputation, but only his
+most intimate friends have been aware that he was an advanced student
+of occultism. His book is charmingly written, some of its passages being
+really eloquent; as, for instance, the apostrophe to Aphrodite&mdash;whose
+name is reversed to make the title of the story. It has as thrilling situations
+and startling phenomena as imagination has ever conceived....
+There is no confusion between experiences and illusions, such as are common
+in the works of less instructed and conscientious writers treating of
+such matters. He knows where to draw the line and how to impress
+perception of it, as in the four awful nightmare chapters illustrating the
+curse of drink. Etidorhpa will be best appreciated by those who have
+"traveled East in search of light and knowledge."...</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><b>John Clark Ridpath, LL.D.</b></div>
+
+<p>We are disposed to think "Etidorhpa" the most
+unique, original, and suggestive new book that we have
+seen in this the last decade of a not unfruitful century.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><b>Times-Star, Cincinnati.</b></div>
+
+<p>It is as fascinating as the richest romance by Dumas, and mysterious
+and awe-inspiring as the wild flights of Verne. Hugo wrote nothing
+more impassioned than those terrible chapters where "The-Man-Who-Did-It"
+drinks liquor from the mushroom cup. There never
+was a book like it. It falls partly in many classes, yet lies
+outside of all. It will interest all sorts and conditions of men
+and it has that in it which may make it popular as the most sensational
+novel of the day. Intricate plotting, marvelous mysteries, clear-cut
+science without empiricism, speculative reasoning, sermonizing, historical
+facts, and bold theorizing make up the tissue of the story, while the spirit
+of Etidorhpa, the spirit of love, pervades it all.... Happy is the
+scientist who can present science in a form so inviting as to charm not
+only the scholars of his own profession, but the laymen besides, This,
+Professor John Uri Lloyd has done in his Etidorhpa.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><b>The Inter-Ocean, Chicago.</b></div>
+
+<p>For eighteen years the writer has been seated at his desk, and all
+kinds of books have been passed in review, but has never before met
+with such a stumper as Etidorhpa. Its name is a stunner, and its title-page,
+head-lines, and <a href="#TN"><ins title="Original word was wierd">weird,</ins></a> artistic pictures send you
+such a ghastly welcome as to make goblins on the walls,
+and fill the close room with spooks and mystery. The
+writer has only known of Professor Lloyd as a scientist and an expert in
+the most occult art of the pharmacist, and can scarcely conceive him in
+the role of the mystic and romancer in the region heretofore sacred to the
+tread of the supernatural.... The book is the literary novelty of
+the year, but those interested in such lines of thought will forget its novelties
+in a profound interest in the themes discussed.<span class="pagenum">[Pg 386]</span></p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><b>The Chicago Medical Times.</b></div>
+
+<p>The work stands so entirely alone in literature, and possesses such
+a marvelous versatility of thought and idea, that, in describing it, we are
+at a loss for comparison. In its scope it comprises alchemy, chemistry,
+science in general, philosophy, metaphysics, morals, biology,
+sociology, theosophy, materialism, and theism&mdash;the
+natural and supernatural.... It is almost impossible
+to describe the character of the work. It is realistic in expression,
+and weird beyond Hawthorne's utmost flights. It excels Bulwer-Lytton's
+Coming Race and Jules Verne's most extreme fancy. It equals Dante
+in vividness and eccentricity of plot.... The entire tone of the
+work is elevating. It encourages thought of all that is ennobling and
+pure. It teaches a belief and a faith in God and holy things, and shows
+God's supervision over all his works. It is an allegory of the life of one
+who desires to separate himself from the debasing influences of earth, and
+aspires to a pure and noble existence, as beautiful and as true to the existing
+conditions of human life as Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. The sorrow;
+the struggle with self; the physical burdens; the indescribable
+temptations with the presence and assistance of those who would assist
+in overcoming them; the dark hours, Vanity Fair, and the Beulahland,
+are all there.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><b>Indianapolis Journal.</b></div>
+
+<p>In every respect the volume bearing the title Etidorhpa, or the End
+of the Earth, is a most remarkable book. Typographically, it is both
+unique and artistic&mdash;as near perfection in conception and execution as
+can be conceived.... The author is John Uri Lloyd,
+of Cincinnati, a scientific writer whose pharmaceutical
+treatises are widely known and highly valued. That a
+man whose mind and time have been engrossed with the affairs of a
+specialist and man of affairs could have found time to enter the field of
+speculation, and there display not only the most extensive knowledge of
+the exact natural sciences, and refute what is held to be scientific truth
+with bold theories and ingenious speculations on the nature and destiny
+of man is marvelous....</p>
+
+<p>The Addenda is as original as the book itself, consisting, as it does,
+of a list of names, some of whom are not subscribers, but to whom the
+author is deeply obliged, or whom he regards as very dear friends, and
+those of a few whom he personally admires.... If each of them
+has a copy of Etidorhpa, or the End of the Earth, he possesses a book
+which is not like any other book in the world.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><b>Cleveland Leader.</b></div>
+
+<p>It relates to a journey made by the old man under the guidance of a
+peculiar being into the interior of the earth. The incidents of this journey
+overshadow any thing that Verne ever wrote in his palmiest days.
+But perhaps the most singular part of it is that they are
+all based on scientific grounds. Dr. Lloyd, the author
+of the volume, is one of the deepest students, and is well known as a profound
+writer on subjects pertaining to his profession, as well as one who
+has taken much pains in studying the occult sciences.... The book is
+a very pleasant one to read, a little redundant at times, but full of information....
+Readers who succeed in securing it will be very lucky indeed.<span class="pagenum">[Pg 387]</span></p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>TRANSCRIBER NOTES:<a id="TN" name="TN"></a></p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>Punctuation has been normalized.</p>
+<p><a name="Note_1" id="Note_1"></a>page 47: no illustration is found in the original book for this reference.</p>
+
+<p>page 228: "siezed" changed to "seized" (The guide seized me by the hand).</p>
+
+<p>page 284: "begun" changed to "began" (began a narcotic hallucination).</p>
+
+<p>page 338: "comformably" changed to "conformably" (that lies conformably with the external crust).</p>
+
+<p>page 385: "wierd" changed to "weird" (and weird, artistic pictures).</p></blockquote>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Etidorhpa or the End of Earth., by John Uri Lloyd
+
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+</pre>
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+</body>
+</html>
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@@ -0,0 +1,14014 @@
+Project Gutenberg's Etidorhpa or the End of Earth., by John Uri Lloyd
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Etidorhpa or the End of Earth.
+       The Strange History of a Mysterious Being and The Account
+       of a Remarkable Journey
+
+Author: John Uri Lloyd
+
+Illustrator: J. Augustus Knapp
+
+Release Date: October 16, 2011 [EBook #37775]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ETIDORHPA OR THE END OF EARTH. ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Pat McCoy, Suzanne Shell and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+ETIDORHPA
+
+OR
+
+THE END OF EARTH.
+
+
+THE STRANGE HISTORY OF A MYSTERIOUS BEING
+
+AND
+
+The Account of a Remarkable Journey
+
+
+
+
+AS COMMUNICATED IN MANUSCRIPT TO
+
+LLEWELLYN DRURY
+
+WHO PROMISED TO PRINT THE SAME, BUT FINALLY EVADED THE RESPONSIBILITY
+
+
+WHICH WAS ASSUMED BY
+
+JOHN URI LLOYD
+
+
+
+
+WITH MANY ILLUSTRATIONS BY
+
+J. AUGUSTUS KNAPP
+
+
+SIXTH EDITION
+
+
+CINCINNATI
+
+THE ROBERT CLARKE COMPANY
+
+1896
+
+
+
+
+ASCRIPTION.
+
+To Prof. W. H. Venable, who reviewed the manuscript of this work, I am
+indebted for many valuable suggestions, and I can not speak too kindly
+of him as a critic.
+
+The illustrations, excepting those mechanical and historical, making in
+themselves a beautiful narrative without words, are due to the admirable
+artistic conceptions and touch of Mr. J. Augustus Knapp.
+
+Structural imperfections as well as word selections and phrases that
+break all rules in composition, and that the care even of Prof. Venable
+could not eradicate, I accept as wholly my own. For much, on the one
+hand, that it may seem should have been excluded, and on the other, for
+giving place to ideas nearer to empiricism than to science, I am also
+responsible. For vexing my friends with problems that seemingly do not
+concern in the least men in my position, and for venturing to think,
+superficially, it may be, outside the restricted lines of a science
+bound to the unresponsive crucible and retort, to which my life has been
+given, and amid the problems of which it has nearly worn itself away, I
+have no plausible excuse, and shall seek none.
+
+                                                        JOHN URI LLOYD
+
+
+COPYRIGHT, 1895, BY JOHN URI LLOYD.
+COPYRIGHT, 1896, BY JOHN URI LLOYD.
+
+[_All rights reserved._]
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Books are as tombstones made by the living for the living, but destined
+soon only to remind us of the dead. The preface, like an epitaph, seems
+vainly to "implore the passing tribute" of a moment's interest. No man
+is allured by either a grave-inscription or a preface, unless it be
+accompanied by that ineffable charm which age casts over mortal
+productions. Libraries, in one sense, represent cemeteries, and the rows
+of silent volumes, with their dim titles, suggest burial tablets, many
+of which, alas! mark only cenotaphs--empty tombs. A modern book, no
+matter how talented the author, carries with it a familiar personality
+which may often be treated with neglect or even contempt, but a volume a
+century old demands some reverence; a vellum-bound or hog-skin print, or
+antique yellow parchment, two, three, five hundred years old, regardless
+of its contents, impresses one with an indescribable feeling akin to awe
+and veneration,--as does the wheat from an Egyptian tomb, even though it
+be only wheat. We take such a work from the shelf carefully, and replace
+it gently. While the productions of modern writers are handled
+familiarly, as men living jostle men yet alive; those of authors long
+dead are touched as tho' clutched by a hand from the unseen world; the
+reader feels that a phantom form opposes his own, and that spectral eyes
+scan the pages as he turns them.
+
+[Illustration: "THE STERN FACE, ... ACROSS THE GULF."]
+
+The stern face, the penetrating eye of the personage whose likeness
+forms the frontispiece of the yellowed volume in my hand, speak across
+the gulf of two centuries, and bid me beware. The title page is read
+with reverence, and the great tome is replaced with care, for an almost
+superstitious sensation bids me be cautious and not offend. Let those
+who presume to criticise the intellectual productions of such men be
+careful; in a few days the dead will face their censors--dead.
+
+Standing in a library of antiquated works, one senses the shadows of a
+cemetery. Each volume adds to the oppression, each old tome casts the
+influence of its spirit over the beholder, for have not these old books
+spirits? The earth-grave covers the mind as well as the body of its
+moldering occupant, and while only a strong imagination can assume that
+a spirit hovers over and lingers around inanimate clay, here each title
+is a voice that speaks as though the heart of its creator still
+throbbed, the mind essence of the dead writer envelops the living
+reader. Take down that vellum-bound volume,--it was written in one of
+the centuries long past. The pleasant face of its creator, as fresh as
+if but a print of yesterday, smiles upon you from the exquisitely
+engraved copper-plate frontispiece; the mind of the author rises from
+out the words before you. This man is not dead and his comrades live.
+Turn to the shelves about, before each book stands a guardian
+spirit,--together they form a phantom army that, invisible to mortals,
+encircles the beholder.
+
+[Illustration: "THE PLEASANT FACE OF ITS CREATOR ... SMILES UPON YOU."]
+
+Ah! this antique library is not as is a church graveyard, only a
+cemetery for the dead; it is also a mansion for the living. These
+alcoves are trysting places for elemental shades. Essences of
+disenthralled minds meet here and revel. Thoughts of the past take shape
+and live in this atmosphere,--who can say that pulsations unperceived,
+beyond the reach of physics or of chemistry, are not as ethereal
+mind-seeds which, although unseen, yet, in living brain, exposed to such
+an atmosphere as this, formulate embryotic thought-expressions destined
+to become energetic intellectual forces? I sit in such a weird library
+and meditate. The shades of grim authors whisper in my ear, skeleton
+forms oppose my own, and phantoms possess the gloomy alcoves of the
+library I am building.
+
+[Illustration: "SKELETON FORMS OPPOSE MY OWN."]
+
+With the object of carrying to the future a section of thought current
+from the past, the antiquarian libraries of many nations have been
+culled, and purchases made in every book market of the world. These
+books surround me. Naturally many persons have become interested in the
+movement, and, considering it a worthy one, unite to further the
+project, for the purpose is not personal gain. Thus it is not unusual
+for boxes of old chemical or pharmacal volumes to arrive by freight or
+express, without a word as to the donor. The mail brings manuscripts
+unprinted, and pamphlets recondite, with no word of introduction. They
+come unheralded. The authors or the senders realize that in this unique
+library a place is vacant if any work on connected subjects is missing,
+and thinking men of the world are uniting their contributions to fill
+such vacancies.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Enough has been said concerning the ancient library that has bred these
+reflections, and my own personality does not concern the reader. He can
+now formulate his conclusions as well perhaps as I, regarding the origin
+of the manuscript that is to follow, if he concerns himself at all over
+subjects mysterious or historical, and my connection therewith is of
+minor importance. Whether Mr. Drury brought the strange paper in person,
+or sent it by express or mail,--whether it was slipped into a box of
+books from foreign lands, or whether my hand held the pen that made the
+record,--whether I stood face to face with Mr. Drury in the shadows of
+this room, or have but a fanciful conception of his figure,--whether the
+artist drew upon his imagination for the vivid likeness of the several
+personages figured in the book that follows, or from reliable data has
+given fac-similes authentic,--is immaterial. Sufficient be it to say
+that the manuscript of this book has been in my possession for a period
+of seven years, and my lips must now be sealed concerning all that
+transpired in connection therewith outside the subject-matter recorded
+therein. And yet I can not deny that for these seven years I have
+hesitated concerning my proper course, and more than once have decided
+to cover from sight the fascinating leaflets, hide them among
+surrounding volumes, and let them slumber until chance should bring them
+to the attention of the future student.
+
+These thoughts rise before me this gloomy day of December, 1894, as,
+snatching a moment from the exactions of business, I sit among these old
+volumes devoted to science-lore, and again study over the unique
+manuscript, and meditate; I hesitate again: Shall I, or shall I
+not?--but a duty is a duty. Perhaps the mysterious part of the subject
+will be cleared to me only when my own thought-words come to rest among
+these venerable relics of the past--when books that I have written
+become companions of ancient works about me--for then I can claim
+relationship with the shadows that flit in and out, and can demand that
+they, the ghosts of the library, commune with the shade that guards the
+book that holds this preface.
+
+                                                       JOHN URI LLOYD.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE TO THIS EDITION.
+
+
+The foot-note on page 160, with the connected matter, has awakened
+considerable interest in the life and fate of Professor Daniel Vaughn.
+
+The undersigned has received many letters imparting interesting
+information relating to Professor Vaughn's early history, and asking
+many questions concerning a man of whose memory the writer thinks so
+highly but whose name is generally unknown.
+
+Indeed, as some have even argued that the author of Etidorhpa has no
+personal existence, the words John Uri Lloyd being a _nom de plume_, so
+others have accepted Professor Vaughn to have been a fanciful creation
+of the mystical author.
+
+Professor Daniel Vaughn was one whose life lines ran nearly parallel
+with those of the late Professor C. S. Rafinesque, whose eventful history
+has been so graphically written by Professor R. Ellsworth Call. The cups
+of these two talented men were filled with privation's bitterness, and
+in no other place has this writer known the phrase "The Deadly Parallel"
+so aptly appropriate. Both came to America, scholars, scientists by
+education; both traveled through Kentucky, teachers; both gave freely to
+the world, and both suffered in their old age, dying in
+poverty--Rafinesque perishing in misery in Philadelphia and Vaughn in
+Cincinnati.
+
+Daniel Vaughn was not a myth, and, in order that the reader may know
+something of the life and fate of this eccentric man, an appendix has
+been added to this edition of Etidorhpa, in which a picture of his face
+is shown as the writer knew it in life, and in which brief mention is
+made of his record.
+
+The author here extends his thanks to Professor Richard Nelson and to
+Father Eugene Brady for their kindness to the readers of Etidorhpa and
+himself, for to these gentlemen is due the credit of the appended
+historical note.
+
+                                                                J. U. L.
+
+
+
+
+A VALUABLE AND UNIQUE LIBRARY.
+
+From the Pharmaceutical Era, New York, October, 1894.
+
+
+In Cincinnati is one of the most famous botanical and pharmacal
+libraries in the world, and by scientists it is regarded as an
+invaluable store of knowledge upon those branches of medical science. So
+famous is it that one of the most noted pharmacologists and chemists of
+Germany, on a recent trip to this country, availed himself of its rich
+collection as a necessary means of completing his study in the line of
+special drug history. When it is known that he has devoted a life of
+nearly eighty years to the study of pharmacology, and is an emeritus
+professor in the famous University of Strassburg, the importance of his
+action will be understood and appreciated. We refer to Prof. Frederick
+Flueckiger, who, in connection with Daniel Hanbury, wrote
+Pharmacographia and other standard works. Attached to the library is an
+herbarium, begun by Mr. Curtis Gates Lloyd when a schoolboy, in which
+are to be found over 30,000 specimens of the flora of almost every
+civilized country on the globe. The collections are the work of two
+brothers, begun when in early boyhood. In money they are priceless, yet
+it is the intention of the founders that they shall be placed, either
+before or at their death, in some college or university where all
+students may have access to them without cost or favor, and their wills
+are already made to this end, although the institution to receive the
+bequest is not yet selected. Eager requests have been made that they be
+sent to foreign universities, where only, some persons believe, they can
+receive the appreciation they deserve.
+
+The resting place of this collection is a neat three-story house at 204
+West Court street, rebuilt to serve as a library building. On the door
+is a plate embossed with the name Lloyd, the patronymic of the brothers
+in question. They are John Uri and Curtis Gates Lloyd. Every hour that
+can be spent by these men from business or necessary recreation is spent
+here. Mr. C. G. Lloyd devotes himself entirely to the study of botany and
+connected subjects, while his brother is equally devoted to materia
+medica, pharmacy, and chemistry.
+
+In the botanical department are the best works obtainable in every
+country, and there the study of botany may be carried to any height. In
+point of age, some of them go back almost to the time when the art of
+printing was discovered. Two copies of Aristotle are notable. A Greek
+version bound in vellum was printed in 1584. Another, in parallel
+columns of Greek and Latin, by Pacius, was published in 1607. Both are
+in excellent preservation. A bibliographical rarity (two editions) is
+the "Historia Plantarum," by Pinaeus, which was issued, one in 1561, the
+other in 1567. It appears to have been a first attempt at the production
+of colored plates. Plants that were rare at that time are colored by
+hand, and then have a glossy fixative spread over them, causing the
+colors still to be as bright and fresh as the day that the
+three-hundred-years-dead workmen laid them on. Ranged in their sequence
+are fifty volumes of the famous author, Linnaeus. Mr. Lloyd has a very
+complete list of the Linnaean works, and his commissioners in Europe and
+America are looking out for the missing volumes. An extremely odd work
+is the book of Dr. Josselyn, entitled "New England Rarities," in which
+the Puritan author discusses wisely on "byrds, beastes and fishes" of
+the New World. Dr. Carolus Plumierus, a French savant, who flourished in
+1762, contributes an exhaustive work on the "Flora of the Antilles." He
+is antedated many years, however, by Dr. John Clayton, who is termed
+Johannes Claytonus, and Dr. John Frederick Gronovius. These gentlemen
+collated a work entitled the "Flora of Virginia," which is among the
+first descriptions of botany in the United States. Two venerable works
+are those of Mattioli, an Italian writer, who gave his knowledge to the
+world in 1586, and Levinus Lemnius, who wrote "De Miraculis Occultis
+Naturae" in 1628. The father of modern systematized botany is conceded to
+be Mons. J. P. Tournefort, whose comprehensive work was published in
+1719. It is the fortune of Mr. Lloyd to possess an original edition in
+good condition. His "Histoire des Plantes," Paris (1698), is also on the
+shelves. In the modern department of the library are the leading French
+and German works. Spanish and Italian authors are also on the shelves,
+the Lloyd collection of Spanish flora being among the best extant.
+Twenty-two volumes of rice paper, bound in bright yellow and stitched in
+silk, contain the flora of Japan. All the leaves are delicately tinted
+by those unique flower-painters, the Japanese. This rare work was
+presented to the Lloyd library by Dr. Charles Rice, of New York, who
+informed the Lloyds that only one other set could be found in America.
+
+One of the most noted books in the collection of J. U. Lloyd is a Materia
+Medica written by Dr. David Schoepf, a learned German scholar, who
+traveled through this country in 1787. But a limited number of copies
+were printed, and but few are extant. One is in the Erlangen library in
+Germany. This Mr. Lloyd secured, and had it copied verbatim. In later
+years Dr. Charles Rice obtained an original print, and exchanged it for
+that copy. A like work is that of Dr. Jonathan Carver of the provincial
+troops in America, published in London in 1796. It treats largely of
+Canadian materia medica. Manasseh Cutler's work, 1785, also adorns this
+part of the library. In addition to almost every work on this subject,
+Mr. Lloyd possesses complete editions of the leading serials and
+pharmaceutical lists published in the last three quarters of a century.
+Another book, famous in its way, is Barton's "Collections Toward a
+Materia Medica of the United States," published in 1798, 1801, and 1804.
+
+Several noted botanists and chemists have visited the library in recent
+years. Prof. Flueckiger formed the acquaintance of the Lloyds through
+their work, "Drugs and Medicines of North America," being struck by the
+exhaustive references and foot-notes. Students and lovers of the old art
+of copper-plate engraving especially find much in the ornate title pages
+and portraits to please their aesthetic sense. The founders are not
+miserly, and all students and delvers into the medical and botanical
+arts are always welcome. This library of rare books has been collected
+without ostentation and with the sole aim to benefit science and
+humanity. We must not neglect to state that the library is especially
+rich in books pertaining to the American Eclectics and Thomsonians.
+Since it has been learned that this library is at the disposal of
+students and is to pass intact to some worthy institution of learning,
+donations of old or rare books are becoming frequent.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+
+                                                                   PAGE.
+
+PROLOGUE--History of Llewellyn Drury,                                  1
+
+CHAPTER.
+
+      I. Home of Llewellyn Drury--"Never Less Alone than When Alone,"  3
+
+     II. A Friendly Conference with Prof. Chickering,                 16
+
+    III. A Second Interview with the Mysterious Visitor,              23
+
+     IV. A Search for Knowledge--The Alchemistic Letter,              35
+
+      V. The Writing of "My Confession,"                              44
+
+     VI. Kidnapped,                                                   46
+
+    VII. A Wild Night--I am Prematurely Aged,                         55
+
+   VIII. A Lesson in Mind Study,                                      63
+
+     IX. I Can Not Establish My Identity,                             67
+
+      X. My Journey Towards the End of Earth Begins--The Adepts
+           Brotherhood,                                               74
+
+     XI. My Journey Continues--Instinct,                              80
+
+    XII. A Cavern Discovered--Biswell's Hill,                         84
+
+   XIII. The Punch Bowls and Caverns of Kentucky--"Into the Unknown
+           Country,"                                                  89
+
+    XIV. Farewell to God's Sunshine--"The Echo of the Cry,"           99
+
+     XV. A Zone of Light, Deep Within the Earth,                     105
+
+    XVI. Vitalized Darkness--The Narrows in Science,                 109
+
+   XVII. The Fungus Forest--Enchantment,                             119
+
+  XVIII. The Food of Man,                                            123
+
+    XIX. The Cry from a Distance--I Rebel Against Continuing the
+           Journey,                                                  128
+
+
+FIRST INTERLUDE.--THE NARRATIVE INTERRUPTED.
+
+     XX. My Unbidden Guest Proves His Statements, and Refutes
+           My Philosophy,                                            134
+
+
+MY UNBIDDEN GUEST CONTINUES HIS MANUSCRIPT.
+
+    XXI. My Weight Disappearing,                                     142
+
+
+SECOND INTERLUDE.
+
+   XXII. The Story Again Interrupted--My Guest Departs,              149
+
+  XXIII. Scientific Men Questioned--Aristotle's Ether,               151
+
+   XXIV. The Soliloquy of Prof. Daniel Vaughn--"Gravitation is
+           the Beginning and Gravitation is the End:
+           All Earthly Bodies Kneel to Gravitation,"                 156
+
+
+THE UNBIDDEN GUEST RETURNS TO READ HIS MANUSCRIPT,
+CONTINUING THE NARRATIVE.
+
+    XXV. The Mother of a Volcano--"You Can Not Disprove, and You
+           Dare Not Admit,"                                          162
+
+   XXVI. Motion from Inherent Energy--"Lead Me Deeper Into this
+           Expanding Study,"                                         169
+
+  XXVII. Sleep, Dreams, Nightmare--"Strangle the Life from My
+           Body,"                                                    175
+
+
+THIRD INTERLUDE.--THE NARRATIVE AGAIN INTERRUPTED.
+
+ XXVIII. A Challenge--My Unbidden Guest Accepts It,                  179
+
+   XXIX. Beware of Biology--The Science of the Life of Man--The
+           Old Man relates a Story as an Object Lesson,              186
+
+    XXX. Looking Backward--The Living Brain,                         193
+
+
+THE MANUSCRIPT CONTINUED.
+
+   XXXI. A Lesson on Volcanoes--Primary Colors are Capable of
+           Farther Subdivision,                                      204
+
+  XXXII. Matter is Retarded Motion--"A Wail of Sadness
+           Inexpressible,"                                           218
+
+ XXXIII. "A Study of True Science is a Study of God"--Communing
+           with Angels,                                              224
+
+  XXXIV. I Cease to Breathe, and Yet Live,                           226
+
+   XXXV. "A Certain Point Within a Circle"--Men are as Parasites
+           on the Roof of Earth,                                     230
+
+  XXXVI. The Drinks of Man,                                          235
+
+  XXVII. The Drunkard's Voice,                                       238
+
+XXXVIII. The Drunkard's Den,                                         240
+
+  XXXIX. Among the Drunkards,                                        247
+
+     XL. Further Temptation--Etidorhpa Appears,                      252
+
+    XLI. Misery,                                                     262
+
+   XLII. Eternity Without Time,                                      272
+
+
+FOURTH INTERLUDE.
+
+  XLIII. The Last Contest,                                           277
+
+
+THE NARRATIVE CONTINUED.
+
+   XLIV. The Fathomless Abyss--The Edge of the Earth's Shell,        306
+
+    XLV. My Heart-throb is Stilled, and Yet I Live,                  310
+
+   XLVI. The Inner Circle, or the End of Gravitation--In the
+           Bottomless Gulf,                                          317
+
+  XLVII. Hearing Without Ears--"What Will Be the End?"               322
+
+ XLVIII. Why and How--The Straggling Ray of Light from those
+           Farthermost Outreaches,                                   327
+
+   XLIX. Oscillating Through Space--The Earth Shell Above Us,        333
+
+      L. My Weight Annihilated--"Tell me," I cried in alarm,
+           "is this a Living Tomb?"                                  340
+
+     LI. Is That a Mortal?--"The End of Earth,"                      345
+
+
+FIFTH INTERLUDE.
+
+    LII. The Last Farewell,                                          352
+
+
+EPILOGUE--Letter Accompanying the Mysterious Manuscript,             360
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS.
+
+
+FULL-PAGE.
+
+  Likeness of The--Man--Who--Did--It.                      Frontispiece
+
+                                                                   PAGE.
+
+  Preface Introduction--"Here lies the bones," etc.                 iii.
+
+  "And to my amazement, saw a white-haired man."                   7, 8.
+
+  "The same glittering, horrible, mysterious knife."             29, 30.
+
+  "Fac-simile of the mysterious manuscript of I--Am--The--Man--
+            Who--Did--It."                                       35, 36.
+
+  "My arms were firmly grasped by two persons."                      47.
+
+  "Map of Kentucky near entrance to cavern."                     85, 86.
+
+  "Confronted by a singular looking being."                      95, 96.
+
+  "This struggling ray of sunlight is to be your last for
+    years."                                                    101, 102.
+
+  "I was in a forest of colossal fungi."                       117, 118.
+
+  "Monstrous cubical crystals."                                131, 132.
+
+  "Far as the eye could reach the glassy barrier spread as a
+    crystal mirror."                                           147, 148.
+
+  "Soliloquy of Prof. Daniel Vaughn--'Gravitation is the
+    beginning, and gravitation is the end; all earthly bodies
+    kneel to gravitation.'"                                    157, 158.
+
+  "We came to a metal boat."                                   165, 166.
+
+  "Facing the open window he turned the pupils of his eyes
+    upward."                                                   197, 198.
+
+  "We finally reached a precipitous bluff."                    205, 206.
+
+  "The wall descended perpendicularly to seemingly infinite
+    depths."                                                   209, 210.
+
+  Etidorhpa.                                                   255, 256.
+
+  "We passed through caverns filled with creeping reptiles."   297, 298.
+
+  "Flowers and structures beautiful, insects gorgeous."        303, 304.
+
+  "With fear and trembling I crept on my knees to his side."   307, 308.
+
+  Diagram descriptive of journey from the Kentucky cavern to
+    the "End of Earth," showing section of earth's crust.      332, 333.
+
+  "Suspended in vacancy, he seemed to float."                  347, 348.
+
+  "I stood alone in my room holding the mysterious
+    manuscript."                                               357, 358.
+
+  Fac-simile of letter from I--Am--The--Man.                        363.
+
+  Manuscript dedication of Author's Edition.                   364, 365.
+
+
+HALF-PAGE AND TEXT CUTS.
+
+  "The Stern Face." Fac-simile, reduced from copper plate title
+    page of the botanical work (1708), 917 pages, of Simonis
+    Paulli, D., a Danish physician. Original plate 7 x 5-1/2
+    inches.                                                          iv.
+
+  "The Pleasant Face." Fac-simile of the original copper plate
+    frontispiece to the finely illustrated botanical work of
+    Joannes Burmannus, M.D., descriptive of the plants collected
+    by Carolus Plumierus. Antique. Original plate 9 x 13 inches.      v.
+
+  "Skeleton forms oppose my own." Photograph of John Uri Lloyd
+    in the gloomy alcove of the antiquated library.                  vi.
+
+  "Let me have your answer now."                                     12.
+
+  "I espied upon the table a long white hair."                       14.
+
+  "Drew the knife twice across the front of the door-knob."          32.
+
+  "I was taken from the vehicle, and transferred to a
+    block-house."                                                    52.
+
+  "The dead man was thrown overboard."                               54.
+
+  "A mirror was thrust beneath my gaze."                             58.
+
+  "I am the man you seek."                                           70.
+
+  "We approach daylight, I can see your face."                      106.
+
+  "Seated himself on a natural bench of stone."                     108.
+
+  "An endless variety of stony figures."                            129.
+
+  Cuts showing water and brine surfaces.                            136.
+
+  Cuts showing earth chambers in which water rises above brine.     137.
+
+  Cuts showing that if properly connected, water and brine
+    reverse the usual law as to the height of their surfaces.  138, 139.
+
+  "I bounded upward fully six feet."                                143.
+
+  "I fluttered to the earth as a leaf would fall."                  144.
+
+  "We leaped over great inequalities."                              145.
+
+  "The bit of garment fluttered listlessly away to the distance,
+    and then--vacancy."                                             173.
+
+  Cut showing that water may be made to flow from a tube higher
+    than the surface of the water.                                  182.
+
+  Cut showing how an artesian fountain may be made without earth
+    strata.                                                         184.
+
+  "Rising abruptly, he grasped my hand."                            191.
+
+  "A brain, a living brain, my own brain."                          200.
+
+  "Shape of drop of water in the earth cavern."                     211.
+
+  "We would skip several rods, alighting gently."                   227.
+
+  "An uncontrollable, inexpressible desire to flee."                229.
+
+  "I dropped on my knees before him."                               232.
+
+  "Handing me one of the halves, he spoke the single word,
+    'Drink.'"                                                       234.
+
+  "Each finger pointed towards the open way in front."              242.
+
+  "Telescoped energy spheres."                                      280.
+
+  "Space dirt on energy spheres."                                   281.
+
+  "I drew back the bar of iron to smite the apparently
+    defenseless being in the forehead."                             313.
+
+  "He sprung from the edge of the cliff into the abyss below,
+    carrying me with him into its depths."                          315.
+
+  "The Earth and its atmosphere."                                   336.
+
+
+
+
+PROLOGUE.
+
+
+My name was Johannes Llewellyn Llongollyn Drury. I was named Llewellyn
+at my mother's desire, out of respect to her father, Dr. Evan Llewellyn,
+the scientist and speculative philosopher, well known to curious
+students as the author of various rare works on occult subjects. The
+other given names were ancestral also, but when I reached the age of
+appreciation, they naturally became distasteful; so it is that in early
+youth I dropped the first and third of these cumbersome words, and
+retained only the second Christian name. While perhaps the reader of
+these lines may regard this cognomen with less favor than either of the
+others, still I liked it, as it was the favorite of my mother, who
+always used the name in full; the world, however, contracted Llewellyn
+to Lew, much to the distress of my dear mother, who felt aggrieved at
+the liberty. After her death I decided to move to a western city, and
+also determined, out of respect to her memory, to select from and
+rearrange the letters of my several names, and construct therefrom three
+short, terse words, which would convey to myself only, the resemblance
+of my former name. Hence it is that the Cincinnati Directory does not
+record my self-selected name, which I have no reason to bring before the
+public. To the reader my name is Llewellyn Drury. I might add that my
+ancestors were among the early settlers of what is now New York City,
+and were direct descendants of the early Welsh kings; but these matters
+do not concern the reader, and it is not of them that I now choose to
+write. My object in putting down these preliminary paragraphs is simply
+to assure the reader of such facts, and such only, as may give him
+confidence in my personal sincerity and responsibility, in order that he
+may with a right understanding read the remarkable statements that occur
+in the succeeding chapters.
+
+The story I am about to relate is very direct, and some parts of it are
+very strange, not to say marvelous; but not on account of its
+strangeness alone do I ask for the narrative a reading;--that were mere
+trifling. What is here set down happened as recorded, but I shall not
+attempt to explain things which even to myself are enigmatical. Let the
+candid reader read the story as I have told it, and make out of it what
+he can, or let him pass the page by unread--I shall not insist on
+claiming his further attention. Only, if he does read, I beg him to read
+with an open mind, without prejudice and without predilection.
+
+Who or what I am as a participant in this work is of small importance. I
+mention my history only for the sake of frankness and fairness. I have
+nothing to gain by issuing the volume. Neither do I court praise nor
+shun censure. My purpose is to tell the truth.
+
+Early in the fifties I took up my residence in the Queen City, and
+though a very young man, found the employment ready that a friend had
+obtained for me with a manufacturing firm engaged in a large and
+complicated business. My duties were varied and peculiar, of such a
+nature as to tax body and mind to the utmost, and for several years I
+served in the most exacting of business details. Besides the labor which
+my vocation entailed, with its manifold and multiform perplexities, I
+voluntarily imposed upon myself other tasks, which I pursued in the
+privacy of my own bachelor apartments. An inherited love for books on
+abstruse and occult subjects, probably in part the result of my blood
+connection with Dr. Evan Llewellyn, caused me to collect a unique
+library, largely on mystical subjects, in which I took the keenest
+delight. My business and my professional duties by day, and my studies
+at night, made my life a busy one.
+
+In the midst of my work and reading I encountered the character whose
+strange story forms the essential part of the following narrative. I may
+anticipate by saying that the manuscript to follow only incidentally
+concerns myself, and that if possible I would relinquish all connection
+therewith. It recites the physical, mental, and moral adventures of one
+whose life history was abruptly thrust upon my attention, and as
+abruptly interrupted. The vicissitudes of his body and soul,
+circumstances seemed to compel me to learn and to make public.
+
+
+
+
+ETIDORPHA.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+    "NEVER LESS ALONE THAN WHEN ALONE."
+
+
+More than thirty years ago occurred the first of the series of
+remarkable events I am about to relate. The exact date I can not recall;
+but it was in November, and, to those familiar with November weather in
+the Ohio Valley, it is hardly necessary to state that the month is one
+of possibilities. That is to say, it is liable to bring every variety of
+weather, from the delicious, dreamy Indian summer days that linger late
+in the fall, to a combination of rain, hail, snow, sleet,--in short,
+atmospheric conditions sufficiently aggravating to develop a suicidal
+mania in any one the least susceptible to such influences. While the
+general character of the month is much the same the country
+over,--showing dull grey tones of sky, abundant rains that penetrate man
+as they do the earth; cold, shifting winds, that search the very
+marrow,--it is always safe to count more or less upon the probability of
+the unexpected throughout the month.
+
+The particular day which ushered in the event about to be chronicled,
+was one of these possible heterogeneous days presenting a combination of
+sunshine, shower, and snow, with winds that rang all the changes from
+balmy to blustery, a morning air of caloric and an evening of numbing
+cold. The early morning started fair and sunny; later came light showers
+suddenly switched by shifting winds into blinding sleet, until the
+middle of the afternoon found the four winds and all the elements
+commingled in one wild orgy with clashing and roaring as of a great
+organ with all the stops out, and all the storm-fiends dancing over the
+key-boards! Nightfall brought some semblance of order to the sounding
+chaos, but still kept up the wild music of a typical November day, with
+every accompaniment of bleakness, gloom, and desolation.
+
+Thousands of chimneys, exhaling murky clouds of bituminous soot all day,
+had covered the city with the proverbial pall which the winds in their
+sport had shifted hither and yon, but as, thoroughly tired out, they
+subsided into silence, the smoky mesh suddenly settled over the houses
+and into the streets, taking possession of the city and contributing to
+the melancholy wretchedness of such of the inhabitants as had to be out
+of doors. Through this smoke the red sun when visible had dragged his
+downward course in manifest discouragement, and the hastening twilight
+soon gave place to the blackness of darkness. Night reigned supreme.
+
+Thirty years ago electric lighting was not in vogue, and the system of
+street lamps was far less complete than at present, although the gas
+burned in them may not have been any worse. The lamps were much fewer
+and farther between, and the light which they emitted had a feeble,
+sickly aspect, and did not reach any distance into the moist and murky
+atmosphere. And so the night was dismal enough, and the few people upon
+the street were visible only as they passed directly beneath the lamps,
+or in front of lighted windows; seeming at other times like moving
+shadows against a black ground.
+
+As I am like to be conspicuous in these pages, it may be proper to say
+that I am very susceptible to atmospheric influences. I figure among my
+friends as a man of quiet disposition, but I am at times morose,
+although I endeavor to conceal this fact from others. My nervous system
+is a sensitive weather-glass. Sometimes I fancy that I must have been
+born under the planet Saturn, for I find myself unpleasantly influenced
+by moods ascribed to that depressing planet, more especially in its
+disagreeable phases, for I regret to state that I do not find
+corresponding elation, as I should, in its brighter aspects. I have an
+especial dislike for wintry weather, a dislike which I find growing with
+my years, until it has developed almost into positive antipathy and
+dread. On the day I have described, my moods had varied with the
+weather. The fitfulness of the winds had found its way into my
+feelings, and the somber tone of the clouds into my meditations. I was
+restless as the elements, and a deep sense of dissatisfaction with
+myself and everything else, possessed me. I could not content myself in
+any place or position. Reading was distasteful, writing equally so; but
+it occurred to me that a brisk walk, for a few blocks, might afford
+relief. Muffling myself up in my overcoat and fur cap, I took the
+street, only to find the air gusty and raw, and I gave up in still
+greater disgust, and returning home, after drawing the curtains and
+locking the doors, planted myself in front of a glowing grate fire,
+firmly resolved to rid myself of myself by resorting to the oblivion of
+thought, reverie, or dream. To sleep was impossible, and I sat moodily
+in an easy chair, noting the quarter and half-hour strokes as they were
+chimed out sweetly from the spire of St. Peter's Cathedral, a few blocks
+away.
+
+Nine o'clock passed with its silver-voiced song of "Home, Sweet Home";
+ten, and then eleven strokes of the ponderous bell which noted the
+hours, roused me to a strenuous effort to shake off the feelings of
+despondency, unrest, and turbulence, that all combined to produce a
+state of mental and physical misery now insufferable. Rising suddenly
+from my chair, without a conscious effort I walked mechanically to a
+book-case, seized a volume at random, reseated myself before the fire,
+and opened the book. It proved to be an odd, neglected volume, "Riley's
+Dictionary of Latin Quotations." At the moment there flashed upon me a
+conscious duality of existence. Had the old book some mesmeric power? I
+seemed to myself two persons, and I quickly said aloud, as if addressing
+my double: "If I can not quiet you, turbulent Spirit, I can at least
+adapt myself to your condition. I will read this book haphazard from
+bottom to top, or backward, if necessary, and if this does not change
+the subject often enough, I will try Noah Webster." Opening the book
+mechanically at page 297, I glanced at the bottom line and read,
+"Nunquam minus solus quam cum solus" (Never less alone than when alone).
+These words arrested my thoughts at once, as, by a singular chance, they
+seemed to fit my mood; was it or was it not some conscious invisible
+intelligence that caused me to select that page, and brought the
+apothegm to my notice?
+
+Again, like a flash, came the consciousness of duality, and I began to
+argue with my other self. "This is arrant nonsense," I cried aloud;
+"even though Cicero did say it, and, it is on a par with many other
+delusive maxims that have for so many years embittered the existence of
+our modern youth by misleading thought. Do you know, Mr. Cicero, that
+this statement is not sound? That it is unworthy the position you occupy
+in history as a thinker and philosopher? That it is a contradiction in
+itself, for if a man is alone he is alone, and that settles it?"
+
+I mused in this vein a few moments, and then resumed aloud: "It won't
+do, it won't do; if one is alone--the word is absolute,--he is single,
+isolated, in short, alone; and there can by no manner of possibility be
+any one else present. Take myself, for instance: I am the sole occupant
+of this apartment; I am alone, and yet you say in so many words that I
+was never less alone than at this instant." It was not without some
+misgiving that I uttered these words, for the strange consciousness of
+my own duality constantly grew stronger, and I could not shake off the
+reflection that even now there were two of myself in the room, and that
+I was not so much alone as I endeavored to convince myself.
+
+This feeling oppressed me like an incubus; I must throw it off, and,
+rising, I tossed the book upon the table, exclaiming: "What folly! I am
+alone,--positively there is no other living thing visible or invisible
+in the room." I hesitated as I spoke, for the strange, undefined
+sensation that I was not alone had become almost a conviction; but the
+sound of my voice encouraged me, and I determined to discuss the
+subject, and I remarked in a full, strong voice: "I am surely alone; I
+know I am! Why, I will wager everything I possess, even to my soul, that
+I am alone." I stood facing the smoldering embers of the fire which I
+had neglected to replenish, uttering these words to settle the
+controversy for good and all with one person of my dual self, but the
+other ego seemed to dissent violently, when a soft, clear voice claimed
+my ear:
+
+"You have lost your wager; you are not alone."
+
+[Illustration: "AND TO MY AMAZEMENT SAW A WHITE-HAIRED MAN."]
+
+I turned instantly towards the direction of the sound, and, to my
+amazement, saw a white-haired man seated on the opposite side of the
+room, gazing at me with the utmost composure. I am not a coward, nor a
+believer in ghosts or illusions, and yet that sight froze me where I
+stood. It had no supernatural appearance--on the contrary, was a plain,
+ordinary, flesh-and-blood man; but the weather, the experiences of
+the day, the weird, inclement night, had all conspired to strain my
+nerves to the highest point of tension, and I trembled from head to
+foot. Noting this, the stranger said pleasantly: "Quiet yourself, my
+dear sir; you have nothing to fear; be seated." I obeyed, mechanically,
+and regaining in a few moments some semblance of composure, took a
+mental inventory of my visitor. Who is he? what is he? how did he enter
+without my notice, and why? what is his business? were all questions
+that flashed into my mind in quick succession, and quickly flashed out
+unanswered.
+
+The stranger sat eying me composedly, even pleasantly, as if waiting for
+me to reach some conclusion regarding himself. At last I surmised: "He
+is a maniac who has found his way here by methods peculiar to the
+insane, and my personal safety demands that I use him discreetly."
+
+"Very good," he remarked, as though reading my thoughts; "as well think
+that as anything else."
+
+"But why are you here? What is your business?" I asked.
+
+"You have made and lost a wager," he said. "You have committed an act of
+folly in making positive statements regarding a matter about which you
+know nothing--a very common failing, by the way, on the part of mankind,
+and concerning which I wish first to set you straight."
+
+The ironical coolness with which he said this provoked me, and I hastily
+rejoined: "You are impertinent; I must ask you to leave my house at
+once."
+
+"Very well," he answered; "but if you insist upon this, I shall, on
+behalf of Cicero, claim the stake of your voluntary wager, which means
+that I must first, by natural though violent means, release your soul
+from your body." So saying he arose, drew from an inner pocket a long,
+keen knife, the blade of which quiveringly glistened as he laid it upon
+the table. Moving his chair so as to be within easy reach of the
+gleaming weapon, he sat down, and again regarded me with the same quiet
+composure I had noted, and which was fast dispelling my first impression
+concerning his sanity.
+
+I was not prepared for his strange action; in truth, I was not prepared
+for anything; my mind was confused concerning the whole night's doings,
+and I was unable to reason clearly or consecutively, or even to satisfy
+myself what I did think, if indeed I thought at all.
+
+The sensation of fear, however, was fast leaving me; there was something
+reassuring in my unbidden guest's perfect ease of manner, and the mild,
+though searching gaze of his eyes, which were wonderful in their
+expression. I began to observe his personal characteristics, which
+impressed me favorably, and yet were extraordinary. He was nearly six
+feet tall, and perfectly straight; well proportioned, with no tendency
+either to leanness or obesity. But his head was an object from which I
+could not take my eyes,--such a head surely I had never before seen on
+mortal shoulders. The chin, as seen through his silver beard, was
+rounded and well developed, the mouth straight, with pleasant lines
+about it, the jaws square and, like the mouth, indicating decision, the
+eyes deep set and arched with heavy eyebrows, and the whole surmounted
+by a forehead so vast, so high, that it was almost a deformity, and yet
+it did not impress me unpleasantly; it was the forehead of a scholar, a
+profound thinker, a deep student. The nose was inclined to aquiline, and
+quite large. The contour of the head and face impressed me as indicating
+a man of learning, one who had given a lifetime to experimental as well
+as speculative thought. His voice was mellow, clear, and distinct,
+always pleasantly modulated and soft, never loud nor unpleasant in the
+least degree. One remarkable feature I must not fail to mention--his
+hair; this, while thin and scant upon the top of his head, was long, and
+reached to his shoulders; his beard was of unusual length, descending
+almost to his waist; his hair, eyebrows, and beard were all of singular
+whiteness and purity, almost transparent, a silvery whiteness that
+seemed an aureolar sheen in the glare of the gaslight. What struck me as
+particularly remarkable was that his skin looked as soft and smooth as
+that of a child; there was not a blemish in it. His age was a puzzle
+none could guess; stripped of his hair, or the color of it changed, he
+might be twenty-five,--given a few wrinkles, he might be ninety. Taken
+altogether, I had never seen his like, nor anything approaching his
+like, and for an instant there was a faint suggestion to my mind that he
+was not of this earth, but belonged to some other planet.
+
+I now fancy he must have read my impressions of him as these ideas
+shaped themselves in my brain, and that he was quietly waiting for me
+to regain a degree of self-possession that would allow him to disclose
+the purpose of his visit.
+
+He was first to break the silence: "I see that you are not disposed to
+pay your wager any more than I am to collect it, so we will not discuss
+that. I admit that my introduction to-night was abrupt, but you can not
+deny that you challenged me to appear." I was not clear upon the point,
+and said so. "Your memory is at fault," he continued, "if you can not
+recall your experiences of the day just past. Did you not attempt to
+interest yourself in modern book lore, to fix your mind in turn upon
+history, chemistry, botany, poetry, and general literature? And all
+these failing, did you not deliberately challenge Cicero to a practical
+demonstration of an old apothegm of his that has survived for centuries,
+and of your own free will did not you make a wager that, as an admirer
+of Cicero's, I am free to accept?" To all this I could but silently
+assent. "Very good, then; we will not pursue this subject further, as it
+is not relevant to my purpose, which is to acquaint you with a narrative
+of unusual interest, upon certain conditions, with which if you comply,
+you will not only serve yourself, but me as well."
+
+"Please name the conditions," I said.
+
+"They are simple enough," he answered. "The narrative I speak of is in
+manuscript. I will produce it in the near future, and my design is to
+read it aloud to you, or to allow you to read it to me, as you may
+select. Further, my wish is that during the reading you shall interpose
+any objection or question that you deem proper. This reading will occupy
+many evenings, and I shall of necessity be with you often. When the
+reading is concluded, we will seal the package securely, and I shall
+leave you forever. You will then deposit the manuscript in some safe
+place, and let it remain for thirty years. When this period has elapsed,
+I wish you to publish this history to the world."
+
+"Your conditions seem easy," I said, after a few seconds' pause.
+
+"They are certainly very simple; do you accept?"
+
+I hesitated, for the prospect of giving myself up to a succession of
+interviews with this extraordinary and mysterious personage seemed to
+require consideration. He evidently divined my thoughts, for, rising
+from his chair, he said abruptly: "Let me have your answer now."
+
+I debated the matter no further, but answered: "I accept,
+conditionally."
+
+"Name your conditions," the guest replied.
+
+"I will either publish the work, or induce some other man to do so."
+
+[Illustration: "LET ME HAVE YOUR ANSWER NOW."]
+
+"Good," he said; "I will see you again," with a polite bow; and turning
+to the door which I had previously locked, he opened it softly, and with
+a quiet "Good night" disappeared in the hall-way.
+
+I looked after him with bewildered senses; but a sudden impulse caused
+me to glance toward the table, when I saw that he had forgotten his
+knife. With the view of returning this, I reached to pick it up, but my
+finger tips no sooner touched the handle than a sudden chill shivered
+along my nerves. Not as an electric shock, but rather as a sensation of
+extreme cold was the current that ran through me in an instant. Rushing
+into the hall-way to the landing of the stairs, I called after the
+mysterious being, "You have forgotten your knife," but beyond the faint
+echo of my voice, I heard no sound. The phantom was gone. A moment later
+I was at the foot of the stairs, and had thrown open the door. A street
+lamp shed an uncertain light in front of the house. I stepped out and
+listened intently for a moment, but not a sound was audible, if indeed I
+except the beating of my own heart, which throbbed so wildly that I
+fancied I heard it. No footfall echoed from the deserted streets; all
+was silent as a churchyard, and I closed and locked the door softly,
+tiptoed my way back to my room, and sank collapsed into an easy chair. I
+was more than exhausted; I quivered from head to foot, not with cold,
+but with a strange nervous chill that found intensest expression in my
+spinal column, and seemed to flash up and down my back vibrating like a
+feverous pulse. This active pain was succeeded by a feeling of frozen
+numbness, and I sat I know not how long, trying to tranquilize myself
+and think temperately of the night's occurrence. By degrees I recovered
+my normal sensations, and directing my will in the channel of sober
+reasoning, I said to myself: "There can be no mistake about his visit,
+for his knife is here as a witness to the fact. So much is sure, and I
+will secure that testimony at all events." With this reflection I turned
+to the table, but to my astonishment I discovered that the knife had
+disappeared. It needed but this miracle to start the perspiration in
+great cold beads from every pore. My brain was in a whirl, and reeling
+into a chair, I covered my face with my hands. How long I sat in this
+posture I do not remember. I only know that I began to doubt my own
+sanity, and wondered if this were not the way people became deranged.
+Had not my peculiar habits of isolation, irregular and intense study,
+erratic living, all conspired to unseat reason? Surely here was every
+ground to believe so; and yet I was able still to think consistently and
+hold steadily to a single line of thought. Insane people can not do
+that, I reflected, and gradually the tremor and excitement wore away.
+When I had become calmer and more collected, and my sober judgment said,
+"Go to bed; sleep just as long as you can; hold your eyelids down, and
+when you awake refreshed, as you will, think out the whole subject at
+your leisure," I arose, threw open the shutters, and found that day was
+breaking. Hastily undressing I went to bed, and closed my eyes, vaguely
+conscious of some soothing guardianship. Perhaps because I was
+physically exhausted, I soon lost myself in the oblivion of sleep.
+
+[Illustration: "I ESPIED UPON THE TABLE A LONG WHITE HAIR."]
+
+I did not dream,--at least I could not afterwards remember my dream if I
+had one, but I recollect thinking that somebody struck ten distinct
+blows on my door, which seemed to me to be of metal and very sonorous.
+These ten blows in my semi-conscious state I counted. I lay very quiet
+for a time collecting my thoughts and noting various objects about the
+room, until my eye caught the dial of a French clock upon the mantel.
+It was a few minutes past ten, and the blows I had heard were the
+strokes of the hammer upon the gong in the clock. The sun was shining
+into the room, which was quite cold, for the fire had gone out. I arose,
+dressed myself quickly, and after thoroughly laving my face and hands in
+ice-cold water, felt considerably refreshed.
+
+Before going out to breakfast, while looking around the room for a few
+things which I wanted to take with me, I espied upon the table a long
+white hair. This was indeed a surprise, for I had about concluded that
+my adventure of the previous night was a species of waking nightmare,
+the result of overworked brain and weakened body. But here was tangible
+evidence to the contrary, an assurance that my mysterious visitor was
+not a fancy or a dream, and his parting words, "I will see you again,"
+recurred to me with singular effect. "He will see me again; very well; I
+will preserve this evidence of his visit for future use." I wound the
+delicate filament into a little coil, folded it carefully in a bit of
+paper, and consigned it to a corner in my pocket-book, though not
+without some misgiving that it too might disappear as did the knife.
+
+The strange experience of that night had a good effect on me; I became
+more regular in all my habits, took abundant sleep and exercise, was
+more methodical in my modes of study and reasoning, and in a short time
+found myself vastly improved in every way, mentally and physically.
+
+The days went fleeting into weeks, the weeks into months, and while the
+form and figure of the white-haired stranger were seldom absent from my
+mind, he came no more.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+    A FRIENDLY CONFERENCE.
+
+
+It is rare, in our present civilization, to find a man who lives alone.
+This remark does not apply to hermits or persons of abnormal or
+perverted mental tendencies, but to the majority of mankind living and
+moving actively among their fellows, and engaged in the ordinary
+occupations of humanity. Every man must have at least one confidant,
+either of his own household, or within the circle of his intimate
+friends. There may possibly be rare exceptions among persons of genius
+in statecraft, war, or commerce, but it is doubtful even in such
+instances if any keep all their thoughts to themselves, hermetically
+sealed from their fellows. As a prevailing rule, either a loving wife or
+very near friend shares the inner thought of the most secretive
+individual, even when secrecy seems an indispensable element to success.
+The tendency to a free interchange of ideas and experiences is almost
+universal, instinct prompting the natural man to unburden his most
+sacred thought, when the proper confidant and the proper time come for
+the disclosure.
+
+For months I kept to myself the events narrated in the preceding
+chapter. And this for several reasons: first, the dread of ridicule that
+would follow the relation of the fantastic occurrences, and the possible
+suspicion of my sanity, that might result from the recital; second, very
+grave doubts as to the reality of my experiences. But by degrees
+self-confidence was restored, as I reasoned the matter over and
+reassured myself by occasional contemplation of the silvery hair I had
+coiled in my pocket-book, and which at first I had expected would vanish
+as did the stranger's knife. There came upon me a feeling that I should
+see my weird visitor again, and at an early day. I resisted this
+impression, for it was a feeling of the idea, rather than a thought, but
+the vague expectation grew upon me in spite of myself, until at length
+it became a conviction which no argument or logic could shake.
+Curiously enough, as the original incident receded into the past, this
+new idea thrust itself into the foreground, and I began in my own mind
+to court another interview. At times, sitting alone after night, I felt
+that I was watched by unseen eyes; these eyes haunted me in my solitude,
+and I was morally sure of the presence of another than myself in the
+room. The sensation was at first unpleasant, and I tried to throw it
+off, with partial success. But only for a little while could I banish
+the intrusive idea, and as the thought took form, and the invisible
+presence became more actual to consciousness, I hoped that the stranger
+would make good his parting promise, "I will see you again."
+
+On one thing I was resolved; I would at least be better informed on the
+subject of hallucinations and apparitions, and not be taken unawares as
+I had been. To this end I decided to confer with my friend, Professor
+Chickering, a quiet, thoughtful man, of varied accomplishments, and
+thoroughly read upon a great number of topics, especially in the
+literature of the marvelous.
+
+So to the Professor I went, after due appointment, and confided to him
+full particulars of my adventure. He listened patiently throughout, and
+when I had finished, assured me in a matter-of-fact way that such
+hallucinations were by no means rare. His remark was provoking, for I
+did not expect from the patient interest he had shown while I was
+telling my story, that the whole matter would be dismissed thus
+summarily. I said with some warmth:
+
+"But this was not a hallucination. I tried at first to persuade myself
+that it was illusory, but the more I have thought the experience over,
+the more real it becomes to me."
+
+"Perhaps you were dreaming," suggested the Professor.
+
+"No," I answered; "I have tried that hypothesis, and it will not do.
+Many things make that view untenable."
+
+"Do not be too sure of that," he said; "you were, by your own account,
+in a highly nervous condition, and physically tired. It is possible,
+perhaps probable, that in this state, as you sat in your chair, you
+dozed off for a short interval, during which the illusion flashed
+through your mind."
+
+"How do you explain the fact that incidents occupying a large portion of
+the night, occurred in an interval which you describe as a flash?"
+
+"Easily enough; in dreams time may not exist: periods embracing weeks or
+months may be reduced to an instant. Long journeys, hours of
+conversation, or a multitude of transactions, may be compressed into a
+term measured by the opening or closing of a door, or the striking of a
+clock. In dreams, ordinary standards of reason find no place, while
+ideas or events chase through the mind more rapidly than thought."
+
+"Conceding all this, why did I, considering the unusual character of the
+incidents, accept them as real, as substantial, as natural as the most
+commonplace events?"
+
+"There is nothing extraordinary in that," he replied. "In dreams all
+sorts of absurdities, impossibilities, discordancies, and violation of
+natural law appear realities, without exciting the least surprise or
+suspicion. Imagination runs riot and is supreme, and reason for the time
+is dormant. We see ghosts, spirits, the forms of persons dead or
+living,--we suffer pain, pleasure, hunger,--and all sensations and
+emotions, without a moment's question of their reality."
+
+"Do any of the subjects of our dreams or visions leave tangible
+evidences of their presence?"
+
+"Assuredly not," he answered, with an incredulous, half-impatient
+gesture; "the idea is absurd."
+
+"Then I was not dreaming," I mused.
+
+Without looking at me, the Professor went on: "These false presentiments
+may have their origin in other ways, as from mental disorders caused by
+indigestion. Nicolai, a noted bookseller of Berlin, was thus afflicted.
+His experiences are interesting and possibly suggestive. Let me read
+some of them to you."
+
+The Professor hereupon glanced over his bookshelf, selected a volume,
+and proceeded to read:[1]
+
+    [1] This work I have found to be Vol. IV. of Chambers' Miscellany,
+    published by Gould and Lincoln, Boston.--J. U. L.
+
+     "I generally saw human forms of both sexes; but they usually
+     seemed not to take the smallest notice of each other, moving as
+     in a market place, where all are eager to press through the
+     crowd; at times, however, they seemed to be transacting business
+     with each other. I also saw several times, people on horseback,
+     dogs, and birds.
+
+     "All these phantasms appeared to me in their natural size, and as
+     distinct as if alive, exhibiting different shades of carnation in
+     the uncovered parts, as well as different colors and fashions in
+     their dresses, though the colors seemed somewhat paler than in
+     real nature. None of the figures appeared particularly terrible,
+     comical, or disgusting, most of them being of indifferent shape,
+     and some presenting a pleasant aspect. The longer these phantasms
+     continued to visit me, the more frequently did they return, while
+     at the same time they increased in number about four weeks after
+     they had first appeared. I also began to hear them talk: these
+     phantoms conversed among themselves, but more frequently
+     addressed their discourse to me; their speeches were uncommonly
+     short, and never of an unpleasant turn. At different times there
+     appeared to me both dear and sensible friends of both sexes,
+     whose addresses tended to appease my grief, which had not yet
+     wholly subsided: their consolatory speeches were in general
+     addressed to me when I was alone. Sometimes, however, I was
+     accosted by these consoling friends while I was engaged in
+     company, and not unfrequently while real persons were speaking to
+     me. These consolatory addresses consisted sometimes of abrupt
+     phrases, and at other times they were regularly executed."
+
+Here I interrupted: "I note, Professor, that Mr. Nicolai knew these
+forms to be illusions."
+
+Without answering my remark, he continued to read:
+
+     "There is in imagination a potency far exceeding the fabled power
+     of Aladdin's lamp. How often does one sit in wintry evening
+     musings, and trace in the glowing embers the features of an
+     absent friend? Imagination, with its magic wand, will there build
+     a city with its countless spires, or marshal contending armies,
+     or drive the tempest-shattered ship upon the ocean. The following
+     story, related by Scott, affords a good illustration of this
+     principle:
+
+     "'Not long after the death of an illustrious poet, who had
+     filled, while living, a great station in the eyes of the public,
+     a literary friend, to whom the deceased had been well known, was
+     engaged during the darkening twilight of an autumn evening, in
+     perusing one of the publications which professed to detail the
+     habits and opinions of the distinguished individual who was now
+     no more. As the reader had enjoyed the intimacy of the deceased
+     to a considerable degree, he was deeply interested in the
+     publication, which contained some particulars relating to himself
+     and other friends. A visitor was sitting in the apartment, who
+     was also engaged in reading. Their sitting-room opened into an
+     entrance hall, rather fantastically fitted up with articles of
+     armor, skins of wild animals, and the like. It was when laying
+     down his book, and passing into this hall, through which the moon
+     was beginning to shine, that the individual of whom I speak saw
+     right before him, in a standing posture, the exact representation
+     of his departed friend, whose recollection had been so strongly
+     brought to his imagination. He stopped for a single moment, so as
+     to notice the wonderful accuracy with which fancy had impressed
+     upon the bodily eye the peculiarities of dress and position of
+     the illustrious poet. Sensible, however, of the delusion, he felt
+     no sentiment save that of wonder at the extraordinary accuracy of
+     the resemblance, and stepped onward to the figure, which resolved
+     itself as he approached into the various materials of which it
+     was composed. These were merely a screen occupied by great coats,
+     shawls, plaids, and such other articles as are usually found in a
+     country entrance hall. The spectator returned to the spot from
+     which he had seen the illusion, and endeavored with all his power
+     to recall the image which had been so singularly vivid. But this
+     he was unable to do. And the person who had witnessed the
+     apparition, or, more properly, whose excited state had been the
+     means of raising it, had only to return to the apartment, and
+     tell his young friend under what a striking hallucination he had
+     for a moment labored.'"
+
+Here I was constrained to call the Professor to a halt. "Your stories
+are very interesting," I said, "but I fail to perceive any analogy in
+either the conditions or the incidents, to my experience. I was fully
+awake and conscious at the time, and the man I saw appeared and moved
+about in the full glare of the gaslight,--"
+
+"Perhaps not," he answered; "I am simply giving you some general
+illustrations of the subject. But here is a case more to the point."
+
+Again he read:
+
+     "A lady was once passing through a wood, in the darkening
+     twilight of a stormy evening, to visit a friend who was watching
+     over a dying child. The clouds were thick--the rain beginning to
+     fall; darkness was increasing; the wind was moaning mournfully
+     through the trees. The lady's heart almost failed her as she saw
+     that she had a mile to walk through the woods in the gathering
+     gloom. But the reflection of the situation of her friend forbade
+     her turning back. Excited and trembling, she called to her aid a
+     nervous resolution, and pressed onward. She had not proceeded far
+     when she beheld in the path before her the movement of some very
+     indistinct object. It appeared to keep a little distance ahead of
+     her, and as she made efforts to get nearer to see what it was, it
+     seemed proportionally to recede. The lady began to feel rather
+     unpleasantly. There was some pale white object certainly
+     discernible before her, and it appeared mysteriously to float
+     along, at a regular distance, without any effort at motion.
+     Notwithstanding the lady's good sense and unusual resolution, a
+     cold chill began to come over her. She made every effort to
+     resist her fears, and soon succeeded in drawing nearer the
+     mysterious object, when she was appalled at beholding the
+     features of her friend's child, cold in death, wrapt in its
+     shroud. She gazed earnestly, and there it remained distinct and
+     clear before her eyes. She considered it a premonition that her
+     friend's child was dead, and that she must hasten to her aid. But
+     there was the apparition directly in her path. She must pass it.
+     Taking up a little stick, she forced herself along to the object,
+     and behold, some little animal scampered away. It was this that
+     her excited imagination had transformed into the corpse of an
+     infant in its winding sheet."
+
+I was a little irritated, and once more interrupted the reader warmly:
+"This is exasperating. Now what resemblance is there between the
+vagaries of a hysterical, weak-minded woman, and my case?"
+
+He smiled, and again read:
+
+     "The numerous stories told of ghosts, or the spirits of persons
+     who are dead, will in most instances be found to have originated
+     in diseased imagination, aggravated by some abnormal defect of
+     mind. We may mention a remarkable case in point, and one which is
+     not mentioned in English works on this subject; it is told by a
+     compiler of Les Causes Celebres. Two young noblemen, the
+     Marquises De Rambouillet and De Precy, belonging to two of the
+     first families of France, made an agreement, in the warmth of
+     their friendship, that the one who died first should return to
+     the other with tidings of the world to come. Soon afterwards De
+     Rambouillet went to the wars in Flanders, while De Precy remained
+     at Paris, stricken by a fever. Lying alone in bed, and severely
+     ill, De Precy one day heard a rustling of his bed curtains, and
+     turning round, saw his friend De Rambouillet, in full military
+     attire. The sick man sprung over the bed to welcome his friend,
+     but the other receded, and said that he had come to fulfill his
+     promise, having been killed on that very day. He further said
+     that it behooved De Precy to think more of the afterworld, as all
+     that was said of it was true, and as he himself would die in his
+     first battle. De Precy was then left by the phantom; and it was
+     afterward found that De Rambouillet had fallen on that day."
+
+"Ah," I said, "and so the phantom predicted an event that followed as
+indicated."
+
+"Spiritual illusions," explained the Professor, "are not unusual, and
+well authenticated cases are not wanting in which they have been induced
+in persons of intelligence by functional or organic disorders. In the
+last case cited, the prediction was followed by a fulfillment, but this
+was chance or mere coincidence. It would be strange indeed if in the
+multitude of dreams that come to humanity, some few should not be
+followed by events so similar as to warrant the belief that they were
+prefigured. But here is an illustration that fits your case: let me read
+it:
+
+     "In some instances it may be difficult to decide whether spectral
+     appearances and spectral noises proceed from physical derangement
+     or from an overwrought state of mind. Want of exercise and
+     amusement may also be a prevailing cause. A friend mentions to us
+     the following case: An acquaintance of his, a merchant, in
+     London, who had for years paid very close attention to business,
+     was one day, while alone in his counting house, very much
+     surprised to hear, as he imagined, persons outside the door
+     talking freely about him. Thinking it was some acquaintances who
+     were playing off a trick, he opened the door to request them to
+     come in, when to his amazement, he found that nobody was there.
+     He again sat down to his desk, and in a few minutes the same
+     dialogue recommenced. The language was very alarming. One voice
+     seemed to say: 'We have the scoundrel in his own counting house;
+     let us go in and seize him.' 'Certainly,' replied the other
+     voice, 'it is right to take him; he has been guilty of a great
+     crime, and ought to be brought to condign punishment.' Alarmed
+     at these threats, the bewildered merchant rushed to the door; and
+     there again no person was to be seen. He now locked his door and
+     went home; but the voices, as he thought, followed him through
+     the crowd, and he arrived at his house in a most unenviable state
+     of mind. Inclined to ascribe the voices to derangement in mind,
+     he sent for a medical attendant, and told his case, and a certain
+     kind of treatment was prescribed. This, however, failed; the
+     voices menacing him with punishment for purely imaginary crimes
+     continued, and he was reduced to the brink of despair. At length
+     a friend prescribed entire relaxation from business, and a daily
+     game of cricket, which, to his great relief, proved an effectual
+     remedy. The exercise banished the phantom voices, and they were
+     no more heard."
+
+"So you think that I am in need of out-door exercise?"
+
+"Exactly."
+
+"And that my experience was illusory, the result of vertigo, or some
+temporary calenture of the brain?"
+
+"To be plain with you, yes."
+
+"But I asked you a while ago if specters or phantoms ever leave tangible
+evidence of their presence." The Professor's eyes dilated in
+interrogation. I continued: "Well, this one did. After I had followed
+him out, I found on the table a long, white hair, which I still have,"
+and producing the little coil from my pocket-book, I handed it to him.
+He examined it curiously, eyed me furtively, and handed it back with the
+cautious remark:
+
+"I think you had better commence your exercise at once."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+    A SECOND INTERVIEW WITH THE MYSTERIOUS VISITOR.
+
+
+It is not pleasant to have one's mental responsibility brought in
+question, and the result of my interview with Professor Chickering was,
+to put it mildly, unsatisfactory. Not that he had exactly questioned my
+sanity, but it was all too evident that he was disposed to accept my
+statement of a plain matter-of-fact occurrence with a too liberal
+modicum of salt. I say "matter-of-fact occurrence" in full knowledge of
+the truth that I myself had at first regarded the whole transaction as a
+fantasia or flight of mind, the result of extreme nervous tension; but
+in the interval succeeding I had abundant opportunity to correlate my
+thoughts, and to bring some sort of order out of the mental and physical
+chaos of that strange, eventful night. True, the preliminary events
+leading up to it were extraordinary; the dismal weather, the depression
+of body and spirit under which I labored, the wild whirl of thought
+keeping pace with the elements--in short, a general concatenation of
+events that seemed to be ordered especially for the introduction of some
+abnormal visitor--the night would indeed have been incomplete without a
+ghost! But was it a ghost? There was nothing ghostly about my visitor,
+except the manner of his entrance and exit. In other respects, he seemed
+substantial enough. He was, in his manners, courteous and polished as a
+Chesterfield; learned as a savant in his conversation; human in his
+thoughtful regard of my fears and misgivings; but that tremendous
+forehead, with its crown of silver hair, the long, translucent beard of
+pearly whiteness, and above all the astounding facility with which he
+read my hidden thoughts--these were not natural.
+
+The Professor had been patient with me--I had a right to expect that; he
+was entertaining to the extent of reading such excerpts as he had with
+him on the subject of hallucinations and their supposed causes, but had
+he not spoiled all by assigning me at last to a place with the
+questionable, unbalanced characters he had cited? I thought so, and the
+reflection provoked me; and this thought grew upon me until I came to
+regard his stories and attendant theories as so much literary trash.
+
+My own reflections had been sober and deliberate, and had led me to seek
+a rational explanation of the unusual phenomena. I had gone to Professor
+Chickering for a certain measure of sympathy, and what was more to the
+point, to secure his suggestions and assistance in the further
+unraveling of a profound mystery that might contain a secret of untold
+use to humanity. Repulsed by the mode in which my confidence had been
+received, I decided to do what I should have done from the outset--to
+keep my own counsel, and to follow alone the investigation to the end,
+no matter what the result might be. I could not forget or ignore the
+silver hair I had so religiously preserved. That was genuine; it was as
+tangible, as real, as convincing a witness as would have been the entire
+head of my singular visitant, whatever might be his nature.
+
+I began to feel at ease the moment my course was decided, and the
+feeling was at once renewed within me that the gray head would come
+again, and by degrees that expectation ripened into a desire, only
+intensified as the days sped by. The weeks passed into months; summer
+came and went; autumn was fast fading, but the mysterious unknown did
+not appear. A curious fancy led me now to regard him as my friend, for
+the mixed and indefinite feelings I felt at first towards him had almost
+unaccountably been changed to those of sincere regard. He was not always
+in my thoughts, for I had abundant occupation at all times to keep both
+brain and hands busy, but there were few evenings in which I did not,
+just before retiring, give myself up for a brief period to quiet
+communion with my own thoughts, and I must confess at such times the
+unknown occupied the larger share of attention. The constant
+contemplation of any theme begets a feeling of familiarity or
+acquaintance with the same, and if that subject be an individual, as in
+the present instance, such contemplation lessens the liability to
+surprise from any unexpected development. In fact, I not only
+anticipated a visit, but courted it. The old Latin maxim that I had
+played with, "Never less alone than when alone" had domiciled itself
+within my brain as a permanent lodger--a conviction, a feeling rather
+than a thought defined, and I had but little difficulty in associating
+an easy-chair which I had come to place in a certain position for my
+expected visitor, with his presence.
+
+Indian summer had passed, and the fall was nearly gone when for some
+inexplicable reason the number seven began to haunt me. What had I to do
+with seven, or seven with me? When I sat down at night this persistent
+number mixed itself in my thoughts, to my intense annoyance. Bother take
+the mystic numeral! What was I to do with seven? I found myself asking
+this question audibly one evening, when it suddenly occurred to me that
+I would refer to the date of my friend's visit. I kept no journal, but
+reference to a record of some business transactions that I had
+associated with that event showed that it took place on November
+seventh. That settled the importunate seven! I should look for whomever
+he was on the first anniversary of his visit, which was the seventh, now
+close at hand. The instant I had reached this conclusion the number left
+me, and troubled me no more.
+
+November third had passed, the fourth, and the fifth had come, when a
+stubborn, protesting notion entered my mind that I was yielding to a
+superstitious idea, and that it was time to control my vacillating will.
+Accordingly on this day I sent word to a friend that, if agreeable to
+him, I would call on him on the evening of the seventh for a short
+social chat, but as I expected to be engaged until later than usual,
+would he excuse me if I did not reach his apartments until ten? The
+request was singular, but as I was now accounted somewhat odd, it
+excited no comment, and the answer was returned, requesting me to come.
+The seventh of November came at last. I was nervous during the day,
+which seemed to drag tediously, and several times it was remarked of me
+that I seemed abstracted and ill at ease, but I held my peace. Night
+came cold and clear, and the stars shone brighter than usual, I thought.
+It was a sharp contrast to the night of a year ago. I took an early
+supper, for which I had no appetite, after which I strolled aimlessly
+about the streets, revolving how I should put in the time till ten
+o'clock, when I was to call upon my friend. I decided to go to the
+theater, and to the theater I went. The play was spectacular, "Aladdin;
+or, The Wonderful Lamp." The entertainment, to me, was a flat failure,
+for I was busy with my thoughts, and it was not long until my thoughts
+were busy with me, and I found myself attempting to answer a series of
+questions that finally became embarrassing. "Why did you make an
+appointment for ten o'clock instead of eight, if you wished to keep away
+from your apartments?" I hadn't thought of that before; it was stupid to
+a degree, if not ill-mannered, and I frankly admitted as much. "Why did
+you make an appointment at all, in the face of the fact that you not
+only expected a visitor, but were anxious to meet him?" This was easily
+answered: because I did not wish to yield to what struck me as
+superstition. "But do you expect to extend your call until morning?"
+Well, no, I hadn't thought or arranged to do so. "Well, then, what is to
+prevent your expected guest from awaiting your return? Or, what
+assurance have you that he will not encounter you in the street, under
+circumstances that will provoke or, at the least, embarrass you?" None
+whatever. "Then what have you gained by your stupid perversity?"
+Nothing, beyond the assertion of my own individuality. "Why not go home
+and receive your guest in becoming style?" No; I would not do that. I
+had started on this course, and I would persevere in it. I would be
+consistent. And so I persisted, at least until nine o'clock, when I quit
+the theater in sullen dejection, and went home to make some slight
+preparation for my evening call.
+
+With my latch-key I let myself into the front door of the apartment
+house wherein I lodged, walked through the hall, up the stair-case, and
+paused on the threshold of my room, wondering what I would find inside.
+Opening the door I entered, leaving it open behind me so that the light
+from the hall-way would shine into the room, which was dark, and there
+was no transom above the door. The grate fire had caked into a solid
+mass of charred bituminous coal, which shed no illumination beyond a
+faint red glow at the bottom, showing that it was barely alive, and no
+more. I struck a match on the underside of the mantel shelf, and as I
+lit the gas I heard the click of the door latch. I turned instantly; the
+door had been gently closed by some unknown force if not by unseen
+hands, for there was no breath of air stirring. This preternatural
+interference was not pleasant, for I had hoped in the event of another
+visit from my friend, if friend he was, that he would bring no uncanny
+or ghostly manifestation to disturb me. I looked at the clock; the index
+pointed to half past nine. I glanced about the room; it was orderly,
+everything in proper position, even to the arm-chair that I had been
+wont to place for my nondescript visitor. It was time to be going, so I
+turned to the dressing case, brushed my hair, put on a clean scarf, and
+moved towards the wash-stand, which stood in a little alcove on the
+opposite side of the room. My self-command well-nigh deserted me as I
+did so, for there, in the arm-chair that a moment before was empty, sat
+my guest of a year ago, facing me with placid features! The room began
+to revolve, a faint, sick feeling came over me, and I reeled into the
+first convenient chair, and covered my face with my hands. This
+depression lasted but an instant, however, and as I recovered
+self-possession, I felt or fancied I felt a pair of penetrating eyes
+fixed upon me with the same mild, searching gaze I remembered so well. I
+ventured to look up; sure enough, there they were, the beaming eyes, and
+there was he! Rising from his chair, he towered up to his full height,
+smiled pleasantly, and with a slight inclination of the head, murmured:
+"Permit me to wish you good evening; I am profoundly glad to meet you
+again."
+
+It was full a minute before I could muster courage to answer: "I wish I
+could say as much for myself."
+
+"And why shouldn't you?" he said, gently and courteously; "you have
+realized, for the past six months, that I would return; more than
+that--you have known for some time the very day and almost the exact
+hour of my coming, have even wished for it, and, in the face of all
+this, I find you preparing to evade the requirements of common
+hospitality;--are you doing either me or yourself justice?"
+
+I was nettled at the knowledge he displayed of my movements, and of my
+very thoughts; my old stubbornness asserted itself, and I was rude
+enough to say: "Perhaps it is as you say; at all events, I am obligated
+to keep an engagement, and with your permission will now retire."
+
+It was curious to mark the effect of this speech upon the intruder. He
+immediately became grave, reached quietly into an inner pocket of his
+coat, drew thence the same glittering, horrible, mysterious knife that
+had so terrified and bewildered me a year before, and looking me
+steadily in the eye, said coldly, yet with a certain tone of sadness:
+"Well, I will not grant permission. It is unpleasant to resort to this
+style of argument, but I do it to save time and controversy."
+
+I stepped back in terror, and reached for the old-fashioned bell-cord,
+with the heavy tassel at the end, that depended from the ceiling, and
+was on the point of grasping and giving it a vigorous pull.
+
+"Not so fast, if you please," he said, sternly, as he stepped forward,
+and gave the knife a rapid swish through the air above my head, causing
+the cord to fall in a tangle about my hand, cut cleanly, high above my
+reach!
+
+I gazed in dumb stupor at the rope about my hand, and raised my eyes to
+the remnant above. That was motionless; there was not the slightest
+perceptible vibration, such as would naturally be expected. I turned to
+look at my guest; he had resumed his seat, and had also regained his
+pleasant expression, but he still held the knife in his hand with his
+arm extended, at rest, upon the table, which stood upon his right.
+
+[Illustration: "THE SAME GLITTERING, MYSTERIOUS KNIFE."]
+
+"Let us have an end to this folly," he said; "think a moment, and you
+will see that you are in fault. Your error we will rectify easily, and
+then to business. I will first show you the futility of trying to escape
+this interview, and then we will proceed to work, for time presses, and
+there is much to do." Having delivered this remark, he detached a single
+silvery hair from his head, blew it from his fingers, and let it float
+gently upon the upturned edge of the knife, which was still resting on
+the table. The hair was divided as readily as had been the bell-cord. I
+was transfixed with astonishment, for he had evidently aimed to exhibit
+the quality of the blade, though he made no allusion to the feat, but
+smilingly went on with his discourse: "It is just a year ago to-night
+since we first met. Upon that occasion you made an agreement with me
+which you are in honor bound to keep, and--" here he paused as if to note
+the effect of his words upon me, then added significantly--"will keep. I
+have been at some pains to impress upon your mind the fact that I
+would be here to-night. You responded, and knew that I was coming, and
+yet in obedience to a silly whim, deliberately made a meaningless
+engagement with no other purpose than to violate a solemn obligation. I
+now insist that you keep your prior engagement with me, but I do not
+wish that you should be rude to your friend, so you had better write him
+a polite note excusing yourself, and dispatch it at once."
+
+I saw that he was right, and that there was no shadow of justification
+for my conduct, or at least I was subdued by his presence, so I wrote
+the note without delay, and was casting about for some way to send it,
+when he said: "Fold it, seal it, and address it; you seem to forget what
+is proper." I did as he directed, mechanically, and, without thinking
+what I was doing, handed it to him. He took it naturally, glanced at the
+superscription, went to the door which he opened slightly, and handed
+the billet as if to some messenger who seemed to be in waiting
+outside,--then closed and locked the door. Turning toward me with the
+apparent object of seeing if I was looking, he deftly drew his knife
+twice across the front of the door-knob, making a deep cross, and then
+deposited the knife in his pocket, and resumed his seat.[2]
+
+    [2] I noted afterward that the door-knob, which was of solid
+    metal, was cut deeply, as though made of putty.
+
+As soon as he was comfortably seated, he again began the conversation:
+"Now that we have settled the preliminaries, I will ask if you remember
+what I required of you a year ago?" I thought that I did. "Please repeat
+it; I wish to make sure that you do, then we will start fair."
+
+"In the first place, you were to present me with a manuscript--"
+
+"Hardly correct," he interrupted; "I was to acquaint you with a
+narrative which is already in manuscript, acquaint you with it, read it
+to you, if you preferred not to read it to me--"
+
+"I beg your pardon," I answered; "that is correct. You were to read the
+manuscript to me, and during the reading I was to interpose such
+comments, remarks, or objections, as seemed proper; to embody as
+interludes, in the manuscript, as my own interpolations, however, and
+not as part of the original."
+
+"Very good," he replied, "you have the idea exactly; proceed."
+
+"I agreed that when the reading had been completed, I would seal the
+complete manuscript securely, deposit it in some safe place, there to
+remain for thirty years, when it must be published."
+
+[Illustration: "DREW HIS KNIFE TWICE ACROSS THE FRONT OF THE
+DOOR-KNOB."]
+
+"Just so," he answered; "we understand each other as we should. Before
+we proceed further, however, can you think of any point on which you
+need enlightenment? If so, ask such questions as you choose, and I will
+answer them."
+
+I thought for a moment, but no query occurred to me; after a pause he
+said: "Well, if you think of nothing now, perhaps hereafter questions
+will occur to you which you can ask; but as it is late, and you are
+tired, we will not commence now. I will see you just one week from
+to-night, when we will begin. From that time on, we will follow the
+subject as rapidly as you choose, but see to it that you make no
+engagements that will interfere with our work, for I shall be more
+exacting in the future." I promised, and he rose to go. A sudden impulse
+seized me, and I said: "May I ask one question?"
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"What shall I call you?"
+
+"Why call me aught? It is not necessary in addressing each other that
+any name be used."
+
+"But what are you?" I persisted.
+
+A pained expression for an instant rested upon his face, and he said,
+sadly, pausing between the words: "I--Am--The--Man Who--Did--It."
+
+"Did what?"
+
+"Ask not; the manuscript will tell you. Be content, Llewellyn, and
+remember this, that I--Am--The--Man."
+
+So saying he bade me good night, opened the door, and disappeared down
+the broad stair-case.
+
+One week thereafter he appeared promptly, seated himself, and producing
+a roll of manuscript, handed it to me, saying, "I am listening; you may
+begin to read."
+
+On examination I found each page to be somewhat larger than a sheet of
+letter paper, with the written matter occupying a much smaller space, so
+as to leave a wide white border. One hundred pages were in the package.
+The last sentence ending abruptly indicated that my guest did not expect
+to complete his task in one evening, and, I may anticipate by saying
+that with each successive interview he drew about the same amount of
+writing from his bosom. Upon attempting to read the manuscript I at
+first found myself puzzled by a style of chirography very peculiar and
+characteristic, but execrably bad. Vainly did I attempt to read it; even
+the opening sentence was not deciphered without long inspection and
+great difficulty.
+
+The old man, whom I had promised that I would fulfill the task,
+observing my discomfiture, relieved me of the charge, and without a word
+of introduction, read fluently as follows:
+
+
+
+
+THE MANUSCRIPT OF I--AM--THE--MAN.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+    A SEARCH FOR KNOWLEDGE.--THE ALCHEMISTIC LETTER.
+
+
+I am the man who, unfortunately for my future happiness, was
+dissatisfied with such knowledge as could be derived from ordinary books
+concerning semi-scientific subjects in which I had long been absorbed. I
+studied the current works of my day on philosophy and chemistry, hoping
+therein to find something tangible regarding the relationship that
+exists between matter and spirit, but studied in vain. Astronomy,
+history, philosophy and the mysterious, incoherent works of alchemy and
+occultism were finally appealed to, but likewise failed to satisfy me.
+These studies were pursued in secret, though I am not aware that any
+necessity existed for concealment. Be that as it may, at every
+opportunity I covertly acquainted myself with such alchemical lore as
+could be obtained either by purchase or by correspondence with others
+whom I found to be pursuing investigations in the same direction. A
+translation of Geber's "De Claritate Alchemiae," by chance came into my
+possession, and afterwards an original version from the Latin of
+Boerhaave's "Elementa Chemiae," published and translated in 1753 by
+Peter Shaw. This magnificent production threw a flood of light upon the
+early history of chemistry, being far more elaborate than any modern
+work. It inspired me with the deepest regard for its talented author,
+and ultimately introduced me to a brotherhood of adepts, for in this
+publication, although its author disclaims occultism, is to be found a
+talisman that will enable any earnest searcher after light to become a
+member of the society of secret "Chemical Improvers of Natural
+Philosophy," with which I affiliated as soon as the key was discovered.
+Then followed a systematic investigation of authorities of the
+Alchemical School, including Geber, Morienus, Roger Bacon, George
+Ripley, Raymond Lully, Bernard, Count of Trevise, Isaac Hollandus,
+Arnoldus de la Villanova, Paracelsus, and others, not omitting the
+learned researches of the distinguished scientist, Llewellyn.
+
+[Illustration: FAC-SIMILE OF PAGE OF MANUSCRIPT.]
+
+I discovered that many talented men are still firm believers in the lost
+art of alchemy, and that among the followers of the "thrice-famed
+Hermes" are to be found statesmen, clergymen, lawyers, and scientific
+men who, for various reasons, invariably conceal with great tact their
+connection with the fraternity of adepts. Some of these men had written
+scientific treatises of a very different character from those
+circulating among the members of our brotherhood, and to their
+materialistic readers it would seem scarcely possible that the authors
+could be tainted with hallucinations of any description, while others,
+conspicuous leaders in the church, were seemingly beyond occult
+temptation.
+
+The larger number, it was evident, hoped by studies of the works of the
+alchemists, to find the key to the alkahest of Van Helmont, that is, to
+discover the Philosopher's Stone, or the Elixir of Life, and from their
+writings it is plain that the inner consciousness of thoughtful and
+scientific men rebelled against confinement to the narrow bounds of
+materialistic science, within which they were forced to appear as
+dogmatic pessimists. To them scientific orthodoxy, acting as a weight,
+prohibited intellectual speculation, as rank heresy. A few of my
+co-laborers were expert manipulators, and worked experimentally,
+following in their laboratories the suggestions of those gifted students
+who had pored over precious old manuscripts, and had attempted to solve
+the enigmatical formulas recorded therein, puzzles familiar to students
+of Hermetic lore. It was thus demonstrated,--for what I have related is
+history,--that in this nineteenth century there exists a fraternity, the
+members of which are as earnest in their belief in the truth of Esoteric
+philosophy, as were the followers of Hermes himself; savants who, in
+secret, circulate among themselves a literature that the materialism of
+this selfsame nineteenth century has relegated to the deluded and murky
+periods that produced it.
+
+One day a postal package came to my address, this being the manner in
+which some of our literature circulated, which, on examination, I
+found to be a letter of instruction and advice from some unknown member
+of our circle. I was already becoming disheartened over the mental
+confusion into which my studies were leading me, and the contents of the
+letter, in which I was greatly interested, made a lasting impression
+upon me. It seemed to have been circulating a long time among our
+members in Europe and America, for it bore numerous marginal notes of
+various dates, but each and every one of its readers had for one reason
+or another declined the task therein suggested. From the substance of
+the paper, which, written exquisitely, yet partook of the ambiguous
+alchemistic style, it was evident that the author was well versed in
+alchemy, and, in order that my position may be clearly understood at
+this turning point in a life of remarkable adventure, the letter is
+appended in full:
+
+     THE ALCHEMISTIC LETTER.
+
+     TO THE BROTHER ADEPT WHO DARES TRY TO DISCOVER ZOROASTER'S CAVE,
+     OR THE PHILOSOPHER'S INTELLECTUAL ECHOES, BY MEANS OF WHICH THEY
+     COMMUNICATE TO ONE ANOTHER FROM THEIR CAVES.
+
+     Know thou, that Hermes Trismegistus did not originate, but he
+     gave to our philosophy his name--the Hermetic Art. Evolved in a
+     dim, mystic age, before antiquity began, it endured through the
+     slowly rolling cycles to be bandied about by the ever-ready
+     flippancy of nineteenth century students. It has lived, because
+     it is endowed with that quality which never dies--truth. Modern
+     philosophy, of which chemistry is but a fragment, draws its
+     sustenance from the prime facts which were revealed in ancient
+     Egypt through Hermetic thought, and fixed by the Hermetic stylus.
+
+     "The Hermetic allegories," so various in interpretable
+     susceptibility, led subsequent thinkers into speculations and
+     experimentations, which have resulted profitably to the world. It
+     is not strange that some of the followers of Hermes, especially
+     the more mercurial and imaginative, should have evolved nebulous
+     theories, no longer explainable, and involving recondite
+     spiritual considerations. Know thou that the ultimate on
+     psycho-chemical investigation is the proximate of the infinite.
+     Accordingly, a class came to believe that a projection of natural
+     mental faculties into an advanced state of consciousness called
+     the "wisdom faculty" constitutes the final possibility of
+     Alchemy. The attainment of this exalted condition is still
+     believed practicable by many earnest savants. Once on this lofty
+     plane, the individual would not be trammelled by material
+     obstacles, but would abide in that spiritual placidity which is
+     the exquisite realization of mortal perfection. So exalted, he
+     would be in naked parallelism with Omniscience, and through his
+     illuminated understanding, could feast his soul on those exalted
+     pleasures which are only less than deific.
+
+     Notwithstanding the exploitings of a number of these
+     philosophers, in which, by reason of our inability to comprehend,
+     sense seemed lost in a passage of incohesive dreamery and
+     resonancy of terminology, some of the purest spiritual researches
+     the world has ever known, were made in the dawn of history. The
+     much abused alchemical philosophers existed upon a plane, in some
+     respects above the level of the science of to-day. Many of them
+     lived for the good of the world only, in an atmosphere above the
+     materialistic hordes that people the world, and toiling over
+     their crucibles and alembics, died in their cells "uttering no
+     voice." Take, for example, Eirenaeus Philalethes, who, born in
+     1623, lived contemporaneously with Robert Boyle. A fragment from
+     his writings will illustrate the purpose which impelled the
+     searcher for the true light of alchemy to record his discoveries
+     in allegories, and we have no right to question the honesty of
+     his utterances:
+
+     "The Searcher of all hearts knows that I write the truth; nor is
+     there any cause to accuse me of envy. I write with an unterrified
+     quill in an unheard of style, to the honor of God, to the profit
+     of my neighbors, with contempt of the world and its riches,
+     because Elias, the artist, is already born, and now glorious
+     things are declared of the city of God. I dare affirm that I do
+     possess more riches than the whole known world is worth, but I
+     can not make use of it because of the snares of knaves. I
+     disdain, loathe, and detest the idolizing of silver and gold, by
+     which the pomps and vanities of the world are celebrated. Ah!
+     filthy evil! Ah! vain nothingness! Believe ye that I conceal the
+     art out of envy? No, verily, I protest to you; I grieve from the
+     very bottom of my soul that we (alchemists) are driven like
+     vagabonds from the face of the Lord throughout the earth. But
+     what need of many words? The thing that we have seen, taught, and
+     made, which we have, possess, and know, that we do declare; being
+     moved with compassion for the studious, and with indignation of
+     gold, silver, and precious stones. Believe me, the time is at the
+     door, I feel it in spirit, when we, adeptists, shall return from
+     the four corners of the earth, nor shall we fear any snares that
+     are laid against our lives, but we shall give thanks to the Lord
+     our God. I would to God that every ingenious man in the whole
+     earth understood this science; then it would be valued only for
+     its wisdom, and virtue only would be had in honor."
+
+     Of course there was a more worldly class, and a large contingent
+     of mercenary impostors (as science is always encumbered),
+     parasites, whose animus was shamefully unlike the purity of true
+     esoteric psychologists. These men devoted their lives to
+     experimentation for selfish advancement. They constructed
+     alchemical outfits, and carried on a ceaseless inquiry into the
+     nature of solvents, and studied their influences on earthly
+     bodies, their ultimate object being the discovery of the
+     Philosopher's Stone, and the alkahest which Boerhaave asserts
+     was never discovered. Their records were often a verbose melange,
+     purposely so written, no doubt, to cover their tracks, and to
+     make themselves conspicuous. Other Hermetic believers occupied a
+     more elevated position, and connected the intellectual with the
+     material, hoping to gain by their philosophy and science not only
+     gold and silver, which were secondary considerations, but the
+     highest literary achievement, the Magnum Opus. Others still
+     sought to draw from Astrology and Magic the secrets that would
+     lead them to their ambitious goal. Thus there were degrees of
+     fineness in a fraternity, which the science of to-day must
+     recognize and admit.
+
+     Boerhaave, the illustrious, respected Geber, of the alchemistic
+     school, and none need feel compromised in admiring the talented
+     alchemists who, like Geber, wrought in the twilight of morn for
+     the coming world's good. We are now enjoying a fragment of the
+     ultimate results of their genius and industry in the
+     materialistic outcomes of present-day chemistry, to be followed
+     by others more valuable; and at last, when mankind is ripe in the
+     wisdom faculty, by spiritual contentment in the complacent
+     furtherings beyond. Allow me briefly to refer to a few men of the
+     alchemistic type whose records may be considered with advantage.
+
+     Rhasis, a conspicuous alchemist, born in 850, first mentioned
+     orpiment, borax, compounds of iron, copper, arsenic, and other
+     similar substances. It is said, too, that he discovered the art
+     of making brandy. About a century later, Alfarabe (killed in
+     950), a great alchemist, astonished the King of Syria with his
+     profound learning, and excited the admiration of the wise men of
+     the East by his varied accomplishments. Later, Albertus Magnus
+     (born 1205), noted for his talent and skill, believed firmly in
+     the doctrine of transmutation. His beloved pupil, Thomas Aquinas,
+     gave us the word amalgam, and it still serves us.
+     Contemporaneously with these lived Roger Bacon (born 1214), who
+     was a man of most extraordinary ability. There has never been a
+     greater English intellect (not excepting his illustrious
+     namesake, Lord Bacon), and his penetrating mind delved deeper
+     into nature's laws than that of any successor. He told us of
+     facts concerning the sciences, that scientific men can not fully
+     comprehend to-day; he told us of other things that lie beyond the
+     science provings of to-day, that modern philosophers can not
+     grasp. He was an enthusiastic believer in the Hermetic
+     philosophy, and such were his erudition and advanced views, that
+     his brother friars, through jealousy and superstition, had him
+     thrown into prison--a common fate to men who in those days dared
+     to think ahead of their age. Despite (as some would say) of his
+     mighty reasoning power and splendid attainments, he believed the
+     Philosopher's Stone to be a reality; he believed the secret of
+     indefinite prolongation of life abode in alchemy; that the future
+     could be predicted by means of a mirror which he called
+     Almuchese, and that by alchemy an adept could produce pure gold.
+     He asserted that by means of Aristotle's "Secret of Secrets,"
+     pure gold can be made; gold even purer and finer than what men
+     now know as gold. In connection with other predictions he made an
+     assertion that may with other seemingly unreasonable predictions
+     be verified in time to come. He said: "It is equally possible to
+     construct cars which may be set in motion with marvelous
+     rapidity, independently of horses or other animals." He declared
+     that the ancients had done this, and he believed the art might be
+     revived.
+
+     Following came various enthusiasts, such as Raymond, the
+     ephemeral (died 1315), who flared like a meteor into his brief,
+     brilliant career; Arnold de Villanova (1240), a celebrated adept,
+     whose books were burned by the Inquisition on account of the
+     heresy they taught; Nicholas Flamel, of France (1350), loved by
+     the people for his charities, the wonder of his age (our age will
+     not admit the facts) on account of the vast fortune he amassed
+     without visible means or income, outside of alchemical lore;
+     Johannes de Rupecissus, a man of such remarkable daring that he
+     even (1357) reprimanded Pope Innocent VI., for which he was
+     promptly imprisoned; Basil Valentine (1410), the author of many
+     works, and the man who introduced antimony (antimonaches) into
+     medicine; Isaac of Holland who, with his son, skillfully made
+     artificial gems that could not be distinguished from the natural;
+     Bernard Trevison (born 1406), who spent $30,000 in the study of
+     alchemy, out of much of which he was cheated by cruel alchemic
+     pretenders, for even in that day there were plenty of rogues to
+     counterfeit a good thing. Under stress of his strong alchemic
+     convictions, Thomas Dalton placed his head on the block by order
+     of the virtuous (?) and conservative Thomas Herbert, 'squire to
+     King Edward; Jacob Bohme (born 1575), the sweet, pure spirit of
+     Christian mysticism, "The Voice of Heaven," than whom none stood
+     higher in true alchemy, was a Christian, alchemist, theosophist;
+     Robert Boyle, a conspicuous alchemical philosopher, in 1662
+     published his "Defense of the Doctrine touching the Spring and
+     Weight of the Air," and illustrated his arguments by a series of
+     ingenious and beautiful experiments, that stand to-day so high in
+     the estimation of scientific men, that his remarks are copied
+     verbatim by our highest authorities, and his apparatus is the
+     best yet devised for the purpose. Boyle's "Law" was evolved and
+     carefully defined fourteen years before Mariotte's "Discours de
+     la Nature de l'Air" appeared, which did not, however, prevent
+     French and German scientific men from giving the credit to
+     Mariotte, and they still follow the false teacher who boldly
+     pirated not only Boyle's ideas, but stole his apparatus.
+
+     Then appeared such men as Paracelsus (born 1493), the celebrated
+     physician, who taught that occultism (esoteric philosophy) was
+     superior to experimental chemistry in enlightening us concerning
+     the transmutation of baser metals into gold and silver; and
+     Gueppo Francisco (born 1627), who wrote a beautiful treatise on
+     "Elementary Spirits," which was copied without credit by Compte
+     de Gabalis. It seems incredible that the man (Gueppo Francisco),
+     whose sweet spirit-thoughts are revivified and breathe anew in
+     "Undine" and "The Rape of the Lock," should have been thrown into
+     a prison to perish as a Hermetic follower; and this should teach
+     us not to question the earnestness of those who left us as a
+     legacy the beauty and truth so abundantly found in pure alchemy.
+
+     These and many others, cotemporaries, some conspicuous, and
+     others whose names do not shine in written history, contributed
+     incalculably to the grand aggregate of knowledge concerning the
+     divine secret which enriched the world. Compare the benefits of
+     Hermetic philosophy with the result of bloody wars ambitiously
+     waged by self-exacting tyrants--tyrants whom history applauds as
+     heroes, but whom we consider as butchers. Among the workers in
+     alchemy are enumerated nobles, kings, and even popes. Pope John
+     XXII. was an alchemist, which accounts for his bull against
+     impostors, promulgated in order that true students might not be
+     discredited; and King Frederick of Naples sanctioned the art, and
+     protected its devotees.
+
+     At last, Count Cagliostro, the chequered "Joseph Balsamo" (born
+     1743), who combined alchemy, magic, astrology, sleight of hand,
+     mesmerism, Free Masonry, and remarkable personal accomplishments,
+     that altogether have never since been equalled, burst upon the
+     world. Focusing the gaze of the church, kings, and the commons
+     upon himself, in many respects the most audacious pretender that
+     history records, he raised the Hermetic art to a dazzling height,
+     and finally buried it in a blaze of splendor as he passed from
+     existence beneath a mantle of shame. As a meteor streams into
+     view from out the star mists of space, and in corruscating glory
+     sinks into the sea, Cagliostro blazed into the sky of the
+     eighteenth century, from the nebulae of alchemistic speculation,
+     and extinguished both himself and his science in the light of the
+     rising sun of materialism. Cagliostro the visionary, the poet,
+     the inspired, the erratic comet in the universe of intellect,
+     perished in prison as a mountebank, and then the plodding chemist
+     of to-day, with his tedious mechanical methods, and cold,
+     unresponsive, materialistic dogmas, arose from the ashes, and
+     sprang into prominence.
+
+     Read the story backward, and you shall see that in alchemy we
+     behold the beginning of all the sciences of to-day; alchemy is
+     the cradle that rocked them. Fostered with necromancy, astrology,
+     occultism, and all the progeny of mystic dreamery, the infant
+     sciences struggled for existence through the dark ages, in care
+     of the once persecuted and now traduced alchemist. The world owes
+     a monument to-day more to Hermetic heroes, than to all other
+     influences and instrumentalities, religion excepted, combined,
+     for our present civilization is largely a legacy from the
+     alchemist. Begin with Hermes Trismegistus, and close with Joseph
+     Balsamo, and if you are inclined towards science, do not
+     criticise too severely their verbal logorrhea, and their
+     romanticism, for your science is treading backward; it will
+     encroach upon their field again, and you may have to unsay your
+     words of hasty censure. These men fulfilled their mission, and
+     did it well. If they told more than men now think they knew, they
+     also knew more than they told, and more than modern philosophy
+     embraces. They could not live to see all the future they eagerly
+     hoped for, but they started a future for mankind that will far
+     exceed in sweetness and light the most entrancing visions of
+     their most imaginative dreamers. They spoke of the existence of a
+     "red elixir," and while they wrote, the barbarous world about
+     them ran red with blood,--blood of the pure in heart, blood of
+     the saints, blood of a Saviour; and their allegory and wisdom
+     formulae were recorded in blood of their own sacrifices. They
+     dreamed of a "white elixir" that is yet to bless mankind, and a
+     brighter day for man, a period of peace, happiness, long life,
+     contentment, good will and brotherly love, and in the name of
+     this "white elixir" they directed the world towards a vision of
+     divine light. Even pure gold, as they told the materialistic
+     world who worship gold, was penetrated and whelmed by this
+     subtle, superlatively refined spirit of matter. Is not the day of
+     the allegorical "white elixir" nearly at hand? Would that it
+     were!
+
+     I say to you now, brothers of the eighteenth century, as one
+     speaking by authority to you, cease (some of you) to study this
+     entrancing past, look to the future by grasping the present, cast
+     aside (some of you) the alchemical lore of other days, give up
+     your loved allegories; it is a duty, you must relinquish them.
+     There is a richer field. Do not delay. Unlock this mystic door
+     that stands hinged and ready, waiting the touch of men who can
+     interpret the talisman; place before mankind the knowledge that
+     lies behind its rivets. In the secret lodges that have preserved
+     the wisdom of the days of Enoch and Elias of Egypt, who
+     propagated the Egyptian Order, a branch of your ancient
+     brotherhood, is to be found concealed much knowledge that should
+     now be spread before the world, and added to the treasures of our
+     circle of adepts. This cabalistic wisdom is not recorded in books
+     nor in manuscript, but has been purposely preserved from the
+     uninitiated, in the unreadable brains of unresponsive men. Those
+     who are selected to act as carriers thereof, are, as a rule, like
+     dumb water bearers, or the dead sheet of paper that mechanically
+     preserves an inspiration derived from minds unseen: they serve a
+     purpose as a child mechanically commits to memory a blank verse
+     to repeat to others, who in turn commit to repeat again--neither
+     of them speaking understandingly. Search ye these hidden paths,
+     for the day of mental liberation approaches, and publish to the
+     world all that is locked within the doors of that antiquated
+     organization. The world is nearly ripe for the wisdom faculty,
+     and men are ready to unravel the golden threads that mystic
+     wisdom has inwoven in her web of secret knowledge. Look for
+     knowledge where I have indicated, and to gain it do not hesitate
+     to swear allegiance to this sacred order, for so you must do to
+     gain entrance to the brotherhood, and then you must act what men
+     will call the traitor. You will, however, be doing a sacred duty,
+     for the world will profit, humanity will be the gainer, "Peace on
+     Earth, Good Will to Man," will be closer to mankind, and at last,
+     when the sign appears, the "white elixir" will no longer be
+     allegorical; it will become a reality. In the name of the Great
+     Mystic Vase-Man, go thou into these lodges, learn of their
+     secrets, and spread their treasures before those who can
+     interpret them.
+
+Here this letter ended. It was evident that the writer referred to a
+secret society into which I could probably enter; and taking the advice,
+I did not hesitate, but applied at once for membership. I determined,
+regardless of consequence, to follow the suggestion of the unknown
+writer, and by so doing, for I accepted their pledges, I invited my
+destiny.
+
+My guest of the massive forehead paused for a moment, stroked his long,
+white beard, and then, after casting an inquiring glance on me, asked,
+"Shall I read on?"
+
+"Yes," I replied, and The--Man--Who--Did--It, proceeded as follows:
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+    THE WRITING OF MY CONFESSION.
+
+
+Having become a member of the Secret Society as directed by the writer
+of the letter I have just read, and having obtained the secrets hinted
+at in the mystic directions, my next desire was to find a secluded spot
+where, without interruption, I could prepare for publication what I had
+gathered surreptitiously in the lodges of the fraternity I designed to
+betray. This I entitled "My Confession." Alas! why did my evil genius
+prompt me to write it? Why did not some kind angel withhold my hand from
+the rash and wicked deed? All I can urge in defense or palliation is
+that I was infatuated by the fatal words of the letter, "You must act
+what men will call the traitor, but humanity will be the gainer."
+
+In a section of the state in which I resided, a certain creek forms the
+boundary line between two townships, and also between two counties.
+Crossing this creek, a much traveled road stretches east and west,
+uniting the extremes of the great state. Two villages on this road,
+about four miles apart, situated on opposite sides of the creek, also
+present themselves to my memory, and midway between them, on the north
+side of the road, was a substantial farm house. In going west from the
+easternmost of these villages, the traveler begins to descend from the
+very center of the town. In no place is the grade steep, as the road
+lies between the spurs of the hill abutting upon the valley that feeds
+the creek I have mentioned. Having reached the valley, the road winds a
+short distance to the right, then turning to the left, crosses the
+stream, and immediately begins to climb the western hill; here the
+ascent is more difficult, for the road lies diagonally over the edge of
+the hill. A mile of travel, as I recall the scene, sometimes up a steep,
+and again among rich, level farm lands, and then on the very height,
+close to the road, within a few feet of it, appears the square
+structure which was, at the time I mention, known as the Stone Tavern.
+On the opposite side of the road were located extensive stables, and a
+grain barn. In the northeast chamber of that stone building, during a
+summer in the twenties, I wrote for publication the description of the
+mystic work that my oath should have made forever a secret, a sacred
+trust. I am the man who wantonly committed the deplorable act. Under the
+infatuation of that alchemical manuscript, I strove to show the world
+that I could and would do that which might never benefit me in the
+least, but might serve humanity. It was fate. I was not a bad man,
+neither malignity, avarice, nor ambition forming a part of my nature. I
+was a close student, of a rather retiring disposition, a stone-mason by
+trade, careless and indifferent to public honors, and so thriftless that
+many trifling neighborhood debts had accumulated against me.
+
+What I have reluctantly told, for I am forbidden to give the names of
+the localities, comprises an abstract of part of the record of my early
+life, and will introduce the extraordinary narrative which follows. That
+I have spoken the truth, and in no manner overdrawn, will be silently
+evidenced by hundreds of brethren, both of the occult society and the
+fraternal brotherhood, with which I united, who can (if they will)
+testify to the accuracy of the narrative. They know the story of my
+crime and disgrace; only myself and God know the full retribution that
+followed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+    KIDNAPPED.
+
+
+The events just narrated occurred in the prime of my life, and are
+partly matters of publicity. My attempted breach of faith in the way of
+disclosing their secrets was naturally infamous in the eyes of my
+society brethren, who endeavored to prevail upon me to relent of my
+design which, after writing my "Confession," I made no endeavor to
+conceal. Their importunities and threatenings had generally been
+resisted, however, and with an obliquity that can not be easily
+explained, I persisted in my unreasonable design. I was blessed as a
+husband and father, but neither the thought of home, wife, nor child,
+checked me in my inexplicable course. I was certainly irresponsible,
+perhaps a monomaniac, and yet on the subject in which I was absorbed, I
+preserved my mental equipoise, and knowingly followed a course that
+finally brought me into the deepest slough of trouble, and lost to me
+forever all that man loves most dearly. An overruling spirit, perhaps
+the shade of one of the old alchemists, possessed me, and in the face of
+obstacles that would have caused most men to reflect, and retrace their
+steps, I madly rushed onward. The influence that impelled me, whatever
+it may have been, was irresistible. I apparently acted the part of
+agent, subject to an ever-present master essence, and under this
+dominating spirit or demon my mind was powerless in its subjection. My
+soul was driven imperiously by that impelling and indescribable
+something, and was as passive and irresponsible as lycopodium that is
+borne onward in a steady current of air. Methods were vainly sought by
+those who loved me, brethren of the lodge, and others who endeavored to
+induce me to change my headstrong purpose, but I could neither accept
+their counsels nor heed their forebodings. Summons by law were served on
+me in order to disconcert me, and my numerous small debts became the
+pretext for legal warrants, until at last all my papers (excepting my
+"Confession"), and my person also, were seized, upon an execution served
+by a constable. Minor claims were quickly satisfied, but when I regained
+my liberty, the aggression continued. Even arson was resorted to, and
+the printing office that held my manuscript was fired one night, that
+the obnoxious revelation which I persisted in putting into print, might
+be destroyed. Finally I found myself separated by process of law from
+home and friends, an inmate of a jail. My opponents, as I now came to
+consider them, had confined me in prison for a debt of only two dollars,
+a sufficient amount at that time, in that state, for my incarceration.
+Smarting under the humiliation, my spirit became still more rebellious,
+and I now, perhaps justly, came to view myself as a martyr. It had been
+at first asserted that I had stolen a shirt, but I was not afraid of any
+penalty that could be laid on me for this trumped-up charge, believing
+that the imputation and the arrest would be shown to be designed as
+willful oppression. Therefore it was, that when this contemptible
+arraignment had been swept aside, and I was freed before a Justice of
+the Peace, I experienced more than a little surprise at a rearrest, and
+at finding myself again thrown into jail. I knew that it had been
+decreed by my brethren that I must retract and destroy my "Confession,"
+and this fact made me the more determined to prevent its destruction,
+and I persisted sullenly in pursuing my course. On the evening of August
+12th, 1826, my jailer's wife informed me that the debt for which I had
+been incarcerated had been paid by unknown "friends," and that I could
+depart; and I accepted the statement without question. Upon my stepping
+from the door of the jail, however, my arms were firmly grasped by two
+persons, one on each side of me, and before I could realize the fact
+that I was being kidnapped, I was thrust into a closed coach, which
+immediately rolled away, but not until I made an outcry which, if heard
+by anyone, was unheeded.
+
+"For your own sake, be quiet," said one of my companions in confinement,
+for the carriage was draped to exclude the light, and was as dark as a
+dungeon. My spirit rebelled; I felt that I was on the brink of a
+remarkable, perhaps perilous experience, and I indignantly replied by
+asking:
+
+"What have I done that you should presume forcibly to imprison me? Am I
+not a freeman of America?"
+
+"What have you done?" he answered. "Have you not bound yourself by a
+series of vows that are sacred and should be inviolable, and have you
+not broken them as no other man has done before you? Have you not
+betrayed your trust, and merited a severe judgment? Did you not
+voluntarily ask admission into our ancient brotherhood, and in good
+faith were you not initiated into our sacred mysteries? Did you not
+obligate yourself before man, and on your sacred honor promise to
+preserve our secrets?"
+
+"I did," I replied; "but previously I had sworn before a higher tribunal
+to scatter this precious wisdom to the world."
+
+"Yes," he said, "and you know full well the depth of the self-sought
+solemn oath that you took with us--more solemn than that prescribed by
+any open court on earth."
+
+"This I do not deny," I said, "and yet I am glad that I accomplished my
+object, even though you have now, as is evident, the power to pronounce
+my sentence."
+
+"You should look for the death sentence," was the reply, "but it has
+been ordained instead that you are to be given a lengthened life. You
+should expect bodily destruction; but on the contrary, you will pass on
+in consciousness of earth and earthly concerns when we are gone. Your
+name will be known to all lands, and yet from this time you will be
+unknown. For the welfare of future humanity, you will be thrust to a
+height in our order that will annihilate you as a mortal being, and yet
+you will exist, suspended between life and death, and in that
+intermediate state will know that you exist. You have, as you confess,
+merited a severe punishment, but we can only punish in accordance with
+an unwritten law, that instructs the person punished, and elevates the
+human race in consequence. You stand alone among mortals in that you
+have openly attempted to give broadly to those who have not earned it,
+our most sacred property, a property that did not belong to you,
+property that you have only been permitted to handle, that has been
+handed from man to man from before the time of Solomon, and which
+belongs to no one man, and will continue to pass in this way from one to
+another, as a hallowed trust, until there are no men, as men now exist,
+to receive it. You will soon go into the shadows of darkness, and will
+learn many of the mysteries of life, the undeveloped mysteries that are
+withheld from your fellows, but which you, who have been so presumptuous
+and anxious for knowledge, are destined to possess and solve. You will
+find secrets that man, as man is now constituted, can not yet discover,
+and yet which the future man must gain and be instructed in. As you have
+sowed, so shall you reap. You wished to become a distributor of
+knowledge; you shall now by bodily trial and mental suffering obtain
+unsought knowledge to distribute, and in time to come you will be
+commanded to make your discoveries known. As your pathway is surely laid
+out, so must you walk. It is ordained; to rebel is useless."
+
+"Who has pronounced this sentence?" I asked.
+
+"A judge, neither of heaven nor of earth."
+
+"You speak in enigmas."
+
+"No; I speak openly, and the truth. Our brotherhood is linked with the
+past, and clasps hands with the antediluvians; the flood scattered the
+races of earth, but did not disturb our secrets. The great love of
+wisdom has from generation to generation led selected members of our
+organization to depths of study that our open work does not touch upon,
+and behind our highest officers there stand, in the occult shades
+between the here and the hereafter, unknown and unseen agents who are
+initiated into secrets above and beyond those known to the ordinary
+craft. Those who are introduced into these inner recesses acquire
+superhuman conceptions, and do not give an open sign of fellowship; they
+need no talisman. They walk our streets possessed of powers unknown to
+men, they concern themselves as mortals in the affairs of men, and even
+their brethren of the initiated, open order are unaware of their exalted
+condition. The means by which they have been instructed, their several
+individualities as well, have been concealed, because publicity would
+destroy their value, and injure humanity's cause."
+
+Silence followed these vague disclosures, and the carriage rolled on. I
+was mystified and alarmed, and yet I knew that, whatever might be the
+end of this nocturnal ride, I had invited it--yes, merited it--and I
+steeled myself to hear the sentence of my judges, in whose hands I was
+powerless. The persons on the seat opposite me continued their
+conversation in low tones, audible only to themselves. An individual by
+my side neither moved nor spoke. There were four of us in the carriage,
+as I learned intuitively, although we were surrounded by utter darkness.
+At length I addressed the companion beside me, for the silence was
+unbearable. Friend or enemy though he might be, anything rather than
+this long silence. "How long shall we continue in this carriage?"
+
+He made no reply.
+
+After a time I again spoke.
+
+"Can you not tell me, comrade, how long our journey will last? When
+shall we reach our destination?"
+
+Silence only.
+
+Putting out my hand, I ventured to touch my mate, and found that he was
+tightly strapped,--bound upright to the seat and the back of the
+carriage. Leather thongs held him firmly in position; and as I pondered
+over the mystery, I thought to myself, if I make a disturbance, they
+will not hesitate to manacle me as securely. My custodians seemed,
+however, not to exercise a guard over me, and yet I felt that they were
+certain of my inability to escape. If the man on the seat was a
+prisoner, why was he so reticent? Why did he not answer my questions? I
+came to the conclusion that he must be gagged as well as bound. Then I
+determined to find out if this were so. I began to realize more forcibly
+that a terrible sentence must have been meted me, and I half hoped that
+I could get from my partner in captivity some information regarding our
+destination. Sliding my hand cautiously along his chest, and under his
+chin, I intended to remove the gag from his mouth, when I felt my flesh
+creep, for it came in contact with the cold, rigid flesh of a corpse.
+The man was dead, and stiff.
+
+The shock unnerved me. I had begun to experience the results of a severe
+mental strain, partly induced by the recent imprisonment and extended
+previous persecution, and partly by the mysterious significance of the
+language in which I had recently been addressed. The sentence, "You will
+now go into the Valley of the Shadow of Death, and learn the mysteries
+of life," kept ringing through my head, and even then I sat beside a
+corpse. After this discovery I remained for a time in a semi-stupor, in
+a state of profound dejection,--how long I can not say. Then I
+experienced an inexplicable change, such as I imagine comes over a
+condemned man without hope of reprieve, and I became unconcerned as a
+man might who had accepted his destiny, and stoically determined to
+await it. Perhaps moments passed, it may have been hours, and then
+indifference gave place to reviving curiosity. I realized that I could
+die only once, and I coolly and complacently revolved the matter,
+speculating over my possible fate. As I look back on the night in which
+I rode beside that dead man, facing the mysterious agents of an
+all-powerful judge, I marvel over a mental condition that permitted me
+finally to rest in peace, and slumber in unconcern. So I did, however,
+and after a period, the length of which I am not able to estimate, I
+awoke, and soon thereafter the carriage stopped, and our horses were
+changed, after which our journey was resumed, to continue hour after
+hour, and at last I slept again, leaning back in the corner. Suddenly I
+was violently shaken from slumber, and commanded to alight. It was in
+the gray of morning, and before I could realize what was happening, I
+was transferred by my captors to another carriage, and the dead man also
+was rudely hustled along and thrust beside me, my companions speaking to
+him as though he were alive. Indeed, as I look back on these maneuvers,
+I perceive that, to all appearances, I was one of the abducting party,
+and our actions were really such as to induce an observer to believe
+that this dead man was an obstinate prisoner, and myself one of his
+official guards. The drivers of the carriages seemed to give us no
+attention, but they sat upright and unconcerned, and certainly neither
+of them interested himself in our transfer. The second carriage, like
+that other previously described, was securely closed, and our journey
+was continued. The darkness was as of a dungeon. It may have been days,
+I could not tell anything about the passage of time; on and on we rode.
+Occasionally food and drink were handed in, but my captors held to their
+course, and at last I was taken from the vehicle, and transferred to a
+block-house.
+
+I had been carried rapidly and in secret a hundred or more miles,
+perhaps into another state, and probably all traces of my journey were
+effectually lost to outsiders. I was in the hands of men who implicitly
+obeyed the orders of their superiors, masters whom they had never seen,
+and probably did not know. I needed no reminder of the fact that I had
+violated every sacred pledge voluntarily made to the craft, and now
+that they held me powerless, I well knew that, whatever the punishment
+assigned, I had invited it, and could not prevent its fulfillment. That
+it would be severe, I realized; that it would not be in accordance with
+ordinary human law, I accepted.
+
+[Illustration: "I WAS TAKEN FROM THE VEHICLE, AND TRANSFERRED TO A
+BLOCK-HOUSE."]
+
+Had I not in secret, in my little room in that obscure Stone Tavern,
+engrossed on paper the mystic sentences that never before had been
+penned, and were unknown excepting to persons initiated into our sacred
+mysteries? Had I not previously, in the most solemn manner, before these
+words had been imparted to my keeping, sworn to keep them inviolate and
+secret? and had I not deliberately broken that sacred vow, and scattered
+the hoarded sentences broadcast? My part as a brother in this fraternal
+organization was that of the holder only of property that belonged to no
+man, that had been handed from one to another through the ages, sacredly
+cherished, and faithfully protected by men of many tongues, always
+considered a trust, a charge of honor, and never before betrayed. My
+crime was deep and dark. I shuddered.
+
+"Come what may," I mused, reflecting over my perfidy, "I am ready for
+the penalty, and my fate is deserved; it can not but be a righteous
+one."
+
+The words of the occupant of the carriage occurred to me again and
+again; that one sentence kept ringing in my brain; I could not dismiss
+it: "You have been tried, convicted, and we are of those appointed to
+carry out the sentence of the judges."
+
+The black silence of my lonely cell beat against me; I could feel the
+absence of sound, I could feel the dismal weight of nothingness, and in
+my solitude and distraction I cried out in anguish to the invisible
+judge: "I am ready for my sentence, whether it be death or imprisonment
+for life"; and still the further words of the occupant of the carriage
+passed through my mind: "You will now go into the Valley of the Shadow
+of Death, and will learn the mysteries of Life."
+
+Then I slept, to awake and sleep again. I kept no note of time; it may
+have been days or weeks, so far as my record could determine. An
+attendant came at intervals to minister to my wants, always masked
+completely, ever silent.
+
+That I was not entirely separated from mankind, however, I felt assured,
+for occasionally sounds of voices came to me from without. Once I
+ventured to shout aloud, hoping to attract attention; but the persons
+whom I felt assured overheard me, paid no attention to my lonely cry. At
+last one night, my door opened abruptly, and three men entered.
+
+"Do not fear," said their spokesman, "we aim to protect you; keep still,
+and soon you will be a free man."
+
+I consented quietly to accompany them, for to refuse would have been in
+vain; and I was conducted to a boat, which I found contained a
+corpse--the one I had journeyed with, I suppose--and embarking, we were
+silently rowed to the middle of the river, our course being diagonally
+from the shore, and the dead man was thrown overboard. Then our boat
+returned to the desolate bank.
+
+Thrusting me into a carriage, that, on our return to the river bank we
+found awaiting us, my captors gave a signal, and I was driven away in
+the darkness, as silently as before, and our journey was continued I
+believe for fully two days. I was again confined in another log cabin,
+with but one door, and destitute of windows. My attendants were masked,
+they neither spoke to me as they day after day supplied my wants, nor
+did they give me the least information on any subject, until at last I
+abandoned all hope of ever regaining my liberty.
+
+[Illustration: "THE DEAD MAN WAS THROWN OVERBOARD."]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+    A WILD NIGHT.--I AM PREMATURELY AGED.
+
+
+In the depths of night I was awakened by a noise made by the opening of
+a door, and one by one seven masked figures silently stalked into my
+prison. Each bore a lighted torch, and they passed me as I lay on the
+floor in my clothes (for I had no bedding), and ranged themselves in a
+line. I arose, and seated myself as directed to do, upon the only stool
+in the room. Swinging into a semi-circle, the weird line wound about me,
+and from the one seat on which I rested in the center of the room, I
+gazed successively upon seven pairs of gleaming eyes, each pair directed
+at myself; and as I turned from one to another, the black cowl of each
+deepened into darkness, and grew more hideous.
+
+"Men or devils," I cried, "do your worst! Make me, if such is your will,
+as that sunken corpse beside which I was once seated; but cease your
+persecutions. I have atoned for my indiscretions a thousand fold, and
+this suspense is unbearable; I demand to know what is to be my doom, and
+I desire its fulfilment."
+
+Then one stepped forward, facing me squarely,--the others closed
+together around him and me. Raising his forefinger, he pointed it close
+to my face, and as his sharp eyes glittered from behind the black mask,
+piercing through me, he slowly said: "Why do you not say brothers?"
+
+"Horrible," I rejoined; "stop this mockery. Have I not suffered enough
+from your persecutions to make me reject that word as applied to
+yourselves? You can but murder; do your duty to your unseen masters, and
+end this prolonged torture!"
+
+"Brother," said the spokesman, "you well know that the sacred rules of
+our order will not permit us to murder any human being. We exist to
+benefit humanity, to lead the wayward back across the burning desert
+into the pathways of the righteous; not to destroy or persecute a
+brother. Ours is an eleemosynary institution, instructing its members,
+helping them to seek happiness. You are now expiating the crime you have
+committed, and the good in your spirit rightfully revolts against the
+bad, for in divulging to the world our mystic signs and brotherly
+greetings, you have sinned against yourself more than against others.
+The sting of conscience, the bitings of remorse punish you."
+
+"True," I cried, as the full significance of what he said burst upon me,
+"too true; but I bitterly repent my treachery. Others can never know how
+my soul is harrowed by the recollection of the enormity of that breach
+of confidence. In spite of my open, careless, or defiant bearing, my
+heart is humble, and my spirit cries out for mercy. By night and by day
+I have in secret cursed myself for heeding an unhallowed mandate, and I
+have long looked forward to the judgment that I should suffer for my
+perfidy, for I have appreciated that the day of reckoning would surely
+appear. I do not rebel, and I recall my wild language; I recant my
+'Confession,' I renounce myself! I say to you in all sincerity,
+brothers, do your duty, only I beg of you to slay me at once, and end my
+suspense. I await my doom. What might it be?"
+
+Grasping my hand, the leader said: "You are ready as a member of our
+order; we can now judge you as we have been commanded; had you persisted
+in calling us devils in your mistaken frenzy, we should have been forced
+to reason with you until you returned again to us, and became one of us.
+Our judgment is for you only; the world must not now know its nature, at
+least so far as we are concerned. Those you see here, are not your
+judges; we are agents sent to labor with you, to draw you back into our
+ranks, to bring you into a condition that will enable you to carry out
+the sentence that you have drawn upon yourself, for you must be your own
+doomsman. In the first place, we are directed to gain your voluntary
+consent to leave this locality. You can no longer take part in affairs
+that interested you before. To the people of this State, and to your
+home, and kindred, you must become a stranger for all time. Do you
+consent?"
+
+"Yes," I answered, for I knew that I must acquiesce.
+
+"In the next place, you must help us to remove all traces of your
+identity. You must, so far as the world is concerned, leave your body
+where you have apparently been drowned, for a world's benefit, a
+harmless mockery to deceive the people, and also to make an example for
+others that are weak. Are you ready?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Then remove your clothing, and replace it with this suit."
+
+I obeyed, and changed my garments, receiving others in return. One of
+the party then, taking from beneath his gown a box containing several
+bottles of liquids, proceeded artfully to mix and compound them, and
+then to paint my face with the combination, which after being mixed,
+formed a clear solution.
+
+"Do not fear to wash;" said the spokesman, "the effect of this lotion is
+permanent enough to stay until you are well out of this State."
+
+I passed my hand over my face; it was drawn into wrinkles as a film of
+gelatine might have been shrivelled under the influence of a strong
+tannin or astringent liquid; beneath my fingers it felt like the
+furrowed face of a very old man, but I experienced no pain. I vainly
+tried to smooth the wrinkles; immediately upon removing the pressure of
+my hand, the furrows reappeared.
+
+Next, another applied a colorless liquid freely to my hair and beard; he
+rubbed it well, and afterward wiped it dry with a towel. A mirror was
+thrust beneath my gaze. I started back, the transformation was complete.
+My appearance had entirely changed. My face had become aged and
+wrinkled, my hair as white as snow.
+
+I cried aloud in amazement: "Am I sane, is this a dream?"
+
+"It is not a dream; but, under methods that are in exact accordance with
+natural physiological laws, we have been enabled to transform your
+appearance from that of one in the prime of manhood into the semblance
+of an old man, and that, too, without impairment of your vitality."
+Another of the masked men opened a curious little casket that I
+perceived was surmounted by an alembic and other alchemical figures, and
+embossed with an Oriental design. He drew from it a lamp which he
+lighted with a taper; the flame that resulted, first pale blue, then
+yellow, next violet and finally red, seemed to become more weird and
+ghastly with each mutation, as I gazed spell-bound upon its fantastic
+changes. Then, after these transformations, it burned steadily with the
+final strange blood-red hue, and he now held over the blaze a tiny cup,
+which, in a few moments, commenced to sputter and then smoked, exhaling
+a curious, epipolic, semi-luminous vapor. I was commanded to inhale the
+vapor.
+
+[Illustration: "A MIRROR WAS THRUST BENEATH MY GAZE."]
+
+I hesitated; the thought rushed upon me, "Now I am another person, so
+cleverly disguised that even my own friends would perhaps not know me,
+this vapor is designed to suffocate me, and my body, if found, will not
+now be known, and could not be identified when discovered."
+
+"Do not fear," said the spokesman, as if divining my thought, "there is
+no danger," and at once I realized, by quick reasoning, that if my death
+were demanded, my body might long since have been easily destroyed, and
+all this ceremony would have been unnecessary.
+
+I hesitated no longer, but drew into my lungs the vapor that arose from
+the mysterious cup, freely expanding my chest several times, and then
+asked, "Is not that enough?" Despair now overcame me. My voice, no
+longer the full, strong tone of a man in middle life and perfect
+strength, squeaked and quavered, as if impaired by palsy. I had seen my
+image in a mirror, an old man with wrinkled face and white hair; I now
+heard myself speak with the voice of an octogenarian.
+
+"What have you done?" I cried.
+
+"We have obeyed your orders; you told us you were ready to leave your
+own self here, and the work is complete. The man who entered has
+disappeared. If you should now stand in the streets of your village
+home, and cry to your former friends, 'It is I, for whom you seek,' they
+would smile, and call you a madman. Know," continued the voice, "that
+there is in Eastern metaphysical lore, more true philosophy than is
+embodied in the sciences of to-day, and that by means of the
+ramifications of our order it becomes possible, when necessary, for him
+who stands beyond the inner and upper Worshipful Master, to draw these
+treasures from the occult Wisdom possessions of Oriental sages who
+forget nothing and lose nothing. Have we not been permitted to do his
+bidding well?"
+
+"Yes," I squeaked; "and I wish that you had done it better. I would that
+I were dead."
+
+"When the time comes, if necessary, your dead body will be fished from
+the water," was the reply; "witnesses have seen the drowning tragedy,
+and will surely identify the corpse."
+
+"And may I go? am I free now?" I asked.
+
+"Ah," said he, "that is not for us to say; our part of the work is
+fulfilled, and we can return to our native lands, and resume again our
+several studies. So far as we are concerned, you are free, but we have
+been directed to pass you over to the keeping of others who will carry
+forward this judgment--there is another step."
+
+"Tell me," I cried, once more desponding, "tell me the full extent of my
+sentence."
+
+"That is not known to us, and probably is not known to any one man. So
+far as the members of our order are concerned, you have now vanished.
+When you leave our sight this night, we will also separate from one
+another, we shall know no more of you and your future than will those of
+our working order who live in this section of the country. We have no
+personal acquaintance with the guide that has been selected to conduct
+you farther, and who will appear in due season, and we make no surmise
+concerning the result of your journey, only we know that you will not be
+killed, for you have a work to perform, and will continue to exist long
+after others of your age are dead. Farewell, brother; we have discharged
+our duty, and by your consent, now we must return to our various
+pursuits. In a short time all evidence of your unfortunate mistake, the
+crime committed by you in printing our sacred charges, will have
+vanished. Even now, emissaries are ordained to collect and destroy the
+written record that tells of your weakness, and with the destruction of
+that testimony, for every copy will surely be annihilated, and with your
+disappearance from among men, for this also is to follow, our
+responsibility for you will cease."
+
+Each of the seven men advanced, and grasped my hand, giving me the grip
+of brotherhood, and then, without a word, they severally and silently
+departed into the outer darkness. As the last man disappeared, a figure
+entered the door, clad and masked exactly like those who had gone. He
+removed the long black gown in which he was enveloped, threw the mask
+from his face and stood before me, a slender, graceful, bright-looking
+young man. By the light of the candle I saw him distinctly, and was at
+once struck by his amiable, cheerful countenance, and my heart bounded
+with a sudden hope. I had temporarily forgotten the transformation that
+had been made in my person, which, altogether painless, had left no
+physical sensation, and thought of myself as I had formerly existed; my
+soul was still my own, I imagined; my blood seemed unchanged, and must
+flow as rapidly as before; my strength was unaltered, indeed I was in
+self-consciousness still in the prime of life.
+
+"Excuse me, Father," said the stranger, "but my services have been
+sought as a guide for the first part of a journey that I am informed you
+intend to take."
+
+His voice was mild and pleasant, his bearing respectful, but the
+peculiar manner in which he spoke convinced me that he knew that, as a
+guide, he must conduct me to some previously designated spot, and that
+he purposed to do so was evident, with or without my consent.
+
+"Why do you call me Father?" I attempted to say, but as the first few
+words escaped my lips, the recollection of the events of the night
+rushed upon me, for instead of my own, I recognized the piping voice of
+the old man I had now become, and my tongue faltered; the sentence was
+unspoken.
+
+"You would ask me why I called you Father, I perceive; well, because I
+am directed to be a son to you, to care for your wants, to make your
+journey as easy and pleasant as possible, to guide you quietly and
+carefully to the point that will next prove of interest to you."
+
+I stood before him a free man, in the prime of life, full of energy, and
+this stripling alone interposed between myself and liberty. Should I
+permit the slender youth to carry me away as a prisoner? would it not be
+best to thrust him aside, if necessary, crush him to the earth? go forth
+in my freedom? Yet I hesitated, for he might have friends outside;
+probably he was not alone.
+
+"There are no companions near us," said he, reading my mind, "and, as I
+do not seem formidable, it is natural you should weigh in your mind the
+probabilities of escape; but you can not evade your destiny, and you
+must not attempt to deny yourself the pleasure of my company. You must
+leave this locality and leave without a regret. In order that you may
+acquiesce willingly I propose that together we return to your former
+home, which you will, however, find no longer to be a home. I will
+accompany you as a companion, as your son. You may speak, with one
+exception, to whomever you care to address; may call on any of your old
+associates, may assert openly who you are, or whatever and whoever you
+please to represent yourself, only I must also have the privilege of
+joining in the conversation."
+
+"Agreed," I cried, and extended my hand; he grasped it, and then by the
+light of the candle, I saw a peculiar expression flit over his face, as
+he added:
+
+"To one person only, as I have said, and you have promised, you must not
+speak--your wife."
+
+I bowed my head, and a flood of sorrowful reflections swept over me. Of
+all the world the one whom I longed to meet, to clasp in my arms, to
+counsel in my distress, was the wife of my bosom, and I begged him to
+withdraw his cruel injunction.
+
+"You should have thought of her before; now it is too late. To permit
+you to meet, and speak with her would be dangerous; she might pierce
+your disguise. Of all others there is no fear."
+
+"Must I go with you into an unknown future without a farewell kiss from
+my little child or from my babe scarce three months old?"
+
+"It has been so ordained."
+
+I threw myself on the floor and moaned. "This is too hard, too hard for
+human heart to bear. Life has no charm to a man who is thrust from all
+he holds most dear, home, friends, family."
+
+"The men who relinquish such pleasures and such comforts are those who
+do the greatest good to humanity," said the youth. "The multitude exist
+to propagate the race, as animal progenitors of the multitudes that are
+to follow, and the exceptional philanthropist is he who denies himself
+material bliss, and punishes himself in order to work out a problem such
+as it has been ordained that you are to solve. Do not argue further--the
+line is marked, and you must walk direct."
+
+Into the blaze of the old fireplace of that log house, for, although it
+was autumn, the night was chilly, he then cast his black robe and false
+face, and, as they turned to ashes, the last evidences of the vivid acts
+through which I had passed, were destroyed. As I lay moaning in my utter
+misery, I tried to reason with myself that what I experienced was all a
+hallucination. I dozed, and awoke startled, half conscious only, as one
+in a nightmare; I said to myself, "A dream! a dream!" and slept again.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+    A LESSON IN MIND STUDY.
+
+
+The door of the cabin was open when I awoke, the sun shone brightly, and
+my friend, apparently happy and unconcerned, said: "Father, we must soon
+start on our journey; I have taken advantage of your refreshing sleep,
+and have engaged breakfast at yonder farm-house; our meal awaits us."
+
+I arose, washed my wrinkled face, combed my white hair, and shuddered as
+I saw in a pocket mirror the reflection of my figure, an aged,
+apparently decrepit man.
+
+"Do not be disturbed at your feeble condition," said my companion; "your
+infirmities are not real. Few men have ever been permitted to drink of
+the richness of the revelations that await you; and in view of these
+expectations the fact that you are prematurely aged in appearance should
+not unnerve you. Be of good heart, and when you say the word, we will
+start on our journey, which will begin as soon as you have said farewell
+to former friends and acquaintances."
+
+I made no reply, but silently accompanied him, for my thoughts were in
+the past, and my reflections were far from pleasant.
+
+We reached the farm-house, and as I observed the care and attention
+extended me by the pleasant-faced housewife, I realized that, in one
+respect at least, old age brought its compensation. After breakfast a
+man appeared from the farmer's barn, driving a team of horses attached
+to an open spring-wagon which, in obedience to the request of my guide,
+I entered, accompanied by my young friend, who directed that we be
+driven toward the village from which I had been abducted. He seemed to
+know my past life as I knew it; he asked me to select those of my
+friends to whom I first wished to bid farewell, even mentioning their
+names; he seemed all that a patient, faithful son could be, and I began
+to wonder at his audacity, even as much as I admired his
+self-confidence.
+
+As we journeyed onward we engaged in familiar talk. We sat together on
+the back seat of the open spring-wagon, in full sight of passers, no
+attempt being made to conceal my person. Thus we traveled for two days,
+and on our course we passed through a large city with which I was
+acquainted, a city that my abductors had previously carried me through
+and beyond. I found that my "son" possessed fine conversational power,
+and a rich mine of information, and he became increasingly interesting
+as he drew from his fund of knowledge, and poured into my listening ears
+an entrancing strain of historical and metaphysical information. Never
+at a loss for a word or an idea, he appeared to discern my cogitations,
+and as my mind wandered in this or that direction he fell into the
+channel of my fancies, and answered my unspoken thoughts, my
+mind-questions or meditations, as pertinently as though I had spoken
+them.
+
+His accomplishments, for the methods of his perception were
+unaccompanied by any endeavor to draw me into word expression, made me
+aware at least, that, in him, I had to deal with a man unquestionably
+possessed of more than ordinary intellect and education, and as this
+conviction entered my mind he changed his subject and promptly answered
+the silent inquiry, speaking as follows:
+
+"Have you not sometimes felt that in yourself there may exist
+undeveloped senses that await an awakening touch to open to yourself a
+new world, senses that may be fully developed, but which saturate each
+other and neutralize themselves; quiescent, closed circles which you can
+not reach, satisfied circuits slumbering within your body and that defy
+your efforts to utilize them? In your dreams have you not seen sights
+that words are inadequate to describe, that your faculties can not
+retain in waking moments, and which dissolve into intangible
+nothingness, leaving only a vague, shadowy outline as the mind quickens,
+or rather when the senses that possess you in sleep relinquish the body
+to the returning vital functions and spirit? This unconscious conception
+of other planes, a beyond or betwixt, that is neither mental nor
+material, neither here nor located elsewhere, belongs to humanity in
+general, and is made evident from the unsatiable desire of men to pry
+into phenomena latent or recondite that offer no apparent return to
+humanity. This desire has given men the knowledge they now possess of
+the sciences; sciences yet in their infancy. Study in this direction is,
+at present, altogether of the material plane, but in time to come, men
+will gain control of outlying senses which will enable them to step from
+the seen into the consideration of matter or force that is now subtle
+and evasive, which must be accomplished by means of the latent faculties
+that I have indicated. There will be an unconscious development of new
+mind-forces in the student of nature as the rudiments of these so-called
+sciences are elaborated. Step by step, as the ages pass, the faculties
+of men will, under progressive series of evolutions, imperceptibly pass
+into higher phases until that which is even now possible with some
+individuals of the purified esoteric school, but which would seem
+miraculous if practiced openly at this day, will prove feasible to
+humanity generally and be found in exact accord with natural laws. The
+conversational method of men, whereby communion between human beings is
+carried on by disturbing the air by means of vocal organs so as to
+produce mechanical pulsations of that medium, is crude in the extreme.
+Mind craves to meet mind, but can not yet thrust matter aside, and in
+order to communicate one with another, the impression one mind wishes to
+convey to another must be first made on the brain matter that
+accompanies it, which in turn influences the organs of speech, inducing
+a disturbance of the air by the motions of the vocal organs, which, by
+undulations that reach to another being, act on his ear, and secondarily
+on the earthly matter of his brain, and finally by this roundabout
+course, impress the second being's mind. In this transmission of motions
+there is great waste of energy and loss of time, but such methods are a
+necessity of the present slow, much-obstructed method of communication.
+There is, in cultivated man, an innate craving for something more
+facile, and often a partly developed conception, spectral and vague,
+appears, and the being feels that there may be for mortals a richer,
+brighter life, a higher earthly existence that science does not now
+indicate. Such intimation of a deeper play of faculties is now most
+vivid with men during the perfect loss of mental self as experienced in
+dreams, which as yet man in the quick can not grasp, and which fade as
+he awakens. As mental sciences are developed, investigators will find
+that the medium known as air is unnecessary as a means of conveying
+mind conceptions from one person to another; that material sounds and
+word pulsations are cumbersome; that thought force unexpressed may be
+used to accomplish more than speech can do, and that physical exertions
+as exemplified in motion of matter such as I have described will be
+unnecessary for mental communication. As door after door in these
+directions shall open before men, mystery after mystery will be
+disclosed, and vanish as mysteries to reappear as simple facts.
+Phenomena that are impossible and unrevealed to the scientist of to-day
+will be familiar to the coming multitude, and at last, as by degrees,
+clearer knowledge is evolved, the vocal language of men will disappear,
+and humanity, regardless of nationality, will, in silence and even in
+darkness, converse eloquently together in mind language. That which is
+now esoteric will become exoteric. Then mind will meet mind as my mind
+now impinges on your own, and, in reply to your unuttered question
+regarding my apparently unaccountable powers of perception, I say they
+are perfectly natural, but while I can read your thoughts, because of
+the fact that you can not reciprocate in this direction, I must use my
+voice to impress your mind. You will know more of this, however, at a
+future day, for it has been ordained that you are to be educated with an
+object that is now concealed. At present you are interested mainly in
+the affairs of life as you know them, and can not enter into these purer
+spheres. We are approaching one of your former friends, and it may be
+your pleasure to ask him some questions and to bid him farewell."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+    I CAN NOT ESTABLISH MY IDENTITY.
+
+
+In surprise I perceived coming towards us a light spring wagon, in which
+rode one of my old acquaintances. Pleasure at the discovery led me to
+raise my hat, wave it around my head, and salute him even at the
+considerable distance that then separated us. I was annoyed at the look
+of curiosity that passed over his countenance, and not until the two
+vehicles had stopped side by side did it occur to me that I was
+unrecognized. I had been so engrossed in my companion's revelations,
+that I had forgotten my unfortunate physical condition.
+
+I stretched out my hand, I leaned over almost into the other vehicle,
+and earnestly said:
+
+"Do you not know me? Only a short time ago we sat and conversed side by
+side."
+
+A look of bewilderment came over his features. "I have never seen you
+that I can recall," he answered.
+
+My spirit sank within me. Could it be possible that I was really so
+changed? I begged him to try and recall my former self, giving my name.
+"I am that person," I added; but he, with an expression of countenance
+that told as plainly as words could speak that he considered me
+deranged, touched his horse, and drove on.
+
+My companion broke the awkward silence. "Do you know that I perceived
+between you two men an unconscious display of mind-language, especially
+evident on your part? You wished with all the earnestness of your soul
+to bring yourself as you formerly appeared, before that man, and when it
+proved impossible, without a word from him, his mind exhibited itself to
+your more earnest intellect, and you realized that he said to himself,
+'This person is a poor lunatic.' He told you his thoughts in
+mind-language, as plainly as words could have spoken, because the
+intense earnestness on your part quickened your perceptive faculties,
+but he could not see your mental state, and the pleading voice of the
+apparent stranger before him could not convince the unconcerned
+lethargic mind within him. I observed, however, in addition to what you
+noticed, that he is really looking for you. That is the object of his
+journey, and I learn that in every direction men are now spreading the
+news that you have been kidnapped and carried from your jail. However,
+we shall soon be in the village, and you will then hear more about
+yourself."
+
+We rode in silence while I meditated on my remarkable situation. I could
+not resign myself without a struggle to my approaching fate, and I felt
+even yet a hope, although I seemed powerless in the hands of destiny.
+Could I not, by some method, convince my friends of my identity? I
+determined, forgetting the fact that my guide was even then reading my
+mind, that upon the next opportunity I would pursue a different course.
+
+"It will not avail," my companion replied. "You must do one of two
+things: you will voluntarily go with me, or you will involuntarily go to
+an insane asylum. Neither you nor I could by any method convince others
+that the obviously decrepit old man beside me was but yesterday hale,
+hearty, young and strong. You will find that you can not prove your
+identity, and as a friend, one of the great brotherhood to which you
+belong, a craft that deals charitably with all men and all problems, I
+advise you to accept the situation as soon as possible after it becomes
+evident to your mind that you are lost to former affiliations, and must
+henceforth be a stranger to the people whom you know. Take my advice,
+and cease to regret the past and cheerfully turn your thoughts to the
+future. On one side of you the lunatic asylum is open; on the other, a
+journey into an unknown region, beyond the confines of any known
+country. On the one hand, imprisonment and subjection, perhaps abuse and
+neglect; on the other, liberation of soul, evolution of faculty, and a
+grasping of superior knowledge that is denied most men--yes, withheld
+from all but a few persons of each generation, for only a few, unknown
+to the millions of this world's inhabitants, have passed over the road
+you are to travel. Just now you wished to meet your jailer of a few
+hours ago; it is a wise conclusion, and if he does not recognize you, I
+ask in sincerity, who will be likely to do so? We will drive straight to
+his home; but, here he comes."
+
+Indeed, we were now in the village, where my miserable journey began,
+and perhaps by chance--it seems that it could not have been
+otherwise--my former jailer actually approached us.
+
+"If you please," said my companion, "I will assist you to alight from
+the wagon, and you may privately converse with him."
+
+Our wagon stopped, my guide opened a conversation with the jailer,
+saying that his friend wished to speak with him, and then assisted me to
+alight and retired a distance. I was vexed at my infirmities, which
+embarrassed me most exasperatingly, but which I knew were artificial; my
+body appeared unwilling although my spirit was anxious; but do what I
+could to control my actions, I involuntarily behaved like a decrepit old
+man. However, my mind was made up; this attempt to prove my personality
+should be the last; failure now would prove the turning point, and I
+would go willingly with my companion upon the unknown journey if I could
+not convince the jailer of my identity.
+
+Straightening myself before the expectant jailer, who, with a look of
+inquisitiveness, regarded me as a stranger, I asked if he knew my former
+self, giving my name.
+
+"That I do," he replied, "and if I could find him at this moment I would
+be relieved of a load of worry."
+
+"Would you surely know him if you met him?" I asked.
+
+"Assuredly," he replied; "and if you bring tidings of his whereabouts,
+as your bearing indicates, speak, that I may rid myself of suspicion and
+suspense."
+
+Calling the jailer by name, I asked him if my countenance did not remind
+him of the man he wished to find.
+
+"Not at all."
+
+"Listen, does not my voice resemble that of your escaped prisoner?"
+
+"Not in the least."
+
+[Illustration: "I AM THE MAN YOU SEEK."]
+
+With a violent effort I drew my form as straight as possible, and stood
+upright before him, with every facial muscle strained to its utmost, in
+a vain endeavor to bring my wrinkled countenance to its former
+smoothness, and with the energy that a drowning man might exert to
+grasp a passing object, I tried to control my voice, and preserve my
+identity by so doing, vehemently imploring him, begging him to listen to
+my story. "I am the man you seek; I am the prisoner who, a few days ago,
+stood in the prime of life before you. I have been spirited away from
+you by men who are leagued with occult forces, which extend forward
+among hidden mysteries, into forces which illuminate the present, and
+reach backward into the past unseen. These persons, by artful and
+damnable manipulations under the guidance of a power that has been
+evolved in the secrecy of past ages, and transmitted only to a favored
+few, have changed the strong man you knew into the one apparently
+feeble, who now confronts you. Only a short period has passed since I
+was your unwilling captive, charged with debt, a trifling sum; and then,
+as your sullen prisoner, I longed for freedom. Now I plead before you,
+with all my soul, I beg of you to take me back to my cell. Seal your
+doors, and hold me again, for your dungeon will now be to me a
+paradise."
+
+I felt that I was becoming frantic, for with each word I realized that
+the jailer became more and more impatient and annoyed. I perceived that
+he believed me to be a lunatic. Pleadings and entreaties were of no
+avail, and my eagerness rapidly changed into despair until at last I
+cried: "If you will not believe my words, I will throw myself on the
+mercy of my young companion. I ask you to consider his testimony, and if
+he says that I am not what I assert myself to be, I will leave my home
+and country, and go with him quietly into the unknown future."
+
+He turned to depart, but I threw myself before him, and beckoned the
+young man who, up to this time, had stood aloof in respectful silence.
+He came forward, and addressing the jailer, called him by name, and
+corroborated my story. Yes, strange as it sounded to me, he reiterated
+the substance of my narrative as I had repeated it. "Now, you will
+believe it," I cried in ecstacy; "now you need no longer question the
+facts that I have related."
+
+Instead, however, of accepting the story of the witness, the jailer
+upbraided him.
+
+"This is a preconcerted arrangement to get me into ridicule or further
+trouble. You two have made up an incredible story that on its face is
+fit only to be told to men as crazy or designing as yourselves. This
+young man did not even overhear your conversation with me, and yet he
+repeats his lesson without a question from me as to what I wish to learn
+of him."
+
+"He can see our minds," I cried in despair.
+
+"Crazier than I should have believed from your countenance," the jailer
+replied. "Of all the improbable stories imaginable, you have attempted
+to inveigle me into accepting that which is most unreasonable. If you
+are leagued together intent on some swindling scheme, I give you warning
+now that I am in no mood for trifling. Go your way, and trouble me no
+more with this foolish scheming, which villainy or lunacy of some
+description must underlie." He turned in anger and left us.
+
+"It is as I predicted," said my companion; "you are lost to man. Those
+who know you best will turn from you soonest. I might become as wild as
+you are, in your interest, and only serve to make your story appear more
+extravagant. In human affairs men judge and act according to the limited
+knowledge at command of the multitude. Witnesses who tell the truth are
+often, in our courts of law, stunned, as you have been, by the decisions
+of a narrow-minded jury. Men sit on juries with little conception of the
+facts of the case that is brought before them; the men who manipulate
+them are mere tools in unseen hands that throw their several minds in
+antagonisms unexplainable to man. The judge is unconsciously often a
+tool of his own errors or those of others. One learned judge unties what
+another has fastened, each basing his views on the same testimony, each
+rendering his decision in accordance with law derived from the same
+authority. Your case is that condition of mind that men call lunacy. You
+can see much that is hidden from others because you have become
+acquainted with facts that their narrow education forbids them to
+accept, but, because the majority is against you, they consider you
+mentally unbalanced. The philosophy of men does not yet comprehend the
+conditions that have operated on your person, and as you stand alone,
+although in the right, all men will oppose you, and you must submit to
+the views of a misguided majority. In the eyes of a present generation
+you are crazy. A jury of your former peers could not do else than so
+adjudge you, for you are not on the same mental plane, and I ask, will
+you again attempt to accomplish that which is as impossible as it would
+be for you to drink the waters of Seneca Lake at one draught? Go to
+those men and propose to drain that lake at one gulp, and you will be
+listened to as seriously as when you beg your former comrades to believe
+that you are another person than what you seem. Only lengthened life is
+credited with the production of physical changes that under favorable
+conditions, are possible of accomplishment in a brief period, and such
+testimony as you could bring, in the present state of human knowledge,
+would only add to the proof of your lunacy."
+
+"I see, I see," I said; "and I submit. Lead on, I am ready. Whatever my
+destined career may be, wherever it may be, it can only lead to the
+grave."
+
+"Do not be so sure of that," was the reply.
+
+I shuddered instinctively, for this answer seemed to imply that the
+stillness of the grave would be preferable to my destiny.
+
+We got into the wagon again, and a deep silence followed as we rode
+along, gazing abstractedly on the quiet fields and lonely farm-houses.
+Finally we reached a little village. Here my companion dismissed the
+farmer, our driver, paying him liberally, and secured lodgings in a
+private family (I believe we were expected), and after a hearty supper
+we retired. From the time we left the jailer I never again attempted to
+reveal my identity. I had lost my interest in the past, and found myself
+craving to know what the future had in store for me.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+    MY JOURNEY TOWARDS THE END OF EARTH BEGINS.--THE ADEPTS'
+    BROTHERHOOD.
+
+
+My companion did not attempt to watch over my motions or in any way to
+interfere with my freedom.
+
+"I will for a time necessarily be absent," he said, "arranging for our
+journey, and while I am getting ready you must employ yourself as best
+you can. I ask you, however, now to swear that, as you have promised,
+you will not seek your wife and children."
+
+To this I agreed.
+
+"Hold up your hand," he said, and I repeated after him: "All this I most
+solemnly and sincerely promise and swear, with a firm and steadfast
+resolution to keep and perform my oath, without the least equivocation,
+mental reservation or self-evasion whatever."
+
+"That will answer; see that you keep your oath this time," he said, and
+he departed. Several days were consumed before he returned, and during
+that time I was an inquisitive and silent listener to the various
+conjectures others were making regarding my abduction which event was
+becoming of general interest. Some of the theories advanced were quite
+near the truth, others wild and erratic. How preposterous it seemed to
+me that the actor himself could be in the very seat of the disturbance,
+willing, anxious to testify, ready to prove the truth concerning his
+position, and yet unable even to obtain a respectful hearing from those
+most interested in his recovery. Men gathered together discussing the
+"outrage"; women, children, even, talked of little else, and it was
+evident that the entire country was aroused. New political issues took
+their rise from the event, but the man who was the prime cause of the
+excitement was for a period a willing and unwilling listener, as he had
+been a willing and unwilling actor in the tragedy.
+
+One morning my companion drove up in a light carriage, drawn by a span
+of fine, spirited, black horses.
+
+"We are ready now," he said, and my unprecedented journey began.
+
+Wherever we stopped, I heard my name mentioned. Men combined against
+men, brother was declaiming against brother, neighbor was against
+neighbor, everywhere suspicion was in the air.
+
+"The passage of time alone can quiet these people," said I.
+
+"The usual conception of the term Time--an indescribable something
+flowing at a constant rate--is erroneous," replied my comrade. "Time is
+humanity's best friend, and should be pictured as a ministering angel,
+instead of a skeleton with hour-glass and scythe. Time does not fly, but
+is permanent and quiescent, while restless, force-impelled matter rushes
+onward. Force and matter fly; Time reposes. At our birth we are wound up
+like a machine, to move for a certain number of years, grating against
+Time. We grind against that complacent spirit, and wear not Time but
+ourselves away. We hold within ourselves a certain amount of energy,
+which, an evanescent form of matter, is the opponent of Time. Time has
+no existence with inanimate objects. It is a conception of the human
+intellect. Time is rest, perfect rest, tranquillity such as man never
+realizes unless he becomes a part of the sweet silences toward which
+human life and human mind are drifting. So much for Time. Now for Life.
+Disturbed energy in one of its forms, we call Life; and this Life is the
+great enemy of peace, the opponent of steadfast perfection. Pure energy,
+the soul of the universe, permeates all things with which man is now
+acquainted, but when at rest is imperceptible to man, while disturbed
+energy, according to its condition, is apparent either as matter or as
+force. A substance or material body is a manifestation resulting from a
+disturbance of energy. The agitating cause removed, the manifestations
+disappear, and thus a universe may be extinguished, without unbalancing
+the cosmos that remains. The worlds known to man are conditions of
+abnormal energy moving on separate planes through what men call space.
+They attract to themselves bodies of similar description, and thus
+influence one another--they have each a separate existence, and are
+swayed to and fro under the influence of the various disturbances in
+energy common to their rank or order, which we call forms of forces.
+Unsettled energy also assumes numerous other expressions that are
+unknown to man, but which in all perceptible forms is characterized by
+motion. Pure energy can not be appreciated by the minds of mortals.
+There are invisible worlds besides those perceived by us in our
+planetary system, unreachable centers of ethereal structure about us
+that stand in a higher plane of development than earthly matter which is
+a gross form of disturbed energy. There are also lower planes. Man's
+acquaintance with the forms of energy is the result of his power of
+perceiving the forms of matter of which he is a part. Heat, light,
+gravitation, electricity and magnetism are ever present in all
+perceivable substances, and, although purer than earth, they are still
+manifestations of absolute energy, and for this reason are sensible to
+men, but more evanescent than material bodies. Perhaps you can conceive
+that if these disturbances could be removed, matter or force would be
+resolved back into pure energy, and would vanish. Such a dissociation is
+an ethereal existence, and as pure energy the life spirit of all
+material things is neither cold nor hot, heavy nor light, solid, liquid
+nor gaseous--men can not, as mortals now exist, see, feel, smell, taste,
+or even conceive of it. It moves through space as we do through it, a
+world of itself as transparent to matter as matter is to it, insensible
+but ever present, a reality to higher existences that rest in other
+planes, but not to us an essence subject to scientific test, nor an
+entity. Of these problems and their connection with others in the unseen
+depths beyond, you are not yet in a position properly to judge, but
+before many years a new sense will be given you or a development of
+latent senses by the removal of those more gross, and a partial insight
+into an unsuspected unseen, into a realm to you at present unknown.
+
+"It has been ordained that a select few must from time to time pass over
+the threshold that divides a mortal's present life from the future, and
+your lot has been cast among the favored ones. It is or should be deemed
+a privilege to be permitted to pass farther than human philosophy has
+yet gone, into an investigation of the problems of life; this I say to
+encourage you. We have in our order a handful of persons who have
+received the accumulated fruits of the close attention others have
+given to these subjects which have been handed to them by the
+generations of men who have preceded. You are destined to become as they
+are. This study of semi-occult forces has enabled those selected for the
+work to master some of the concealed truths of being, and by the partial
+development of a new sense or new senses, partly to triumph over death.
+These facts are hidden from ordinary man, and from the earth-bound
+workers of our brotherhood, who can not even interpret the words they
+learn. The methods by which they are elucidated have been locked from
+man because the world is not prepared to receive them, selfishness being
+the ruling passion of debased mankind, and publicity, until the chain of
+evidence is more complete, would embarrass their further evolutions, for
+man as yet lives on the selfish plane."
+
+"Do you mean that, among men, there are a few persons possessed of
+powers such as you have mentioned?"
+
+"Yes; they move here and there through all orders of society, and their
+attainments are unknown, except to one another, or, at most, to but few
+persons. These adepts are scientific men, and may not even be recognized
+as members of our organization; indeed it is often necessary, for
+obvious reasons, that they should not be known as such. These studies
+must constantly be prosecuted in various directions, and some monitors
+must teach others to perform certain duties that are necessary to the
+grand evolution. Hence, when a man has become one of our brotherhood,
+from the promptings that made you one of us, and has been as ready and
+determined to instruct outsiders in our work as you have been, it is
+proper that he should in turn be compelled to serve our people, and
+eventually, mankind."
+
+"Am I to infer from this," I exclaimed, a sudden light breaking upon me,
+"that the alchemistic manuscript that led me to the fraternity to which
+you are related may have been artfully designed to serve the interest of
+that organization?" To this question I received no reply. After an
+interval, I again sought information concerning the order, and with more
+success.
+
+"I understand that you propose that I shall go on a journey of
+investigation for the good of our order and also of humanity."
+
+"True; it is necessary that our discoveries be kept alive, and it is
+essential that the men who do this work accept the trust of their own
+accord. He who will not consent to add to the common stock of knowledge
+and understanding, must be deemed a drone in the hive of nature--but few
+persons, however, are called upon to serve as you must serve. Men are
+scattered over the world with this object in view, and are unknown to
+their families or even to other members of the order; they hold in
+solemn trust our sacred revelations, and impart them to others as is
+ordained, and thus nothing perishes; eventually humanity will profit.
+
+"Others, as you soon will be doing, are now exploring assigned sections
+of this illimitable field, accumulating further knowledge, and they will
+report results to those whose duty it is to retain and formulate the
+collected sum of facts and principles. So it is that, unknown to the
+great body of our brotherhood, a chosen number, under our esoteric
+teachings, are gradually passing the dividing line that separates life
+from death, matter from spirit, for we have members who have mastered
+these problems. We ask, however, no aid of evil forces or of necromancy
+or black art, and your study of alchemy was of no avail, although to
+save the vital truths alchemy is a part of our work. We proceed in exact
+accordance with natural laws, which will yet be known to all men.
+Sorrow, suffering, pain of all descriptions, are enemies to the members
+of our order, as they are to mankind broadly, and we hope in the future
+so to control the now hidden secrets of Nature as to be able to govern
+the antagonistic disturbances in energy with which man now is everywhere
+thwarted, to subdue the physical enemies of the race, to affiliate
+religious and scientific thought, cultivating brotherly love, the
+foundation and capstone, the cement and union of this ancient
+fraternity."
+
+"And am I really to take an important part in this scheme? Have I been
+set apart to explore a section of the unknown for a bit of hidden
+knowledge, and to return again?"
+
+"This I will say," he answered, evading a direct reply, "you have been
+selected for a part that one in a thousand has been required to
+undertake. You are to pass into a field that will carry you beyond the
+present limits of human observation. This much I have been instructed to
+impart to you in order to nerve you for your duty. I seem to be a young
+man; really I am aged. You seem to be infirm and old, but you are
+young. Many years ago, cycles ago as men record time, I was promoted to
+do a certain work because of my zealous nature; like you, I also had to
+do penance for an error. I disappeared, as you are destined to do, from
+the sight of men. I regained my youth; yours has been lost forever, but
+you will regain more than your former strength. We shall both exist
+after this generation of men has passed away, and shall mingle with
+generations yet to be born, for we shall learn how to restore our
+youthful vigor, and will supply it time and again to earthly matter.
+Rest assured also that the object of our labors is of the most laudable
+nature, and we must be upheld under all difficulties by the fact that
+multitudes of men who are yet to come will be benefited thereby."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+    MY JOURNEY CONTINUES.--INSTINCT.
+
+
+It is unnecessary for me to give the details of the first part of my
+long journey. My companion was guided by a perceptive faculty that, like
+the compass, enabled him to keep in the proper course. He did not
+question those whom we met, and made no endeavor to maintain a given
+direction; and yet he was traveling in a part of the country that was
+new to himself. I marveled at the accuracy of his intuitive perception,
+for he seemed never to be at fault. When the road forked, he turned to
+the right or the left in a perfectly careless manner, but the continuity
+of his course was never interrupted. I began mentally to question
+whether he could be guiding us aright, forgetting that he was reading my
+thoughts, and he answered: "There is nothing strange in this
+self-directive faculty. Is not man capable of following where animals
+lead? One of the objects of my special study has been to ascertain the
+nature of the instinct-power of animals, the sagacity of brutes. The
+carrier pigeon will fly to its cote across hundreds of miles of strange
+country. The young pig will often return to its pen by a route unknown
+to it; the sluggish tortoise will find its home without a guide, without
+seeing a familiar object; cats, horses and other animals possess this
+power, which is not an unexplainable instinct, but a natural sense
+better developed in some of the lower creatures than it is in man. The
+power lies dormant in man, but exists, nevertheless. If we develop one
+faculty we lose acuteness in some other power. Men have lost in mental
+development in this particular direction while seeking to gain in
+others. If there were no record of the fact that light brings objects to
+the recognition of the mind through the agency of the eye, the sense of
+sight in an animal would be considered by men devoid of it as
+adaptability to extraordinary circumstances, or instinct. So it is that
+animals often see clearly where to the sense of man there is only
+darkness; such sight is not irresponsive action without consciousness
+of a purpose. Man is not very magnanimous. Instead of giving credit to
+the lower animals for superior perception in many directions, he denies
+to them the conscious possession of powers imperfectly developed in
+mankind. We egotistically aim to raise ourselves, and do so in our own
+estimation by clothing the actions of the lower animals in a garment of
+irresponsibility. Because we can not understand the inwardness of their
+power, we assert that they act by the influence of instinct. The term
+instinct, as I would define it, is an expression applied by men to a
+series of senses which man possesses, but has not developed. The word is
+used by man to characterize the mental superiority of other animals in
+certain directions where his own senses are defective. Instead of
+crediting animals with these, to them, invaluable faculties, man
+conceitedly says they are involuntary actions. Ignorant of their mental
+status, man is too arrogant to admit that lower animals are superior to
+him in any way. But we are not consistent. Is it not true that in the
+direction in which you question my power, some men by cultivation often
+become expert beyond their fellows? and such men have also given very
+little systematic study to subjects connected with these undeniable
+mental qualities. The hunter will hold his course in utter darkness,
+passing inequalities in the ground, and avoiding obstructions he can not
+see. The fact of his superiority in this way, over others, is not
+questioned, although he can not explain his methods nor understand how
+he operates. His quickened sense is often as much entitled to be called
+instinct as is the divining power of the carrier pigeon. If scholars
+would cease to devote their entire energies to the development of the
+material, artistic, or scientific part of modern civilization, and turn
+their attention to other forms of mental culture, many beauties and
+powers of Nature now unknown would be revealed. However, this can not
+be, for under existing conditions, the strife for food and warmth is the
+most important struggle that engages mankind, and controls our actions.
+In a time that is surely to come, however, when the knowledge of all men
+is united into a comprehensive whole, the book of life, illuminated
+thereby, will contain many beautiful pages that may be easily read, but
+which are now not suspected to exist. The power of the magnet is not
+uniform--engineers know that the needle of the compass inexplicably
+deviates from time to time as a line is run over the earth's surface,
+but they also know that aberrations of the needle finally correct
+themselves. The temporary variations of a few degrees that occur in the
+running of a compass line are usually overcome after a time, and without
+a change of course, the disturbed needle swerves back, and again points
+to the calculated direction, as is shown by the vernier. Should I err in
+my course, it would be by a trifle only, and we could not go far astray
+before I would unconsciously discover the true path. I carry my magnet
+in my mind."
+
+Many such dissertations or explanations concerning related questions
+were subsequently made in what I then considered a very impressive,
+though always unsatisfactory, manner. I recall those episodes now, after
+other more remarkable experiences which are yet to be related, and
+record them briefly with little wonderment, because I have gone through
+adventures which demonstrate that there is nothing improbable in the
+statements, and I will not consume time with further details of this
+part of my journey.
+
+We leisurely traversed State after State, crossed rivers, mountains and
+seemingly interminable forests. The ultimate object of our travels, a
+location in Kentucky, I afterward learned, led my companion to guide me
+by a roundabout course to Wheeling, Virginia, by the usual mountain
+roads of that day, instead of going, as he might perhaps have much more
+easily done, via Buffalo and the Lake Shore to Northern Ohio, and then
+southerly across the country. He said in explanation, that the time lost
+at the beginning of our journey by this route, was more than recompensed
+by the ease of the subsequent Ohio River trip. Upon reaching Wheeling,
+he disposed of the team, and we embarked on a keel boat, and journeyed
+down the Ohio to Cincinnati. The river was falling when we started, and
+became very low before Cincinnati was reached, too low for steamers, and
+our trip in that flat-bottomed boat, on the sluggish current of the
+tortuous stream, proved tedious and slow. Arriving at Cincinnati, my
+guide decided to wait for a rise in the river, designing then to
+complete our journey on a steamboat. I spent several days in Cincinnati
+quite pleasantly, expecting to continue our course on the steamer
+"Tecumseh," then in port, and ready for departure. At the last moment my
+guide changed his mind, and instead of embarking on that boat, we took
+passage on the steamer "George Washington," leaving Shipping-Port
+Wednesday, December 13, 1826.
+
+During that entire journey, from the commencement to our final
+destination, my guide paid all the bills, and did not want either for
+money or attention from the people with whom we came in contact. He
+seemed everywhere a stranger, and yet was possessed of a talisman that
+opened every door to which he applied, and which gave us unlimited
+accommodations wherever he asked them. When the boat landed at
+Smithland, Kentucky, a village on the bank of the Ohio, just above
+Paducah, we disembarked, and my guide then for the first time seemed
+mentally disturbed.
+
+"Our journey together is nearly over," he said; "in a few days my
+responsibility for you will cease. Nerve yourself for the future, and
+bear its trials and its pleasures manfully. I may never see you again,
+but as you are even now conspicuous in our history, and will be closely
+connected with the development of the plan in which I am also
+interested, although I am destined to take a different part, I shall
+probably hear of you again."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+    A CAVERN DISCOVERED.--BISWELL'S HILL.
+
+
+We stopped that night at a tavern in Smithland. Leaving this place after
+dinner the next day, on foot, we struck through the country, into the
+bottom lands of the Cumberland River, traveling leisurely, lingering for
+hours in the course of a circuitous tramp of only a few miles. Although
+it was the month of December, the climate was mild and balmy. In my
+former home, a similar time of year would have been marked with snow,
+sleet, and ice, and I could not but draw a contrast between the two
+localities. How different also the scenery from that of my native State.
+Great timber trees, oak, poplar, hickory, were in majestic possession of
+large tracts of territory, in the solitude of which man, so far as
+evidences of his presence were concerned, had never before trodden. From
+time to time we passed little clearings that probably were to be
+enlarged to thrifty plantations in the future, and finally we crossed
+the Cumberland River. That night we rested with Mr. Joseph Watts, a
+wealthy and cultured land owner, who resided on the river's bank. After
+leaving his home the next morning, we journeyed slowly, very slowly, my
+guide seemingly passing with reluctance into the country. He had become
+a very pleasant companion, and his conversation was very entertaining.
+We struck the sharp point of a ridge the morning we left Mr. Watts'
+hospitable house. It was four or five miles distant, but on the opposite
+side of the Cumberland, from Smithland. Here a steep bluff broke through
+the bottom land to the river's edge, the base of the bisected point
+being washed by the Cumberland River, which had probably cut its way
+through the stony mineral of this ridge in ages long passed. We climbed
+to its top and sat upon the pinnacle, and from that point of commanding
+observation I drank in the beauties of the scene around me. The river at
+our feet wound gracefully before us, and disappeared in both
+directions, its extremes dissolving in a bed of forest. A great black
+bluff, far up the stream, rose like a mountain, upon the left side of
+the river; bottom lands were about us, and hills appeared across the
+river in the far distance--towards the Tennessee River. With regret I
+finally drew my eyes from the vision, and we resumed the journey. We
+followed the left bank of the river to the base of the black
+bluff,--"Biswell's Hill," a squatter called it,--and then skirted the
+side of that hill, passing along precipitous stone bluffs and among
+stunted cedars. Above us towered cliff over cliff, almost
+perpendicularly; below us rolled the river.
+
+[Illustration: SECTION OF KENTUCKY, NEAR SMITHLAND, IN WHICH THE
+ENTRANCE TO THE KENTUCKY CAVERN IS SAID TO BE LOCATED.]
+
+I was deeply impressed by the changing beauties of this strange Kentucky
+scenery, but marveled at the fact that while I became light-hearted and
+enthusiastic, my guide grew correspondingly despondent and gloomy. From
+time to time he lapsed into thoughtful silence, and once I caught his
+eye directed toward me in a manner that I inferred to imply either pity
+or envy. We passed Biswell's Bluff, and left the Cumberland River at its
+upper extremity, where another small creek empties into the river.
+Thence, after ascending the creek some distance, we struck across the
+country, finding it undulating and fertile, with here and there a small
+clearing. During this journey we either camped out at night, or stopped
+with a resident, when one was to be found in that sparsely settled
+country. Sometimes there were exasperating intervals between our meals;
+but we did not suffer, for we carried with us supplies of food, such as
+cheese and crackers, purchased in Smithland, for emergencies. We thus
+proceeded a considerable distance into Livingston County, Kentucky.
+
+I observed remarkable sinks in the earth, sometimes cone-shaped, again
+precipitous. These cavities were occasionally of considerable size and
+depth, and they were more numerous in the uplands than in the bottoms.
+They were somewhat like the familiar "sink-holes" of New York State, but
+monstrous in comparison. The first that attracted my attention was near
+the Cumberland River, just before we reached Biswell's Hill. It was
+about forty feet deep and thirty in diameter, with precipitous stone
+sides, shrubbery growing therein in exceptional spots where loose earth
+had collected on shelves of stone that cropped out along its rugged
+sides. The bottom of the depression was flat and fertile, covered with a
+luxuriant mass of vegetation. On one side of the base of the gigantic
+bowl, a cavern struck down into the earth. I stood upon the edge of this
+funnel-like sink, and marveled at its peculiar appearance. A spirit of
+curiosity, such as often influences men when an unusual natural scene
+presents itself, possessed me. I clambered down, swinging from brush to
+brush, and stepping from shelving-rock to shelving-rock, until I reached
+the bottom of the hollow, and placing my hand above the black hole in
+its center, I perceived that a current of cold air was rushing
+therefrom, upward. I probed with a long stick, but the direction of the
+opening was tortuous, and would not admit of examination in that manner.
+I dropped a large pebble-stone into the orifice; the pebble rolled and
+clanked down, down, and at last, the sound died away in the distance.
+
+"I wish that I could go into the cavity as that stone has done, and find
+the secrets of this cave," I reflected, the natural love of exploration
+possessing me as it probably does most men.
+
+My companion above, seated on the brink of the stone wall, replied to my
+thoughts: "Your wish shall be granted. You have requested that which has
+already been laid out for you. You will explore where few men have
+passed before, and will have the privilege of following your destiny
+into a realm of natural wonders. A fertile field of investigation awaits
+you, such as will surpass your most vivid imaginings. Come and seat
+yourself beside me, for it is my duty now to tell you something about
+the land we are approaching, the cavern fields of Kentucky."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+    THE PUNCH-BOWLS AND CAVERNS OF KENTUCKY.--"INTO THE UNKNOWN
+    COUNTRY."
+
+
+"This part of Kentucky borders a field of caverns that reaches from near
+the State of Tennessee to the Ohio River, and from the mouth of the
+Cumberland, eastward to and beyond the center of the State. This great
+area is of irregular outline, and as yet has been little explored.
+Underneath the surface are layers of limestone and sandstone rock, the
+deposits ranging from ten to one hundred and fifty feet in thickness,
+and often great masses of conglomerate appear. This conglomerate
+sometimes caps the ridges, and varies in thickness from a few feet only,
+to sixty, or even a hundred, feet. It is of a diversified character,
+sometimes largely composed of pebbles cemented together by iron ore into
+compact beds, while again it passes abruptly into gritty sandstone, or a
+fine-grained compact rock destitute of pebbles. Sometimes the
+conglomerate rests directly on the limestone, but in the section about
+us, more often argillaceous shales or veins of coal intervene, and
+occasionally inferior and superior layers of conglomerate are separated
+by a bed of coal. In addition, lead-bearing veins now and then crop up,
+the crystals of galena being disseminated through masses of fluor-spar,
+calc-spar, limestone and clay, which fill fissures between tilted walls
+of limestone and hard quartzose sandstone. Valleys, hills, and
+mountains, grow out of this remarkable crust. Rivers and creeks flow
+through and under it in crevices, either directly upon the bedstone or
+over deposits of clay which underlie it. In some places, beds of coal or
+slate alternate with layers of the lime rock; in others, the interspace
+is clay and sand. Sometimes the depth of the several limestone and
+conglomerate deposits is great, and they are often honeycombed by
+innumerable transverse and diagonal spaces. Water drips have here and
+there washed out the more friable earth and stone, forming grottoes
+which are as yet unknown to men, but which will be discovered to be
+wonderful and fantastic beyond anything of a like nature now familiar.
+In other places cavities exist between shelves of rock that lie one
+above the other--monstrous openings caused by the erosive action of
+rivers now lost, but that have flowed during unnumbered ages past; great
+parallel valleys and gigantic chambers, one over the other, remaining to
+tell the story of these former torrents. Occasionally the weight of a
+portion of the disintegrating rock above becomes too great for its
+tensile strength and the material crumbles and falls, producing caverns
+sometimes reaching so near to the earth's surface, as to cause sinks in
+its crust. These sinks, when first formed, as a rule, present clear rock
+fractures, and immediately after their formation there is usually a
+water-way beneath. In the course of time soil collects on their sides,
+they become cone-shaped hollows from the down-slidings of earth, and
+then vegetation appears on the living soil; trees grow within them, and
+in many places the sloping sides of great earth bowls of this nature
+are, after untold years, covered with the virgin forest; magnificent
+timber trees growing on soil that has been stratified over and upon
+decayed monarchs of the forest whose remains, imbedded in the earth,
+speak of the ages that have passed since the convulsions that made the
+depressions which, notwithstanding the accumulated debris, are still a
+hundred feet or more in depth. If the drain or exit at the vortex of one
+of these sinks becomes clogged, which often occurs, the entire cavity
+fills with water, and a pond results. Again, a slight orifice reaching
+far beneath the earth's surface may permit the soil to be gradually
+washed into a subterranean creek, and thus are formed great bowls, like
+funnels sunk in the earth--Kentucky punch-bowls.
+
+"Take the country about us, especially towards the Mammoth Cave, and for
+miles beyond, the landscape in certain localities is pitted with this
+description of sinks, some recent, others very old. Many are small, but
+deep; others are large and shallow. Ponds often of great depth,
+curiously enough overflowing and giving rise to a creek, are to be found
+on a ridge, telling of underground supply springs, not outlets, beneath.
+Chains of such sinks, like a row of huge funnels, often appear; the soil
+between them is slowly washed through their exit into the river,
+flowing in the depths below, and as the earth that separates them is
+carried away by the subterranean streams, the bowls coalesce and a
+ravine, closed at both ends, results. Along the bottom of such a ravine,
+a creek may flow, rushing from its natural tunnel at one end of the
+line, and disappearing in a gulf at the other. The stream begins in
+mystery, and ends in unfathomed darkness. Near Marion, Hurricane Creek
+thus disappears, and, so far as men know, is lost to sight forever. Near
+Cridersville, in this neighborhood, a valley such as I have described,
+takes in the surface floods of a large tract of country. The waters that
+run down its sides, during a storm form a torrent, and fence-rails,
+timbers, and other objects are gulped into the chasm where the creek
+plunges into the earth, and they never appear again. This part of
+Kentucky is the most remarkable portion of the known world, and although
+now neglected, in a time to come is surely destined to an extended
+distinction. I have referred only to the surface, the skin formation of
+this honeycombed labyrinth, the entrance to the future wonderland of the
+world. Portions of such a superficial cavern maze have been traversed by
+man in the ramifications known as the Mammoth Cave, but deeper than man
+has yet explored, the subcutaneous structure of that series of caverns
+is yet to be investigated. The Mammoth Cave as now traversed is simply a
+superficial series of grottoes and passages overlying the deeper cavern
+field that I have described. The explored chain of passages is of great
+interest to men, it is true, but of minor importance compared to others
+yet unknown, being in fact, the result of mere surface erosion. The
+river that bisects the cave, just beneath the surface of the earth, and
+known as Echo River, is a miniature stream: there are others more
+magnificent that flow majestically far, far beneath it. As we descend
+into the earth in that locality, caverns multiply in number and increase
+in size, retaining the general configuration of those I have described.
+The layers of rock are thicker, the intervening spaces broader; and the
+spaces stretch in increasingly expanded chambers for miles, while high
+above each series of caverns the solid ceilings of stone arch and
+interarch. Sheltered under these subterrene alcoves are streams, lakes,
+rivers and water-falls. Near the surface of the earth such waters often
+teem with aquatic life, and some of the caves are inhabited by species
+of birds, reptiles and mammals as yet unknown to men, creatures
+possessed of senses and organs that are different from any we find with
+surface animals, and also apparently defective in particulars that would
+startle persons acquainted only with creatures that live in the
+sunshine. It is a world beneath a world, a world within a world--" My
+guide abruptly stopped.
+
+I sat entranced, marveling at the young-old adept's knowledge, admiring
+his accomplishments. I gazed into the cavity that yawned beneath me, and
+imagined its possible but to me invisible secrets, enraptured with the
+thought of searching into them. Who would not feel elated at the
+prospect of an exploration, such as I foresaw might be pursued in my
+immediate future? I had often been charmed with narrative descriptions
+of discoveries, and book accounts of scientific investigations, but I
+had never pictured myself as a participant in such fascinating
+enterprises.
+
+"Indeed, indeed," I cried exultingly; "lead me to this Wonderland, show
+me the entrance to this Subterranean World, and I promise willingly to
+do as you bid."
+
+"Bravo!" he replied, "your heart is right, your courage sufficient; I
+have not disclosed a thousandth part of the wonders which I have
+knowledge of, and which await your research, and probably I have not
+gained even an insight into the mysteries that, if your courage permits,
+you will be privileged to comprehend. Your destiny lies beyond, far
+beyond that which I have pictured or experienced; and I, notwithstanding
+my opportunities, have no conception of its end, for at the critical
+moment my heart faltered--I can therefore only describe the beginning."
+
+Thus at the lower extremity of Biswell's Hill, I was made aware of the
+fact that, within a short time, I should be separated from my
+sympathetic guide, and that it was to be my duty to explore alone, or in
+other company, some portion of these Kentucky cavern deeps, and I longed
+for the beginning of my underground journey. Heavens! how different
+would have been my future life could I then have realized my position!
+Would that I could have seen the end. After a few days of uneventful
+travel, we rested, one afternoon, in a hilly country that before us
+appeared to be more rugged, even mountainous. We had wandered leisurely,
+and were now at a considerable distance from the Cumberland River, the
+aim of my guide being, as I surmised, to evade a direct approach to some
+object of interest which I must not locate exactly, and yet which I
+shall try to describe accurately enough for identification by a person
+familiar with the topography of that section. We stood on the side of a
+stony, sloping hill, back of which spread a wooded, undulating valley.
+
+"I remember to have passed along a creek in that valley," I remarked,
+looking back over our pathway. "It appeared to rise from this direction,
+but the source ends abruptly in this chain of hills."
+
+"The stream is beneath us," he answered. Advancing a few paces, he
+brought to my attention, on the hillside, an opening in the earth. This
+aperture was irregular in form, about the diameter of a well, and
+descended perpendicularly into the stony crust. I leaned far over the
+orifice, and heard the gurgle of rushing water beneath. The guide
+dropped a heavy stone into the gloomy shaft, and in some seconds a dull
+splash announced its plunge into underground water. Then he leaned over
+the stony edge, and--could I be mistaken?--seemed to signal to some one
+beneath; but it must be imagination on my part, I argued to myself, even
+against my very sense of sight. Rising, and taking me by the hand, my
+guardian spoke:
+
+"Brother, we approach the spot where you and I must separate. I serve my
+masters and am destined to go where I shall next be commanded; you will
+descend into the earth, as you have recently desired to do. Here we
+part, most likely forever. This rocky fissure will admit the last ray of
+sunlight on your path."
+
+My heart failed. How often are we courageous in daylight and timid by
+night? Men unflinchingly face in sunshine dangers at which they shudder
+in the darkness.
+
+"How am I to descend into that abyss?" I gasped. "The sides are
+perpendicular, the depth is unknown!" Then I cried in alarm, the sense
+of distrust deepening: "Do you mean to drown me; is it for this you have
+led me away from my native State, from friends, home and kindred? You
+have enticed me into this wilderness. I have been decoyed, and, like a
+foolish child, have willingly accompanied my destroyer. You feared to
+murder me in my distant home; the earth could not have hidden me;
+Niagara even might have given up my body to dismay the murderers! In
+this underground river in the wilds of Kentucky, all trace of my
+existence will disappear forever."
+
+I was growing furious. My frenzied eyes searched the ground for some
+missile of defense. By strange chance some one had left, on that
+solitary spot, a rude weapon, providentially dropped for my use, I
+thought. It was a small iron bolt or bar, somewhat rusted. I threw
+myself upon the earth, and, as I did so, picked this up quickly, and
+secreted it within my bosom. Then I arose and resumed my stormy
+denunciation:
+
+"You have played your part well, you have led your unresisting victim to
+the sacrifice, but if I am compelled to plunge into this black grave,
+you shall go with me!" I shrieked in desperation, and suddenly threw my
+arms around the gentle adept, intending to hurl him into the chasm. At
+this point I felt my hands seized from behind in a cold, clammy,
+irresistible embrace, my fingers were loosed by a strong grasp, and I
+turned, to find myself confronted by a singular looking being, who
+quietly said:
+
+"You are not to be destroyed; we wish only to do your bidding."
+
+The speaker stood in a stooping position, with his face towards the
+earth as if to shelter it from the sunshine. He was less than five feet
+in height. His arms and legs were bare, and his skin, the color of light
+blue putty, glistened in the sunlight like the slimy hide of a water
+dog. He raised his head, and I shuddered in affright as I beheld that
+his face was not that of a human. His forehead extended in an unbroken
+plane from crown to cheek bone, and the chubby tip of an abortive nose
+without nostrils formed a short projection near the center of the level
+ridge which represented a countenance. There was no semblance of an eye,
+for there were no sockets. Yet his voice was singularly perfect. His
+face, if face it could be called, was wet, and water dripped from all
+parts of his slippery person. Yet, repulsive as he looked, I shuddered
+more at the remembrance of the touch of that cold, clammy hand than at
+the sight of his figure, for a dead man could not have chilled me as he
+had done, with his sappy skin, from which the moisture seemed to ooze as
+from the hide of a water lizard.
+
+[Illustration: "CONFRONTED BY A SINGULAR LOOKING BEING."]
+
+Turning to my guide, this freak of nature said, softly:
+
+"I have come in obedience to the signal."
+
+I realized at once that alone with these two I was powerless, and that
+to resist would be suicidal. Instantly my effervescing passion subsided,
+and I expressed no further surprise at this sudden and remarkable
+apparition, but mentally acquiesced. I was alone and helpless; rage gave
+place to inertia in the despondency that followed the realization of my
+hopeless condition. The grotesque newcomer who, though sightless,
+possessed a strange instinct, led us to the base of the hill a few
+hundred feet away, and there, gushing into the light from the rocky
+bluff, I saw a magnificent stream issuing many feet in width. This was
+the head-waters of the mysterious brook that I had previously noticed.
+It flowed from an archway in the solid stone, springing directly out of
+the rock-bound cliff; beautiful and picturesque in its surroundings. The
+limpid water, clear and sparkling, issued from the unknown source that
+was typical of darkness, but the brook of crystal leaped into a world of
+sunshine, light and freedom.
+
+"Brother," said my companion, "this spring emerging from this prison of
+earth images to us what humanity will be when the prisoning walls of
+ignorance that now enthrall him are removed. Man has heretofore relied
+chiefly for his advancement, both mental and physical, on knowledge
+gained from so-called scientific explorations and researches with
+matter, from material studies rather than spiritual, all his
+investigations having been confined to the crude, coarse substance of
+the surface of the globe. Spiritualistic investigations, unfortunately,
+are considered by scientific men too often as reaching backward only.
+The religions of the world clasp hands with, and lean upon, the dead
+past, it is true, but point to a living future. Man must yet search by
+the agency of senses and spirit, the unfathomed mysteries that lie
+beneath his feet and over his head, and he who refuses to bow to the
+Creator and honor his handiwork discredits himself. When this work is
+accomplished, as it yet will be, the future man, able then to comprehend
+the problem of life in its broader significance, drawing from all
+directions the facts necessary to his mental advancement, will have
+reached a state in which he can enjoy bodily comfort and supreme
+spiritual perfection, while he is yet an earth-bound mortal. In
+hastening this consummation, it is necessary that an occasional human
+life should be lost to the world, but such sacrifices are noble--yes,
+sublime, because contributing to the future exaltation of our race. The
+secret workers in the sacred order of which you are still a member, have
+ever taken an important part in furthering such a system of evolution.
+This feature of our work is unknown to brethren of the ordinary
+fraternity, and the individual research of each secret messenger is
+unguessed, by the craft at large. Hence it is that the open workers of
+our order, those initiated by degrees only, who in lodge rooms carry on
+their beneficent labors among men, have had no hand other than as agents
+in your removal, and no knowledge of your present or future movements.
+Their function is to keep together our organization on earth, and from
+them only an occasional member is selected, as you have been, to perform
+special duties in certain adventurous studies. Are you willing to go on
+this journey of exploration? and are you brave enough to meet the trials
+you have invited?"
+
+Again my enthusiasm arose, and I felt the thrill experienced by an
+investigator who stands on the brink of an important discovery, and
+needs but courage to advance, and I answered, "Yes."
+
+"Then, farewell; this archway is the entrance that will admit you into
+your arcanum of usefulness. This mystic Brother, though a stranger to
+you, has long been apprised of our coming, and it was he who sped me on
+my journey to seek you, and who has since been waiting for us, and is to
+be your guide during the first stages of your subterrene progress. He is
+a Friend, and, if you trust him, will protect you from harm. You will
+find the necessaries of life supplied, for I have traversed part of your
+coming road; that part I therefore know, but, as I have said, you are to
+go deeper into the unexplored,--yes, into and beyond the Beyond, until
+finally you will come to the gateway that leads into the 'Unknown
+Country.'"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+    FAREWELL TO GOD'S SUNSHINE.--THE ECHO OF THE CRY.
+
+
+Thus speaking, my quiet leader, who had so long been as a shepherd to my
+wandering feet, on the upper earth, grasped my hands tightly, and placed
+them in those of my new companion, whose clammy fingers closed over them
+as with a grip of iron. The mysterious being, now my custodian, turned
+towards the creek, drawing me after him, and together we silently and
+solemnly waded beneath the stone archway. As I passed under the shadow
+of that dismal, yawning cliff, I turned my head to take one last glimpse
+of the world I had known--that "warm precinct of the cheerful day,"--and
+tears sprang to my eyes. I thought of life, family, friends,--of all for
+which men live--and a melancholy vision arose, that of my lost, lost
+home. My dear companion of the journey that had just ended stood in the
+sunlight on the banks of the rippling stream, gazing at us intently, and
+waved an affectionate farewell. My uncouth new associate (guide or
+master, whichever he might be), of the journey to come, clasped me
+firmly by the arms, and waded slowly onward, thrusting me steadily
+against the cold current, and with irresistible force pressed me into
+the thickening darkness. The daylight disappeared, the pathway
+contracted, the water deepened and became more chilly. We were
+constrained to bow our heads in order to avoid the overhanging vault of
+stone; the water reached to my chin, and now the down-jutting roof
+touched the crown of my head; then I shuddered convulsively as the last
+ray of daylight disappeared.
+
+Had it not been for my companion, I know that I should have sunk in
+despair, and drowned; but with a firm hand he held my head above the
+water, and steadily pushed me onward. I had reached the extreme of
+despondency: I neither feared nor cared for life nor death, and I
+realized that, powerless to control my own acts, my fate, the future, my
+existence depended on the strange being beside me. I was mysteriously
+sustained, however, by a sense of bodily security, such as comes over us
+as when in the hands of an experienced guide we journey through a
+wilderness, for I felt that my pilot of the underworld did not purpose
+to destroy me. We halted a moment, and then, as a faint light overspread
+us, my eyeless guide directed me to look upward.
+
+"We now stand beneath the crevice which you were told by your former
+guide would admit the last ray of sunlight on your path. I also say to
+you, this struggling ray of sunlight is to be your last for years."
+
+I gazed above me, feeling all the wretchedness of a dying man who, with
+faculties intact, might stand on the dark edge of the hillside of
+eternity, glancing back into the bright world; and that small opening
+far, far overhead, seemed as the gate to Paradise Lost. Many a person,
+assured of ascending at will, has stood at the bottom of a deep well or
+shaft to a mine, and even then felt the undescribable sensation of
+dread, often terror, that is produced by such a situation. Awe, mystery,
+uncertainty of life and future superadded, may express my sensation. I
+trembled, shrinking in horror from my captor and struggled violently.
+
+"Hold, hold," I begged, as one involuntarily prays a surgeon to delay
+the incision of the amputating knife, "just one moment." My companion,
+unheeding, moved on, the light vanished instantly, and we were
+surrounded by total darkness. God's sunshine was blotted out.
+
+[Illustration: "THIS STRUGGLING RAY OF SUNLIGHT IS TO BE YOUR LAST FOR
+YEARS."]
+
+Then I again became unconcerned; I was not now responsible for my own
+existence, and the feeling that I experienced when a prisoner in the
+closed carriage returned. I grew careless as to my fate, and with stolid
+indifference struggled onward as we progressed slowly against the
+current of water. I began to interest myself in speculations regarding
+our surroundings, and the object or outcome of our journey. In places
+the water was shallow, scarce reaching to our ankles; again it was so
+deep that we could wade only with exertion, and at times the passage up
+which we toiled was so narrow, that it would scarcely admit us. After a
+long, laborious stemming of the unseen brook, my companion directed me
+to close my mouth, hold my nostrils with my fingers, and stoop; almost
+diving with me beneath the water, he drew me through the submerged
+crevice, and we ascended into an open chamber, and left the creek behind
+us. I fancied that we were in a large room, and as I shouted aloud to
+test my hypothesis, echo after echo answered, until at last the cry
+reverberated and died away in distant murmurs. We were evidently in a
+great pocket or cavern, through which my guide now walked rapidly;
+indeed, he passed along with unerring footsteps, as certain of his
+course as I might be on familiar ground in full daylight. I perceived
+that he systematically evaded inequalities that I could not anticipate
+nor see. He would tell me to step up or down, as the surroundings
+required, and we ascended or descended accordingly. Our path turned to
+the right or the left from time to time, but my eyeless guide passed
+through what were evidently the most tortuous windings without a mishap.
+I wondered much at this gift of knowledge, and at last overcame my
+reserve sufficiently to ask how we could thus unerringly proceed in
+utter darkness. The reply was:
+
+"The path is plainly visible to me; I see as clearly in pitch darkness
+as you can in sunshine."
+
+"Explain yourself further," I requested.
+
+He replied, "Not yet;" and continued, "you are weary, we will rest."
+
+He conducted me to a seat on a ledge, and left me for a time. Returning
+soon, he placed in my hands food which I ate with novel relish. The
+pabulum seemed to be of vegetable origin, though varieties of it had a
+peculiar flesh-like flavor. Several separate and distinct substances
+were contained in the queer viands, some portions savoring of wholesome
+flesh, while others possessed the delicate flavors of various fruits,
+such as the strawberry and the pineapple. The strange edibles were of a
+pulpy texture, homogeneous in consistence, parts being juicy and acid
+like grateful fruits. Some portions were in slices or films that I could
+hold in my hand like sections of a velvet melon, and yet were in many
+respects unlike any other food that I had ever tasted. There was neither
+rind nor seed; it seemed as though I were eating the gills of a fish,
+and in answer to my question the guide remarked:
+
+"Yes; it is the gill, but not the gill of a fish. You will be instructed
+in due time." I will add that after this, whenever necessary, we were
+supplied with food, but both thirst and hunger disappeared altogether
+before our underground journey was finished.
+
+After a while we again began our journey, which we continued in what was
+to me absolute darkness. My strength seemed to endure the fatigue to a
+wonderful degree, notwithstanding that we must have been walking hour
+after hour, and I expressed a curiosity about the fact. My guide replied
+that the atmosphere of the cavern possessed an intrinsic vitalizing
+power that neutralized fatigue, "or," he said, "there is here an
+inherent constitutional energy derived from an active gaseous substance
+that belongs to cavern air at this depth, and sustains the life force by
+contributing directly to its conservation, taking the place of food and
+drink."
+
+"I do not understand," I said.
+
+"No; and you do not comprehend how ordinary air supports mind and
+vitalizes muscle, and at the same time wears out both muscle and all
+other tissues. These are facts which are not satisfactorily explained by
+scientific statements concerning oxygenation of the blood. As we descend
+into the earth we find an increase in the life force of the cavern air."
+
+This reference to surface earth recalled my former life, and led me to
+contrast my present situation with that I had forfeited. I was seized
+with an uncontrollable longing for home, and a painful craving for the
+past took possession of my heart, but with a strong effort I shook off
+the sensations. We traveled on and on in silence and in darkness, and I
+thought again of the strange remark of my former guide who had said:
+"You are destined to go deeper into the unknown; yes, into and beyond
+the Beyond."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+    A ZONE OF LIGHT DEEP WITHIN THE EARTH.
+
+
+"Oh! for one glimpse of light, a ray of sunshine!"
+
+In reply to this my mental ejaculation, my guide said: "Can not you
+perceive that the darkness is becoming less intense?"
+
+"No," I answered, "I can not; night is absolute."
+
+"Are you sure?" he asked. "Cover your eyes with your hands, then uncover
+and open them." I did so and fancied that by contrast a faint gray hue
+was apparent.
+
+"This must be imagination."
+
+"No; we now approach a zone of earth light; let us hasten on."
+
+"A zone of light deep in the earth! Incomprehensible! Incredible!" I
+muttered, and yet as we went onward and time passed the darkness was
+less intense. The barely perceptible hue became gray and somber, and
+then of a pearly translucence, and although I could not distinguish the
+outline of objects, yet I unquestionably perceived light.
+
+"I am amazed! What can be the cause of this phenomenon? What is the
+nature of this mysterious halo that surrounds us?" I held my open hand
+before my eyes, and perceived the darkness of my spread fingers.
+
+"It is light, it is light," I shouted, "it is really light!" and from
+near and from far the echoes of that subterranean cavern answered back
+joyfully, "It is light, it is light!"
+
+I wept in joy, and threw my arms about my guide, forgetting in the
+ecstasy his clammy cuticle, and danced in hysterical glee and
+alternately laughed and cried. How vividly I realized then that the
+imprisoned miner would give a world of gold, his former god, for a ray
+of light.
+
+"Compose yourself; this emotional exhibition is an evidence of weakness;
+an investigator should neither become depressed over a reverse, nor
+unduly enthusiastic over a fortunate discovery."
+
+"But we approach the earth's surface? Soon I will be back in the
+sunshine again."
+
+"Upon the contrary, we have been continually descending into the earth,
+and we are now ten miles or more beneath the level of the ocean."
+
+[Illustration: "WE APPROACH DAYLIGHT, I CAN SEE YOUR FORM."]
+
+I shrank back, hesitated, and in despondency gazed at his hazy outline,
+then, as if palsied, sank upon the stony floor; but as I saw the light
+before me, I leaped up and shouted:
+
+"What you say is not true; we approach daylight, I can see your form."
+
+"Listen to me," he said. "Can not you understand that I have led you
+continually down a steep descent, and that for hours there has been no
+step upward? With but little exertion you have walked this distance
+without becoming wearied, and you could not, without great fatigue, have
+ascended for so long a period. You are entering a zone of inner earth
+light; we are in the surface, the upper edge of it. Let us hasten on,
+for when this cavern darkness is at an end--and I will say we have
+nearly passed that limit--your courage will return, and then we will
+rest."
+
+"You surely do not speak the truth; science and philosophy, and I am
+somewhat versed in both, have never told me of such a light."
+
+"Can philosophers more than speculate about that which they have not
+experienced if they have no data from which to calculate? Name the
+student in science who has reached this depth in earth, or has seen a
+man to tell him of these facts?"
+
+"I can not."
+
+"Then why should you have expected any of them to describe our
+surroundings? Misguided men will torture science by refuting facts with
+theories; but a fact is no less a fact when science opposes."
+
+[Illustration: "SEATED HIMSELF ON A NATURAL BENCH OF STONE."]
+
+I recognized the force of his arguments, and cordially grasped his hand
+in indication of submission. We continued our journey, and rapidly
+traveled downward and onward. The light gradually increased in
+intensity, until at length the cavern near about us seemed to be as
+bright as diffused daylight could have made it. There was apparently no
+central point of radiation; the light was such as to pervade and exist
+in the surrounding space, somewhat as the vapor of phosphorus spreads a
+self-luminous haze throughout the bubble into which it is blown. The
+visual agent surrounding us had a permanent, self-existing luminosity,
+and was a pervading, bright, unreachable essence that, without an
+obvious origin, diffused itself equally in all directions. It reminded
+me of the form of light that in previous years I had seen described as
+epipolic dispersion, and as I refer to the matter I am of the opinion
+that man will yet find that the same cause produces both phenomena. I
+was informed now by the sense of sight, that we were in a cavern room of
+considerable size. The apartment presented somewhat the appearance of
+the usual underground caverns that I had seen pictured in books, and yet
+was different. Stalactites, stalagmites, saline incrustations,
+occurring occasionally reminded me of travelers' stories, but these
+objects were not so abundant as might be supposed. Such accretions or
+deposits of saline substances as I noticed were also disappointing, in
+that, instead of having a dazzling brilliancy, like frosted snow
+crystals, they were of a uniform gray or brown hue. Indeed, my former
+imaginative mental creations regarding underground caverns were
+dispelled in this somber stone temple, for even the floor and the
+fragments of stone that, in considerable quantities, strewed the floor,
+were of the usual rock formations of upper earth. The glittering
+crystals of snowy white or rainbow tints (fairy caverns) pictured by
+travelers, and described as inexpressibly grand and beautiful in other
+cavern labyrinths, were wanting here, and I saw only occasional small
+clusters of quartz crystals that were other than of a dull gray color.
+Finally, after hours or perhaps days of travel, interspersed with
+restings, conversations, and arguments, amid which I could form no idea
+of the flight of time, my companion seated himself on a natural bench of
+stone, and directed me to rest likewise. He broke the silence, and spoke
+as follows:
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+    VITALIZED DARKNESS.--THE NARROWS IN SCIENCE.
+
+
+"In studying any branch of science men begin and end with an unknown.
+The chemist accepts as data such conditions of matter as he finds about
+him, and connects ponderable matter with the displays of energy that
+have impressed his senses, building therefrom a span of theoretical
+science, but he can not formulate as yet an explanation regarding the
+origin or the end of either mind, matter, or energy. The piers
+supporting his fabric stand in a profound invisible gulf, into which
+even his imagination can not look to form a theory concerning basic
+formations--corner-stones.
+
+"The geologist, in a like manner, grasps feebly the lessons left in the
+superficial fragments of earth strata, impressions that remain to bear
+imperfect record of a few of the disturbances that have affected the
+earth's crust, and he endeavors to formulate a story of the world's
+life, but he is neither able to antedate the records shown by the meager
+testimony at his command, scraps of a leaf out of God's great book of
+history, nor to anticipate coming events. The birth, as well as the
+death, of this planet is beyond his page.
+
+"The astronomer directs his telescope to the heavens, records the
+position of the planets, and hopes to discover the influences worlds
+exert upon one another. He explores space to obtain data to enable him
+to delineate a map of the visible solar universe, but the instruments he
+has at command are so imperfect, and mind is so feeble that, like
+mockery seems his attempt to study behind the facts connected with the
+motions and conditions of the nearest heavenly bodies, and he can not
+offer an explanation of the beginning or cessation of their movements.
+He can neither account for their existence, nor foretell their end."
+
+"Are you not mistaken?" I interrupted; "does not the astronomer foretell
+eclipses, and calculate the orbits of the planets, and has he not
+verified predictions concerning their several motions?"
+
+"Yes; but this is simply a study of passing events. The astronomer is no
+more capable of grasping an idea that reaches into an explanation of the
+origin of motion, than the chemist or physicist, from exact scientific
+data, can account for the creation of matter. Give him any amount of
+material at rest, and he can not conceive of any method by which motion
+can disturb any part of it, unless such motion be mass motion
+communicated from without, or molecular motion, already existing within.
+He accounts for the phases of present motion in heavenly bodies, not for
+the primal cause of the actual movements or intrinsic properties they
+possess. He can neither originate a theory that will permit of motion
+creating itself, and imparting itself to quiescent matter, nor imagine
+how an atom of quiescent matter can be moved, unless motion from without
+be communicated thereto. The astronomer, I assert, can neither from any
+data at his command postulate nor prove the beginning nor the end of the
+reverberating motion that exists in his solar system, which is itself
+the fragment of a system that is circulating and revolving in and about
+itself, and in which, since the birth of man, the universe he knows has
+not passed the first milestone in the road that universe is traveling in
+space immensity.
+
+"The mathematician starts a line from an imaginary point that he informs
+us exists theoretically without occupying any space, which is a
+contradiction of terms according to his human acceptation of knowledge
+derived from scientific experiment, if science is based on verified
+facts. He assumes that straight lines exist, which is a necessity for
+his calculation; but such a line he has never made. Even the beam of
+sunshine, radiating through a clear atmosphere or a cloud bank, widens
+and contracts again as it progresses through the various mediums of air
+and vapor currents, and if it is ever spreading and deflecting can it be
+straight? He begins his study in the unknown, it ends with the
+unknowable.
+
+"The biologist can conceive of no rational, scientific beginning to life
+of plant or animal, and men of science must admit the fact. Whenever we
+turn our attention to nature's laws and nature's substance, we find man
+surrounded by the infinity that obscures the origin and covers the
+end. But perseverance, study of nature's forces, and comparison of the
+past with the present, will yet clarify human knowledge and make plain
+much of this seemingly mysterious, but never will man reach the
+beginning or the end. The course of human education, to this day, has
+been mostly materialistic, although, together with the study of matter,
+there has been more or less attention given to its moving spirit. Newton
+was the dividing light in scientific thought; he stepped between the
+reasonings of the past and the provings of the present, and introduced
+problems that gave birth to a new scientific tendency, a change from the
+study of matter from the material side to that of force and matter, but
+his thought has since been carried out in a mode too realistic by far.
+The study of material bodies has given way, it is true, in a few cases
+to the study of the spirit of matter, and evolution is beginning to
+teach men that matter is crude. As a result, thought will in its
+sequence yet show that modifications of energy expression are paramount.
+This work is not lost, however, for the consideration of the nature of
+sensible material, is preliminary and necessary to progression (as the
+life of the savage prepares the way for that of the cultivated student),
+and is a meager and primitive child's effort, compared with the richness
+of the study in unseen energy expressions that are linked with matter,
+of which men will yet learn."
+
+"I comprehend some of this," I replied; "but I am neither prepared to
+assent to nor dissent from your conclusions, and my mind is not clear as
+to whether your logic is good or bad. I am more ready to speak plainly
+about my own peculiar situation than to become absorbed in abstruse
+arguments in science, and I marvel more at the soft light that is here
+surrounding us than at the metaphysical reasoning in which you indulge."
+
+"The child ignorant of letters wonders at the resources of those who can
+spell and read, and, in like manner, many obscure natural phenomena are
+marvelous to man only because of his ignorance. You do not comprehend
+the fact that sunlight is simply a matter-bred expression, an outburst
+of interrupted energy, and that the modification this energy undergoes
+makes it visible or sensible to man. What, think you, becomes of the
+flood of light energy that unceasingly flows from the sun? For ages,
+for an eternity, it has bathed this earth and seemingly streamed into
+space, and space it would seem must have long since have been filled
+with it, if, as men believe, space contains energy of any description.
+Man may say the earth casts the amount intercepted by it back into
+space, and yet does not your science teach that the great bulk of the
+earth is an absorber, and a poor radiator of light and heat? What think
+you, I repeat, becomes of the torrent of light and heat and other forces
+that radiate from the sun, the flood that strikes the earth? It
+disappears, and, in the economy of nature, is not replaced by any known
+force or any known motion of matter. Think you that earth substance
+really presents an obstacle to the passage of the sun's energy? Is it
+not probable that most of this light producing essence, as a subtle
+fluid, passes through the surface of the earth and into its interior, as
+light does through space, and returns thence to the sun again, in a
+condition not discernible by man?" He grasped my arm and squeezed it as
+though to emphasize the words to follow. "You have used the term
+sunshine freely; tell me what is sunshine? Ah! you do not reply; well,
+what evidence have you to show that sunshine (heat and light) is not
+earth-bred, a condition that exists locally only, the result of contact
+between matter and some unknown force expression? What reason have you
+for accepting that, to other forms unknown and yet transparent to this
+energy, your sunshine may not be as intangible as the ether of space is
+to man? What reason have you to believe that a force torrent is not
+circulating to and from the sun and earth, inappreciable to man,
+excepting the mere trace of this force which, modified by contact action
+with matter appears as heat, light, and other force expressions? How can
+I, if this is true, in consideration of your ignorance, enter into
+details explanatory of the action that takes place between matter and a
+portion of this force, whereby in the earth, first at the surface,
+darkness is produced, and then deeper down an earth light that man can
+perceive by the sense of sight, as you now realize? I will only say that
+this luminous appearance about us is produced by a natural law, whereby
+the flood of energy, invisible to man, a something clothed now under the
+name of darkness, after streaming into the crust substance of the earth,
+is at this depth, revivified, and then is made apparent to mortal eye,
+to be modified again as it emerges from the opposite earth crust, but
+not annihilated. For my vision, however, this central light is not a
+necessity; my physical and mental development is such that the energy of
+darkness is communicable; I can respond to its touches on my nerves, and
+hence I can guide you in this dark cavern. I am all eye."
+
+"Ah!" I exclaimed, "that reminds me of a remark made by my former guide
+who, referring to the instinct of animals, spoke of that as a natural
+power undeveloped in man. Is it true that by mental cultivation a new
+sense can be evolved whereby darkness may become as light?"
+
+"Yes; that which you call light is a form of sensible energy to which
+the faculties of animals who live on the surface of the earth have
+become adapted, through their organs of sight. The sun's energy is
+modified when it strikes the surface of the earth; part is reflected,
+but most of it passes onward into the earth's substance, in an altered
+or disturbed condition. Animal organisms within the earth must possess a
+peculiar development to utilize it under its new form, but such a sense
+is really possessed in a degree by some creatures known to men. There is
+consciousness behind consciousness; there are grades and depths of
+consciousness. Earth worms, and some fishes and reptiles in underground
+streams (lower organizations, men call them) do not use the organ of
+sight, but recognize objects, seek their food, and flee from their
+enemies."
+
+"They have no eyes," I exclaimed, forgetting that I spoke to an eyeless
+being; "how can they see?"
+
+"You should reflect that man can not offer a satisfactory explanation of
+the fact that he can see with his eyes. In one respect, these so-called
+lower creatures are higher in the scale of life than man is, for they
+see (appreciate) without eyes. The surfaces of their bodies really are
+sources of perception, and seats of consciousness. Man must yet learn to
+see with his skin, taste with his fingers, and hear with the surface of
+his body. The dissected nerve, or the pupil of man's eye, offers to the
+physiologist no explanation of its intrinsic power. Is not man
+unfortunate in having to risk so much on so frail an organ? The
+physiologist can not tell why or how the nerve of the tongue can
+distinguish between bitter and sweet, or convey any impression of
+taste, or why the nerve of the ear communicates sound, or the nerve of
+the eye communicates the impression of sight. There is an impassable
+barrier behind all forms of nerve impressions, that neither the
+microscope nor other methods of investigation can help the reasoning
+senses of man to remove. The void that separates the pulp of the
+material nerve from consciousness is broader than the solar universe,
+for even from the most distant known star we can imagine the
+never-ending flight of a ray of light, that has once started on its
+travels into space. Can any man outline the bridge that connects the
+intellect with nerve or brain, mind, or with any form of matter? The
+fact that the surface of the bodies of some animals is capable of
+performing the same functions for these animals that the eye of man
+performs for him, is not more mysterious than is the function of that
+eye itself. The term darkness is an expression used to denote the fact
+that to the brain which governs the eye of man, what man calls the
+absence of light, is unrecognizable. If men were more magnanimous and
+less egotistical, they would open their minds to the fact that some
+animals really possess certain senses that are better developed than
+they are in man. The teachers of men too often tell the little they know
+and neglect the great unseen. The cat tribe, some night birds, and many
+reptiles can see better in darkness than in daylight. Let man compare
+with the nerve expanse of his own eye that of the highly developed eye
+of any such creature, and he will understand that the difference is one
+of brain or intellect, and not altogether one of optical vision surface.
+When men are able to explain how light can affect the nerves of their
+own eyes and produce such an effect on distant brain tissues as to bring
+to his senses objects that he is not touching, he may be able to explain
+how the energy in darkness can affect the nerve of the eye in the owl
+and impress vision on the brain of that creature. Should not man's
+inferior sense of light lead him to question if, instead of deficient
+visual power, there be not a deficiency of the brain capacity of man?
+Instead of accepting that the eye of man is incapable of receiving the
+impression of night energy, and making no endeavor to improve himself in
+the direction of his imperfection, man should reflect whether or not his
+brain may, by proper cultivation or artificial stimulus, be yet
+developed so as to receive yet deeper nerve impressions, thereby
+changing darkness into daylight. Until man can explain the modus
+operandi of the senses he now possesses, he can not consistently
+question the existence of a different sight power in other beings, and
+unquestioned existing conditions should lead him to hope for a yet
+higher development in himself."
+
+"This dissertation is interesting, very," I said. "Although inclined
+toward agnosticism, my ideas of a possible future in consciousness that
+lies before mankind are broadened. I therefore accept your reasoning,
+perhaps because I can not refute it, neither do I wish to do so. And now
+I ask again, can not you explain to me how darkness, as deep as that of
+midnight, has been revivified so as to bring this great cavern to my
+view?"
+
+"That may be made plain at a future time," he answered; "let us proceed
+with our journey."
+
+We passed through a dry, well ventilated apartment. Stalactite
+formations still existed, indicative of former periods of water
+drippings, but as we journeyed onward I saw no evidence of present
+percolations, and the developing and erosive agencies that had worked in
+ages past must long ago have been suspended. The floor was of solid
+stone, entirely free from loose earth and fallen rocky fragments. It was
+smooth upon the surface, but generally disposed in gentle undulations.
+The peculiar, soft, radiant light to which my guide referred as
+"vitalized darkness" or "revivified sunshine," pervaded all the space
+about me, but I could not by its agency distinguish the sides of the
+vast cavern. The brightness was of a species that while it brought into
+distinctness objects that were near at hand, lost its unfolding power or
+vigor a short distance beyond. I would compare the effect to that of a
+bright light shining through a dense fog, were it not that the medium
+about us was transparent--not milky. The light shrunk into nothingness.
+It passed from existence behind and about me as if it were annihilated,
+without wasting away in the opalescent appearance once familiar as that
+of a spreading fog. Moreover, it seemed to detail such objects as were
+within the compass of a certain area close about me, but to lose in
+intensity beyond. The buttons on my coat appeared as distinct as they
+ever did when I stood in the sunlight, and fully one-half larger than I
+formerly knew them to be. The corrugations on the palms of my hands
+stood out in bold serpentine relief that I observed clearly when I held
+my hands near my eye, my fingers appeared clumsy, and all parts of my
+person were magnified in proportion. The region at the limits of my
+range of perception reminded me of nothingness, but not of darkness. A
+circle of obliteration defined the border of the luminous belt which
+advanced as we proceeded, and closed in behind us. This line, or rather
+zone of demarkation, that separated the seen from the unseen, appeared
+to be about two hundred feet away, but it might have been more or less,
+as I had no method of measuring distances.
+
+[Illustration: "I WAS IN A FOREST OF COLOSSAL FUNGI."]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+    THE FUNGUS FOREST.--ENCHANTMENT.
+
+
+Along the chamber through which we now passed I saw by the mellow light
+great pillars, capped with umbrella-like covers, some of them reminding
+me of the common toadstool of upper earth, on a magnificent scale.
+Instead, however, of the gray or somber shades to which I had been
+accustomed, these objects were of various hues and combined the
+brilliancy of the primary prismatic colors, with the purity of clean
+snow. Now they would stand solitary, like gigantic sentinels; again they
+would be arranged in rows, the alignment as true as if established by
+the hair of a transit, forming columnar avenues, and in other situations
+they were wedged together so as to produce masses, acres in extent, in
+which the stems became hexagonal by compression. The columnar stems,
+larger than my body, were often spiral; again they were marked with
+diamond-shaped figures, or other regular geometrical forms in relief,
+beautifully exact, drawn as by a master's hand in rich and delicately
+blended colors, on pillars of pure alabaster. Not a few of the stems
+showed deep crimson, blue, or green, together with other rich colors
+combined; over which, as delicate as the rarest of lace, would be
+thrown, in white, an enamel-like intricate tracery, far surpassing in
+beauty of execution the most exquisite needle-work I had ever seen.
+There could be no doubt that I was in a forest of colossal fungi, the
+species of which are more numerous than those of upper earth cryptomatic
+vegetation. The expanded heads of these great thallogens were as varied
+as the stems I have described, and more so. Far above our path they
+spread like beautiful umbrellas, decorated as if by masters from whom
+the great painters of upper earth might humbly learn the art of mixing
+colors. Their under surfaces were of many different designs, and were of
+as many shapes as it is conceivable could be made of combinations of the
+circle and hyperbola. Stately and picturesque, silent and immovable as
+the sphinx, they studded the great cavern singly or in groups, reminding
+me of a grown child's wild imagination of fairy land. I stopped beside a
+group that was of unusual conspicuity and gazed in admiration on the
+huge and yet graceful, beautiful spectacle. I placed my hand on the stem
+of one plant, and found it soft and impressible; but instead of being
+moist, cold, and clammy as the repulsive toadstool of upper earth, I
+discovered, to my surprise, that it was pleasantly warm, and soft as
+velvet.
+
+"Smell your hand," said my guide.
+
+I did so, and breathed in an aroma like that of fresh strawberries. My
+guide observed (I had learned to judge of his emotions by his facial
+expressions) my surprised countenance with indifference.
+
+"Try the next one," he said.
+
+This being of a different species, when rubbed by my hand exhaled the
+odor of the pineapple.
+
+"Extraordinary," I mused.
+
+"Not at all. Should productions of surface earth have a monopoly of
+nature's methods, all the flavors, all the perfumes? You may with equal
+consistency express astonishment at the odors of the fruits of upper
+earth if you do so at the fragrance of these vegetables, for they are
+also created of odorless elements."
+
+"But toadstools are foul structures of low organization.[3] They are
+neither animals nor true vegetables, but occupy a station below that of
+plants proper," I said.
+
+
+    [3] The fungus Polyporus graveolens was neglected by the guide.
+    This fungus exhales a delicate odor, and is used in Kentucky to
+    perfume a room. Being quite large, it is employed to hold a door
+    open, thus being useful as well as fragrant.--J. U. L.
+
+"You are acquainted with this order of vegetation under the most
+unfavorable conditions; out of their native elements these plants
+degenerate and become then abnormal, often evolving into the poisonous
+earth fungi known to your woods and fields. Here they grow to
+perfection. This is their chosen habitat. They absorb from a pure
+atmosphere the combined foods of plants and animals, and during their
+existence meet no scorching sunrise. They flourish in a region of
+perfect tranquillity, and without a tremor, without experiencing the
+change of a fraction of a degree in temperature, exist for ages. Many of
+these specimens are probably thousands of years old, and are still
+growing; why should they ever die? They have never been disturbed by a
+breath of moving air, and, balanced exactly on their succulent,
+pedestal-like stems, surrounded by an atmosphere of dead nitrogen,
+vapor, and other gases, with their roots imbedded in carbonates and
+minerals, they have food at command, nutrition inexhaustible."
+
+"Still I do not see why they grow to such mammoth proportions."
+
+"Plants adapt themselves to surrounding conditions," he remarked. "The
+oak tree in its proper latitude is tall and stately; trace it toward the
+Arctic circle, and it becomes knotted, gnarled, rheumatic, and dwindles
+to a shrub. The castor plant in the tropics is twenty or thirty feet in
+height, in the temperate zone it is an herbaceous plant, farther north
+it has no existence. Indian corn in Kentucky is luxuriant, tall, and
+graceful, and each stalk is supplied with roots to the second and third
+joint, while in the northland it scarcely reaches to the shoulder of a
+man, and, in order to escape the early northern frost, arrives at
+maturity before the more southern variety begins to tassel. The common
+jimson weed (datura stramonium) planted in early spring, in rich soil,
+grows luxuriantly, covers a broad expanse and bears an abundance of
+fruit; planted in midsummer it blossoms when but a few inches in height,
+and between two terminal leaves hastens to produce a single capsule on
+the apex of the short stem, in order to ripen its seed before the frost
+appears. These and other familiar examples might be cited concerning the
+difference some species of vegetation of your former lands undergo under
+climatic conditions less marked than between those that govern the
+growth of fungi here and on surface earth. Such specimens of fungi as
+grow in your former home have escaped from these underground regions,
+and are as much out of place as are the tropical plants transplanted to
+the edge of eternal snow. Indeed, more so, for on the earth the ordinary
+fungus, as a rule, germinates after sunset, and often dies when the sun
+rises, while here they may grow in peace eternally. These meandering
+caverns comprise thousands of miles of surface covered by these growths
+which shall yet fulfill a grand purpose in the economy of nature, for
+they are destined to feed tramping multitudes when the day appears in
+which the nations of men will desert the surface of the earth and pass
+as a single people through these caverns on their way to the immaculate
+existence to be found in the inner sphere."
+
+"I can not disprove your statement," I again repeated; "neither do I
+accept it. However, it still seems to me unnatural to find such
+delicious flavors and delicate odors connected with objects associated
+in memory with things insipid, or so disagreeable as toadstools and the
+rank forest fungi which I abhorred on earth."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+    THE FOOD OF MAN.
+
+
+"This leads me to remark," answered the eyeless seer, "that you speak
+without due consideration of previous experience. You are, or should be,
+aware of other and as marked differences in food products of upper
+earth, induced by climate, soil and cultivation. The potato which, next
+to wheat, rice, or corn, you know supplies nations of men with starchy
+food, originated as a wild weed in South America and Mexico, where it
+yet exists as a small, watery, marble-like tuber, and its nearest
+kindred, botanically, is still poisonous. The luscious apple reached its
+present excellence by slow stages from knotty, wild, astringent fruit,
+to which it again returns when escaped from cultivation. The cucumber is
+a near cousin of the griping, medicinal cathartic bitter-apple, or
+colocynth, and occasionally partakes yet of the properties that result
+from that unfortunate alliance, as too often exemplified to persons who
+do not peel it deep enough to remove the bitter, cathartic principle
+that exists near the surface. Oranges, in their wild condition, are
+bitter, and are used principally as medicinal agents. Asparagus was once
+a weed, native to the salty edges of the sea, and as this weed has
+become a food, so it is possible for other wild weeds yet to do.
+Buckwheat is a weed proper, and not a cereal, and birds have learned
+that the seeds of many other weeds are even preferable to wheat. The
+wild parsnip is a poison, and the parsnip of cultivation relapses
+quickly into its natural condition if allowed to escape and roam again.
+The root of the tapioca plant contains a volatile poison, and is deadly;
+but when that same root is properly prepared, it becomes the wholesome
+food, tapioca. The nut of the African anacardium (cachew nut) contains a
+nourishing kernel that is eaten as food by the natives, and yet a drop
+of the juice of the oily shell placed on the skin will blister and
+produce terrible inflammations; only those expert in the removal of the
+kernel dare partake of the food. The berry of the berberis vulgaris is
+a pleasant acid fruit; the bough that bears it is intensely bitter. Such
+examples might be multiplied indefinitely, but I have cited enough to
+illustrate the fact that neither the difference in size and structure of
+the species in the mushroom forest through which we are passing, nor the
+conditions of these bodies, as compared with those you formerly knew,
+need excite your astonishment. Cultivate a potato in your former home so
+that the growing tuber is exposed to sunshine, and it becomes green and
+acrid, and strongly virulent. Cultivate the spores of the intra-earth
+fungi about us, on the face of the earth, and although now all parts of
+the plants are edible, the species will degenerate, and may even become
+poisonous. They lose their flavor under such unfavorable conditions, and
+although some species still retain vitality enough to resist poisonous
+degeneration, they dwindle in size, and adapt themselves to new and
+unnatural conditions. They have all degenerated. Here they live on
+water, pure nitrogen and its modifications, grasping with their roots
+the carbon of the disintegrated limestone, affiliating these substances,
+and evolving from these bodies rich and delicate flavors, far superior
+to the flavor of earth surface foods. On the surface of the earth, after
+they become abnormal, they live only on dead and devitalized organic
+matter, having lost the power of assimilating elementary matter. They
+then partake of the nature of animals, breathe oxygen and exhale
+carbonic acid, as animals do, being the reverse of other plant
+existences. Here they breathe oxygen, nitrogen, and the vapor of water;
+but exhale some of the carbon in combination with hydrogen, thus
+evolving these delicate ethereal essences instead of the poisonous gas,
+carbonic acid. Their substance is here made up of all the elements
+necessary for the support of animal life; nitrogen to make muscle,
+carbon and hydrogen for fat, lime for bone. This fungoid forest could
+feed a multitude. It is probable that in the time to come when man
+deserts the bleak earth surface, as he will some day be forced to do, as
+has been the case in frozen planets that are not now inhabited on the
+outer crust; nations will march through these spaces on their way from
+the dreary outside earth to the delights of the salubrious inner sphere.
+Here then, when that day of necessity appears, as it surely will come
+under inflexible climatic changes that will control the destiny of
+outer earth life, these constantly increasing stores adapted to nourish
+humanity, will be found accumulated and ready for food. You have already
+eaten of them, for the variety of food with which I supplied you has
+been selected from different portions of these nourishing products
+which, flavored and salted, ready for use as food, stand intermediate
+between animal and vegetable, supplying the place of both."
+
+My instructor placed both hands on my shoulders, and in silence I stood
+gazing intently into his face. Then, in a smooth, captivating,
+entrancing manner, he continued:
+
+"Can you not see that food is not matter? The material part of bread is
+carbon, water, gas, and earth; the material part of fat is charcoal and
+gas; the material part of flesh is water and gas; the material part of
+fruits is mostly water with a little charcoal and gas.[4] The material
+constituents of all foods are plentiful, they abound everywhere, and yet
+amid the unlimited, unorganized materials that go to form foods man
+would starve.
+
+    [4] By the term gas, it is evident that hydrogen and nitrogen were
+    designated, and yet, since the instructor insists that other gases
+    form part of the atmosphere, so he may consistently imply that
+    unknown gases are parts of food.--J. U. L.
+
+"Give a healthy man a diet of charcoal, water, lime salts, and air; say
+to him, 'Bread contains no other substance, here is bread, the material
+food of man, live on this food,' and yet the man, if he eat of these,
+will die with his stomach distended. So with all other foods; give man
+the unorganized materialistic constituents of food in unlimited amounts,
+and starvation results. No! matter is not food, but a carrier of food."
+
+"What is food?"
+
+"Sunshine. The grain of wheat is a food by virtue of the sunshine fixed
+within it. The flesh of animals, the food of living creatures, are
+simply carriers of sunshine energy. Break out the sunshine and you
+destroy the food, although the material remains. The growing plant locks
+the sunshine in its cells, and the living animal takes it out again.
+Hence it is that after the sunshine of any food is liberated during the
+metamorphosis of the tissues of an animal although the material part of
+the food remains, it is no longer a food, but becomes a poison, and
+then, if it is not promptly eliminated from the animal, it will destroy
+the life of the animal. This material becomes then injurious, but it
+is still material.
+
+"The farmer plants a seed in the soil, the sunshine sprouts it,
+nourishes the growing plant, and during the season locks itself to and
+within its tissues, binding the otherwise dead materials of that tissue
+together into an organized structure. Animals eat these structures,
+break them from higher to lower compounds, and in doing so live on the
+stored up sunshine and then excrete the worthless material side of the
+food. The farmer spreads these excluded substances over the earth again
+to once more take up the sunshine in the coming plant organization, but
+not until it does once more lock in its cells the energy of sunshine can
+it be a food for that animal."
+
+"Is manure a food?" he abruptly asked.
+
+"No."
+
+"Is not manure matter?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"May it not become a food again, as the part of another plant, when
+another season passes?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"In what else than energy (sunshine) does it differ from food?"
+
+"Water is a necessity," I said.
+
+"And locked in each molecule of water there is a mine of sunshine.
+Liberate suddenly the sun energy from the gases of the ocean held in
+subjection thereby, and the earth would disappear in an explosion that
+would reverberate throughout the universe. The water that you truly
+claim to be necessary to the life of man, is itself water by the grace
+of this same sun, for without its heat water would be ice, dry as dust.
+'Tis the sun that gives life and motion to creatures animate and
+substances inanimate; he who doubts distrusts his Creator. Food and
+drink are only carriers of bits of assimilable sunshine. When the fire
+worshipers kneeled to their god, the sun, they worshiped the great food
+reservoir of man. When they drew the quivering entrails from the body of
+a sacrificed victim they gave back to their God a spark of sunshine--it
+was due sooner or later. They builded well in thus recognizing the
+source of all life, and yet they acted badly, for their God asked no
+premature sacrifice, the inevitable must soon occur, and as all
+organic life comes from that Sun-God, so back to that Creator the
+sun-spark must fly."
+
+"But they are heathen; there is a God beyond their narrow conception of
+God."
+
+"As there is also a God in the Beyond, past your idea of God. Perhaps to
+beings of higher mentalities, we may be heathen; but even if this is so,
+duty demands that we revere the God within our intellectual sphere. Let
+us not digress further; the subject now is food, not the Supreme
+Creator, and I say to you the food of man and the organic life of man is
+sunshine."
+
+He ceased, and I reflected upon his words. All he had said seemed so
+consistent that I could not deny its plausibility, and yet it still
+appeared altogether unlikely as viewed in the light of my previous earth
+knowledge. I did not quite comprehend all the semi-scientific
+expressions, but was at least certain that I could neither disprove nor
+verify his propositions. My thoughts wandered aimlessly, and I found
+myself questioning whether man could be prevailed upon to live
+contentedly in situations such as I was now passing through. In company
+with my learned and philosophical but fantastically created guardian and
+monitor, I moved on.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+    THE CRY FROM A DISTANCE.--I REBEL AGAINST CONTINUING THE JOURNEY.
+
+
+As we paced along, meditating, I became more sensibly impressed with the
+fact that our progress was down a rapid declination. The saline
+incrustations, fungi and stalagmites, rapidly changed in appearance, an
+endless variety of stony figures and vegetable cryptogams recurring
+successively before my eyes. They bore the shape of trees, shrubs, or
+animals, fixed and silent as statues: at least in my distorted condition
+of mind I could make out resemblances to many such familiar objects; the
+floor of the cavern became increasingly steeper, as was shown by the
+stalactites, which, hanging here and there from the invisible ceiling,
+made a decided angle with the floor, corresponding with a similar angle
+of the stalagmites below. Like an accompanying and encircling halo the
+ever present earth-light enveloped us, opening in front as we advanced,
+and vanishing in the rear. The sound of our footsteps gave back a
+peculiar, indescribable hollow echo, and our voices sounded ghost-like
+and unearthly, as if their origin was outside of our bodies, and at a
+distance. The peculiar resonance reminded me of noises reverberating in
+an empty cask or cistern. I was oppressed by an indescribable feeling of
+mystery and awe that grew deep and intense, until at last I could no
+longer bear the mental strain.
+
+"Hold, hold," I shouted, or tried to shout, and stopped suddenly, for
+although I had cried aloud, no sound escaped my lips. Then from a
+distance--could I believe my senses?--from a distance as an echo, the
+cry came back in the tones of my own voice, "Hold, hold."
+
+"Speak lower," said my guide, "speak very low, for now an effort such as
+you have made projects your voice far outside your body; the greater the
+exertion the farther away it appears."
+
+I grasped him by the arm and said slowly, determinedly, and in a
+suppressed tone: "I have come far enough into the secret caverns of the
+earth, without knowing our destination; acquaint me now with the object
+of this mysterious journey, I demand, and at once relieve this sense of
+uncertainty; otherwise I shall go no farther."
+
+[Illustration: "AN ENDLESS VARIETY OF STONY FIGURES."]
+
+"You are to proceed to the Sphere of Rest with me," he replied, "and in
+safety. Beyond that an Unknown Country lies, into which I have never
+ventured."
+
+"You speak in enigmas; what is this Sphere of Rest? Where is it?"
+
+"Your eyes have never seen anything similar; human philosophy has no
+conception of it, and I can not describe it," he said. "It is located in
+the body of the earth, and we will meet it about one thousand miles
+beyond the North Pole."
+
+"But I am in Kentucky," I replied; "do you think that I propose to walk
+to the North Pole, man--if man you be; that unreached goal is thousands
+of miles away."
+
+"True," he answered, "as you measure distance on the surface of the
+earth, and you could not walk it in years of time; but you are now
+twenty-five miles below the surface, and you must be aware that instead
+of becoming more weary as we proceed, you are now and have for some time
+been gaining strength. I would also call to your attention that you
+neither hunger nor thirst."
+
+"Proceed," I said, "'tis useless to rebel; I am wholly in your power,"
+and we resumed our journey, and rapidly went forward amid silences that
+were to me painful beyond description. We abruptly entered a cavern of
+crystal, every portion of which was of sparkling brilliancy, and as
+white as snow. The stalactites, stalagmites and fungi disappeared. I
+picked up a fragment of the bright material, tasted it, and found that
+it resembled pure salt. Monstrous, cubical crystals, a foot or more in
+diameter, stood out in bold relief, accumulations of them, as
+conglomerated masses, banked up here and there, making parts of great
+columnar cliffs, while in other formations the crystals were small,
+resembling in the aggregate masses of white sandstone.
+
+"Is not this salt?" I asked.
+
+"Yes; we are now in the dried bed of an underground lake."
+
+"Dried bed?" I exclaimed; "a body of water sealed in the earth can not
+evaporate."
+
+"It has not evaporated; at some remote period the water has been
+abstracted from the salt, and probably has escaped upon the surface of
+the earth as a fresh water spring."
+
+"You contradict all laws of hydrostatics, as I understand that subject,"
+I replied, "when you speak of abstracting water from a dissolved
+substance that is part of a liquid, and thus leaving the solids."
+
+"Nevertheless this is a constant act of nature," said he; "how else can
+you rationally account for the great salt beds and other deposits of
+saline materials that exist hermetically sealed beneath the earth's
+surface?"
+
+[Illustration: "MONSTROUS CUBICAL CRYSTALS."]
+
+"I will confess that I have not given the subject much thought; I simply
+accept the usual explanation to the effect that salty seas have lost
+their water by evaporation, and afterward the salt formations, by some
+convulsions of nature, have been covered with earth, perhaps
+sinking by earthquake convulsions bodily into the earth."
+
+"These explanations are examples of some of the erroneous views of
+scientific writers," he replied; "they are true only to a limited
+extent. The great beds of salt, deep in the earth, are usually
+accumulations left there by water that is drawn from brine lakes, from
+which the liberated water often escaped as pure spring water at the
+surface of the earth. It does not escape by evaporation, at least not
+until it reaches the earth's surface."
+
+
+
+
+INTERLUDE--THE STORY INTERRUPTED.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+    MY UNBIDDEN GUEST PROVES HIS STATEMENT AND REFUTES MY PHILOSOPHY.
+
+
+Let the reader who has followed this strange story which I am directed
+to title "The End of Earth," and who, in imagination, has traversed the
+cavernous passages of the underworld and listened to the conversation of
+those two personages who journeyed towards the secrets of the Beyond,
+return now to upper earth, and once more enter my secluded lodgings, the
+home of Llewellen Drury, him who listened to the aged guest and who
+claims your present attention. Remember that I relate a story within a
+story. That importunate guest of mine, of the glittering knife and the
+silvery hair, like another Ancient Mariner, had constrained me to listen
+to his narrative, as he read it aloud to me from the manuscript. I
+patiently heard chapter after chapter, generally with pleasure, often
+with surprise, sometimes with incredulity, or downright dissent. Much of
+the narrative, I must say,--yes, most of it, appeared possible, if not
+probable, as taken in its connected sequence. The scientific sections
+were not uninteresting; the marvels of the fungus groves, the properties
+of the inner light, I was not disinclined to accept as true to natural
+laws; but when The-Man-Who-Did-It came to tell of the intra-earth salt
+deposits, and to explain the cause of the disappearance of lakes that
+formerly existed underground, and their simultaneous replacement by beds
+of salt, my credulity was overstrained.
+
+"Permit me to interrupt your narrative," I remarked, and then in
+response to my request the venerable guest laid down his paper.
+
+"Well?" he said, interrogatively.
+
+"I do not believe that last statement concerning the salt lake, and, to
+speak plainly, I would not have accepted it as you did, even had I been
+in your situation."
+
+"To what do you allude?" he asked.
+
+"The physical abstraction of water from the salt of a solution of salt;
+I do not believe it possible unless by evaporation of the water."
+
+"You seem to accept as conclusive the statements of men who have never
+investigated beneath the surface in these directions, and you question
+the evidence of a man who has seen the phenomenon. I presume you accept
+the prevailing notions about salt beds, as you do the assertion that
+liquids seek a common level, which your scientific authorities also
+teach as a law of nature?"
+
+"Yes; I do believe that liquids seek a common level, and I am willing to
+credit your other improbable statements if you can demonstrate the
+principle of liquid equilibrium to be untrue."
+
+"Then," said he, "to-morrow evening I will show you that fluids seek
+different levels, and also explain to you how liquids may leave the
+solids they hold in solution without evaporating from them."
+
+He arose and abruptly departed. It was near morning, and yet I sat in my
+room alone pondering the story of my unique guest until I slept to dream
+of caverns and seances until daylight, when I was awakened by their
+vividness. The fire was out, the room was cold, and, shivering in
+nervous exhaustion, I crept into bed to sleep and dream again of
+horrible things I can not describe, but which made me shudder in
+affright at their recollection. Late in the day I awoke.
+
+On the following evening my persevering teacher appeared punctually, and
+displayed a few glass tubes and some blotting or bibulous paper.
+
+"I will first show you that liquids may change their levels in
+opposition to the accepted laws of men, not contrary to nature's laws;
+however, let me lead to the experiments by a statement of facts, that,
+if you question, you can investigate at any time. If two vessels of
+water be connected by a channel from the bottom of each, the water
+surfaces will come to a common level."
+
+He selected a curved glass tube, and poured water into it. The water
+assumed the position shown in Figure 11.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 11.--A A, water in tube seeks a level.]
+
+"You have not shown me anything new," I said; "my text-books taught me
+this."
+
+"True, I have but exhibited that which is the foundation of your
+philosophy regarding the surface of liquids. Let me proceed:
+
+"If we pour a solution of common salt into such a U tube, as I do now,
+you perceive that it also rises to the same level in both ends."
+
+"Of course it does."
+
+"Do not interrupt me. Into one arm of the tube containing the brine I
+now carefully pour pure water. You observe that the surfaces do not seek
+the same level." (Figure 12.)
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 12.--A, surface of water. B, surface of brine.]
+
+"Certainly not," I said; "the weight of the liquid in each arm is the
+same, however; the columns balance each other."
+
+"Exactly; and on this assumption you base your assertion that connected
+liquids of the same gravity must always seek a common level, but you see
+from this test that if two liquids of different gravities be connected
+from beneath, the surface of the lighter one will assume a higher level
+than the surface of the heavier."
+
+"Agreed; however tortuous the channel that connects them, such must be
+the case."
+
+"Is it not supposable," said he, "that there might be two pockets in the
+earth, one containing salt water, the other fresh water, which, if
+joined together, might be represented by such a figure as this, wherein
+the water surface would be raised above that of the brine?" And he drew
+upon the paper the accompanying diagram. (Figure 13.)
+
+"Yes," I admitted; "providing, of course, there was an equal pressure of
+air on the surface of each."
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 13.--B, surface of brine. W, surface of water. S,
+sand strata connecting them.]
+
+"Now I will draw a figure in which one pocket is above the other, and
+ask you to imagine that in the lower pocket we have pure water, in the
+upper pocket brine (Figure 14); can you bring any theory of your law to
+bear upon these liquids so that by connecting them together the water
+will rise and run into the brine?"
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 14.--B, brine. W, water. S, sand stratum. (The
+difference in altitude is somewhat exaggerated to make the phenomenon
+clear. A syphon may result under such circumstances.--L.)]
+
+"No," I replied; "connect them, and then the brine will flow into the
+water."
+
+"Upon the contrary," he said; "connect them, as innumerable cavities in
+the earth are joined, and the water will flow into the brine."
+
+"The assertion is opposed to applied philosophy and common sense," I
+said.
+
+"Where ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise, you know to be a maxim
+with mortals," he replied; "but I must pardon you; your dogmatic
+education narrows your judgment. I now will prove you in error."
+
+He took from his pocket two slender glass tubes, about an eighth of an
+inch in bore and four inches in length, each closed at one end, and
+stood them in a perforated cork that he placed upon the table.
+
+Into one tube he poured water, and then dissolving some salt in a cup,
+poured brine into the other, filling both nearly to the top (Figure 15).
+Next he produced a short curved glass tube, to each end of which was
+attached a strip of flexible rubber tubing. Then, from a piece of
+blotting paper such as is used to blot ink, he cut a narrow strip and
+passed it through the arrangement, forming the apparatus represented by
+Figure 16.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 15. A A, glass tubes. F, brine surface. E, water
+surface.]
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 16. B, curved glass tube. C C, rubber tubes. D D D,
+bibulous paper.]
+
+Then he inserted the two tubes (Figure 15) into the rubber, the
+extremities of the paper being submerged in the liquids, producing a
+combination that rested upright in the cork as shown by Figure 17.
+
+The surfaces of both liquids were at once lowered by reason of the
+suction of the bibulous paper, the water decreasing most rapidly, and
+soon the creeping liquids met by absorption in the paper, the point of
+contact, as the liquids met, being plainly discernible. Now the old man
+gently slid the tubes upon each other, raising one a little, so as to
+bring the surfaces of the two liquids exactly on a plane; he then marked
+the glass at the surface of each with a pen.
+
+"Observe the result," he remarked as he replaced the tubes in the cork
+with their liquid surfaces on a line.
+
+Together we sat and watched, and soon it became apparent that the
+surface of the water had decreased in height as compared with that of
+the brine. By fixing my gaze on the ink mark on the glass I also
+observed that the brine in the opposing tube was rising.
+
+"I will call to-morrow evening," he said, "and we shall then discover
+which is true, man's theory or nature's practice."
+
+Within a short time enough of the water in the tube had been transferred
+to the brine to raise its surface considerably above its former level,
+the surface of the water being lowered to a greater degree. (Figure 18.)
+I was discomfited at the result, and upon his appearance next evening
+peevishly said to the experimenter:
+
+"I do not know that this is fair."
+
+"Have I not demonstrated that, by properly connecting the liquids, the
+lighter flows into the heavier, and raises itself above the former
+surface?"
+
+"Yes; but there is no porous paper in the earth."
+
+"True; I used this medium because it was convenient. There are, however,
+vast subterranean beds of porous materials, stone, sand, clay, various
+other earths, many of which will answer the same purpose. By perfectly
+natural laws, on a large scale, such molecular transfer of liquids is
+constantly taking place within the earth, and in these phenomena the law
+of gravitation seems ignored, and the rule which man believes from
+narrow experience, governs the flow of liquids, is reversed. The arched
+porous medium always transfers the lighter liquid into the heavier one
+until its surface is raised considerably above that of the light one. In
+the same way you can demonstrate that alcohol passes into water,
+sulphuric ether into alcohol, and other miscible light liquids into
+those heavier."
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 17. A A, glass tubes. B, curved glass tube. C C,
+rubber tubes. D, bibulous paper. E, water surface. F, brine surface.]
+
+"I have seen you exemplify the statement on a small scale, with water
+and brine, and can not question but that it is true on a large one," I
+replied.
+
+"So you admit that the assertion governing the surfaces of liquids is
+true only when the liquids are connected from beneath. In other words,
+your thought is one-sided, as science thought often is."
+
+"Yes."
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 18. E, water surface. F, brine surface.]
+
+"Now as to the beds of salt deep within the earth. You are also mistaken
+concerning their origin. The water of the ocean that runs through an
+open channel from the one side may flow into an underground lake, that
+by means of the contact action (suction) of the overlying and
+surrounding strata is being continually emptied of its water, but not
+its salt. Thus by absorption of water the brine of the lake becomes in
+time saturated, starting crystallization regularly over the floor and
+sides of the basin. Eventually the entire cavity is filled with salt,
+and a solid mass of rock salt remains. If, however, before the lake
+becomes solid, the brine supply is shut off by some natural cause as by
+salt crystals closing the passage thereto, the underground lake is at
+last drained of its water, the salt crystallizing over the bottom, and
+upon the cliffs, leaving great crevices through the saline deposits, as
+chances to have been the case with the salt formations through which I
+passed with my guide, and have recently described to you."
+
+"Even now I have my doubts as to the correctness of your explanations,
+especially concerning the liquid surfaces."
+
+"They are facts, however; liquids capable of being mixed, if connected
+by porous arches (bibulous paper is convenient for illustrating by
+experiment) reverse the rule men have accepted to explain the phenomena
+of liquid equilibrium, for I repeat, the lighter one rushes into that
+which is heavier, and the surface of the heavier liquid rises. You can
+try the experiment with alcohol and water, taking precautions to prevent
+evaporation, or you can vary the experiment with solutions of various
+salts of different densities; the greater the difference in gravity
+between the two liquids, the more rapid will be the flow of the lighter
+one into the heavier, and after equilibrium, the greater will be the
+contrast in the final height of the resultant liquid surfaces."
+
+"Men will yet explain this effect by natural laws," I said.
+
+"Yes," he answered; "when they learn the facts; and they will then be
+able to solve certain phenomena connected with diffusion processes that
+they can not now understand. Did I not tell you that after the fact had
+been made plain it was easy to see how Columbus stood the egg on its
+end? What I have demonstrated by experiment is perhaps no new principle
+in hydrostatics. But I have applied it in a natural manner to the
+explanation of obscure natural phenomena, that men now seek unreasonable
+methods to explain."
+
+"You may proceed with your narrative. I accept that when certain liquids
+are connected, as you have shown, by means of porous substances, one
+will pass into the other, and the surface of the lighter liquid in this
+case will assume a position below that of the heavier."
+
+"You must also accept," said he, "that when solutions of salt are
+subjected to earth attraction, under proper conditions, the solids may
+by capillary attraction be left behind, and pure water finally pass
+through the porous medium. Were it not for this law, the only natural
+surface spring water on earth would be brine, for the superficial crust
+of the earth is filled with saline solutions. All the spring-fed
+rivers and lakes would also be salty and fetid with sulphur compounds,
+for at great depths brine and foul water are always present. Even in
+countries where all the water below the immediate surface of the earth
+is briny, the running springs, if of capillary origin, are pure and
+fresh. You may imagine how different this would be were it not for the
+law I have cited, for the whole earth's crust is permeated by brine and
+saline waters. Did your 'philosophy' never lead you to think of this?"
+
+Continuing, my guest argued as follows: "Do not lakes exist on the
+earth's surface into which rivers and streams flow, but which have no
+visible outlet? Are not such lakes saline, even though the source of
+supply is comparatively fresh? Has it never occurred to you to question
+whether capillarity assisted by surface evaporation (not evaporation
+only as men assert) is not separating the water of these lakes from the
+saline substances carried into them by the streams, thus producing brine
+lakes? Will not this action after a great length of time result in
+crystalline deposits over portions of the bottoms of such lakes, and
+ultimately produce a salt bed?"
+
+"It is possible," I replied.
+
+"Not only possible, but probable. Not only probable, but true. Across
+the intervening brine strata above the salt crystals the surface rivers
+may flow, indeed, owing to differences in specific gravity the surface
+of the lake may be comparatively fresh, while in the quiet depths below,
+beds of salt crystals are forming, and between these extremes may rest
+strata after strata of saline solutions, decreasing in gravity towards
+the top."
+
+Then he took his manuscript, and continued to read in a clear, musical
+voice, while I sat a more contented listener than I had been previously.
+I was not only confuted, but convinced. And I recalled the saying of
+Socrates, that no better fortune can happen a man than to be confuted in
+an error.
+
+
+
+
+MY UNBIDDEN GUEST CONTINUES READING HIS MANUSCRIPT.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+    MY WEIGHT DISAPPEARING.
+
+
+We halted suddenly, for we came unexpectedly to the edge of a precipice,
+twenty feet at least in depth.
+
+"Let us jump down," said my guide.
+
+"That would be dangerous," I answered; "can not we descend at some point
+where it is not so deep?"
+
+"No; the chasm stretches for miles across our path, and at this point we
+will meet with the least difficulty; besides, there is no danger. The
+specific gravity of our bodies is now so little that we could jump twice
+that distance with impunity."
+
+"I can not comprehend you; we are in the flesh, our bodies are possessed
+of weight, the concussion will be violent."
+
+"You reason again from the condition of your former life, and, as usual,
+are mistaken; there will be little shock, for, as I have said, our
+bodies are comparatively light now. Have you forgotten that your motion
+is continuously accelerated, and that without perceptible exertion you
+move rapidly? This is partly because of the loss of weight. Your weight
+would now be only about fifty pounds if tested by a spring balance."
+
+I stood incredulous.
+
+"You trifle with me; I weigh over one hundred and fifty pounds; how have
+I lost weight? It is true that I have noticed the ease with which we
+have recently progressed on our journey, especially the latter part of
+it, but I attribute this, in part, to the fact that our course is down
+an incline, and also to the vitalizing power of this cavern air."
+
+"This explains part of the matter," he said; "it answered at the time,
+and I stated a fact; but were it not that you are really consuming a
+comparatively small amount of energy, you would long before this have
+been completely exhausted. You have been gaining strength for some
+hours; have really been growing younger. Your wrinkled face has become
+more smooth, and your voice is again natural. You were prematurely aged
+by your brothers on the surface of the earth, in order that when you
+pass the line of gravity, you might be vigorous and enjoying manhood
+again. Had this aging process not been accomplished you would now have
+become as a child in many respects."
+
+[Illustration: "I BOUNDED UPWARD FULLY SIX FEET."]
+
+He halted before me. "Jump up," he said. I promptly obeyed the
+unexpected command, and sprung upward with sufficient force to carry me,
+as I supposed, six inches from the earth; however I bounded upward fully
+six feet. My look of surprise as I gently alighted, for there was no
+concussion on my return, seemed lost on my guide, and he quietly said:
+
+"If you can leap six feet upward without excessive exertion, or return
+shock, can not you jump twenty feet down? Look!"
+
+[Illustration: "I FLUTTERED TO THE EARTH AS A LEAF WOULD FALL."]
+
+And he leaped lightly over the precipice and stood unharmed on the stony
+floor below.
+
+Even then I hesitated, observing which, he cried:
+
+"Hang by your hands from the edge then, and drop."
+
+I did so, and the fourteen feet of fall seemed to affect me as though I
+had become as light as cork. I fluttered to the earth as a leaf would
+fall, and leaned against the precipice in surprised meditation.
+
+"Others have been through your experience," he remarked, "and I
+therefore can overlook your incredulity; but experiences such as you now
+meet, remove distrust. Doing is believing." He smiled benignantly.
+
+[Illustration: "WE LEAPED OVER GREAT INEQUALITIES."]
+
+I pondered, revolving in my mind the fact that persons had in mental
+abstraction, passed through unusual experiences in ignorance of
+conditions about them, until their attention had been called to the seen
+and yet unnoticed surroundings, and they had then beheld the facts
+plainly. The puzzle picture (see p. 129) stares the eye and impresses
+the retina, but is devoid of character until the hidden form is
+developed in the mind, and then that form is always prominent to the
+eye. My remarkably light step, now that my attention had been directed
+thereto, was constantly in my mind, and I found myself suddenly
+possessed of the strength of a man, but with the weight of an infant. I
+raised my feet without an effort; they seemed destitute of weight; I
+leaped about, tumbled, and rolled over and over on the smooth stone
+floor without injury. It appeared that I had become the airy similitude
+of my former self, my material substance having wasted away without a
+corresponding impairment of strength.I pinched my flesh to be assured
+that all was not a dream, and then endeavored to convince myself that I
+was the victim of delirium; but in vain. Too sternly my self-existence
+confronted me as a reality, a cruel reality. A species of intoxication
+possessed me once more, and I now hoped for the end, whatever it might
+be. We resumed our journey, and rushed on with increasing rapidity,
+galloping hand in hand, down, down, ever downward into the illuminated
+crevice of the earth. The spectral light by which we were aureoled
+increased in intensity, as by arithmetical progression, and I could now
+distinguish objects at a considerable distance before us. My spirits
+rose as if I were under the influence of a potent stimulant; a
+liveliness that was the opposite of my recent despondency had gained
+control, and I was again possessed of a delicious mental sensation, to
+which I can only refer as a most rapturous exhilaration. My guide
+grasped my hand firmly, and his touch, instead of revolting me as
+formerly it had done, gave pleasure. We together leaped over great
+inequalities in the floor, performing these aerial feats almost as
+easily as a bird flies. Indeed, I felt that I possessed the power of
+flight, for we bounded fearlessly down great declivities and over
+abysses that were often perpendicular, and many times our height. A very
+slight muscular exertion was sufficient to carry us rods of distance,
+and almost tiptoeing we skimmed with ever-increasing speed down the
+steeps of that unknown declivity. At length my guide held back; we
+gradually lessened our velocity, and, after a time, rested beside a
+horizontal substance that lay before us, apparently a sheet of glass,
+rigid, immovable, immeasurably great, that stretched as a level surface
+before us, vividly distinct in the brightness of an earth light, that
+now proved to be superior to sunshine. Far as the eye could reach, the
+glassy barrier to our further progress spread as a crystal mirror in
+front, and vanishing in the distance, shut off the beyond.
+
+[Illustration: "FAR AS THE EYE COULD REACH THE GLASSY BARRIER
+SPREAD AS A CRYSTAL MIRROR."]
+
+
+
+
+INTERLUDE.--THE STORY AGAIN INTERRUPTED.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+    MY UNBIDDEN GUEST DEPARTS.
+
+
+Once more I must presume to interrupt this narrative, and call back the
+reader's thoughts from those mysterious caverns through which we have
+been tracing the rapid footsteps of the man who was abducted, and his
+uncouth pilot of the lower realms. Let us now see and hear what took
+place in my room, in Cincinnati, just after my visitor, known to us as
+The-Man-Who-Did-It, had finished reading to me, Lewellyn Drury, the
+custodian of this manuscript, the curious chapter relating how the
+underground explorers lost weight as they descended in the hollows of
+the earth. My French clock struck twelve of its clear silvery notes
+before the gray-bearded reader finished his stint for the occasion, and
+folded his manuscript preparatory to placing it within his bosom.
+
+"It is past midnight," he said, "and it is time for me to depart; but I
+will come to you again within a year.
+
+"Meanwhile, during my absence, search the records, question authorities,
+and note such objections as rise therefrom concerning the statements I
+have made. Establish or disprove historically, or scientifically, any
+portion of the life history that I have given, and when I return I will
+hear what you have to say, and meet your argument. If there is a doubt
+concerning the authenticity of any part of the history, investigate; but
+make no mention to others of the details of our meetings."
+
+I sat some time in thought, then said: "I decline to concern myself in
+verifying the historical part of your narrative. The localities you
+mention may be true to name, and it is possible that you have related a
+personal history; but I can not perceive that I am interested in either
+proving or disproving it. I will say, however, that it does not seem
+probable that at any time a man can disappear from a community, as you
+claim to have done, and have been the means of creating a commotion in
+his neighborhood that affected political parties, or even led to an
+unusual local excitement, outside his immediate circle of acquaintances,
+for a man is not of sufficient importance unless he is very conspicuous.
+By your own admission, you were simply a studious mechanic, a credulous
+believer in alchemistic vagaries, and as I revolve the matter over, I am
+afraid that you are now trying to impose on my credulity. The story of a
+forcible abduction, in the manner you related, seems to me incredible,
+and not worthy of investigation, even had I the inclination to concern
+myself in your personal affairs. The statements, however, that you make
+regarding the nature of the crust of the earth, gravitation, light,
+instinct, and human senses are highly interesting, and even plausible as
+you artfully present the subjects, I candidly admit, and I shall take
+some pains to make inquiries concerning the recorded researches of
+experts who have investigated in that direction."
+
+"Collect your evidence," said he, "and I shall listen to your views when
+I return."
+
+He opened the door, glided away, and I was alone again.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+    I QUESTION SCIENTIFIC MEN.--ARISTOTLE'S ETHER.
+
+
+Days and weeks passed. When the opportunity presented, I consulted Dr.
+W. B. Chapman, the druggist and student of science, regarding the nature
+of light and earth, who in turn referred me to Prof. Daniel Vaughn. This
+learned man, in reply to my question concerning gravitation, declared
+that there was much that men wished to understand in regard to this
+mighty force, that might yet be explained, but which may never become
+known to mortal man.
+
+"The correlation of forces," said he, "was prominently introduced and
+considered by a painstaking scientific writer named Joule, in several
+papers that appeared between 1843 and 1850, and he was followed by
+others, who engaged themselves in experimenting and theorizing, and I
+may add that Joule was indeed preceded in such thought by Mayer. This
+department of scientific study just now appears of unusual interest to
+scientists, and your questions embrace problems connected with some
+phases of its phenomena. We believe that light, heat, and electricity
+are mutually convertible, in fact, the evidences recently opened up to
+us show that such must be the case. These agencies or manifestations are
+now known to be so related that whenever one disappears others spring
+into existence. Study the beautiful experiments and remarkable
+investigations of Sir William Thomson in these directions."
+
+"And what of gravitation?" I asked, observing that Prof. Vaughn
+neglected to include gravitation among his numerous enumerated forces,
+and recollecting that the force gravitation was more closely connected
+with my visitor's story than perhaps were any of the others, excepting
+the mysterious mid-earth illumination.
+
+"Of that force we are in greater ignorance than of the others," he
+replied. "It affects bodies terrestrial and celestial, drawing a
+material substance, or pressing to the earth; also holds, we believe,
+the earth and all other bodies in position in the heavens, thus
+maintaining the equilibrium of the planets. Seemingly gravitation is not
+derived from, or sustained by, an external force, or supply reservoir,
+but is an intrinsic entity, a characteristic of matter that decreases in
+intensity at the rate of the square of the increasing distance, as
+bodies recede from each other, or from the surface of the earth.
+However, gravitation neither escapes by radiation from bodies nor needs
+to be replenished, so far as we know, from without. It may be compared
+to an elastic band, but there is no intermediate tangible substance to
+influence bodies that are affected by it, and it remains in undying
+tension, unlike all elastic material substances known, neither losing
+nor acquiring energy as time passes. Unlike cohesion, or chemical
+attraction, it exerts its influence upon bodies that are out of contact,
+and have no material connection, and this necessitates a purely fanciful
+explanation concerning the medium that conducts such influences,
+bringing into existence the illogical, hypothetical, fifth ether, made
+conspicuous by Aristotle."
+
+"What of this ether?" I queried.
+
+"It is a necessity in science, but intangible, undemonstrated, unknown,
+and wholly theoretical. It is accepted as an existing fluid by
+scientists, because human theory can not conceive of a substance capable
+of, or explain how a substance can be capable of affecting a separate
+body unless there is an intermediate medium to convey force impressions.
+Hence to material substances Aristotle added (or at least made
+conspicuous) a speculative ether that, he assumed, pervades all space,
+and all material bodies as well, in order to account for the passage of
+heat and light to and from the sun, stars, and planets."
+
+"Explain further," I requested.
+
+"To conceive of such an entity we must imagine a material that is more
+evanescent than any known gas, even in its most diffused condition. It
+must combine the solidity of the most perfect conductor of heat
+(exceeding any known body in this respect to an infinite degree), with
+the transparency of an absolute vacuum. It must neither create friction
+by contact with any substance, nor possess attraction for matter; must
+neither possess weight (and yet carry the force that produces weight),
+nor respond to the influence of any chemical agent, or exhibit itself to
+any optical instrument. It must be invisible, and yet carry the force
+that produces the sensation of sight. It must be of such a nature that
+it can not, according to our philosophy, affect the corpuscles of
+earthly substances while permeating them without contact or friction,
+and yet, as a scientific incongruity, it must act so readily on physical
+bodies as to convey to the material eye the sensation of sight, and from
+the sun to creatures on distant planets it must carry the heat force,
+thus giving rise to the sensation of warmth. Through this medium, yet
+without sensible contact with it, worlds must move, and planetary
+systems revolve, cutting and piercing it in every direction, without
+loss of momentum. And yet, as I have said, this ether must be in such
+close contact as to convey to them the essence that warms the universe,
+lights the universe, and must supply the attractive bonds that hold the
+stellar worlds in position. A nothing in itself, so far as man's senses
+indicate, the ether of space must be denser than iridium, more mobile
+than any known liquid, and stronger than the finest steel."
+
+"I can not conceive of such an entity," I replied.
+
+"No; neither can any man, for the theory is irrational, and can not be
+supported by comparison with laws known to man, but the conception is
+nevertheless a primary necessity in scientific study. Can man, by any
+rational theory, combine a vacuum and a substance, and create a result
+that is neither material nor vacuity, neither something nor nothing, and
+yet an intensified all; being more attenuated than the most perfect of
+known vacuums, and a conductor better than the densest metal? This we do
+when we attempt to describe the scientists' all-pervading ether of
+space, and to account for its influence on matter. This hypothetical
+ether is, for want of a better theory of causes, as supreme in
+philosophy to-day as the alkahest of the talented old alchemist Van
+Helmont was in former times, a universal spirit that exists in
+conception, and yet does not exist in perception, and of which modern
+science knows as little as its speculative promulgator, Aristotle, did.
+We who pride ourselves on our exact science, smile at some of
+Aristotle's statements in other directions, for science has disproved
+them, and yet necessity forces us to accept this illogical ether
+speculation, which is, perhaps, the most unreasonable of all theories.
+Did not this Greek philosopher also gravely assert that the lion has but
+one vertebra in his neck; that the breath of man enters the heart; that
+the back of the head is empty, and that man has but eight ribs?"
+
+"Aristotle must have been a careless observer," I said.
+
+"Yes," he answered; "it would seem so, and science, to-day, bases its
+teachings concerning the passage of all forces from planet to planet,
+and sun to sun, on dicta such as I have cited, and no more reasonable in
+applied experiment."
+
+"And I have been referred to you as a conscientious scientific teacher,"
+I said; "why do you speak so facetiously?"
+
+"I am well enough versed in what we call science, to have no fear of
+injuring the cause by telling the truth, and you asked a direct
+question. If your questions carry you farther in the direction of force
+studies, accept at once, that, of the intrinsic constitution of force
+itself, nothing is known. Heat, light, magnetism, electricity, galvanism
+(until recently known as imponderable bodies) are now considered as
+modifications of force; but, in my opinion, the time will come when they
+will be known as disturbances."
+
+"Disturbances of what?"
+
+"I do not know precisely; but of something that lies behind them all,
+perhaps creates them all, but yet is in essence unknown to men."
+
+"Give me a clearer idea of your meaning."
+
+"It seems impossible," he replied; "I can not find words in which to
+express myself; I do not believe that forces, as we know them
+(imponderable bodies), are as modern physics defines them. I am tempted
+to say that, in my opinion, forces are disturbance expressions of a
+something with which we are not acquainted, and yet in which we are
+submerged and permeated. Aristotle's ether perhaps. It seems to me,
+that, behind all material substances, including forces, there is an
+unknown spirit, which, by certain influences, may be ruffled into the
+exhibition of an expression, which exhibition of temper we call a force.
+From this spirit these force expressions (wavelets or disturbances)
+arise, and yet they may become again quiescent, and again rest in its
+absorbing unity. The water from the outlet of a calm lake flows over a
+gentle decline in ripples, or quiet undulations, over the rapids in
+musical laughings, over a precipice in thunder tones,--always water,
+each a different phase, however, to become quiet in another lake (as
+ripples in this universe may awaken to our perception, to repose again),
+and still be water."
+
+He hesitated.
+
+"Go on," I said.
+
+"So I sometimes have dared to dream that gravitation may be the
+reservoir that conserves the energy for all mundane forces, and that
+what we call modifications of force are intermediate conditions,
+ripples, rapids, or cascades, in gravitation."
+
+"Continue," I said, eagerly, as he hesitated.
+
+He shook his head.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+    THE SOLILOQUY OF PROF. DANIEL VAUGHN.--"GRAVITATION IS THE
+    BEGINNING AND GRAVITATION IS THE END: ALL EARTHLY BODIES KNEEL TO
+    GRAVITATION."
+
+
+"Please continue, I am intensely interested; I wish that I could give
+you my reasons for the desire; I can not do so, but I beg you to
+continue."
+
+"I should add," continued Vaughn, ignoring my remarks, "that we have
+established rules to measure the force of gravitation, and have
+estimated the decrease of attraction as we leave the surfaces of the
+planets. We have made comparative estimates of the weight of the earth
+and planets, and have reason to believe that the force expression of
+gravitation attains a maximum at about one-sixth the distance toward the
+center of the earth, then decreases, until at the very center of our
+planet, matter has no weight. This, together with the rule I repeated a
+few moments ago, is about all we know, or think we know, of gravitation.
+Gravitation is the beginning and gravitation is the end; all earthly
+bodies kneel to gravitation. I can not imagine a Beyond, and yet
+gravitation," mused the rapt philosopher, "may also be an expression
+of--" he hesitated again, forgetting me completely, and leaned his shaggy
+head upon his hands. I realized that his mind was lost in conjecture,
+and that he was absorbed in the mysteries of the scientific immensity.
+Would he speak again? I could not think of disturbing his reverie, and
+minutes passed in silence. Then he slowly, softly, reverently murmured:
+"Gravitation, Gravitation, thou art seemingly the one permanent, ever
+present earth-bound expression of Omnipotence. Heat and light come and
+go, as vapors of water condense into rain and dissolve into vapor to
+return again to the atmosphere. Electricity and magnetism appear and
+disappear; like summer storms they move in diversified channels, or even
+turn and fly from contact with some bodies, seemingly forbidden to
+appear, but thou, Gravitation, art omnipresent and omnipotent. Thou
+createst motion, and yet maintainest the equilibrium of all things
+mundane and celestial. An attempt to imagine a body destitute of thy
+potency, would be to bankrupt and deaden the material universe. O!
+Gravitation, art thou a voice out of the Beyond, and are other forces
+but echoes--tremulous reverberations that start into life to vibrate for
+a spell and die in the space caverns of the universe while thou
+continuest supreme?"
+
+[Illustration: "SOLILOQUY OF PROF. DANIEL VAUGHN.
+
+'GRAVITATION IS THE BEGINNING, AND GRAVITATION IS THE END; ALL EARTHLY
+BODIES KNEEL TO GRAVITATION.'"]
+
+His bowed head and rounded shoulders stooped yet lower; he unconsciously
+brushed his shaggy locks with his hand, and seemed to confer with a
+familiar Being whom others could not see.
+
+"A voice from without," he repeated; "from beyond our realm! Shall the
+subtle ears of future scientists catch yet lighter echoes? Will the
+brighter thoughts of more gifted men, under such furtherings as the
+future may bring, perchance commune with beings who people immensity,
+distance disappearing before thy ever-reaching spirit? For with thee,
+who holdest the universe together, space is not space, and there is no
+word expressing time. Art thou a voice that carriest the history of the
+past from the past unto and into the present, and for which there is no
+future, all conditions of time being as one to thee, thy self covering
+all and connecting all together? Art thou, Gravitation, a voice? If so,
+there must be a something farther out in those fathomless caverns,
+beyond mind imaginings, from which thou comest, for how could
+nothingness have formulated itself into a voice? The suns and universe
+of suns about us, may be only vacant points in the depths of an
+all-pervading entity in which even thyself dost exist as a momentary
+echo, linked to substances ponderous, destined to fade away in the
+inter-stellar expanse outside, where disturbances disappear, and matter
+and gravitation together die; where all is pure, quiescent, peaceful and
+dark. Gravitation, Gravitation, imperishable Gravitation; thou seemingly
+art the ever-pervading, unalterable, but yet moving spirit of a cosmos
+of solemn mysteries. Art thou now, in unperceived force expressions,
+speaking to dumb humanity of other universes; of suns and vortices of
+suns; bringing tidings from the solar planets, or even infinitely
+distant star mists, the silent unresolved nebulae, and spreading before
+earth-bound mortal minds, each instant, fresh tidings from without,
+that, in ignorance, we can not read? May not beings, perhaps like
+ourselves but higher in the scale of intelligence, those who people some
+of the planets about us, even now beckon and try to converse with us
+through thy subtle, ever-present self? And may not their efforts at
+communication fail because of our ignorance of a language they can read?
+Are not light and heat, electricity and magnetism plodding, vacillating
+agents compared with thy steady existence, and is it even further
+possible?--"
+
+His voice had gradually lowered, and now it became inaudible; he was
+oblivious to my presence, and had gone forth from his own self; he was
+lost in matters celestial, and abstractedly continued unintelligibly to
+mutter to himself as, brushing his hair from his forehead, he picked up
+his well-worn felt hat, and placed it awkwardly on his shaggy head, and
+then shuffled away without bidding me farewell. The bent form,
+prematurely shattered by privation; uncouth, unkempt, typical of
+suffering and neglect, impressed me with the fact that in him man's life
+essence, the immortal mind, had forgotten the material part of man. The
+physical half of man, even of his own being, in Daniel Vaughn's
+estimation, was an encumbrance unworthy of serious attention, his spirit
+communed with the pure in nature, and to him science was a study of the
+great Beyond.[5]
+
+    [5] Mr. Drury can not claim to have recorded verbatim Prof.
+    Vaughn's remarks, but has endeavored to give the substance. His
+    language was faultless, his word selections beautiful, his
+    soliloquy impressive beyond description. Perhaps Drury even
+    misstated an idea, or more than one, evolved then by the great
+    mind of that patient man. Prof. Daniel Vaughn was fitted for a
+    scientific throne, a position of the highest honor; but, neglected
+    by man, proud as a king, he bore uncomplainingly privations most
+    bitter, and suffered alone until finally he died from starvation
+    and neglect in the city of his adoption. Some persons are ready to
+    cry, "Shame! Shame!" at wealthy Cincinnati; others assert that men
+    could not give to Daniel Vaughn, and since the first edition of
+    ETIDORHPA appeared, the undersigned has learned of one vain
+    attempt to serve the interests of this peculiar man. He would not
+    beg, and knowing his capacities, if he could not procure a
+    position in which to earn a living, he preferred to starve. The
+    only bitterness of his nature, it is said, went out against those
+    who, in his opinion, kept from him such employment as returns a
+    livelihood to scientific men; for he well knew his intellect
+    earned for him such a right in Cincinnati. Will the spirit of that
+    great man, talented Daniel Vaughn, bear malice against the people
+    of the city in which none who knew him will deny that he perished
+    from cold and privation? Commemorated is he not by a bust of
+    bronze that distorts the facts in that the garments are not seedy
+    and unkempt, the figure stooping, the cheek hollow and the eye
+    pitifully expressive of an empty stomach? That bust modestly rests
+    in the public library he loved so well, in which he suffered so
+    uncomplainingly, and starved so patiently. J. U. L.
+
+I embraced the first opportunity that presented itself to read the
+works that Prof. Vaughn suggested, and sought him more than once to
+question further. However, he would not commit himself in regard to the
+possible existence of other forces than those with which we are
+acquainted, and when I interrogated him as to possibilities in the study
+of obscure force expressions, he declined to express an opinion
+concerning the subject. Indeed, I fancied that he believed it probable,
+or at least not impossible, that a closer acquaintance with conditions
+of matter and energy might be the heirloom of future scientific
+students. At last I gave up the subject, convinced that all the
+information I was able to obtain from other persons whom I questioned,
+and whose answers were prompt and positive, was evolved largely from
+ignorance and self-conceit, and such information was insufficient to
+satisfy my understanding, or to command my attention. After hearing
+Vaughn, all other voices sounded empty.
+
+I therefore applied myself to my daily tasks, and awaited the promised
+return of the interesting, though inscrutable being whose subterranean
+sojourneying was possibly fraught with so much potential value to
+science and to man.
+
+
+
+
+
+THE UNBIDDEN GUEST RETURNS TO READ HIS MANUSCRIPT. CONTINUING HIS
+NARRATIVE.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+    THE MOTHER OF A VOLCANO.--"YOU CAN NOT DISPROVE, AND YOU DARE NOT
+    ADMIT."
+
+
+A year from the evening of the departure of the old man, found me in my
+room, expecting his presence; and I was not surprised when he opened the
+door, and seated himself in his accustomed chair.
+
+"Are you ready to challenge my statements?" he said, taking up the
+subject as though our conversation had not been interrupted.
+
+"No."
+
+"Do you accept my history?"
+
+"No."
+
+"You can not disprove, and you dare not admit. Is not that your
+predicament?" he asked. "You have failed in every endeavor to discredit
+the truth, and your would-be scientists, much as they would like to do
+so, can not serve you. Now we will continue the narrative, and I shall
+await your next attempt to cast a shadow over the facts."
+
+Then with his usual pleasant smile, he read from his manuscript a
+continuation of the intra-earth journey as follows:
+
+"Be seated," said my eyeless guide, "and I will explain some facts that
+may prove of interest in connection with the nature of the superficial
+crust of the earth. This crystal liquid spreading before us is a placid
+sheet of water, and is the feeder of the volcano, Mount Epomeo."
+
+"Can that be a surface of water?" I interrogated. "I find it hard to
+realize that water can be so immovable. I supposed the substance before
+us to be a rigid material, like glass, perhaps."
+
+"There is no wind to ruffle this aqueous surface,--why should it not be
+quiescent? This is the only perfectly smooth sheet of water that you
+have ever seen. It is in absolute rest, and thus appears a rigid level
+plane."
+
+"Grant that your explanation is correct," I said, "yet I can not
+understand how a quiet lake of water can give rise to a convulsion such
+as the eruption of a volcano."
+
+"Not only is this possible," he responded, "but water usually causes the
+exhibition of phenomena known as volcanic action. The Island of Ischia,
+in which the volcanic crater Epomeo is situated, is connected by a
+tortuous crevice with the peaceful pool by which we now stand, and at
+periods, separated by great intervals of time, the lake is partly
+emptied by a simple natural process, and a part of its water is expelled
+above the earth's surface in the form of super-heated steam, which
+escapes through that distant crater."
+
+"But I see no evidence of heat or even motion of any kind."
+
+"Not here," he replied; "in this place there is none. The energy is
+developed thousands of miles away, but since the phenomena of volcanic
+action are to be partially explained to you at a future day, I will
+leave that matter for the present. We shall cross this lake."
+
+I observed as we walked along its edge that the shore of the lake was
+precipitous in places, again formed a gradually descending beach, and
+the dead silence of the space about us, in connection with the
+death-like stillness of that rigid mass of water and its surroundings,
+became increasingly impressive and awe-inspiring. Never before had I
+seen such a perfectly quiet glass-like surface. Not a vibration or
+undulation appeared in any direction. The solidity of steel was
+exemplified in its steady, apparently inflexible contour, and yet the
+pure element was so transparent that the bottom of the pool was as
+clearly defined as the top of the cavern above me. The lights and shades
+of the familiar lakes of Western New York were wanting here, and it
+suddenly came to my mind that there were surface reflections, but no
+shadows, and musing on this extraordinary fact, I stood motionless on a
+jutting cliff absorbed in meditation, abstractedly gazing down into that
+transparent depth. Without sun or moon, without apparent source of
+light, and yet perfectly illuminated, the lofty caverns seemed cut by
+that aqueous plane into two sections, one above and one below a
+transparent, rigid surface line. The dividing line, or horizontal plane,
+appeared as much a surface of air as a surface of water, and the
+material above that plane seemed no more nor less a gas, or liquid, than
+that beneath it. If two limpid, transparent liquids, immiscible, but of
+different gravities, be poured into the same vessel, the line of
+demarkation will be as a brilliant mirror, such as I now beheld parting
+and yet uniting the surfaces of air and water.
+
+Lost in contemplation, I unconsciously asked the mental question:
+
+"Where are the shadows?"
+
+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."
+
+[Illustration: "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 shore. 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 shore 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 assume 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.
+
+"If a series of knife blades on pivot ends be set in a frame, and turned
+edgewise to a rapid current of water, the swiftly moving stream flows
+through this sieve of metallic edges about as easily as if there were no
+obstructions. Slowly turn the blades so as to present their oblique
+sides to the current, and an immediate pressure is apparent upon the
+frame that holds them; turn the blades so as to shut up the space, and
+they will be torn from their sockets, or the entire frame will be
+shattered into pieces."
+
+"I understand; go on."
+
+"The ethereal current that generates the magnetic force passes through
+material bodies with inconceivable rapidity, and the molecules of a few
+substances only, present to it the least obstruction. Material molecules
+are edgewise in it, and meet no retardation in the subtle flood. This
+force is a disturbance of space energy that is rushing into the earth in
+one form, and out of it in another. But your mind is not yet in a
+condition to grasp the subject, for at best there is no method of
+explaining to men that which their experimental education has failed to
+prepare them to receive, and for which first absolutely new ideas, and
+next words with new meaning, must be formed. Now we, (by we I mean those
+with whom I am connected) have learned to disturb the molecules in
+matter so as to turn them partly, or entirely, across the path of this
+magnetic current, and thus interrupt the motion of this ever-present
+energy. We can retard its velocity without, however, producing either
+magnetism (as is the case in a bar of steel), electricity, or heat, but
+motion instead, and thus a portion of this retarded energy springs into
+its new existence as motion of my boat. It is force changed into
+movement of matter, for the molecules of the boat, as a mass, must move
+onward as the force disappears as a current. Perhaps you can accept now
+that instead of light, heat, electricity, magnetism, and gravitation
+being really modifications of force they are disturbances."
+
+"Disturbances of what?"
+
+"Disturbances of motion."
+
+"Motion of what?"
+
+"Motion of itself, pure and simple."
+
+"I can not comprehend, I can not conceive of motion pure and simple."
+
+"I will explain at a future time so that you can comprehend more
+clearly. Other lessons must come first, but never will you see the end.
+Truth is infinite."
+
+Continuing, he said:
+
+"Let me ask if there is anything marvelous in this statement. On the
+earth's surface men arrest the fitful wind, and by so doing divert the
+energy of its motion into movement of machinery; they induce it to turn
+mills and propel vessels. This motion of air is a disturbance, mass
+motion transmitted to the air by heat, heat in turn being a disturbance
+or interruption of pure motion. When men learn to interrupt this
+unperceived stream of energy so as to change directly into material
+motion the spirit that saturates the universe, and that produces force
+expressions, as it is constantly rushing from earth into space, and from
+space back again, they will have at command wherever they may be an
+endless source of power, light, and heat; mass motion, light and heat
+being convertible. Motion lies behind heat, light, and electricity, and
+produces them, and so long as the earth revolves on its axis, and
+circles in its orbit, man needs no light and heat from such indirect
+sources as combustion. Men will, however, yet obtain motion of molecules
+(heat), and material mass motion as well, from earth motion, without the
+other dangerous intermediate force expressions now deemed necessary in
+their production."
+
+"Do you wish me to understand that on all parts of the earth's surface
+there is a continual expenditure of energy, an ever-ready current, that
+is really distinct from the light and heat of the sun, and also that the
+imponderable bodies that we call heat, light, electricity, and
+magnetism are not substances at all?"
+
+"Yes," he replied.
+
+"And that this imperceptible something--fluid I will say, for want of a
+better term--now invisible and unknown to man, is as a medium in which
+the earth, submerged, floats as a speck of dust in a flood of space?"
+
+"Certainly," he replied.
+
+"Am I to infer from your remarks that, in the course of time, man will
+be able to economize this force, and adapt it to his wants?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Go on with your exposition, I again beg of you; lead me deeper into
+this expanding study."
+
+"There is but little more that you can comprehend now, as I have said,"
+he answered. "All materials known to man are of coarse texture, and the
+minds of men are not yet in a condition to comprehend finer exhibitions
+of force, or of motion modifications. Pure energy, in all its
+modifications, is absolutely unknown to man. What men call heat,
+gravitation, light, electricity, and magnetism are the grosser
+attributes attending alterations in an unknown, attenuated, highly
+developed force producer. They are results, not causes. The real force,
+an unreached energy, is now flooding all space, pervading all materials.
+Everywhere there exists an infinite sea of motion absolute. Since this
+primeval entity can not now affect matter, as matter is known to man,
+man's sense can only be influenced by secondary attributes of this
+energy. Unconscious of its all-pervading presence, however, man is
+working towards the power that will some day, upon the development of
+latent senses, open to him this new world. Then at last he will move
+without muscular exertion, or the use of heat as an agent of motion, and
+will, as I am now doing, bridle the motion of space. Wherever he may be
+situated, there will then be warmth to any degree that he wishes, for he
+will be able to temper the seasons, and mass motion illimitable, also,
+for this energy, I reiterate, is omnipresent. However, as you will know
+more of this before long, we will pass the subject for the present."
+
+My guide slowly moved the lever. I sat in deep reflection, beginning to
+comprehend somewhat of his reasoning, and yet my mind was more than
+clouded. The several ambiguous repetitions he had made since our journey
+commenced, each time suggesting the same idea, clothing it in different
+forms of expression, impressed me vaguely with the conception of a
+certain something for which I was gradually being prepared, and that I
+might eventually be educated to grasp, but which he believed my mind was
+not yet ready to receive. I gathered from what he said that he could
+have given clearer explanations than he was now doing, and that he
+clothed his language intentionally in mysticism, and that, for some
+reason, he preferred to leave my mind in a condition of uncertainty. The
+velocity of the boat increased as he again and again cautiously touched
+the lever, and at last the responsive craft rose nearly out of the
+water, and skimmed like a bird over its surface. There was no object in
+that lake of pure crystal to govern me in calculating as to the rapidity
+of our motion, and I studied to evolve a method by which I could time
+our movements. With this object in view I tore a scrap from my clothing
+and tossed it into the air. It fell at my feet as if in a calm. There
+was no breeze. I picked the fragment up, in bewilderment, for I had
+expected it to fall behind us. Then it occurred to me, as by a flash,
+that notwithstanding our apparently rapid motion, there was an entire
+absence of atmospheric resistance. What could explain the paradox? I
+turned to my guide and again tossed the fragment of cloth upward, and
+again it settled at my feet. He smiled, and answered my silent inquiry.
+
+"There is a protecting sheet before us, radiating, fan-like, from the
+bow of our boat as if a large pane of glass were resting on edge, thus
+shedding the force of the wind. This diaphragm catches the attenuated
+atmosphere and protects us from its friction."
+
+"But I see no such protecting object," I answered.
+
+"No; it is invisible. You can not see the obstructing power, for it is
+really a gyrating section of force, and is colorless. That spray of
+metal on the brow of our boat is the developer of this protecting
+medium. Imagine a transverse section of an eddy of water on edge before
+us, and you can form a comparison. Throw the bit of garment as far as
+you can beyond the side of the boat."
+
+I did so, and saw it flutter slowly away to a considerable distance
+parallel with our position in the boat as though in a perfect calm, and
+then it disappeared. It seemed to have been dissolved. I gazed at my
+guide in amazement.
+
+"Try again," said he.
+
+[Illustration: "THE BIT OF GARMENT FLUTTERED LISTLESSLY AWAY TO THE SAME
+DISTANCE, AND THEN--VACANCY."]
+
+I tore another and a larger fragment from my coat sleeve. I fixed my
+eyes closely upon it, and cast it from me. The bit of garment fluttered
+listlessly away to the same distance, and then--vacancy. Wonders of
+wonderland, mysteries of the mysterious! What would be the end of this
+marvelous journey? Suspicion again possessed me, and distrust arose.
+Could not my self-existence be blotted out in like manner? I thought
+again of my New York home, and the recollection of upper earth, and
+those broken family ties brought to my heart a flood of bitter emotions.
+I inwardly cursed the writer of that alchemistic letter, and cursed
+myself for heeding the contents. The tears gushed from my eyes and
+trickled through my fingers as I covered my face with my hands and
+groaned aloud. Then, with a gentle touch, my guide's hand rested on my
+shoulder.
+
+"Calm yourself," he said; "this phenomenon is a natural sequence to a
+deeper study of nature than man has reached. It is simply the result of
+an exhibition of rapid motion. You are upon a great underground lake,
+that, on a shelf of earth substance one hundred and fifty miles below
+the earth's surface, covers an area of many thousand square miles, and
+which has an average depth of five miles. We are now crossing it
+diagonally at a rapid rate by the aid of the force that man will yet use
+in a perfectly natural manner on the rough upper ocean and bleak lands
+of the earth's coarse surface. The fragments of cloth disappeared from
+sight when thrown beyond the influence of our protecting diaphragm,
+because when they struck the outer motionless atmosphere they were
+instantly left behind; the eye could not catch their sudden change in
+motion. A period of time is necessary to convey from eye to mind the
+sensation of sight. The bullet shot from a gun is invisible by reason of
+the fact that the eye can not discern the momentary interruption to the
+light. A cannon ball will compass the field of vision of the eye, moving
+across it without making itself known, and yet the fact does not excite
+surprise. We are traveling so fast that small, stationary objects
+outside our track are invisible."
+
+Then in a kind, pathetic tone of voice, he said:
+
+"An important lesson you should learn, I have mentioned it before.
+Whatever seems to be mysterious, or marvelous, is only so because of the
+lack of knowledge of associated natural phenomena and connected
+conditions. All that you have experienced, all that you have yet to meet
+in your future journey, is as I have endeavored to teach you, in exact
+accordance with the laws that govern the universe, of which the earth
+constitutes so small a portion that, were the conditions favorable, it
+could be blotted from its present existence as quickly as that bit of
+garment disappeared, and with as little disturbance of the mechanism of
+the moving universe."
+
+I leaned over, resting my face upon my elbow; my thoughts were
+immethodically wandering in the midst of multiplying perplexities; I
+closed my eyes as a weary child, and slept.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+    SLEEP, DREAMS, NIGHTMARE.--"STRANGLE THE LIFE FROM MY BODY."
+
+
+I know not how long I sat wrapped in slumber. Even if my body had not
+been wearing away as formerly, my mind had become excessively wearied. I
+had existed in a state of abnormal mental intoxication far beyond the
+period of accustomed wakefulness, and had taxed my mental organization
+beyond endurance. In the midst of events of the most startling
+description, I had abruptly passed into what was at its commencement the
+sweetest sleep of my recollection, but which came to a horrible
+termination.
+
+In my dream I was transported once more to my native land, and roamed in
+freedom throughout the streets of my lost home. I lived over again my
+early life in Virginia, and I seemed to have lost all recollection of
+the weird journey which I had lately taken. My subsequent connection
+with the brotherhood of alchemists, and the unfortunate letter that led
+to my present condition, were forgotten. There came no thought
+suggestive of the train of events that are here chronicled, and as a
+child I tasted again the pleasures of innocence, the joys of boyhood.
+
+Then my dream of childhood vanished, and the scenes of later days spread
+themselves before me. I saw, after a time, the scenes of my later life,
+as though I viewed them from a distance, and was impressed with the idea
+that they were not real, but only the fragments of a dream. I shuddered
+in my childish dreamland, and trembled as a child would at confronting
+events of the real life that I had passed through on earth, and that
+gradually assuming the shape of man approached and stood before me, a
+hideous specter seemingly ready to absorb me. The peaceful child in
+which I existed shrunk back, and recoiled from the approaching living
+man.
+
+"Away, away," I cried, "you shall not grasp me, I do not wish to become
+a man; this can not, must not be the horrible end to a sweet existence."
+
+Gradually the Man Life approached, seized and enveloped me, closing
+around me as a jelly fish surrounds its living victim, while the horrors
+of a nightmare came over my soul.
+
+"Man's life is a fearful dream," I shouted, as I writhed in agony; "I am
+still a child, and will remain one; keep off! Life of man, away! let me
+live and die a child."
+
+The Specter of Man's Life seized me more firmly as I struggled to
+escape, and holding me in its irresistible clutch absorbed my substance
+as a vampire might suck the blood of an infant, and while the childish
+dream disappeared in that hideous embrace, the miserable man awoke.
+
+I found myself on land. The guide, seated at my side, remarked:
+
+"You have slept."
+
+"I have lived again," I said in bitterness.
+
+"You have not lived at all as yet," he replied; "life is a dream,
+usually it is an unsatisfied nightmare."
+
+"Then let me dream again as at the beginning of this slumber," I said;
+"and while I dream as a child, do you strangle the life from my
+body,--spare me the nightmare, I would not live to reach the Life of
+Man."
+
+"This is sarcasm," he replied; "you are as changeable as the winds of
+the earth's surface. Now as you are about to approach a part of our
+journey where fortitude is necessary, behold, you waver as a little
+child might. Nerve yourself; the trials of the present require a steady
+mind, let the future care for itself; you can not recall the past."
+
+I became attentive again; the depressing effects of that repulsive dream
+rapidly lifted, and wasted away, as I realized that I was a man, and was
+destined to see more than can be seen in the future of other mortals.
+This elevation of my spirit was evidently understood by my guide. He
+turned to the lake, and pointing to its quiet bosom, remarked:
+
+"For five hours we have journeyed over this sheet of water at the
+average rate of nine hundred miles an hour. At the time you threw the
+fragments of cloth overboard, we were traveling at a speed of not less
+than twenty miles per minute. You remember that some hours ago you
+criticised my assertion when I said that we would soon be near the axis
+of the earth beneath the North Pole, and now we are beyond that point,
+and are about six thousand miles from where we stood at that time."
+
+"You must have your way," I replied; "I can not disprove your assertion,
+but were it not that I have passed through so many marvelous experiences
+since first we met, I would question the reliability of your
+information."
+
+My guide continued:
+
+"The surface of this lake lies as a mirror beneath both the ocean and
+the land. The force effect that preserves the configuration of the ocean
+preserves the form of this also, but influences it to a less extent, and
+the two surfaces lie nearly parallel with each other, this one being one
+hundred and fifty miles beneath the surface of the earth. The shell of
+the earth above us is honeycombed by caverns in some places, in others
+it is compact, and yet, in most places, is impervious to water. At the
+farther extremity of the lake, a stratum of porous material extends
+through the space intervening between the bottom of the ocean and this
+lake. By capillary attraction, assisted by gravitation, part of the
+water of the ocean is being transferred through this stratum to the
+underground cavity. The lake is slowly rising."
+
+At this remark I interrupted him: "You say the water in the ocean is
+being slowly transferred down to this underground lake less by gravity
+than by capillarity."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"I believe that I have reason to question that statement, if you do not
+include the salt," I replied.
+
+"Pray state your objections."
+
+I answered: "Whether a tube be long or short, if it penetrate the bottom
+of a vessel of brine, and extend downward, the brine will flow into and
+out of it by reason of its weight."
+
+"You mistake," he asserted; "the attraction of the sides of the
+capillary tube, if the tube is long enough, will eventually separate the
+water from the salt, and at length a downward flow of water only will
+result."
+
+I again expressed my incredulity.
+
+"More than this, by perfectly natural laws the water that is freed from
+the tubes might again force itself upward perfectly fresh, to the
+surface of the earth--yes, under proper conditions, above the surface of
+the ocean."
+
+"Do you take me for a fool?" I said. "Is it not self-evident that a
+fountain can not rise above its source?"
+
+"It often does," he answered.
+
+"You trifle with me," I said, acrimoniously.
+
+"No," he replied; "I am telling you the truth. Have you never heard of
+what men call artesian wells?"
+
+"Yes, and" (here I attempted in turn to become sarcastic) "have you
+never learned that they are caused by water flowing into crevices in
+uplands where layers of stone or of clay strata separated by sand or
+gravel slant upward. The water conducted thence by these channels
+afterwards springs up in the valleys to which it has been carried by
+means of the crevices in these strata, but it never rises above its
+source."
+
+To my surprise he answered:
+
+"This is another of man's scientific speculations, based on some facts,
+it is true, and now and then correct, but not invariably. The water of
+an artesian well on an elevated plane may flow into the earth from a
+creek, pond, or river, that is lower than the mouth of the well it
+feeds, and still it may spout into the air from either a near or distant
+elevation that is higher than its source."
+
+"I can not admit the truth of this," I said; "I am willing to listen to
+reason, but such statements as these seem altogether absurd."
+
+"As you please," he replied; "we will continue our journey."
+
+
+
+
+INTERLUDE.--THE STORY INTERRUPTED.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+    A CHALLENGE.--MY UNBIDDEN GUEST ACCEPTS IT.
+
+
+The white-haired reader, in whom I had now become deeply interested, no
+longer an unwelcome stranger, suspended his reading, laid down his
+manuscript, and looking me in the face, asked:
+
+"Are you a believer?"
+
+"No," I promptly answered.
+
+"What part of the narrative do you question?"
+
+"All of it."
+
+"Have you not already investigated some of the statements I previously
+made?" he queried.
+
+"Yes," I said; "but you had not then given utterance to such
+preposterous expressions."
+
+"Is not the truth, the truth?" he answered.
+
+"You ask me to believe impossibilities," I replied.
+
+"Name one."
+
+"You yourself admit," I said warmly, "that you were incredulous, and
+shook your head when your guide asserted that the bottom of the ocean
+might be as porous as a sieve, and still hold water. A fountain can not
+rise above its source."
+
+"It often does, however," he replied.
+
+"I do not believe you," I said boldly. "And, furthermore, I assert that
+you might as reasonably ask me to believe that I can see my own brain,
+as to accept your fiction regarding the production of light, miles below
+the surface of the earth."
+
+"I can make your brain visible to you, and if you dare to accompany me,
+I will carry you beneath the surface of the earth and prove my other
+statement," he said. "Come!" He arose and grasped my arm.
+
+I hesitated.
+
+"You confess that you fear the journey."
+
+I made no reply.
+
+"Well, since you fear that method, I am ready to convince you of the
+facts by any rational course you may select, and if you wish to stake
+your entire argument on the general statement that a stream of water can
+not rise above its head, I will accept the challenge; but I insist that
+you do not divulge the nature of the experiment until, as you are
+directed, you make public my story."
+
+"Of course a fluid can be pumped up," I sarcastically observed.
+"However, I promise the secrecy you ask."
+
+"I am speaking seriously," he said, "and I have accepted your challenge;
+your own eyes shall view the facts, your own hands prepare the
+conditions necessary. Procure a few pints of sand, and a few pounds of
+salt; to-morrow evening I will be ready to make the experiment."
+
+"Agreed; if you will induce a stream of water to run up hill, a fountain
+to rise above its head, I will believe any statement you may henceforth
+make."
+
+"Be ready, then," he replied, "and procure the materials named." So
+saying he picked up his hat and abruptly departed.
+
+These substances I purchased the next day, procuring the silver sand
+from Gordon's pharmacy, corner of Eighth and Western Row, and promptly
+at the specified time we met in my room.
+
+He came, provided with a cylindrical glass jar about eighteen inches
+high and two inches in diameter (such as I have since learned is called
+a hydrometer jar), and a long, slender drawn glass tube, the internal
+diameter of which was about one-sixteenth of an inch.
+
+"You have deceived me," I said; "I know well enough that capillary
+attraction will draw a liquid above its surface. You demonstrated that
+quite recently to my entire satisfaction."
+
+"True, and yet not true of this experiment," he said. "I propose to
+force water through and out of this tube; capillary attraction will not
+expel a liquid from a tube if its mouth be above the surface of the
+supply."
+
+He dipped the tip of a capillary tube into a tumbler of water; the water
+rose inside the tube about an inch above the surface of the water in the
+tumbler.
+
+"Capillary attraction can do no more," he said. "Break the tube
+one-eighth of an inch above the water (far below the present capillary
+surface), and it will not overflow. The exit of the tube must be lower
+than the surface of the liquid if circulation ensues."
+
+He broke off a fragment, and the result was as predicted.
+
+Then he poured water into the glass jar to the depth of about six
+inches, and selecting a piece of very thin muslin, about an inch square,
+turned it over the end of the glass tube, tied it in position, and
+dropped that end of the tube into the cylinder.
+
+"The muslin simply prevents the tube from filling with sand," he
+explained. Then he poured sand into the cylinder until it reached the
+surface of the water. (See Figure 23.)
+
+"Your apparatus is simple enough," I remarked, I am afraid with some
+sarcasm.
+
+"Nature works with exceeding simplicity," he replied; "there is no
+complex apparatus in her laboratory, and I copy after nature."
+
+Then he dissolved the salt in a portion of water that he drew from the
+hydrant into my wash bowl, making a strong brine, and stirred sand into
+the brine to make a thick mush. This mixture of sand and brine he then
+poured into the cylinder, filling it nearly to the top. (See Figure 23,
+B. The sand settling soon left a layer of brine above it, as shown by
+A.) I had previously noticed that the upper end of the glass tube was
+curved, and my surprise can be imagined when I saw that at once water
+began to flow through the tube, dropping quite rapidly into the
+cylinder. The lower end of the curve of the glass tube was fully half an
+inch above the surface of the liquid in the cylinder.
+
+I here present a figure of the apparatus. (Figure 23.)
+
+The strange man, or man image, I do not know which, sat before me, and
+in silence we watched the steady flow of water, water rising above its
+surface and flowing into the reservoir from which it was being
+continually derived.
+
+"Do you give up?" he asked.
+
+"Let me think," I said.
+
+"As you please," he replied.
+
+"How long will this continue?" I inquired.
+
+"Until strong salt water flows from the tube."
+
+Then the old man continued:
+
+"I would suggest that after I depart you repeat these experiments. The
+observations of those interested in science must be repeated time and
+again by separate individuals. It is not sufficient that one person
+should observe a phenomenon; repeated experiments are necessary in order
+to overcome error of manipulation, and to convince others of their
+correctness. Not only yourself, but many others, after this manuscript
+appears, should go through with similar investigations, varied in detail
+as mind expansion may suggest. This experiment is but the germ of a
+thought which will be enlarged upon by many minds under other
+conditions. An event meteorological may occur in the experience of one
+observer, and never repeat itself. This is possible. The results of such
+experiments as you are observing, however, must be followed by similar
+results in the hands of others, and in behalf of science it is necessary
+that others should be able to verify your experience. In the time to
+come it will be necessary to support your statements in order to
+demonstrate that your perceptive faculties are now in a normal
+condition. Are you sure that your conceptions of these results are
+justified by normal perception? May you not be in an exalted state of
+mind that hinders clear perception, and compels you to imagine and
+accept as fact that which does not exist? Do you see what you think you
+see? After I am gone, and the influences that my person and mind exert
+on your own mind have been removed, will these results, as shown by my
+experiments, follow similar experimental conditions? In the years that
+are to pass before this paper is to be made public, it will be your duty
+to verify your present sense faculty. This you must do as opportunities
+present, and with different devices, so that no question may arise as to
+what will follow when others repeat our experiments. To-morrow evening I
+will call again, but remember, you must not tell others of this
+experiment, nor show the devices to them."
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 23. A, brine. B, sand and brine mixed. C, sand and
+water.]
+
+"I have promised," I answered.
+
+He gathered his manuscript and departed, and I sat in meditation
+watching the mysterious fountain.
+
+As he had predicted, finally, after a long time, the flow slackened, and
+by morning, when I arose from my bed, the water had ceased to drip, and
+then I found it salty to the taste.
+
+The next evening he appeared as usual, and prepared to resume his
+reading, making no mention of the previous test of my faith. I
+interrupted him, however, by saying that I had observed that the sand
+had settled in the cylinder, and that in my opinion his experiment was
+not true to appearances, but was a deception, since the sand by its
+greater weight displaced the water, which escaped through the tube,
+where there was least resistance.
+
+"Ah," he said, "and so you refuse to believe your own eyesight, and are
+contriving to escape the deserved penalty; I will, however, acquiesce in
+your outspoken desire for further light, and repeat the experiment
+without using sand. But I tell you that mother earth, in the phenomena
+known as artesian wells, uses sand and clay, pools of mineral waters of
+different gravities, and running streams. The waters beneath the earth
+are under pressure, induced by such natural causes as I have presented
+you in miniature, the chief difference being that the supplies of both
+salt and fresh water are inexhaustible, and by natural combinations
+similar to what you have seen; the streams within the earth, if a pipe
+be thrust into them, may rise continuously, eternally, from a reservoir
+higher than the head. In addition, there are pressures of gases, and
+solutions of many salts, other than chloride of soda, that tend to favor
+the phenomenon. You are unduly incredulous, and you ask of me more than
+your right after staking your faith on an experiment of your own
+selection. You demand more of me even than nature often accomplishes in
+earth structure; but to-morrow night I will show you that this seemingly
+impossible feat is possible."
+
+He then abruptly left the room. The following evening he presented
+himself with a couple of one-gallon cans, one of them without a bottom.
+I thought I could detect some impatience of manner as he filled the
+perfect can (D) with water from the hydrant, and having spread a strip
+of thin muslin over the mouth of the other can (B), pressed it firmly
+over the mouth (C) of the can of water, which it fitted tightly, thus
+connecting them together, the upper (bottomless) can being inverted.
+Then he made a narrow slit in the center of the muslin with his
+pen-knife, and through it thrust a glass tube like that of our former
+experiment. Next he wrapped a string around the open top of the upper
+can, crossed it over the top, and tied the glass tube to the center of
+the cross string.
+
+"Simply to hold this tube in position," he explained.
+
+The remainder of the bag of salt left from the experiment of the
+preceding evening was then dissolved in water, and the brine poured into
+the upper can, filling it to the top. Then carefully thrusting the glass
+tube downward, he brought the tip of the curve to within about one-half
+inch of the surface of the brine, when immediately a rapid flow of
+liquid exhibited itself. (Figure 24.)
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 24.
+
+A, surface of brine.
+
+B, upper can filled with brine.
+
+C, necks of cans telescoped.
+
+D, lower can full of water.]
+
+"It rises above its source without sand," he observed.
+
+"I can not deny the fact," I replied, "and furthermore I am determined
+that I shall not question any subsequent statement that you may make."
+We sat in silence for some time, and the water ran continuously through
+the tube. I was becoming alarmed, afraid of my occult guest, who
+accepted my self-selected challenges, and worked out his results so
+rapidly; he seemed to be more than human.
+
+"I am a mortal, but a resident of a higher plane than you," he replied,
+divining my thoughts. "Is not this experiment a natural one?"
+
+"Yes," I said.
+
+"Did not Shakspeare write, 'There are more things in heaven and earth,
+Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy'?"
+
+"Yes," I said.
+
+And my guest continued:
+
+"He might have added, 'and always will be'."
+
+"Scientific men will explain this phenomenon," I suggested.
+
+"Yes, when they observe the facts," he replied, "it is very simple. They
+can now tell, as I have before remarked, how Columbus stood the egg on
+end; however, given the problem before Columbus expounded it, they would
+probably have wandered as far from the true solution as the mountain
+with its edgewise layers of stone is from the disconnected artesian
+wells on a distant sea coast where the underground fresh and salt water
+in overlying currents and layers clash together. The explanation, of
+course, is simple. The brine is of greater specific gravity than the
+pure water; the pressure of the heavier fluid forces the lighter up in
+the tube. This action continues until, as you will see by this
+experiment, in the gradual diffusion of brine and pure water the salt is
+disseminated equally throughout the vessels, and the specific gravity of
+the mixed liquid becomes the same throughout, when the flow will cease.
+However, in the earth, where supplies are inexhaustible, the fountain
+flows unceasingly."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+    BEWARE OF BIOLOGY, THE SCIENCE OF THE LIFE OF MAN.[6]
+
+(The old man relates a story as an object lesson.)
+
+    [6] The reader is invited to skip this chapter of horrors.--J. U. L.
+
+
+"But you have not lived up to the promise; you have evaded part of the
+bargain," I continued. "While you have certainly performed some curious
+experiments in physics which seem to be unique, yet, I am only an
+amateur in science, and your hydrostatic illustrations may be
+repetitions of investigations already recorded, that have escaped the
+attention of the scientific gentlemen to whom I have hitherto applied."
+
+"Man's mind is a creature of doubts and questions," he observed. "Answer
+one query, and others rise. His inner self is never satisfied, and you
+are not to blame for wishing for a sign, as all self-conscious
+conditions of your former existence compel. Now that I have brushed
+aside the more prominent questionings, you insist upon those omitted,
+and appeal to me to--" he hesitated.
+
+"To what?" I asked, curious to see if he had intuitively grasped my
+unspoken sentence.
+
+"To exhibit to you your own brain," he replied.
+
+"That is it exactly," I said; "you promised it, and you shall be held
+strictly to your bargain. You agreed to show me my own brain, and it
+seems evident that you have purposely evaded the promise."
+
+"That I have made the promise and deferred its completion can not be
+denied, but not by reason of an inability to fulfill the contract. I
+will admit that I purposely deferred the exhibition, hoping on your own
+account that you would forget the hasty promise. You would better
+release me from the promise; you do not know what you ask."
+
+"I believe that I ask more than you can perform," I answered, "and that
+you know it."
+
+"Let me give you a history," he said, "and then perhaps you will
+relent. Listen. A man once became involved in the study of anatomy. It
+led him to destruction. He commenced the study in order to learn a
+profession; he hoped to become a physician. Materia medica, pharmacy,
+chemistry, enticed him at first, but after a time presented no charms.
+He was a dull student in much that men usually consider essential to the
+practice of medicine. He was not fitted to be a physician. Gradually he
+became absorbed in two branches, physiology and anatomy. Within his
+mental self a latent something developed that neither himself nor his
+friends had suspected. This was an increasing desire for knowledge
+concerning the human body. The insatiable craving for anatomy grew upon
+him, and as it did so other sections of medicine were neglected.
+Gradually he lost sight of his professional object; he dropped
+chemistry, materia medica, pharmacy, and at last, morbidly lived only in
+the aforenamed two branches.
+
+"His first visit to the dissecting room was disagreeable. The odor of
+putrid flesh, the sight of the mutilated bodies repulsed him. When first
+his hand, warm in life, touched the clammy flesh of a corpse, he
+shuddered. Then when his fingers came in contact with the viscera of a
+cadaver, that of a little child, he cried out in horror. The
+demonstrator of anatomy urged him on; he finally was induced to dissect
+part of the infant. The reflex action on his sensitive mind first
+stunned, and then warped his senses. His companions had to lead him from
+the room. 'Wash it off, wash it off,' he repeated, trying to throw his
+hand from his person. 'Horrid, horrible, unclean. The child is yet
+before me,' he insisted. Then he went into a fever and raved. 'Some
+mother will meet me on the street and curse me,' he cried. 'That hand is
+red with the blood of my darling; it has desecrated the innocent dead,
+and mutilated that which is most precious to a mother. Take the hand
+away, wash it,' he shouted. 'The mother curses me; she demands
+retribution. Better that a man be dead than cursed by a mother whose
+child has been desecrated.' So the unfortunate being raved, dreaming all
+manner of horrid imaginings. But at last he recovered, a different man.
+He returned voluntarily to the dissecting-room, and wrapped himself in
+the uncouth work. Nothing in connection with corpse-mutilation was now
+offensive or unclean. He threw aside his other studies, he became a
+slave possessed of one idea. He scarcely took time to dine respectably;
+indeed, he often ate his lunch in the dissecting-room. The blood of a
+child was again and again on his fingers; it mattered not, he did not
+take the trouble to wash it off. 'The liver of man is not more sacred
+than the liver of a hog,' he argued; 'the flesh of a man is the same as
+other forms of animal food. When a person dies the vital heat escapes,
+consciousness is dissipated, and the cold, rigid remains are only
+animal. Consciousness and life are all that is of man--one is force, the
+other matter; when man dies both perish and are dissipated.' His friends
+perceived his fondness for dissection, and argued with him again,
+endeavoring now to overcome his infatuation; he repelled them. 'I
+learned in my vision,' he said, referring to his fever, 'that Pope was
+right in saying that the "proper study of mankind is man"; I care
+nothing for your priestly superstitions concerning the dead. These
+fables are the invention of designing churchmen who live on the
+superstitions of the ignorant. I am an infidel, and believe in no spirit
+intangible; that which can be seen, felt, and weighed is, all else is
+not. Life is simply a sensation. All beyond is chimerical, less than
+fantastic, believed in only by dupes and weak-minded, credulous tools of
+knaves, or creatures of blind superstition.' He carried the finely
+articulated, bleached skull of a cadaver to his room, and placed it
+beside a marble statue that was a valued heirloom, the model of Venus of
+Milo. 'Both are lime compounds,' he cynically observed, 'neither is
+better than the other.' His friends protested. 'Your superstitious
+education is at fault,' he answered; 'you mentally clothe one of these
+objects in a quality it does not deserve, and the thought creates a
+pleasant emotion. The other, equally as pure, reminds you of the grave
+that you fear, and you shudder. These mental pulsations are artificial,
+both being either survivals of superstition, or creations of your own
+mind. The lime in the skull is now as inanimate as that of the statue;
+neither object is responsible for its form, neither is unclean. To me,
+the delicate configuration, the exact articulation, the perfect
+adaptation for the office it originally filled, makes each bone of this
+skull a thing of beauty, an object of admiration. As a whole, it gives
+me pleasure to think of this wonderful, exquisitely arranged piece of
+mechanism. The statue you admire is in every respect outrivaled by the
+skull, and I have placed the two together because it pleases me to
+demonstrate that man's most artistic creation is far inferior to
+material man. Throw aside your sentimental prejudices, and join with me
+in the admiration of this thing of beauty;' and he toyed with the skull
+as if it were a work of art. So he argued, and arguing passed from bone
+to bone, and from organ to organ. He filled his room with abnormal
+fragments of the human body, and surrounded himself with jars of
+preserved anatomical specimens. His friends fled in disgust, and he
+smiled, glad to be alone with his ghastly subjects. He was infatuated in
+one of the alcoves of science."
+
+The old man paused.
+
+"Shall I proceed?" he asked.
+
+"Yes," I said, but involuntarily moved my chair back, for I began again
+to be afraid of the speaker.
+
+"At last this scientific man had mastered all that was known concerning
+physiology and anatomy. He learned by heart the wording of great volumes
+devoted to these subjects. The human frame became to him as an open
+book. He knew the articulation of every muscle, could name a bone from a
+mere fragment. The microscope ceased to be an object of interest, the
+secrets of pathology and physiology had been mastered. Then,
+unconsciously, he was infected by another tendency; a new thought was
+destined to dominate his brain. 'What is it that animates this frame?
+What lies inside to give it life?' He became enthused again: 'The dead
+body, to which I have given my time, is not the conscious part of man,'
+he said to himself; 'I must find this thing of life within; I have been
+only a butcher of the dead. My knowledge is superficial.'"
+
+Again the old man hesitated and looked at me inquiringly.
+
+"Shall I proceed?" he repeated.
+
+I was possessed by horror, but yet fascinated, and answered
+determinedly: "Go on."
+
+"Beware," he added, "beware of the Science of Life."
+
+Pleadingly he looked at me.
+
+"Go on," I commanded.
+
+He continued:
+
+"With the cunning of a madman, this person of profound learning, led
+from the innocence of ignorance to the heartlessness of advanced
+biological science, secretly planned to seek the vital forces. 'I must
+begin with a child, for the life essence shows its first manifestations
+in children,' he reasoned. He moved to an unfrequented locality,
+discharged his servants, and notified his former friends that visitors
+were unwelcome. He had determined that no interruption to his work
+should occur. This course was unnecessary, however, for now he had
+neither friends nor visitors. He employed carpenters and artisans, and
+perfected a series of mechanical tables, beautiful examples of automatic
+mechanism. From the inner room of that house no cry could be heard by
+persons outside....
+
+     [It will be seen, by referring to the epilogue, that Mr. Drury
+     agreed to mutilate part of the book. This I have gladly done,
+     excising the heart-rending passages that follow. To use the words
+     of Prof. Venable, they do not "comport with the general delicacy
+     of the book."--J. U. L.]
+
+"Hold, old man, cease," I cried aghast; "I have had enough of this. You
+trifle with me, demon; I have not asked for nightmare stories,
+heart-curdling accounts of maniacal investigators, who madly pursue
+their revolting calling, and discredit the name of science."
+
+"You asked to see your own brain," he replied.
+
+"And have been given a terrible story instead," I retorted.
+
+"So men perverted, misconstruing the aim of science, answer the cry of
+humanity," he said. "One by one the cherished treasures of Christianity
+have been stolen from the faithful. What, to the mother, can replace the
+babe that has been lost?"
+
+"The next world," I answered, "offers a comfort."
+
+"Bah," he said; "does not another searcher in that same science field
+tell the mother that there is no personal hereafter, that she will never
+see her babe again? One man of science steals the body, another man of
+science takes away the soul, the third annihilates heaven; they go like
+pestilence and famine, hand in hand, subsisting on all that craving
+humanity considers sacred, and offering no tangible return beyond a
+materialistic present. This same science that seems to be doing so much
+for humanity will continue to elevate so-called material civilization
+until, as the yeast ferment is smothered in its own excretion, so will
+science-thought create conditions to blot itself from existence, and
+destroy the civilization it creates. Science is heartless,
+notwithstanding the personal purity of the majority of her helpless
+votaries. She is a thief, not of ordinary riches, but of treasures that
+can not be replaced. Before science provings the love of a mother
+perishes, the hope of immortality is annihilated. Beware of materialism,
+the end of the science of man. Beware of the beginning of biological
+inquiry, for he who commences, can not foresee the termination. I say to
+you in candor, no man ever engaged in the part of science lore that
+questions the life essence, realizing the possible end of his
+investigations. The insidious servant becomes a tyrannical master; the
+housebreaker is innocent, the horse thief guiltless in comparison.
+Science thought begins in the brain of man; science provings end all
+things with the end of the material brain of man. Beware of your own
+brain."
+
+[Illustration: "RISING ABRUPTLY, HE GRASPED MY HAND."]
+
+"I have no fear," I replied, "that I will ever be led to disturb the
+creeds of the faithful, and I will not be diverted. I demand to see my
+brain."
+
+"Your demand shall now be fulfilled; you have been warned of the return
+that may follow the commencement of this study; you force the issue; my
+responsibility ceases. No man of science realized the end when he began
+to investigate his throbbing brain, and the end of the fabric that
+science is weaving for man rests in the hidden future. The story I have
+related is a true one, as thousands of faithful men who unconsciously
+have been led into infidelity have experienced; and as the faithful
+followers of sacred teachings can also perceive, who recognize that
+their religion and the hope of heaven is slipping away beneath the
+steady inroad of the heartless materialistic investigator, who clothes
+himself in the garb of science."
+
+Rising abruptly from his chair, he grasped my hand. "You shall see your
+brain, man; come."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+    LOOKING BACKWARD.--THE LIVING BRAIN.
+
+
+The old man accompanied his word "come," as I have said, by rising from
+his chair, and then with a display of strength quite out of proportion
+to his age, he grasped my wrist and drew me toward the door. Realizing
+at once that he intended I should accompany him into the night, I
+protested, saying that I was quite unprepared.
+
+"My hat, at least," I insisted, as he made no recognition of my first
+demur.
+
+"Your hat is on your head," he replied.
+
+This was true, although I am sure the hat had been previously hung on a
+rack in a distant part of the room, and I am equally certain that
+neither my companion nor myself had touched it. Leaving me no time for
+reflection, he opened the door, and drew me through the hall-way and
+into the gloom. As though perfectly familiar with the city, he guided me
+from my cozy home, on the retired side street in which I resided,
+eastwardly into the busy thoroughfare, Western Row. Our course led us
+down towards the river, past Ninth, Eighth, Seventh Streets. Now and
+then a pedestrian stopped to gaze in surprise at the unique spectacle,
+the old man leading the young one, but none made any attempt to molest
+us. We passed on in silence, out of the busy part of the thoroughfare
+and into the shady part of the city, into the darkness below Fifth
+Street. Here the residences were poorer, and tenement-houses and
+factories began to appear. We were now in a quarter of the city into
+which strangers seldom, if ever, penetrated after night, and in which I
+would not have cared to be found unprotected at any time after sunset,
+much less in such questionable company. I protested against the
+indiscretion; my leader made no reply, but drew me on past the
+flickering gas lights that now and then appeared at the intersection of
+Third, Pearl, Second, and Water Streets, until at last we stood, in
+darkness, on the bank of the Ohio River.
+
+Strange, the ferry-boat at that time of night only made a trip every
+thirty minutes, and yet it was at the landing as though by appointment.
+Fear began to possess me, and as my thoughts recur to that evening, I
+can not understand how it was that I allowed myself to be drawn without
+cry or resistance from my secure home to the Ohio River, in such
+companionship. I can account for the adventure only by the fact that I
+had deliberately challenged my companion to make the test he was
+fulfilling, and that an innate consciousness of pride and justice
+compelled me to permit him to employ his own methods. We crossed the
+river without speaking, and rapidly ascending the levee we took our
+course up Main Street into Covington. Still in the lead, my aged guide,
+without hesitation, went onward to the intersection of Main and Pike
+Streets; thence he turned to the right, and following the latter
+thoroughfare we passed the old tannery, that I recalled as a familiar
+landmark, and then started up the hill. Onward we strode, past a hotel
+named "Niemeyer's," and soon were in the open country on the Lexington
+Pike, treading through the mud, diagonally up the hill back of
+Covington. Then, at a sharp curve in the road where it rounded the point
+of the hill, we left the highway, and struck down the hillside into a
+ravine that bounded the lower side of the avenue. We had long since left
+the city lamps and sidewalks behind us, and now, when we left the
+roadway, were on the muddy pike at a considerable elevation upon the
+hillside and, looking backward, I beheld innumerable lights throughout
+the cities of Cincinnati, Covington, and the village of Newport,
+sparkling away in the distance behind and below us.
+
+"Come," my companion said again, as I hesitated, repeating the only word
+he had uttered since telling his horrible story, "Come!"
+
+Down the hill into the valley we plunged, and at last he opened the door
+of an isolated log cabin, which we entered. He lighted a candle that he
+drew from his pocket, and together we stood facing each other.
+
+"Be seated," he said dryly.
+
+And then I observed that the cold excuse for furniture in that desolate
+room consisted of a single rude, hand-made chair with corn-shuck bottom.
+However, I did not need a second invitation, but sank exhausted and
+disconsolate upon the welcome object.
+
+My companion lost no time, but struck at once into the subject that
+concerned us, arguing as follows:
+
+"One of the troubles with humanity is that of changing a thought from
+the old to a new channel; to grasp at one effort an entirely new idea is
+an impossibility. Men follow men in trains of thought expression, as in
+bodily form generations of men follow generations. A child born with
+three legs is a freak of nature, a monstrosity, yet it sometimes
+appears. A man possessed of a new idea is an anomaly, a something that
+may not be impossible, but which has never appeared. It is almost as
+difficult to conceive of a new idea as it is to create out of nothing a
+new material or an element. Neither thoughts nor things can be invented,
+both must be evolved out of a preexisting something which it necessarily
+resembles. Every advanced idea that appears in the brain of man is the
+result of a suggestion from without. Men have gone on and on
+ceaselessly, with their minds bent in one direction, ever looking
+outwardly, never inwardly. It has not occurred to them to question at
+all in the direction of backward sight. Mind has been enabled to read
+the impressions that are made in and on the substance of brain
+convolutions, but at the same time has been and is insensible to the
+existence of the convolutions themselves. It is as though we could read
+the letters of the manuscript that bears them without having conceived
+of a necessity for the existence of a printed surface, such as paper or
+anything outside the letters. Had anatomists never dissected a brain,
+the human family would to-day live in absolute ignorance of the nature
+of the substance that lies within the skull. Did you ever stop to think
+that the mind can not now bring to the senses the configuration, or
+nature, of the substance in which mind exists? Its own house is unknown.
+This is in consequence of the fact that physical existence has always
+depended upon the study of external surroundings, and consequently the
+power of internal sight lies undeveloped. It has never been deemed
+necessary for man to attempt to view the internal construction of his
+body, and hence the sense of feeling only advises him of that which lies
+within his own self. This sense is abstract, not descriptive. Normal
+organs have no sensible existence. Thus an abnormal condition of an
+organ creates the sensation of pain or pleasure, but discloses nothing
+concerning the appearance or construction of the organ affected. The
+perfect liver is as vacancy. The normal brain never throbs and aches.
+The quiescent arm presents no evidence to the mind concerning its shape,
+size, or color. Man can not count his fingers unless some outside object
+touches them, or they press successively against each other, or he
+perceives them by sight. The brain of man, the seat of knowledge, in
+which mind centers, is not perceptible through the senses. Does it not
+seem irrational, however, to believe that mind itself is not aware, or
+could not be made cognizant, of the nature of its material
+surroundings?"
+
+"I must confess that I have not given the subject a thought," I replied.
+
+"As I predicted," he said. "It is a step toward a new idea, and simple
+as it seems, now that the subject has been suggested, you must agree
+that thousands of intelligent men have not been able to formulate the
+thought. The idea had never occurred to them. Even after our previous
+conversation concerning the possibility of showing you your own brain,
+you were powerless and could not conceive of the train of thought which
+I started, and along which I shall now further direct your senses."
+
+"The eye is so constituted that light produces an impression on a
+nervous film in the rear of that organ, this film is named the retina,
+the impression being carried backward therefrom through a magma of nerve
+fibers (the optic nerve), and reaching the brain, is recorded on that
+organ and thus affects the mind. Is it not rational to suppose it
+possible for this sequence to be reversed? In other words, if the order
+were reversed could not the same set of nerves carry an impression from
+behind to the retina, and picture thereon an image of the object which
+lies anterior thereto, to be again, by reflex action, carried back to
+the brain, thus bringing the brain substance itself to the view of the
+mind, and thus impress the senses? To recapitulate: If the nerve
+sensation, or force expression, should travel from the brain to the
+retina, instead of from an outward object, it will on the reverse of the
+retina produce the image of that which lies behind, and then if the
+optic nerve carry the image back to the brain, the mind will bring to
+the senses the appearance of the image depicted thereon."
+
+[Illustration: "FACING THE OPEN WINDOW HE TURNED THE PUPILS OF HIS EYES
+UPWARD."]
+
+"This is my first consideration of the subject," I replied.
+
+"Exactly," he said; "you have passed through life looking at outside
+objects, and have been heedlessly ignorant of your own brain. You have
+never made an exclamation of surprise at the statement that you really
+see a star that exists in the depths of space millions of miles beyond
+our solar system, and yet you became incredulous and scornful when it
+was suggested that I could show you how you could see the configuration
+of your brain, an object with which the organ of sight is nearly in
+contact. How inconsistent."
+
+"The chain of reasoning is certainly novel, and yet I can not think of a
+mode by which I can reverse my method of sight and look backward," I now
+respectfully answered.
+
+"It is very simple; all that is required is a counter excitation of the
+nerve, and we have with us to-night what any person who cares to
+consider the subject can employ at any time, and thus behold an outline
+of a part of his own brain. I will give you the lesson."
+
+Placing himself before the sashless window of the cabin, which opening
+appeared as a black space pictured against the night, the sage took the
+candle in his right hand, holding it so that the flame was just below
+the tip of the nose, and about six inches from his face. Then facing the
+open window he turned the pupils of his eyes upward, seeming to fix his
+gaze on the upper part of the open window space, and then he slowly
+moved the candle transversely, backward and forward, across, in front of
+his face, keeping it in such position that the flickering flame made a
+parallel line with his eyes, and as just remarked, about six inches from
+his face, and just below the tip of his nose. Speaking deliberately, he
+said:
+
+"Now, were I you, this movement would produce a counter irritation of
+the retina; a rhythm of the optic nerve would follow, a reflex action of
+the brain accompanying, and now a figure of part of the brain that rests
+against the skull in the back of my head would be pictured on the
+retina. I would see it plainly, apparently pictured or thrown across the
+open space before me."
+
+"Incredible!" I replied.
+
+"Try for yourself," quietly said my guide.
+
+Placing myself in the position designated, I repeated the maneuver, when
+slowly a shadowy something seemed to be evolved out of the blank space
+before me. It seemed to be as a gray veil, or like a corrugated sheet as
+thin as gauze, which as I gazed upon it and discovered its outline,
+became more apparent and real. Soon the convolutions assumed a more
+decided form, the gray matter was visible, filled with venations, first
+gray and then red, and as I became familiar with the sight, suddenly the
+convolutions of a brain in all its exactness, with a network of red
+blood venations, burst into existence.[7]
+
+     [7] This experiment is not claimed as original. See
+     Purkinje's Beitraege zur Kenntniss des Sehens in
+     subjectiver Hinsicht (Prague, 1823 and 1825), whose
+     conclusions to the effect that the shadow of the retina is
+     seen, I-Am-The-Man ignores.--J. U. L.
+
+[Illustration: "A BRAIN, A LIVING BRAIN, MY OWN BRAIN."]
+
+I beheld a brain, a brain, a living brain, my own brain, and as an
+uncanny sensation possessed me I shudderingly stopped the motion of the
+candle, and in an instant the shadowy figure disappeared.
+
+"Have I won the wager?"
+
+"Yes," I answered.
+
+"Then," said my companion, "make no further investigations in this
+direction."
+
+"But I wish to verify the experiment," I replied. "Although it is not a
+pleasant test, I can not withstand the temptation to repeat it."
+
+And again I moved the candle backward and forward, when the figure of my
+brain sprung at once into existence.
+
+"It is more vivid," I said; "I see it plainer, and more quickly than
+before."
+
+"Beware of the science of man, I repeat," he replied; "now, before you
+are deep in the toils, and can not foresee the end, beware of the
+science of human biology. Remember the story recently related, that of
+the physician who was led to destruction by the alluring voice."
+
+I made no reply, but stood with my face fixed, slowly moving the candle
+backward and forward, gazing intently into the depths of my own brain.
+
+After a time the old man removed the candle from my hand, and said: "Do
+you accept the fact? Have I demonstrated the truth of the assertion?"
+
+"Yes," I replied; "but tell me further, now that you have excited my
+interest, have I seen and learned all that man can discover in this
+direction?"
+
+"No; you have seen but a small portion of the brain convolutions, only
+those that lie directly back of the optic nerve. By systematic research,
+under proper conditions, every part of the living brain may become as
+plainly pictured as that which you have seen."
+
+"And is that all that could be learned?" I asked.
+
+"No," he continued. "Further development may enable men to picture the
+figures engraved on the convolutions, and at last to read the thoughts
+that are engraved within the brains of others, and thus through material
+investigation the observer will perceive the recorded thought of another
+person. An instrument capable of searching and illuminating the retina
+could be easily affixed to the eye of a criminal, after which, if the
+mind of the person operated upon were stimulated by the suggestion of an
+occurrence either remote or recent, the mind facility would excite the
+brain, produce the record, and spread the circumstances as a picture
+before the observer. The brain would tell its own story, and the
+investigator could read the truth as recorded in the brain of the other
+man. A criminal subjected to such an examination could not tell an
+untruth, or equivocate; his very brain would present itself to the
+observer."
+
+"And you make this assertion, and then ask me to go no further into the
+subject?"
+
+"Yes; decidedly yes."
+
+"Tell me, then, could you not have performed this experiment in my room,
+or in the dark cellar of my house?"
+
+"Any one can repeat it with a candle in any room not otherwise lighted,
+by looking at a blackboard, a blank wall, or black space," he said.
+
+I was indignant.
+
+"Why have you treated me so inhumanly? Was there a necessity for this
+journey, these mysterious movements, this physical exertion? Look at the
+mud with which I am covered, and consider the return trip which yet lies
+before me, and which must prove even more exhausting?"
+
+"Ah," he said, "you overdraw. The lesson has been easily acquired.
+Science is not an easy road to travel. Those who propose to profit
+thereby must work circuitously, soil their hands and person, meet
+discouragements, and must expect hardships, reverses, abuse, and
+discomfort. Do not complain, but thank me for giving you the lesson
+without other tribulations that might have accompanied it. Besides,
+there was another object in my journey, an object that I have quietly
+accomplished, and which you may never know. Come, we must return."
+
+He extinguished the light of the candle, and we departed together,
+trudging back through the mud and the night.[8]
+
+     [8] We must acquiesce in the explanation given for this
+     seemingly uncalled-for journey, and yet feel that it was
+     unnecessarily exacting.
+
+Of that wearisome return trip I have nothing to say beyond the fact that
+before reaching home my companion disappeared in the darkness of a side
+street, and that the Cathedral chimes were playing for three o'clock
+A.M., as I passed the corner of Eighth Street and Western Row.
+
+The next evening my visitor appeared as usual, and realizing his
+complete victory, he made no reference to the occurrences of the
+previous night. In his usual calm and deliberate manner he produced the
+roll of manuscript saying benignantly, and in a gentle tone:
+
+"Do you recollect where I left off reading?"
+
+"You had reached that point in your narrative," I answered, "at which
+your guide had replaced the boat on the surface of the lake."
+
+And the mysterious being resumed his reading.
+
+
+
+
+THE MANUSCRIPT CONTINUED.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+    A LESSON ON VOLCANOES.--PRIMARY COLORS ARE CAPABLE OF FARTHER
+    SUBDIVISION.
+
+
+"Get into the boat," said my eyeless pilot, "and we will proceed to the
+farther edge of the lake, over the barrier of which at great intervals
+of time, the surface water flows, and induces the convulsion known as
+Mount Epomeo."
+
+We accordingly embarked, and a gentle touch of the lever enabled us
+rapidly to skirt the shore of the underground sea. The soft, bright,
+pleasant earth-light continually enveloped us, and the absence of either
+excessive heat or cold, rendered existence delightful. The weird forms
+taken by the objects that successively presented themselves on the shore
+were a source of continual delight to my mind. The motion of our boat
+was constantly at the will of my guide. Now we would skim across a great
+bay, flashing from point to point; again we wound slowly through
+tortuous channels and among partly submerged stones.
+
+"What a blessing this mode of locomotion would be to humanity," I
+murmured.
+
+"Humanity will yet attain it," he replied. "Step by step men have
+stumbled along towards the goal that the light of coming centuries is
+destined to illuminate. They have studied, and are still engaged in
+studying, the properties of grosser forces, such as heat and
+electricity, and they will be led by the thread they are following, to
+this and other achievements yet unthought of, but which lie back of
+those more conspicuous."
+
+[Illustration: "WE FINALLY REACHED A PRECIPITOUS BLUFF."]
+
+We finally reached a precipitous bluff, that sprung to my view as by
+magic, and which, with a glass-like surface, stretched upward to a
+height beyond the scope of my vision, rising straight from the
+surface of the lake. It was composed of a material seemingly black as
+jet, and yet when seen under varying spectacular conditions as we
+skirted its base it reflected, or emitted, most gorgeously the brilliant
+hues of the rainbow, and also other colors hitherto unknown to me.
+
+"There is something unique in these shades; species of color appear that
+I can not identify; I seem to perceive colors utterly unlike any that I
+know as the result of deflected, or transmitted, sunlight rays, and they
+look unlike the combinations of primary colors with which I am
+familiar."
+
+"Your observations are true; some of these colors are unknown on earth."
+
+"But on the surface of the earth we have all possible combinations of
+the seven prismatic rays," I answered. "How can there be others here?"
+
+"Because, first, your primary colors are capable of further subdivision.
+
+"Second, other rays, invisible to men under usual conditions, also
+emanate from the sun, and under favorable circumstances may be brought
+to the sense of sight."
+
+"Do you assert that the prism is capable of only partly analyzing the
+sunlight?"
+
+"Yes; what reason have you to argue that, because a triangular bit of
+glass resolves a white ray into seven fractions that are, as men say,
+differently colored, you could not by proper methods subdivide each of
+these so-called primary shades into others? What reason have you to
+doubt that rays now invisible to man accompany those capable of
+impressing his senses, and might by proper methods become perceptible as
+new colors?"
+
+"None," I answered; "only that I have no proof that such rays exist."
+
+"But they do exist, and men will yet learn that the term 'primitive'
+ray, as applied to each of the seven colors of the rainbow, is
+incorrect. Each will yet be resolved, and as our faculties multiply and
+become more subtle, other colors will be developed, possessed of a
+delicacy and richness indescribable now, for as yet man can not
+comprehend the possibilities of education beyond the limits of his
+present condition."
+
+During this period of conversation we skirted the richly colored bluff
+with a rapid motion, and at last shot beyond it, as with a flash, into
+seeming vacancy. I was sitting with my gaze directed toward the bluff,
+and when it instantly disappeared, I rubbed my eyes to convince myself
+of their truthfulness, and as I did so our boat came gradually to a
+stand on the edge of what appeared to be an unfathomable abyss. Beneath
+me on the side where had risen the bluff that disappeared so abruptly,
+as far as the eye could reach, was an absolute void. To our right, and
+before and behind us, stretched the surface of that great smooth lake on
+whose bosom we rested. To our left, our boat brushing its rim, a narrow
+ledge, a continuation of the black, glass-like material, reached only a
+foot above the water, and beyond this narrow brink the mass descended
+perpendicularly to seemingly infinite depths. Involuntarily I grasped
+the sides of the boat, and recoiled from the frightful chasm, over which
+I had been so suddenly suspended, and which exceeded anything of a
+similar description that I had ever seen. The immeasurable depth of the
+abyss, in connection with the apparently frail barrier that held the
+great lake in its bounds, caused me to shudder and shrink back, and my
+brain reeled in dizzy fright. An inexplicable attraction, however,
+notwithstanding my dread, held me spell-bound, and although I struggled
+to shut out that view, the endeavor failed. I seemed to be drawn by an
+irresistible power, and yet I shuddered at the awful majesty of that
+yawning gulf which threatened to end the world on which I then existed.
+Fascinated, entranced, I could not help gazing, I knew not how long,
+down, down into that fathomless, silent profundity. Composing myself, I
+turned a questioning glance on my guide.
+
+He informed me that this hard, glass-like dam confined the waters of
+the slowly rising lake that we were sailing over, and which finally
+would rise high enough to overflow the barrier.
+
+[Illustration: "THE WALL DESCENDED PERPENDICULARLY TO SEEMINGLY INFINITE
+DEPTHS."]
+
+"The cycle of the periodic overflow is measured by great intervals," he
+said; "centuries are required to raise the level of the lake a fraction
+of an inch, and thousands of years may elapse before its surface will
+again reach the top of the adamantine wall. Then, governed by the law
+that attracts a liquid to itself, and heaps the teaspoon with liquid,
+the water of the quiet lake piles upon this narrow wall, forming a
+ledge along its summit. Finally the superimposed surface water gives
+way, and a skim of water pours over into the abyss."
+
+He paused; I leaned over and meditated, for I had now accustomed myself
+to the situation.
+
+"There is no bottom," I exclaimed.
+
+"Upon the contrary," he answered, "the bottom is less than ten miles
+beneath us, and is a great funnel-shaped orifice, the neck of the funnel
+reaching first down and then upward from us diagonally toward the
+surface of the earth. Although the light by which we are enveloped is
+bright, yet it is deficient in penetrating power, and is not capable of
+giving the contour of objects even five miles away, hence the chasm
+seems bottomless, and the gulf measureless."
+
+"Is it not natural to suppose that a mass of water like this great lake
+would overflow the barrier immediately, as soon as the surface reached
+the upper edge, for the pressure of the immense volume must be beyond
+calculation."
+
+"No, for it is height, not expanse, which, as hydrostatic engineers
+understand, governs the pressure of water. A liquid column, one foot in
+width, would press against the retaining dam with the force of a body of
+the same liquid, the same depth, one thousand miles in extent. Then the
+decrease of gravity here permits the molecular attraction of the water's
+molecules to exert itself more forcibly than would be the case on the
+surface of the earth, and this holds the liquid mass together more
+firmly."
+
+"See," he observed, and dipping his finger into the water he held it
+before him with a drop of water attached thereto (Figure 27), the
+globule being of considerable size, and lengthened as though it
+consisted of some glutinous liquid.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 27.]
+
+"How can a thin stratum of water give rise to a volcanic eruption?" I
+next queried. "There seems to be no melted rock, no evidence of intense
+heat, either beneath or about us."
+
+"I informed you some time ago that I would partially explain these
+facts. Know then, that the theories of man concerning volcanic
+eruptions, in connection with a molten interior of the earth, are such
+as are evolved in ignorance of even the sub-surface of the globe. The
+earth's interior is to mankind a sealed chamber, and the wise men who
+elucidate the curious theories concerning natural phenomena occurring
+therein are forced to draw entirely upon their imagination. Few persons
+realize the paucity of data at the command of workers in science.
+Theories concerning the earth are formulated from so little real
+knowledge of that body, that our science may be said to be all theory,
+with scarcely a trace of actual evidence to support it. If a globe ten
+inches in diameter be covered with a sheet of paper, such as I hold in
+my hand, the thickness of that sheet will be greater in proportion to
+that of such a globe than the depth men have explored within the earth
+is compared with the thickness of the crust of the earth. The outer
+surface of a pencil line represents the surface of the earth; the inner
+surface of the line represents the depth of man's explorations; the
+highest mountain would be represented by a comma resting on the line.
+The geologist studies the substances that are thrust from the crater of
+an active volcano, and from this makes conjectures regarding the strata
+beneath, and the force that casts the excretions out. The results must
+with men, therefore, furnish evidence from which to explain the cause.
+It is as though an anatomist would form his idea of the anatomy of the
+liver by the secretion thrown out of that organ, or of the lung texture
+by the breath and sputum. In fact, volcanoes are of several
+descriptions, and usually are extremely superficial. This lake, the
+surface of which is but one hundred and fifty miles underground, is the
+mother of an exceptionally deep one. When the water pours over this
+ledge it strikes an element below us, the metallic base of salt, which
+lies in great masses in some portions of the earth's crust.[9] Then an
+immediate chemical reaction ensues, the water is dissociated, intense
+heat results, part of the water combines with the metal, part is
+vaporized as steam, while part escapes as an inflammable gas. The sudden
+liberation of these gases causes an irregular pressure of vapor on the
+surface of the lake, the result being a throbbing and rebounding of the
+attenuated atmosphere above, which, in gigantic waves, like swelling
+tides, dashes great volumes of water over the ledge beside us, and into
+the depth below. This water in turn reacts on fresh portions of the
+metallic base, and the reflex action increases the vapor discharges, and
+as a consequence the chamber we are in becomes a gasholder, containing
+vapors of unequal gas pressures, and the resultant agitation of the lake
+from the turmoil continues, and the pulsations are repeated until the
+surface of the lake is lowered to such a degree as at last to prevent
+the water from overflowing the barrier. Finally the lake quiets itself,
+the gases slowly disappear by earth absorption, and by escape from the
+volcanic exit, and for an unrecorded period of time thereafter the
+surface of the lake continues to rise slowly as it is doing now."
+
+    [9] This view is supported in theory by a note I believe to have
+    somewhere seen recorded. Elsewhere other bases are mentioned
+    also.--J. U. L.
+
+"But what has this phenomenon to do with the volcano?"
+
+"It produces the eruption; the water that rushes down into the chasm,
+partly as steam, partly as gas, is forced onward and upward through a
+crevice that leads to the old crater of the presumed extinct but
+periodically active Mount Epomeo. These gases are intensely heated, and
+they move with fearful velocity. They tear off great masses of stone,
+which the resultant energy disturbances, pressure, gas, and friction,
+redden with heat. The mixture of gases from the decomposed water is in
+large amount, is burning and exploding, and in this fiery furnace amid
+such convulsions as have been described, the adjacent earth substance is
+fused, and even clay is melted, and carried on with the fiery blast.
+Finally the current reaches the earth's surface through the funnel
+passage, the apex of which is a volcano--the blast described a volcanic
+eruption."
+
+"One thing is still obscure in my mind," I said. "You assert that the
+reaction which follows the contact of the flowing water and metallic
+bases in the crevice below us liberates the explosive gases, and also
+volumes of vapor of water. These gases rush, you say, and produce a
+volcanic eruption in a distant part of the crust of the earth. I can not
+understand why they do not rush backward as well, and produce another
+eruption in Kentucky. Surely the pressure of a gas in confinement is the
+same in all directions, is it not?"
+
+"Yes," he replied, "but the conditions in the different directions are
+dissimilar. In the direction of the Kentucky cavern, the passage is
+tortuous, and often contracts to a narrow crevice. In one place near the
+cavern's mouth, as you will remember, we had to dive beneath the surface
+of a stream of water. That stratum of water as effectually closed the
+exit from the earth as the stopper prevents water escaping from a
+bottle. Between the point we now occupy and that water stopper, rest
+thousands of miles of quiescent air. The inertia of a thousand miles of
+air is great beyond your comprehension. To move that column of air by
+pushing against this end of it, and thus shoving it instantly out of the
+other end, would require greater force than would burst the one hundred
+and fifty miles of inelastic stone above us. Then, the friction of the
+sides is another thing that prevents its accomplishment. While a
+gradually applied pressure would in time overcome both the inertia of
+the air and the friction of the stone passages, it would take a supply
+of energy greater than you can imagine to start into motion the elastic
+mass that stands as solid and immovable as a sentinel of adamant,
+between the cavern you entered, and the spot we now occupy. Time and
+energy combined would be able to accomplish the result, but not under
+present conditions.
+
+"In the other direction a broad open channel reaches directly to and
+connects with the volcanic shaft. Through this channel the air is in
+motion, moving towards the extinct crater, being supplied from another
+surface orifice. The gases liberated in the manner I have described,
+naturally follow the line of least resistance. They turn at once away
+from the inert mass of air that rests behind us, and move with
+increasing velocity towards the volcanic exit. Before the pressure that
+might be exerted towards the Kentucky cavern would have more than
+compressed the intervening column of air enough to raise the water of a
+well from its usual level to the surface of the earth, the velocity in
+the other direction would have augmented prodigiously, and with its
+increased rapidity a suction would follow more than sufficient to
+consume the increasingly abundant gases from behind."
+
+"Volcanoes are therefore local, and the interior of the earth is not a
+molten mass as I have been taught," I exclaimed.
+
+He answered: "If men were far enough along in their thought journey (for
+the evolution of the mental side of man is a journey in the world of
+thought), they would avoid such theories as that which ascribes a
+molten interior to the earth. Volcanoes are superficial. They are as a
+rule, when in activity but little blisters or excoriations upon the
+surface of the earth, although their underground connections may be
+extensive. Some of them are in a continual fret with frequent eruptions,
+others, like the one under consideration, awaken only after great
+periods of time. The entire surface of this globe has been or will be
+subject to volcanic action. The phenomenon is one of the steps in the
+world-making, matter-leveling process. When the deposit of substances
+that I have indicated, and of which much of the earth's interior is
+composed, the bases of salt, potash, and lime and clay is exhausted,
+there will be no further volcanic action from this cause, and in some
+places, this deposit has already disappeared, or is covered deeply by
+layers of earth that serve as a protection."
+
+"Is water, then, the universal cause of volcanoes?"
+
+"Water and air together cause most of them. The action of water and its
+vapor produces from metallic space dust, limestone, and clay soil,
+potash and soda salts. This perfectly rational and natural action must
+continue as long as there is water above, and free elementary bases in
+contact with the earth bubbles. Volcanoes, earthquakes, geysers, mud
+springs, and hot springs, are the natural result of that reaction.
+Mountains are thereby forming by upheavals from beneath, and the
+corresponding surface valleys are consequently filling up, either by the
+slow deposit of the matter from the saline water of hot springs, or by
+the sudden eruption of a new or presumably extinct volcano."
+
+"What would happen if a crevice in the bottom of the ocean should
+conduct the waters of the ocean into a deposit of metallic bases?"
+
+"That often occurs," was the reply; "a volcanic wave results, and a
+volcano may thus rise from the ocean's depths."
+
+"Is there any danger to the earth itself? May it not be riven into
+fragments from such a convulsion?" I hesitatingly questioned.
+
+"No; while the configuration of continents is continually being altered,
+each disturbance must be practically superficial, and of limited area."
+
+"But," I persisted, "the rigid, solid earth may be blown to fragments;
+in such convulsions a result like that seems not impossible."
+
+"You argue from an erroneous hypothesis. The earth is neither rigid nor
+solid."
+
+"True," I answered. "If it were solid I could not be a hundred miles
+beneath its surface in conversation with another being; but there can
+not be many such cavities as that which we are now traversing, and they
+can not surely extend entirely through its mass; the great weight of the
+superincumbent material would crush together the strongest materials, if
+a globe as large as our earth were extensively honeycombed in this
+manner."
+
+"Quite the contrary," he replied; "and here let me, for the first time,
+enlighten you as to the interior structure of the terrestrial globe. The
+earth-forming principle consists of an invisible sphere of energy that,
+spinning through space, supports the space dust which collects on it, as
+dust on a bubble. By gradual accumulation of substance on that sphere a
+hollow ball has resulted, on the outer surface of which you have
+hitherto dwelt. The crust of the earth is comparatively thin, not more
+than eight hundred miles in average thickness, and is held in position
+by the central sphere of energy that now exists at a distance about
+seven hundred miles beneath the ocean level. The force inherent to this
+sphere manifests itself upon the matter which it supports on both sides,
+rendering matter the lighter the nearer it lies to the center sphere. In
+other words, let me say to you: The crust, or shell, which I have just
+described as being but about eight hundred miles in thickness, is firm
+and solid on both its convex and concave surface, but gradually loses in
+weight, whether we penetrate from the outer surface toward the center,
+or from any point of the inner surface towards the outside, until at the
+central sphere matter has no weight at all. Do you conceive my meaning?"
+
+"Yes," I replied; "I understand you perfectly."
+
+After a pause my pilot asked me abruptly:
+
+"What do you most desire?"
+
+The question caused my mind to revert instantly to my old home on the
+earth above me, and although I felt the hope of returning to it spring
+up in my heart, the force of habit caused me involuntarily to answer,
+"More light!"
+
+"More light being your desire, you shall receive it."
+
+Obedient to his touch, the bow of the boat turned from the gulf we had
+been considering towards the center of the lake; the responsive craft
+leaped forward, and in an instant the obsidian parapet disappeared
+behind us. On and over the trackless waste of glass-like water we sped,
+until the dead silence became painfully oppressive, and I asked:
+
+"Whither are we bound?"
+
+"Towards the east."
+
+The well-timed answer raised my spirits; I thought again that in this
+man, despite his repulsive shape, I beheld a friend, a brother;
+suspicion vanished, and my courage rose. He touched the lever, and the
+craft, subject to his will, nearly rose from the water, and sped with
+amazing velocity, as was evident from the appearance of the luminous
+road behind us. So rapid was our flight that the wake of the boat seemed
+as if made of rigid parallel lines that disappeared in the distance, too
+quick for the eye to catch the tremor.
+
+Continuing his conversation, my companion informed me that he had now
+directed the bark toward a point east of the spot where we struck the
+shore, after crossing the lake, in order that we might continue our
+journey downward, diagonally to the under surface of the earth crust.
+
+"This recent digression from our journey proper," said he, "has been
+made to acquaint you with a subject, regarding which you have exhibited
+a curiosity, and about which you have heretofore been misinformed; now
+you understand more clearly part of the philosophy of volcanoes and
+earthquakes. You have yet much to learn in connection with allied
+phenomena, but this study of the crude exhibition of force-disturbed
+matter, the manipulation of which is familiar to man under the above
+names, is an introduction to the more wonderful study destined yet to be
+a part of your field, an investigation of quiescent matter, and pure
+motion."
+
+"I can not comprehend you," I replied, "as I stated once before when you
+referred to what you designated as pure motion."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+    MATTER IS RETARDED MOTION.
+
+
+"It is possible--is it not?--for you to imagine a continuous volley of
+iron balls passing near you in one line, in a horizontal direction, with
+considerable velocity. Suppose that a pane of glass were to be gradually
+moved so that a corner of it would be struck by one of the balls; then
+the entire sheet of glass would be shivered by the concussion, even
+though the bullet struck but a single spot of glass, the point of
+contact covering only a small area. Imagine now that the velocity of the
+volley of bullets be increased a thousand fold; then a plate of glass
+thrust into their track would be smoothly cut, as though with a file
+that would gnaw its way without producing a single radiating fracture. A
+person standing near the volley would now hear a deep purr or growling
+sound, caused by the friction between the bullets and the air. Increase
+gradually the rapidity of their motion, and this growl would become more
+acute, passing from a deep, low murmur, into one less grave, and as the
+velocity increased, the tone would become sharper, and at last
+piercingly shrill. Increase now the rapidity of the train of bullets
+again, and again the notes would decrease in turn, passing back again
+successively through the several keys that had preceded, and finally
+would reach the low growl which first struck the ear, and with a further
+increase of speed silence would ensue, silence evermore, regardless of
+increasing velocity.[10] From these hundreds of miles in a second at
+which the volley is now passing, let the rapidity be augmented a
+thousand times, reaching in their flight into millions of miles each
+second, and to the eye, from the point where the sound disappeared, as
+the velocity increased, a dim redness would appear, a glow just
+perceptible, indicating to the sense of sight, by a continuous line,
+the track of the moving missiles. To all appearance, the line would be
+as uniform as an illuminated pencil mark, even though the several
+integral bullets of the trail might be separated one from another by
+miles of space. Let a pane of glass now be thrust across their track,
+and from the point of contact a shower of sparks would fly, and the
+edges of glass close to either side of the orifice would be shown, on
+withdrawing the glass, to have been fused. Conceive now that the
+velocity of the bullets be doubled and trebled, again and again, the
+line of red light becomes brighter, then brilliant, and finally as the
+velocity increases, at a certain point pure white results, and to man's
+sense the trail would now be a continuous something, as solid as a bar
+of metal if at a white heat, and (even if the bullets were a thousand
+miles apart) man could not bring proof of their separate existence to
+his senses. That portion of a pane of glass or other substance, even
+steel or adamant, which should cross its track now would simply melt
+away, the portion excised and carried out of that pathway neither
+showing itself as scintillations, nor as fragments of matter. The solid
+would instantly liquefy, and would spread itself as a thin film over the
+surface of each ball of that white, hot mass of fleeing metal, now to
+all essential conditions as uniform as a bar of iron. Madly increase the
+velocity to millions upon millions of miles per second, and the heat
+will disappear gradually as did the sound, while the bright light will
+pass backward successively through the primary shades of color that are
+now known to man, beginning with violet, and ending with red, and as the
+red fades away the train of bullets will disappear to the sense of man.
+Neither light nor sound now accompanies the volley, neither the human
+eye nor the human ear can perceive its presence. Drop a pane of glass or
+any other object edgewise through it, and it gives to the sense of man
+no evidence; the molecules of the glass separate from in front to close
+in from behind, and the moving train passes through it as freely as
+light, leaving the surface of the glass unaffected."
+
+    [10] A scientific critic seems to think that the shrill cry would
+    cease instantly and not gradually. However, science has been at
+    fault more than once, and I do not care to take liberties with
+    this statement.--J. U. L.
+
+"Hold," I interrupted; "that would be as one quality of matter passing
+through another quality of matter without disturbance to either, and it
+is a law in physics that two substances can not occupy the same space at
+the same time."
+
+"That law holds good as man understands the subject, but bullets are no
+longer matter. Motion of mass was first changed into motion of
+molecules, and motion of molecule became finally augmented into motion
+of free force entities 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 space (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
+retardation 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 space can
+generate elemental dirt. If you can conceive of an intermediate
+condition whereby pure space 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 space 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
+assertion 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
+encompass 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 space
+condition, neither gas, liquid, nor solid.[11] One particularly
+interferes with light in its passage. It is an entity 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' Association, 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] assertion.--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 passage 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 multitudes of tiny globular
+water surfaces are produced. Pure vapor of water, free from motion, is
+passive to the sunlight."
+
+"I can scarcely believe that a substance such as you describe, or that
+any constituent 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
+space 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 assume 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 passage of mortal man, with the faculties of man intact, into
+communion with the spirit world."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII.
+
+    "A STUDY OF SCIENCE IS A STUDY OF GOD."--COMMUNING WITH ANGELS.
+
+
+"This is incredible," I exclaimed.
+
+"You need not be astonished," he answered. "Is there any argument that
+can be offered to controvert the assertion that man is ignorant of many
+natural laws?"
+
+"I can offer none."
+
+"Is there any doubt that a force, distinct and separate from matter,
+influences matter and vivifies it into a living personality?"
+
+"I do not deny that there is such force."
+
+"What then should prevent this force from existing separate from the
+body if it be capable of existing in it?"
+
+"I can not argue against such a position."
+
+"If, as is hoped and believed by the majority of mankind, even though
+some try to deny the fact, it is possible for man to exist as an
+association of earth matters, linked to a personal spirit force, the
+soul, and for the spirit force, after the death of the body, to exist
+independent of the grosser attributes of man, free from his mortal body,
+is it not reasonable to infer that the spirit, while it is still in man
+and linked to his body, may be educated and developed so as, under
+favorable conditions, to meet and communicate with other spirits that
+have been previously liberated from earthly bondage?"
+
+"I submit," I answered; "but you shock my sensibilities when you thus
+imply that by cold, scientific investigation we can place ourselves in a
+position to meet the unseen spirit world--"
+
+It was now my turn to hesitate.
+
+"Go on," he said.
+
+"To commune with the angels," I answered.
+
+"A study of true science is a study of God," he continued. "Angels are
+organizations natural in accordance with God's laws. They appear
+superhuman, because of our ignorance concerning the higher natural
+forces. They exist in exact accordance with the laws that govern the
+universe; but as yet the attraction between clay and clay-bound spirit
+is so great as to prevent the enthralled soul of man from communicating
+with them. The faith of the religionist is an example of the
+unquenchable feeling that creates a belief as well as a hope that there
+is a self-existence separate from earthy substances. The scoffing
+scientific agnostic, working for other objects, will yet astonish
+himself by elaborating a method that will practically demonstrate these
+facts, and then empirical religion, as exemplified by the unquestioning
+faithful believer, and systematic science, as typified in the
+experimental materialist, will meet on common ground."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV.
+
+    I CEASE TO BREATHE, AND YET LIVE.
+
+
+During this conversation we had been rapidly walking, or I should better
+say advancing, for we no longer walked as men do, but skipped down into
+the earth, down, ever downward. There were long periods of silence, in
+which I was engaged in meditating over the problems that successively
+demanded solution, and even had I desired to do so I could have kept no
+record of time; days, or even weeks, may have been consumed in this
+journey. Neither have I any method of judging of the rapidity of our
+motion. I was sensible of a marked decrease in the amount of muscular
+energy required to carry us onward, and I realized that my body was
+quite exempt from weariness. Motion became restful instead of
+exhausting, and it seemed to me that the ratio of the loss of weight, as
+shown by our free movements, in proportion to the distance we traversed,
+was greater than formerly. The slightest exhibition of propelling force
+cast us rapidly forward. Instead of the laborious, short step of upper
+earth, a single leap would carry us many yards. A slight spring, and
+with our bodies in space, we would skip several rods, alighting gently,
+to move again as easily. I marveled, for, although I had been led to
+anticipate something unusual, the practical evidence was wonderfully
+impressive, and I again questioned my guide.
+
+"We are now nearing what physicists would call the center of gravity,"
+he replied, "and our weight is rapidly diminishing. This is in exact
+accordance with the laws that govern the force called gravitation,
+which, at the earth's surface, is apparently uniform, though no
+instrument known to man can demonstrate its exact variation within the
+field man occupies. Men have not, as yet, been in a position to estimate
+this change, although it is known that mountains attract objects, and
+that a change in weight as we descend into the earth is perceptible; but
+to evolve the true law, observation, at a distance of at least ten
+miles beneath the surface of the ocean is necessary, and man, being a
+creature whose motions are confined to a thin, horizontal skin of earth,
+has never been one mile beneath its surface, and in consequence his
+opportunities for comparison are extremely limited."
+
+[Illustration: "WE WOULD SKIP SEVERAL RODS, ALIGHTING GENTLY."]
+
+"I have been taught," I replied, "that the force of gravitation
+decreases until the center of the earth is reached, at which point a
+body is without weight; and I can scarcely understand how such positive
+statements from scientific men can be far from the truth."
+
+"It is supposed by your surface men that the maximum of weight is to be
+found at one-sixth the distance beneath the surface of the earth, and
+therefrom decreases until at the center it is nothing at all," he
+replied. "This hypothesis, though a stagger toward the right, is far
+from the truth, but as near as could be expected, when we consider the
+data upon which men base their calculations. Were it not for the purpose
+of controverting erroneous views, men would have little incentive to
+continue their investigations, and as has been the rule in science
+heretofore, the truth will, in time, appear in this case. One generation
+of students disproves the accepted theories of that which precedes, all
+working to eliminate error, all adding factors of error, and all
+together moving toward a common goal, a grand generalization, that as
+yet can not be perceived. And still each series of workers is
+overlooking phenomena that, though obvious, are yet unperceived, but
+which will make evident to future scientists the mistakes of the
+present. As an example of the manner in which facts are thus overlooked,
+in your journey you have been impressed with certain surprising external
+conditions, or surroundings, and yet are oblivious to conditions more
+remarkable in your own body. So it is with scientists. They overlook
+prominent facts that stare them boldly in the face, facts that are so
+conspicuous as to be invisible by reason of their very nearness."
+
+"This statement I can not disprove, and therefore must admit under
+protest. Where there is so much that appears mysterious I may have
+overlooked some things, but I can scarcely accept that, in ignorance, I
+have passed conditions in my own organization so marked as this decrease
+in gravity which has so strikingly been called to my attention."
+
+"You have, and to convince you I need only say that you have nearly
+ceased to breathe, and are unconscious of the fact."
+
+I stopped short, in momentary alarm, and now that my mind was directed
+to the fact, I became aware that I did not desire to breathe, and that
+my chest had ceased to heave with the alternate inhalation and
+exhalation of former times. I closed my lips firmly, and for a long
+period there was no desire for breath, then a slight involuntary
+inhalation followed, and an exhalation, scarcely noticeable, succeeded
+by a great interval of inaction. I impulsively turned my face toward the
+passage we had trod; a feeling of alarm possessed me, an uncontrollable,
+inexpressible desire to flee from the mysterious earth-being beside me,
+to return to men, and be an earth-surface man again, and I started
+backward through the chamber we had passed.
+
+The guide seized me by the hand, "Hold, hold," he cried; "where would
+you go, fickle mortal?"
+
+"To the surface," I shouted; "to daylight again. Unhand me, unearthly
+creature, abnormal being, man or devil; have you not inveigled me far
+enough into occult realms that should be forever sealed from mankind?
+Have you not taken from me all that men love or cherish, and undone
+every tie of kith or kin? Have you not led me into paths that the
+imagination of the novelist dare not conjure, and into experiences that
+pen in human hand would not venture to describe as possible, until I now
+stand with my feet on the boundary line that borders vacancy, and utter
+loss of weight; with a body nearly lost as a material substance, verging
+into nothing, and lastly with breath practically extinguished, I say,
+and repeat, is it not time that I should hesitate and pause in my
+reckless career?"
+
+"It is not time," he answered.
+
+"When will that hour come?" I asked in desperation, and I trembled as he
+replied:
+
+"When the three Great Lights are closed."
+
+[Illustration: "AN UNCONTROLLABLE, INEXPRESSIBLE DESIRE TO FLEE."]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV.
+
+    "A CERTAIN POINT WITHIN A SPHERE."--MEN ARE AS PARASITES ON THE
+    ROOF OF EARTH.
+
+
+I realized again, as I had so many times before, that it was useless for
+me to rebel. "The self-imposed mystery of a sacrificed life lies before
+me," I murmured, "and there is no chance to retrace my footsteps. The
+'Beyond' of the course that I have voluntarily selected, and sworn to
+follow, is hidden; I must nerve myself to pursue it to the bitter end,
+and so help me God, and keep me steadfast."
+
+"Well said," he replied; "and since you have so wisely determined, I am
+free to inform you that these new obligations, like those you have
+heretofore taken, contain nothing which can conflict with your duty to
+God, your country, your neighbor, or yourself. In considering the
+phenomena presented by the suspension of the act of breathing, it should
+occur to you that where little labor is to be performed, little
+consumption of energy is required. Where there is such a trifling
+destruction of the vital force (not mind force) as at present is the
+case with us, it requires but slight respiration to retain the normal
+condition of the body. On earth's surface the act of respiration alone
+consumes by far the larger proportion of vital energy, and the muscular
+exertion involved thereby necessitates a proportionate amount of
+breathing in order that breath itself may continue. This act of
+respiration is the result of one of the conditions of surface earth
+life, and consumes most of the vital force. If men would think of this,
+they would understand how paradoxical it is for them to breathe in order
+to live, when the very act of respiration wears away their bodies and
+shortens their lives more than all else they have to do, and without
+adding to their mental or physical constitution in the least. Men are
+conversant with physical death as a constant result of suspended
+respiration, and with respiration as an accompaniment of life, which
+ever constant and connected conditions lead them to accept that the act
+of breathing is a necessity of mortal life. In reality, man occupies an
+unfortunate position among other undeveloped creatures of external
+earth; he is an animal, and is constitutionally framed like the other
+animals about him. He is exposed to the warring elements, to the vicious
+attacks of savage beasts and insidious parasites, and to the inroads of
+disease. He is a prey to the elementary vicissitudes of the undesirable
+exposure in which he exists upon the outer surface of our globe, where
+all is war, even among the forces of nature about him. These conditions
+render his lot an unhappy one indeed, and in ignorance he overlooks the
+torments of the weary, rasping, endless slavery of respiration in the
+personal struggle he has to undergo in order to retain a brief existence
+as an organized being. Have you never thought of the connected
+tribulations that the wear and tear of respiration alone inflict upon
+the human family? The heaving of the chest, the circulation of the
+blood, the throbbing of the heart, continue from mortal birth until
+death. The heart of man forces about two and one-half ounces of blood
+with each pulsation. At seventy beats per minute this amounts to six
+hundred and fifty-six pounds per hour, or nearly eight tons per day. The
+lungs respire over one thousand times an hour, and move over three
+thousand gallons of air a day. Multiply these amounts by three hundred
+and sixty-five, and then by seventy, and you have partly computed the
+enormous life-work of the lungs and heart of an adult. Over two hundred
+thousand tons of blood, and seventy-five million gallons of air have
+been moved by the vital force. The energy thus consumed is dissipated.
+No return is made for the expenditure of this life force. During the
+natural life of man, more energy is consequently wasted in material
+transformation resulting from the motion of heart and lungs, than would
+be necessary to sustain the purely vital forces alone for a thousand
+years. Besides, the act of respiration which man is compelled to perform
+in his exposed position, necessitates the consumption of large amounts
+of food, in order to preserve the animal heat, and replace the waste of
+a material body that in turn is worn out by these very movements. Add
+this waste of energy to the foregoing, and then you will surely perceive
+that the possible life of man is also curtailed to another and greater
+degree in the support of the digestive part of his organism. His spirit
+is a slave to his body; his lungs and heart, on which he imagines life
+depends, are unceasing antagonists of life. That his act of breathing is
+now a necessity upon the surface of the earth, where the force of
+gravity presses so heavily, and where the elements have men at their
+command, and show him no mercy, I will not deny; but it is exasperating
+to contemplate such a waste of energy, and corresponding loss of human
+life."
+
+"You must admit, however, that it is necessary?" I queried.
+
+"No; only to an extent. The natural life of man should, and yet will be,
+doubled, trebled, multiplied a dozen, yes a thousand fold."
+
+I stepped in front of him; we stood facing each other.
+
+"Tell me," I cried, "how men can so improve their condition as to
+lengthen their days to the limit you name, and let me return to surface
+earth a carrier of the glad tidings."
+
+He shook his head.
+
+I dropped on my knees before him.
+
+[Illustration: "I DROPPED ON MY KNEES BEFORE HIM."]
+
+"I implore you in behalf of that unfortunate humanity, of which I am a
+member, give me this boon. I promise to return to you and do your
+bidding. Whatever may be my subsequent fate, I promise to acquiesce
+therein willingly."
+
+He raised me to my feet.
+
+"Be of good cheer," he said, "and in the proper time you may return to
+the surface of this rind of earth, a carrier of great and good news to
+men."
+
+"Shall I teach them of what you have shown me?" I asked.
+
+"Yes; in part you will be a forerunner, but before you obtain the
+information that is necessary to the comfort of mankind you will have
+to visit surface earth again, and return again, perhaps repeatedly. You
+must prove yourself as men are seldom proven. The journey you have
+commenced is far from its conclusion, and you may not be equal to its
+subsequent trials; prepare yourself, therefore, for a series of events
+that may unnerve you. If you had full confidence and faith in your
+guide, you would have less cause to fear the result, but your suspicious
+human nature can not overcome the shrinking sensation that is natural to
+those who have been educated as you have been amid the changing
+vicissitudes of the earth's surface, and you can not but be incredulous
+by reason of that education."
+
+Then I stopped as I observed before me a peculiar fungus--peculiar
+because unlike all others I had seen. The convex part of its bowl was
+below, and the great head, as an inverted toadstool, stood upright on a
+short, stem-like pedestal. The gills within were of a deep green color,
+and curved out from the center in the form of a spiral. This form,
+however, was not the distinguishing feature, for I had before observed
+specimens that were spiral in structure. The extraordinary peculiarity
+was that the gills were covered with fruit. This fruit was likewise
+green in color, each spore, or berry, being from two to three inches in
+diameter, and honeycombed on the surface, corrugated most beautifully. I
+stopped, leaned over the edge of the great bowl, and plucked a specimen
+of the fruit. It seemed to be covered with a hard, transparent shell,
+and to be nearly full of a clear, green liquid. I handled and examined
+it in curiosity, at which my guide seemed not to be surprised. Regarding
+me attentively, he said:
+
+"What is it that impels a mortal towards this fruit?"
+
+"It is curious," I said; "nothing more."
+
+"As for that," said he, "it is not curious at all; the seed of the
+lobelia of upper earth is more curious, because, while it is as
+exquisitely corrugated, it is also microscopically small. In the second
+place you err when you say it is simply curious, 'nothing more,' for no
+mortal ever yet passed that bowl without doing exactly as you have done.
+The vein of curiosity, were it that alone that impels you, could not but
+have an exception."
+
+Then he cracked the shell of the fruit by striking it on the stony
+floor, and carefully opened the shell, handing me one of the halves
+filled with a green fluid. As he did so he spoke the single word,
+"Drink," and I did as directed. He stood upright before me, and as I
+looked him in the face he seemingly, without a reason, struck off into a
+dissertation, apparently as distinct from our line of thought as a
+disconnected subject could be, as follows:
+
+[Illustration: "HANDING ME ONE OF THE HALVES, HE SPOKE THE SINGLE
+WORD, DRINK."]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI.
+
+    DRUNKENNESS.--THE DRINKS OF MAN.
+
+
+"Intemperance has been the vice of every people, and is prevalent in all
+climes, notwithstanding that intoxicants, properly employed, may serve
+humanity's highest aims. Beginning early in the history of a people, the
+disease increases with the growth of a nation, until, at last, unless
+the knife is used, civilization perishes. A lowly people becomes more
+depraved as the use of liquor increases; a cultivated people passes
+backward into barbarism with the depravities that come from dissipation.
+Here nations meet, and individuals sink to a common level. No drinking
+man is strong enough to say, 'I can not become dissipated;' no nation is
+rich and cultivated enough to view the debauch of its people without
+alarm.
+
+"The disgusting habit of the drunken African finds its counterpart in
+the lascivious wine-bibber of aristocratic society. To picture the
+indecencies of society, that may be charged to debauchery, when the
+Grecian and Roman empires were at the height of greatness, would obscure
+the orgies of the barbarous African, and make preferable the brutality
+of the drunken American Indian. Intemperance brings men to the lowest
+level, and holds its power over all lands and all nations."
+
+"Did the aborigines know how to make intoxicants, and were barbarians
+intemperate before contact with civilized nations?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"But I have understood that drunkenness is a vice inherent only in
+civilized people; are not you mistaken?"
+
+"No. Every clime, unless it be the far North where men are scarcely more
+than animals, furnishes intoxicants, and all people use them. I will
+tell you part of this record of nations.
+
+"The Nubians make a barley beer which they call bouze, and also a wine,
+from the palm tree. The savages of Africa draw the clear, sweet juice of
+the palm oil tree into a gourd, in the morning, and by night it becomes
+a violent intoxicant. The natives of the Malayan Archipelago ferment and
+drink the sap of the flower stems of the cocoanut. The Tartar tribes
+make an intoxicating drink from mare's milk, called koomis. In South
+America the natives drink a vile compound, called cana, distilled from
+sugar cane; and in the Sandwich Islands, the shrub kava supplies the
+intoxicant kava-kava, drunk by all the inhabitants, from king to slave,
+and mother to child. In the heart of Africa, cannibal tribes make legyce
+of a cereal, and indulge in wild orgies over their barbaric cup. In
+North America the Indians, before Columbus discovered America, made an
+intoxicating drink of the sap of the maple tree. The national drink of
+the Mexicans is pulque, a beastly intoxicant, prepared from the Agave
+Americana. Mead is an alcoholic drink, made of honey, and used in many
+countries. In China wine was indulged in from the earliest day, and in
+former times, had it not been for the influence of their philosophers,
+especially Confucius, who foresaw the end, the Chinese nation would have
+perished from drunkenness. Opium, that fearful enslaver of millions of
+human beings, is in every sense a narcotic intoxicant, and stands
+conspicuous as an agent, capable of being either a friend, a companion,
+or a master, as man permits. History fails to indicate the date of its
+introduction to humanity. In South America the leaf of the cocoa plant
+is a stimulant scarcely less to be dreaded than opium. The juice of a
+species of asclepias produces the intoxicant soma, used once by the
+Brahmins, not only as a drink, but also in sacrificial and religious
+ceremonies. Many different flavored liquors made of palm, cocoanuts,
+sugar, pepper, honey, spices, etc., were used by native Hindoos, and as
+intoxicants have been employed from the earliest days in India. The
+Vedic people were fearfully dissipated, and page after page of that
+wonderful sacred book, the Rigs-Veda, is devoted to the habit of
+drunkenness. The worst classes of drunkards of India used Indian hemp to
+make bhang, or combined the deadly narcotic stramonium with arrack, a
+native beer, to produce a poisonous intoxicant. In that early day the
+inhabitants of India and China were fearfully depraved drunkards, and
+but for the reforms instituted by their wise men, must have perished as
+a people. Parahaoma, or 'homa,' is an intoxicant made from a lost plant
+that is described as having yellow blossoms, used by the ancient
+dissolute Persians from the day of Zoroaster. Cannabis sativa produces
+an intoxicant that in Turkey is known as hadschy, in Arabia and India as
+hashish, and to the Hottentots as dacha, and serves as a drunkard's food
+in other lands. The fruit of the juniper produces gin, and the fermented
+juice of the grape, or malt liquors, in all civilized countries are the
+favorite intoxicants, their origin being lost in antiquity. Other
+substances, such as palm, apples, dates, and pomegranates have also been
+universally employed as drink producers.
+
+"Go where you will, man's tendency seems to be towards the bowl that
+inebriates, and yet it is not the use but the abuse of intoxicants that
+man has to dread. Could he be temperate, exhilarants would befriend."
+
+"But here," I replied, "in this underground land, where food is free,
+and existence possible without an effort, this shameful vice has no
+existence. Here there is no incentive to intemperance, and even though
+man were present with his inherent passion for drink, he could not find
+means to gratify his appetite."
+
+"Ah," my guide replied, "that is an error. Why should this part of the
+earth prove an exception to the general rule? Nature always supplies the
+means, and man's instinct teaches him how to prepare an intoxicant. So
+long as man is human his passions will rule. If you should prove unequal
+to the task you have undertaken, if you shrink from your journey, and
+turn back, the chances are you will fail to reach the surface of the
+earth. You will surely stop in the chamber which we now approach, and
+which I have now prepared you to enter, and will then become one of a
+band of earth drunkards; having all the lower passions of a mortal you
+will yet be lost to the virtues of man. In this chamber those who falter
+and turn back, stop and remain for all time, sinking until they become
+lower in the human scale than any drunkard on earth. Without any
+restraining influence, without a care, without necessity of food or
+incentive to exertion, in this habitation where heat and cold are
+unknown, and no motive for self-preservation exists, they turn their
+thoughts toward the ruling passion of mankind and--Listen! Do you not
+hear them? Listen!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII.
+
+    THE DRUNKARD'S VOICE.
+
+
+Then I noticed a medley of sounds seemingly rising out of the depths
+beyond us. The noise was not such as to lead me to infer that persons
+were speaking coherently, but rather resembled a jargon such as might
+come from a multitude of persons talking indiscriminately and aimlessly.
+It was a constant volley, now rising and now falling in intensity, as
+though many persons regardless of one another were chanting different
+tunes in that peculiar sing-song tone often characteristic of the
+drunkard. As we advanced, the noise became louder and more of a medley,
+until at last we were surrounded by confusion. Then a single voice rose
+up strong and full, and at once, from about us, close to us, yes,
+against our very persons, cries and shrieks unearthly smote my ears. I
+could distinguish words of various tongues, English, Irish, German, and
+many unfamiliar and disjointed cries, imprecations, and maledictions.
+The cavern about seemed now to be resonant with voices,--shrieks, yells,
+and maniacal cries commingled,--and yet no form appeared. As we rushed
+onward, for now my guide grasped my arm tightly and drew me rapidly down
+the cavern floor, the voices subsided, and at length sounded as if
+behind us. Now however it seemed as though innumerable arrows, each
+possessed of a whistle or tone of its own, were in wave-like gusts
+shrieking by us. Coming from in front, they burst in the rear. Stopping
+to listen, I found that a connection could be traced between the screech
+of the arrow-like shriek, and a drunkard's distant voice. It seemed as
+though a rocket made of an escaping voice would scream past, and
+bursting in the cavern behind, liberate a human cry. Now and then all
+but a few would subside, to burst out with increased violence, as if a
+flight of rockets each with a cry of its own would rush past, to be
+followed after their explosion by a medley of maniacal cries, songs,
+shrieks, and groans, commingled. It was as though a shell containing a
+voice that escaped slowly as by pressure from an orifice, were fired
+past my ears, to explode and liberate the voice within my hearing. The
+dreadful utterance was not an echo, was not hallucination, it was real.
+
+I stopped and looked at my guide in amazement. He explained: "Did you
+not sometime back experience that your own voice was thrown from your
+body?"
+
+"Yes," I answered.
+
+"These crazed persons or rather experiences depraved, are shouting in
+the cavern beyond," he said. "They are in front; their voices pass us to
+burst into expression in the rear."
+
+Then, even as he spoke, from a fungus stalk near us, a hideous creature
+unfolded itself, and shambled to my side. It had the frame of a man, and
+yet it moved like a serpent, writhing towards me. I stepped back in
+horror, but the tall, ungainly creature reached out an arm and grasped
+me tightly. Leaning over he placed his hideous mouth close to my ear,
+and moaned: "Back, back, go thou back."
+
+I made no reply, being horror-stricken.
+
+"Back, I say, back to earth, or--"
+
+He hesitated, and still possessed of fear, and unable to reply, I was
+silent.
+
+"Then go on," he said, "on to your destiny, unhappy man," and slinking
+back to the fungus whence he arose, he disappeared from sight.
+
+"Come," said my guide, "let us pass the Drunkard's Den. This was but a
+straggler; nerve yourself, for his companions will soon surround us."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVIII.
+
+    THE DRUNKARDS' DEN.
+
+
+As we progressed the voices in our rear became more faint, and yet the
+whistling volleys of screeching voice bombs passed us as before. I
+shuddered in anticipation of the sight that was surely to meet our gaze,
+and could not but tremble for fear. Then I stopped and recoiled, for at
+my very feet I beheld a huge, living human head. It rested on the solid
+rock, and had I not stopped suddenly when I did, I would have kicked it
+at the next leap. The eyes of the monster were fixed in supplication on
+my face; the great brow indicated intelligence, the finely-cut mouth
+denoted refinement, the well-modeled head denoted brain, but the whole
+constituted a monster. The mouth opened, and a whizzing, arrow voice
+swept past, and was lost in the distance.
+
+"What is this?" I gasped.
+
+"The fate of a drunkard," my guide replied. "This was once an
+intelligent man, but now he has lost his body, and enslaved his soul, in
+the den of drink beyond us, and has been brought here by his comrades,
+who thus rid themselves of his presence. Here he must rest eternally. He
+can not move, he has but one desire, drink, and that craving, deeper
+than life, can not be satiated."
+
+"But he desires to speak; speak lower, man, or head of man, if you wish
+me to know your wants," I said, and leaned toward him.
+
+Then the monster whispered, and I caught the words:
+
+"Back, back, go thou back!"
+
+I made no reply.
+
+"Back I say, back to earth or--"
+
+Still I remained silent.
+
+"Then go on," he said; "on to your destiny, unhappy man."
+
+"This is horrible," I muttered.
+
+"Come," said the guide, "let us proceed."
+
+And we moved onward.
+
+Now I perceived many such heads about us, all resting upright on the
+stony floor. Some were silent, others were shouting, others still were
+whispering and endeavoring to attract my attention. As we hurried on I
+saw more and more of these abnormal creatures. Some were in rows,
+resting against each other, leaving barely room for us to pass between,
+but at last, much to my relief, we left them behind us.
+
+But I found that I had no cause for congratulation, when I felt myself
+clutched by a powerful hand--a hand as large as that of a man fifty feet
+in height. I looked about expecting to see a gigantic being, but instead
+beheld a shrunken pigmy. The whole man seemed but a single hand--a
+Brobdingnag hand affixed to the body of a Liliputian.
+
+"Do not struggle," said the guide; "listen to what he wishes to impart."
+
+I leaned over, placing my ear close to the mouth of the monstrosity.
+
+"Back, back, go thou back," it whispered.
+
+"What have I to fear?" I asked.
+
+"Back, I say, back to earth, or--"
+
+"Or what?" I said.
+
+"Then go on; on to your destiny, unhappy man," he answered, and the hand
+loosed its grasp.
+
+My guide drew me onward.
+
+Then, from about us, huge hands arose; on all sides they waved in the
+air; some were closed and were shaken as clenched fists, others moved
+aimlessly with spread fingers, others still pointed to the passage we
+had traversed, and in a confusion of whispers I heard from the pigmy
+figures a babble of cries, "Back, back, go thou back." Again I
+hesitated, the strain upon my nerves was becoming unbearable; I glanced
+backward and saw a swarm of misshaped diminutive forms, each holding up
+a monstrous arm and hand. The passage behind us was closed against
+retreat. Every form possessed but one hand, the other and the entire
+body seemingly had been drawn into this abnormal member. While I thus
+meditated, momentarily, as by a single thought each hand closed,
+excepting the index finger, and in unison each finger pointed towards
+the open way in front, and like shafts from a thousand bows I felt the
+voices whiz past me, and then from the rear came the reverberation as a
+complex echo, "Then go on; on to your destiny, unhappy man."
+
+Instinctively I sprang forward, and had it not been for the restraining
+hand of my guide would have rushed wildly into passages that might have
+ended my misery, for God only knows what those unseen corridors
+contained. I was aware of that which lay behind, and was only intent on
+escaping from the horrid figures already passed.
+
+[Illustration: "EACH FINGER POINTED TOWARDS THE OPEN WAY IN FRONT."]
+
+"Hold," whispered the guide; "as you value your life, stop."
+
+And then exerting a power that I could not withstand, he held me a
+struggling prisoner.
+
+"Listen," he said, "have you not observed that these creatures do not
+seek to harm you? Have not all of them spoken kindly, have any offered
+violence?"
+
+"No," I replied, "but they are horrible."
+
+"That they realize; but fearing that you will prove to be as weak as
+they have been, and will become as they are now, they warn you back.
+However, I say to you, if you have courage sufficient, you need have no
+fear. Come, rely on me, and do not be surprised at anything that
+appears."
+
+Again we went forward. I realized now my utter helplessness. I became
+indifferent again; I could neither retrace my footsteps alone, nor guide
+them forward in the path I was to pursue. I submissively relied on my
+guide, and as stoical as he appeared to be, I moved onward to new
+scenes.
+
+We came to a great chamber which, as we halted on its edge, seemed to be
+a prodigious amphitheater. In its center a rostrum-like stone of a
+hundred feet in diameter, flat and circular on the top, reared itself
+about twelve feet above the floor, and to the base of this rostrum the
+floor of the room sloped evenly. The amphitheater was fully a thousand
+feet in diameter, of great height, and the floor was literally alive
+with grotesque beings. Imagination could not depict an abnormal human
+form that did not exhibit itself to my startled gaze. One peculiarity
+now presented itself to my mind; each abnormal part seemed to be created
+at the expense of the remainder of the body. Thus, to my right I beheld
+a single leg, fully twelve feet in height, surmounted by a puny human
+form, which on this leg, hopped ludicrously away. I saw close behind
+this huge limb a great ear attached to a small head and body; then a
+nose so large that the figure to which it was attached was forced to
+hold the face upward, in order to prevent the misshaped organ from
+rubbing on the stony floor. Here a gigantic forehead rested on a
+shrunken face and body, and there a pair of enormous feet were walking,
+seemingly attached to the body of a child, and yet the face was that of
+a man. If an artist were to attempt to create as many revolting figures
+as possible, each with some member out of proportion to the rest of the
+body, he could not add one form to those upon this floor. And yet, I
+again observed that each exaggerated organ seemed to have drawn itself
+into existence by absorbing the remainder of the body. We stood on the
+edge of this great room, and I pondered the scene before my eyes. At
+length my guide broke the silence:
+
+"You must cross this floor; no other passage is known. Mark well my
+words, heed my advice."
+
+"This is the Drunkards' Den. These men are lost to themselves and to the
+world. Every member of this assembly once passed onward as you are now
+doing, in charge of a guide. They failed to reach the goal to which you
+aspire, and retreating, reached this chamber, to become victims to the
+drink habit. Some of these creatures have been here for ages, others
+only for a short period."
+
+"Why are they so distorted?" I asked.
+
+"Because matter is now only partly subservient to will," he replied.
+"The intellect and mind of a drunkard on surface earth becomes abnormal
+by the influence of an intoxicant, but his real form is unseen, although
+evidently misshapen and partly subject to the perception of a few only
+of his fellow men. Could you see the inner form of an earth surface
+drunkard, you would perceive as great a mental monstrosity as is any
+physical monster now before you, and of the two the physically abnormal
+creature is really the least objectionable. Could you see the mind
+configurations of an assembly of surface earth topers, you would
+perceive a class of beings as much distorted mentally as are these
+physically. A drunkard is a monstrosity. On surface earth the mind
+becomes abnormal; here the body suffers."
+
+"Why is it," I asked, "that parts of these creatures shrink away as some
+special organ increases?"
+
+"Because the abnormal member can grow only by abstracting its substance
+from the other portions of the body. An increasing arm enlarges itself
+by drawing its strength from the other parts, hence the body withers as
+the hand enlarges, and in turn the hand shrinks when the leg increases
+in size. The total weight of the individual remains about the same.
+
+"Men on earth judge of men not by what they are, but by what they seem
+to be. The physical form is apparent to the sense of sight, the real man
+is unseen. However, as the boot that encloses a foot can not altogether
+hide the form of the foot within, so the body that encloses the life
+entity, can not but exhibit here and there the character of the
+dominating spirit within. Thus a man's features may grow to indicate the
+nature of the enclosed spirit, for the controlling character of that
+spirit will gradually impress itself on the material part of man. Even
+on surface earth, where the matter side of man dominates, a vicious
+spirit will produce a villainous countenance, a mediocre mind a vapid
+face, and an amorous soul will even protrude the anterior part of the
+skull.
+
+"Carry the same law to this location, and it will be seen that as mind,
+or spirit, is here the master, and matter is the slave, the same rule
+should, under natural law, tend to produce such abnormal figures as you
+perceive. Hence the part of a man's spirit that is endowed most highly
+sways the corresponding part of his physical body at the expense of the
+remainder. Gradually the form is altered under the relaxing influence of
+this fearful intra-earth intoxicant, and eventually but one organ
+remains to tell of the symmetrical man who formerly existed. Then, when
+he is no longer capable of self-motion, the comrades carry the
+drunkard's fate, which is here the abnormal being you have seen, into
+the selected corridor, and deposit it among others of its kind, as in
+turn the bearers are destined sometime to be carried by others. We
+reached this cavern through a corridor in which heads and arms were
+abnormal, but in others may be found great feet, great legs, or other
+portions of self-abused man.
+
+"I should tell you, furthermore, that on surface earth a drunkard is not
+less abnormal than these creatures; but men can not see the form of the
+drunkard's spirit. Could they perceive the image of the real man life
+that corresponds to the material part, it would appear not less
+distorted and hideous. The soul of a mortal protrudes from the visible
+body as down expands from a thistle seed, but it is invisible. Drink
+drives the spirit of an earth-surface drunkard to unnatural forms, not
+less grotesque than these physical distortions. Could you see the real
+drunkard on surface earth he would be largely outside the body shell,
+and hideous in the extreme. As a rule, the spirit of an earth-surface
+drunkard dominates the nose and face, and if mortal man could be
+suddenly gifted with the sense of mind-sight, they would find themselves
+surrounded by persons as misshapen as any delirious imagination can
+conjure. Luckily for humanity this scene is as yet withheld from man,
+for life would otherwise be a fearful experience, because man has not
+the power to resist the temptation to abuse drink."
+
+"Tell me," I said, "how long will those beings rest in these caverns?"
+
+"They have been here for ages," replied the guide; "they are doomed to
+remain for ages yet."
+
+"You have intimated that if my courage fails I will return to this
+cavern and become as they are. Now that you have warned me of my doom,
+do you imagine that anything, even sudden death, can swerve me from my
+journey? Death is surely preferable to such an existence as this."
+
+"Do not be so confident. Every individual before you has had the same
+opportunity, and has been warned as you have been. They could not
+undergo the test to which they were subjected, and you may fail.
+Besides, on surface earth are not men constantly confronted with the
+doom of the drunkard, and do they not, in the face of this reality, turn
+back and seek his caverns? The journey of life is not so fearful that
+they should become drunkards to shrink from its responsibilities. You
+have reached this point in safety. You have passed the sentinels
+without, and will soon be accosted by the band before us. Listen well
+now to my advice. A drunkard always seeks to gain companions, to draw
+others down to his own level, and you will be tried as never have you
+been before. Taste not their liquor by whatever form or creature
+presented. They have no power to harm him who has courage to resist. If
+they entreat you, refuse; if they threaten, refuse; if they offer
+inducements, refuse to drink. Let your answer be No, and have no fear.
+If your strength fail you, mark well my--"
+
+Before he could complete his sentence I felt a pressure, as of a great
+wind, and suddenly found myself seized in an embrace irresistible, and
+then, helpless as a feather, was swept out into the cavern of the
+drunkards.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIX.
+
+    AMONG THE DRUNKARDS.
+
+
+I remember once to have stood on the edge of Niagara's great whirlpool,
+but not more fearful did its seething waters then seem than did the
+semi-human whirl into which I had now been plunged. Whether my guide had
+been aware of the coming move that separated us I never knew, but, as
+his words were interrupted, I infer that he was not altogether ready to
+part from my company. Be this as it may, he disappeared from sight, and,
+as by a concerted move, the cries of the drunkards subsided instantly. I
+found myself borne high in the air, perched on a huge hand that was
+carried by its semi-human comrades. It seemed as though the contents of
+that vast hall had been suddenly thrown beneath me, for, as I looked
+about, I saw all around a sea of human fragments, living, moving parts
+of men. Round and round that hall we circled as an eddy whirls in a
+rock-bound basin, and not less silently than does the water of an eddy.
+Then I perceived that the disjointed mass of humanity moved as a spiral,
+in unison, throbbing like a vitalized stream, bearing me submissively on
+its surface. Gradually the distance between myself and the center stone
+lessened, and then I found that, as if carried in the groove of a
+gigantic living spiral, I was being swept towards the stone platform in
+the center of the room. There was method in the movements of the
+drunkards, although I could not analyze the intricacies of their complex
+reel.
+
+Finally I was borne to the center stone, and by a sudden toss of the
+hand, in the palm of which I was seated, I was thrown upon the raised
+platform. Then in unison the troop swung around the stone, and I found
+myself gazing on a mass of vitalized fragments of humanity. Quickly a
+figure sprung upon the platform, and in him I discerned a seemingly
+perfect man. He came to my side and grasped my hand as if he were a
+friend.
+
+"Do not fear," he said; "obey our request, and you will not be harmed."
+
+"What do you desire?" I asked.
+
+He pointed to the center of the stone, and I saw thereon many gigantic,
+inverted fungus bowls. The gills of some had been crushed to a pulp, and
+had saturated themselves with liquid which, perhaps by a species of
+fermentation, had undergone a structural change; others were as yet
+intact; others still contained men intently cutting the gills into
+fragments and breaking the fruit preparatory to further manipulation.
+
+"You are to drink with us," he replied.
+
+"No," I said; "I will not drink."
+
+"Then you must die; to refuse to drink with us is to invite death."
+
+"So mote it be; I will not drink."
+
+We stood facing each other, apparently both meditating on the situation.
+
+I remember to have been surprised, not that the man before me had been
+able to spring from the floor to the table rock on which I stood, but
+that so fair a personage could have been a companion of the
+monstrosities about me. He was a perfect type of manhood, and was
+exquisitely clothed in a loose, flowing robe that revealed and
+heightened the beauty of his symmetrical form. His face was fair, yet
+softly tinted with rich, fresh color; his hair and beard were neatly
+trimmed; his manner was polished, and his countenance frank and
+attractive. The contrast between the preternatural shapes from among
+whom he sprung and himself was as between a demon and an angel. I
+marveled that I had not perceived him before, for such a one should have
+been conspicuous because so fair; but I reflected that it was quite
+natural that among the thousands of grotesque persons about me, one
+attractive form should have escaped notice. Presently he spoke again,
+seemingly having repented of his display of temper.
+
+"I am a friend," he said; "a deliverer. I will serve you as I have
+others before you. Lean on me, listen to my story, accept my proffered
+friendship."
+
+Then he continued: "When you have rested, I will guide you in safety
+back to upper earth, and restore you to your friends."
+
+I could not resist his pleasing promise. I suddenly and unaccountably
+believed in his sincerity. He impressed me with confidence in his
+truthfulness, yes, against my better judgment, convinced me that he must
+be a friend, a savior. Grasping him by the hand I thanked him for his
+interest in a disconsolate wanderer, and assured him of my confidence.
+
+"I am in your hands," I said; "I will obey you implicitly. I thank you,
+my deliverer; lead me back to surface earth and receive the gratitude of
+a despairing mortal."
+
+"This I will surely do," he said; "rest your case in my hands, do not
+concern yourself in the least about your future. Before acquiescing in
+your desire, however, I will explain part of the experiences through
+which you have recently passed. You have been in the control of an evil
+spirit, and have been deceived. The grotesque figures, the abnormal
+beings about you, exist only in your disordered imagination. They are
+not real. These persons are happy and free from care or pain. They live
+in bliss inexpressible. They have a life within a life, and the outward
+expression that you have perceived is as the uncouth hide and figure
+that incloses the calm, peaceful eye of a toad. Look at their eyes, not
+at their seemingly distorted forms."
+
+I turned to the throng and beheld a multitude of upturned faces mildly
+beaming upon me. As I glanced from eye to eye of each countenance, the
+repulsive figure disappeared from my view, and a sweet expression of
+innocence was all that was disclosed to me. I realized that I had judged
+by the outer garment. I had wronged these fellow-beings. A sense of
+remorse came over me, a desire to atone for my short-sightedness.
+
+"What can I offer as a retribution?" I asked. "I have injured these
+people."
+
+"Listen," was the reply. "These serene intelligences are happy. They are
+as a band of brothers. They seek to do you a kindness, to save you from
+disaster. One hour of experience such as they enjoy is worth a hundred
+years of the pleasures known to you. This delicious favor, an hour of
+bliss, they freely offer you, and after you have partaken of their
+exquisite joy, I will conduct you back to earth's surface whenever you
+desire to leave us." He emphasized the word, desire.
+
+"I am ready," I replied; "give me this promised delight."
+
+The genial allurer turned to the table rock behind us, and continued:
+
+"In these fungus bowls we foment the extract of life. The precious
+cordial is as a union of the quintessential spirits of joy, peace,
+tranquillity, happiness, and delight. Could man abstract from ecstasy
+the thing that underlies the sense that gives that word a meaning, his
+product would not approach the power of the potent liquids in these
+vessels."
+
+"Of what are they composed?" I asked.
+
+"Of derivatives of the rarest species of the fungus family," he
+answered. "They are made by formulae that are the result of thousands of
+years of experimentation. Come, let us not delay longer the hour of
+bliss."
+
+Taking me by the hand, my graceful comrade led me to the nearest bowl.
+Then on closer view I perceived that its contents were of a deep green
+color, and in active commotion, and although no vapor was apparent, a
+delightful sensation impressed my faculties. I am not sure that I
+inhaled at all,--the feeling was one of penetration, of subtile, magic
+absorption. My companion took a tiny shell which he dipped into the
+strange cauldron. Holding the tiny cup before me, he spoke the one word,
+"Drink."
+
+Ready to acquiesce, forgetful of the warning I had received, I grasped
+the cup, and raised it to my lips, and as I did so chanced to glance at
+my tempter's face, and saw not the supposed friend I had formerly
+observed, but, as through a mask fair in outline, the countenance of an
+exulting demon, regarding me with a sardonic grin. In an instant he had
+changed from man to devil.
+
+I dashed the cup upon the rock. "No; I will not drink," I shouted.
+
+Instantly the cavern rung with cries of rage. A thousand voices joined
+as by accord, and simultaneously the throng of fragments of men began to
+revolve again. The mysterious spiral seemed to unwind, but I could not
+catch the method of its movement. The motion was like that of an
+uncoiling serpent bisected lengthwise, the two halves of the body
+seeming to slide against each other. Gradually that part of the cavern
+near the stone on which I stood became clear of its occupants, and at
+last I perceived that the throng had receded to the outer edge.
+
+Then the encircling side walls of the amphitheater became visible, and
+as water sinks into sand, the medley of fragments of humanity
+disappeared from view.
+
+I turned to my companion; he, too, had vanished. I glanced towards the
+liquor cauldrons; the stone was bare. I alone occupied the gigantic
+hall. No trace remained to tell of the throng that a short time
+previously had surrounded and mocked me.
+
+Desolate, distracted, I threw myself upon the stone, and cursed my
+miserable self. "Come back," I cried, "come back. I will drink, drink,
+drink."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XL.
+
+    FURTHER TEMPTATION.--ETIDORHPA.
+
+
+Then, as my voice reverberated from the outer recesses, I caught a sound
+as of music in the distance. I raised my head and listened--yes, surely
+there was music. The melody became clearly distinct, and soon my senses
+were aware that both vocal and instrumental music were combined. The
+airs which came floating were sweet, simple, and beautiful. The voices
+and accompanying strains approached, but I could distinguish no words.
+By and by, from the corridors of the cavern, troops of bright female
+forms floated into view. They were clad in robes ranging from pure white
+to every richest hue, contrasting strangely, and in the distance their
+rainbow brilliancy made a gorgeous spectacle. Some were fantastically
+attired in short gowns, such as I imagine were worn by the dancing girls
+of sacred history, others had kirtles of a single bright color, others
+of many shades intermingled, while others still were dressed in
+gauze-like fabrics of pure white.
+
+As they filed into the cavern, and approached me, they formed into
+platoons, or into companies, and then, as dissolving views come and go,
+they presented first one and then another figure. Sometimes they would
+stretch in great circling lines around the hall, again they would form
+into squares, and again into geometrical figures of all shades and
+forms, but I observed that with every change they drew nearer to the
+stone on which I rested.
+
+They were now so near that their features could be distinguished, and
+never before had I seen such loveliness in human mold. Every face was as
+perfect as a master's picture of the Madonna, and yet no two seemed to
+possess the same type of beauty. Some were of dark complexion with
+glossy, raven hair, others were fair with hair ranging from light brown
+to golden. The style of head dress, as a rule, was of the simplest
+description. A tinted ribbon, or twisted cord, over the head, bound
+their hair with becoming grace, and their silken locks were either
+plaited into braids, curled into ringlets, or hung loosely, flowing in
+wavelets about their shoulders. Some held curious musical instruments,
+others beautiful wands, and altogether they produced a scenic effect of
+rare beauty that the most extravagant dream of fairyland could not
+surpass. Thus it was that I became again the center of a throng, not of
+repulsive monsters, but of marvelously lovely beings. They were as
+different from those preceding as darkness is from daylight.
+
+Could any man from the data of my past experiences have predicted such a
+scene? Never before had the semblance of a woman appeared, never before
+had an intimation been given that the gentle sex existed in these silent
+chambers. Now, from the grotesque figures and horrible cries of the
+former occupants of this same cavern, the scene had changed to a
+conception of the beautiful and artistic, such as a poetic spirit might
+evolve in an extravagant dream of higher fairy land. I glanced above;
+the great hall was clothed in brilliant colors, the bare rocks had
+disappeared, the dome of that vast arch reaching to an immeasurable
+height, was decorated in all the colors of the rainbow. Flags and
+streamers fluttered in breezes that also moved the garments of the
+angelic throng about me, but which I could not sense; profiles of
+enchanting faces pervaded the glimmering space beyond; I alone was but
+an onlooker, not a participant of the joys about me.
+
+The movements of the seraph-like figures continued, innumerable forms
+and figures followed forms and figures innumerable, and music
+indescribable blended with the poetry of motion. I was rapt, the past
+disappeared, my former mind was blotted from existence, the world
+vanished, and I became a thrill of joy, a sensation of absolute delight.
+
+The band of spirits or fairy forms reached the rock at my feet, but I
+did not know how long a time they consumed in doing this; it may have
+been a second, and it may have been an eternity. Neither did I care. A
+single moment of existence such as I experienced, seemed worth an age of
+any other pleasure.
+
+Circling about me, these ethereal creatures paused from their motions,
+and, as the music ceased, I stood above them, and yet in their midst,
+and gazed out into a distance illimitable, but not less beautiful in the
+expanse than was the adjacent part. The cavern had altogether
+disappeared, and in the depths about me as far as the eye could reach,
+seemingly into the broad expanse of heaven, I saw the exquisite forms
+that I have so imperfectly described.
+
+Then a single band from the throng lightly sprung upon the stony terrace
+where I stood, and sung and danced before me. Every motion was perfect
+as imagination could depict, every sound was concentrated extract of
+melody. This band retired to be replaced by another, which in turn gave
+way to another, and still another, until, as in space we have no
+standard, time vanished, and numbers ceased to be numbers.
+
+No two of the band of dancers were clothed alike, no two songs were
+similar, though all were inexpressibly enchanting. The first group
+seemed perfect, and yet the second was better, and each succeeding band
+sung sweeter songs, were more beautiful, and richer in dress than those
+preceding. I became enveloped in the aesthetic atmosphere, my spirit
+seemed to be loosened from the body, it was apparently upon the point of
+escaping from its mortal frame; suddenly the music ceased, the figures
+about became passive, and every form standing upright and graceful,
+gazed upon my face, and as I looked at the radiant creatures, each
+successive face, in turn, seemed to grow more beautiful, each form more
+exquisite than those about.
+
+Then, in the distance, I observed the phalanx divide, forming into two
+divisions, separated by a broad aisle, stretching from my feet to the
+limit of space without, and down this aisle I observed a single figure
+advancing toward me.
+
+As she approached, the phalanx closed in behind her, and when at last
+she reached the stone on which I stood, she stepped, or was wafted to my
+side, and the phalanx behind moved together and was complete again.
+
+[Illustration: ETIDORHPA.]
+
+"My name is Etidorhpa. In me you behold the spirit that elevates man,
+and subdues the most violent of passions. In history, so far back in the
+dim ages as to be known now as legendary mythology, have I ruled and
+blessed the world. Unclasp my power over man and beast, and while heaven
+dissolves, the charms of Paradise will perish. I know no master. The
+universe bows to my authority. Stars and suns enamored pulsate and throb
+in space and kiss each other in waves of light; atoms cold embrace and
+cling together; structures inanimate affiliate with and attract
+inanimate structures; bodies dead to other noble passions are not dead
+to love. The savage beast, under my enchantment, creeps to her lair, and
+gently purrs over her offspring; even man becomes less violent, and
+sheathes his weapon and smothers his hatred as I soothe his passions
+beside the loved ones in the privacy of his home.
+
+"I have been known under many titles, and have comforted many peoples.
+Strike my name from Time's record, and the lovely daughters of Zeus and
+Dione would disappear; and with them would vanish the grace and beauty
+of woman; the sweet conception of the Froth Child of the Cyprus Sea
+would be lost; Venus, the Goddess of Love, would have no place in song,
+and Love herself, the holiest conception of the poet, man's superlative
+conception of Heaven's most precious charms, would be buried with the
+myrtle and the rose. My name is Etidorhpa; interpret it rightly, and you
+have what has been to humanity the essence of love, the mother of all
+that ennobles. He who loves a wife worships me; she, who in turn makes a
+home happy, is typical of me. I am Etidorhpa, the beginning and the end
+of earth. Behold in me the antithesis of envy, the opposite of malice,
+the enemy of sorrow, the mistress of life, the queen of immortal bliss.
+
+"Do you know," she continued, and her voice, soft and sweet, carried
+with it a pleasurable sense of truthfulness indescribable, "do you know
+that man's idea of heaven, places me, Etidorhpa, on the highest throne?
+With the charm of maiden pure, I combine the devotion of wife and the
+holiness of mother. Take from the life of man the treasures I embody,
+and he will be homeless, childless, loveless. The thought of Heaven will
+in such a case be as the dismal conception of a dreary platitude. A life
+in such a Heaven, a Heaven devoid of love (and this the Scriptures
+teach), is one of endless torment.
+
+"Love, by whatever name the conception is designated, rules the world.
+Divest the cold man of science, of the bond that binds him to his
+life-thought, and his work is ended. Strike from the master in music
+the chord that links his soul to the voice he breathes, and his songs
+will be hushed. Deaden the sense of love which the artist bears his art,
+and as the spirit that underlies his thought-scenes vanishes, his touch
+becomes chilled, and his brush inexpressive. The soldier thinks of his
+home and country, and without a murmur sheds his life blood.
+
+"And yet there are debasing phases of love, for as love of country
+builds a nation, so love of pillage may destroy it. Love of the holy and
+the beautiful stands in human life opposed to love of the debasing and
+vicious, and I, Etidorhpa, am typical of the highest love of man. As the
+same force binds the molecules of the rose and the violet as well as
+those of noxious drugs, so the same soul conception may serve the love
+of good or the love of evil. Love may guide a tyrant or actuate a saint,
+may make man torture his fellow, or strive to ease his pain.
+
+"Thus, man's propensity to serve his holy or his evil passion may each
+be called a degree in love, and in the serving of that passion the love
+of one heart may express itself as the antithesis of love in another. As
+bitter is to some men's taste more pleasant than sweet, and sour is yet
+more grateful to others, so one man may love the beautiful, another
+delight in the grotesque, and a third may love to see his neighbor
+suffer. Amid these, the phase of love that ennobles, brings the greatest
+degree of pleasure and comfort to mankind, but the love that degrades is
+love nevertheless, by whatever name the expression of the passion may be
+called. Love rules the world, and typical of man's intensest, holiest
+love, I, Etidorhpa, stand the Soul of Love Supreme." She hesitated.
+
+"Go on."
+
+"I have already said, and in saying this have told the truth, I come
+from beyond the empty shell of a materialistic gold and silver
+conception of Heaven. Go with me, and in my home you will find man's
+soul devotion, regardless of material surroundings. I have said, and
+truly, the corridors of the Heaven mansion, enriched by precious stones
+and metals fine, but destitute of my smiles and graces, are deserted.
+The golden calf is no longer worshiped, cobwebs cling in festoons
+motionless, and the dust of selfish thoughts perverted, dry and black as
+the soot from Satan's fires settling therein, as the dust of an
+antiquated sarcophagus, rest undisturbed. Place on one side the Heaven
+of which gold-bound misers sing, and on the other Etidorhpa and the
+treasures that come with me to man and woman, (for without me neither
+wife, child, nor father could exist,) and from any other heaven mankind
+will turn away. The noblest gift of Heaven to humanity is the highest
+sense of love, and I, Etidorhpa, am the soul of love."
+
+She ceased speaking, and as I looked at the form beside me I forgot
+myself in the rapture of that gaze.
+
+Crush the colors of the rainbow into a single hue possessed of the
+attributes of all the others, and multiply that entity to infinity, and
+you have less richness than rested in any of the complex colors shown in
+the trimming of her raiment. Lighten the softness of eiderdown a
+thousand times, and yet maintain its sense of substance, and you have
+not conceived of the softness of the gauze that decked her simple,
+flowing garments. Gather the shadows cast by a troop of radiant angels,
+then sprinkle the resultant shade with star dust, and color therewith a
+garment brighter than satin, softer than silk, and more ethereal than
+light itself, and you have less beauty than reposed in the modest dress
+that enveloped her figure. Abstract the perfume from the sweetest
+oriental grasses, and combine with it the essential spirit of the wild
+rose, then add thereto the soul of ambergris, and the quintessential
+extracts of the finest aromatics of the East, and you have not
+approached the exquisite fragrance that penetrated my very being at her
+approach. She stood before me, slender, lithe, symmetrical, radiant. Her
+hair was more beautiful than pen can depict; it was colorless because it
+can not be described by colors known to mortals. Her face paled the
+beauty of all who had preceded her. She could not be a fairy, for no
+conception of a fairy can approach such loveliness; she was not a
+spirit, for surely material substance was a part of her form; she was
+not an angel, for no abnormal, irrational wing protruded from her
+shoulder to blemish her seraphic figure.
+
+"No," I said musingly; "she is a creature of other climes; the
+Scriptures tell of no such being; she is neither human nor angelic,
+but--"
+
+"But what?" she said.
+
+"I do not know," I answered.
+
+"Then I will tell you," she replied. "Yes; I will tell you of myself and
+of my companions. I will show you our home, carrying you through the
+shadows of heaven to exhibit that fair land, for heaven without
+Etidorhpa casts a shadow in comparison therewith. See," she said, as
+with her dainty fingers she removed from her garment a fragment of
+transparent film that I had not previously observed; "see, this is a
+cobweb that clung to my skirt, as, on my way to meet you, I passed
+through the dismal corridors of the materialists' loveless heaven."
+
+She dropped it on the floor, and I stooped to pick it up, but vainly--my
+fingers passed through it as through a mist.
+
+"You must be an angel," I stammered.
+
+She smiled.
+
+"Come," she said, "do not consume your time with thoughts of
+materialistic heaven; come with me to that brighter land beyond, and in
+those indescribable scenes we, you and I, will wander together forever."
+
+She held out her hand; I hesitatingly touched it, and then raised it to
+my lips. She made no resistance.
+
+I dropped upon my knees. "Are you to be mine?" I cried. "Mine forever?"
+
+"Yes," she answered; "if you will it, for he who loves will be loved in
+turn."
+
+"I will do it," I said; "I give myself to you, be you what you may, be
+your home where it may, I give up the earth behind me, and the hope of
+heaven before me; the here and the hereafter I will sacrifice. Let us
+hasten," I said, for she made no movement.
+
+She shook her head. "You must yet be tempted as never before, and you
+must resist the tempter. You can not pass into the land of Etidorhpa
+until you have suffered as only the damned can suffer, until you have
+withstood the pangs of thirst, and have experienced heat and cold
+indescribable. Remember the warning of your former guide, mark well the
+words of Etidorhpa: you must not yield. 'Twas to serve you that I came
+before you now, 'twas to preserve you from the Drunkard's Cavern that I
+have given you this vision of the land beyond the End of Earth where, if
+you will serve yourself, we will meet again."
+
+She held aloft two tiny cups; I sprung to my feet and grasped one of
+them, and as I glanced at the throng in front of me, every radiant
+figure held aloft in the left hand a similar cup. All were gazing in my
+face. I looked at the transparent cup in my hand; it appeared to be
+partly filled with a green liquid. I looked at her cup and saw that it
+contained a similar fluid.
+
+Forgetting the warning she had so recently given, I raised the cup to my
+lips, and just before touching it glanced again at her face. The fair
+creature stood with bowed head, her face covered with her hand; her very
+form and attitude spoke of sorrow and disappointment, and she trembled
+in distress. She held one hand as though to thrust back a form that
+seemed about to force itself beyond her figure, for peering exultingly
+from behind, leered the same Satanic face that met my gaze on the
+preceding occasion, when in the presence of the troop of demons, I had
+been tempted by the perfect man.
+
+Dashing the cup to the floor I shouted:
+
+"No; I will not drink."
+
+Etidorhpa dropped upon her knees and clasped her hands. The Satanic
+figure disappeared from sight. Realizing that we had triumphed over the
+tempter, I also fell upon my knees in thankfulness.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLI.
+
+    MISERY.
+
+
+As all the bubbles in a glass shrink and vanish when the first
+collapses, so the troop of fairy-like forms before me disintegrated, and
+were gone. The delicate being, whose hand I held, fluttered as does a
+mist in the first gust of a sudden gale, and then dissolved into
+transparency. The gaily decked amphitheater disappeared, the very earth
+cavern passed from existence, and I found myself standing solitary and
+alone in a boundless desert. I turned towards every point of the compass
+only to find that no visible object appeared to break the monotony. I
+stood upon a floor of pure white sand which stretched to the horizon in
+gentle wave-like undulations as if the swell of the ocean had been
+caught, transformed to sand, and fixed.
+
+I bent down and scooped a handful of the sand, and raised it in the palm
+of my hand, letting it sift back again to earth; it was surely sand. I
+pinched my flesh, and pulled my hair, I tore my garments, stamped upon
+the sand, and shouted aloud to demonstrate that I myself was still
+myself. It was real, yes, real. I stood alone in a desert of sand.
+Morning was dawning, and on one side the great sun rose slowly and
+majestically.
+
+"Thank God for the sun," I cried. "Thank God for the light and heat of
+the sun."
+
+I was again on surface earth; once more I beheld that glorious orb for
+the sight of which I had so often prayed when I believed myself
+miserable in the dismal earth caverns, and which I had been willing to
+give my very life once more to behold. I fell on my knees, and raised my
+hands in thankfulness. I blessed the rising sun, the illimitable sand,
+the air about me, and the blue heavens above. I blessed all that was
+before me, and again and again returned thanks for my delivery from the
+caverns beneath me. I did not think to question by what power this
+miracle had been accomplished. I did not care to do so; had I thought
+of the matter at all I would not have dared to question for fear the
+transition might prove a delusion.
+
+I turned towards the sun, and walked eastward. As the day progressed and
+the sun rose into the heavens, I maintained my journey, aiming as best I
+could to keep the same direction. The heat increased, and when the sun
+reached the zenith it seemed as though it would melt the marrow in my
+bones. The sand, as white as snow and hot as lava, dazzled my eyes, and
+I covered them with my hands. The sun in the sky felt as if it were a
+ball of white hot iron near my head. It seemed small, and yet appeared
+to shine as through a tube directed only towards myself. Vainly did I
+struggle to escape and get beyond its boundary, the tube seemed to
+follow my every motion, directing the blazing shafts, and concentrating
+them ever upon my defenseless person. I removed my outer garments, and
+tore my shirt into fibers hoping to catch a waft of breeze, and with one
+hand over my eyes, and the other holding my coat above my head,
+endeavored to escape the mighty flood of heat, but vainly. The fiery
+rays streamed through the garment as mercury flows through a film of
+gauze. They penetrated my flesh, and vaporized my blood. My hands,
+fingers, and arms puffed out as a bladder of air expands under the
+influence of heat. My face swelled to twice, thrice its normal size, and
+at last my eyes were closed, for my cheeks and eyebrows met. I rubbed my
+shapeless hand over my sightless face, and found it as round as a ball;
+the nose had become imbedded in the expanded flesh, and my ears had
+disappeared in the same manner.
+
+I could no longer see the sun, but felt the vivid, piercing rays I could
+not evade. I do not know whether I walked or rolled along; I only know
+that I struggled to escape those deadly rays. Then I prayed for death,
+and in the same breath begged the powers that had transferred me to
+surface earth to carry me back again to the caverns below. The
+recollection of their cool, refreshing atmosphere was as the thought of
+heaven must be to a lost spirit. I experienced the agony of a damned
+soul, and now, in contradistinction to former times, considered as my
+idea of perfect happiness the dismal earth caverns of other days. I
+thought of the day I had stood at the mouth of the Kentucky cave, and
+waded into the water with my guide; I recalled the refreshing coolness
+of the stream in the darkness of that cavern when the last ray of
+sunshine disappeared, and I cursed myself for longing then for sunshine,
+and the surface earth. Fool that man is, I mentally cried, not to be
+contented with that which is, however he may be situated, and wherever
+he may be placed. This is but a retribution, I am being cursed for my
+discontented mind, this is hell, and in comparison with this hell all
+else on or in earth is happiness. Then I damned the sun, the earth, the
+very God of all, and in my frenzy cursed everything that existed. I felt
+my puffed limbs, and prayed that I might become lean again. I asked to
+shrink to a skeleton, for seemingly my misery came with my expanded
+form; but I prayed and cursed in vain. So I struggled on in agony, every
+moment seemingly covering a multitude of years; struggled along like a
+lost soul plodding in an endless expanse of ever-increasing,
+ever-concentrating hell. At last, however, the day declined, the heat
+decreased, and as it did so my distorted body gradually regained its
+normal size, my eyesight returned, and finally I stood in that
+wilderness of sand watching the great red sun sink into the earth, as in
+the morning I had watched it rise. But between the sunrise and the
+sunset there had been an eternity of suffering, and then, as if released
+from a spell, I dropped exhausted upon the sand, and seemed to sleep. I
+dreamed of the sun, and that an angel stood before me, and asked why I
+was miserable, and in reply I pointed to the sun. "See," I said, "the
+author of the misery of man."
+
+Said the angel: "Were there no sun there would be no men, but were there
+no men there would still be misery."
+
+"Misery of what?" I asked.
+
+"Misery of mind," replied the angel. "Misery is a thing, misery is not a
+conception--pain is real, pain is not an impression. Misery and pain
+would still exist and prey upon mind substance were there no men, for
+mind also is real, and not a mere conception. The pain you have suffered
+has not been the pain of matter, but the pain of spirit. Matter can not
+suffer. Were it matter that suffered, the heated sand would writhe in
+agony. No; it is only mind and spirit that experience pain, or pleasure,
+and neither mind nor spirit can evade its destiny, even if it escape
+from the body."
+
+Then I awoke and saw once more the great red sun rise from the sand-edge
+of my desolate world, and I became aware of a new pain, for now I
+perceived the fact that I experienced the sense of thirst. The
+conception of the impression drew my mind to the subject, and instantly
+intense thirst, the most acute of bodily sufferings, possessed me. When
+vitalized tissue craves water, other physical wants are unfelt; when man
+parches to death all other methods of torture are disregarded. I thought
+no longer of the rising sun, I remembered no more the burning sand of
+yesterday, I felt only the pain of thirst.
+
+"Water, water, water," I cried, and then in the distance as if in answer
+to my cry, I beheld a lake of water.
+
+Instantly every nerve was strained, every muscle stretched, and I fled
+over the sands towards the welcome pool.
+
+On and on I ran, and as I did so, the sun rising higher and higher,
+again began to burn the sands beneath my feet, and roast the flesh upon
+my bones. Once more I experienced that intolerable sense of pain, the
+pain of living flesh disintegrating by fire, and now with thirst gnawing
+at my vitals, and fire drying up the residue of my evaporated blood, I
+struggled in agony towards a lake that vanished before my gaze, to
+reappear just beyond.
+
+This day was more horrible than the preceding, and yet it was the
+reverse so far as the action of the sun on my flesh was concerned. My
+prayer of yesterday had been fearfully answered, and the curses of the
+day preceding were being visited upon my very self. I had prayed to
+become lean, and instead of the former puffed tissue and expanded flesh,
+my body contracted as does beef when dried. The tightening skin squeezed
+upon the solidifying flesh, and as the moisture evaporated, it left a
+shriveled integument, contracted close upon the bone. My joints stood
+out as great protuberances, my skin turned to a dark amber color, and my
+flesh became transparent as does wetted horn. I saw my very vitals
+throb, I saw the empty blood vessels, the shriveled nerves and vacant
+arteries of my frame. I could not close my eyes. I could not shield them
+from the burning sun. I was a mummy, yet living, a dried corpse walking
+over the sand, dead to all save pain. I tried to fall, but could not,
+and I felt that, while the sun was visible, I must stand upright; I
+could not stop, and could not stoop. Then at last the malevolent sun
+sank beneath the horizon, and as the last ray disappeared again, I fell
+upon the sand.
+
+I did not sleep, I did not rest, I did not breathe nor live a human; I
+only existed as a living pain, the conception of pain realized into a
+conscious nucleus,--and so the night passed. Again the sun arose, and
+with the light of her first ray I saw near at hand a caravan, camels,
+men, horses, a great cavalcade. They approached rapidly and surrounded
+me. The leader of the band alighted and raised me to my feet, for no
+longer had I the power of motion. He spoke to me kindly, and strange as
+it may seem to you, but not at all strange did it seem to me, called me
+by name.
+
+"We came across your tracks in the desert," he said; "we are your
+deliverers."
+
+I motioned for water; I could not speak.
+
+"Yes," he said, "water you shall have."
+
+Then from one of the skins that hung across the hump of a camel he
+filled a crystal goblet with sparkling water, and held it towards me,
+but just before the goblet touched my lips he withdrew it and said:
+
+"I forgot to first extend the greetings of our people."
+
+And then I noticed in his other hand a tiny glass containing a green
+liquid, which he placed to my lips, pronouncing the single word,
+"Drink."
+
+I fastened my gaze upon the water, and opened my lips. I smelled the
+aroma of the powerful narcotic liquid within the glass, and hastened to
+obey, but glanced first at my deliverer, and in his stead saw the
+familiar face of the satanic figure that twice before had tempted me.
+Instantly, without a thought as to the consequences, without a fear as
+to the result, I dashed the glass to the sand, and my voice returning, I
+cried for the third time, "No; I will not drink."
+
+The troop of camels instantly disappeared, as had the figures in the
+scenes before, the tempter resolved into clear air, the sand beneath my
+feet became natural again, and I became myself as I had been before
+passing through the hideous ordeal. The fact of my deliverance from the
+earth caverns had, I now realized, been followed by temporary aberration
+of my mind, but at last I saw clearly again, the painful fancy had
+passed, the delirium was over.
+
+I fell upon my knees in thankfulness; the misery through which I had
+passed had proven to be illusory, the earth caverns were beneath me, the
+mirage and temptations were not real, the horrors I had experienced were
+imaginary--thank God for all this--and that the sand was really sand.
+Solitary, alone, I kneeled in the desert barren, from horizon to horizon
+desolation only surrounded, and yet the scene of that illimitable waste,
+a fearful reality, it is true, was sweet in comparison with the misery
+of body and soul about which I had dreamed so vividly.
+
+"'Tis no wonder," I said to myself, "that in the moment of transition
+from the underground caverns to the sunshine above, the shock should
+have disturbed my mental equilibrium, and in the moment of reaction I
+should have dreamed fantastic and horrible imaginings."
+
+A cool and refreshing breeze sprung now, from I know not where; I did
+not care to ask; it was too welcome a gift to question, and contrasted
+pleasantly with the misery of my past hallucination. The sun was shining
+hot above me, the sand was glowing, parched beneath me, and yet the
+grateful breeze fanned my brow, and refreshed my spirit.
+
+"Thank God," I cried, "for the breeze, for the coolness that it brings;
+only those who have experienced the silence of the cavern solitudes
+through which I have passed, and added thereto, have sensed the horrors
+of the more recent nightmare scenes, can appreciate the delights of a
+gust of air."
+
+The incongruity of surrounding conditions, as connected with affairs
+rational, did not appeal at all to my questioning senses, it seemed as
+though the cool breeze, coming from out the illimitable desolation of a
+heated waste was natural. I arose and walked on, refreshed. From out
+that breeze my physical self drew refreshment and strength.
+
+"'Tis the cold," I said; "the blessed antithesis of heat, that supports
+life. Heat enervates, cold stimulates; heat depresses, cold animates.
+Thank God for breezes, winds, waters, cold."
+
+I turned and faced the gladsome breeze. "'Tis the source of life, I will
+trace it to its origin, I will leave the accursed desert, the hateful
+sunshine, and seek the blissful regions that give birth to cool
+breezes."
+
+I walked rapidly, and the breeze became more energetic and cooler. With
+each increase of momentum on my part, corresponding strength seemed to
+be added to the breeze--both strength and coolness.
+
+"Is not this delightful?" I murmured; "my God at last has come to be a
+just God. Knowing what I wanted, He sent the breeze; in answer to my
+prayer the cool, refreshing breeze arose. Damn the heat," I cried aloud,
+as I thought of the horrid day before; "blessed be the cold," and as
+though in answer to my cry the breeze stiffened and the cold
+strengthened itself, and I again returned thanks to my Creator.
+
+With ragged coat wrapped about my form I faced the breeze and strode
+onward towards the home of the gelid wind that now dashed in gusts
+against my person.
+
+Then I heard my footstep crunch, and perceived that the sand was hard
+beneath my feet; I stooped over to examine it and found it frozen.
+Strange, I reflected, strange that dry sand can freeze, and then I
+noticed, for the first time, that spurts of snow surrounded me, 'twas a
+sleety mixture upon which I trod, a crust of snow and sand. A sense of
+dread came suddenly over me, and instinctively I turned, affrighted, and
+ran away from the wind, towards the desert behind me, back towards the
+sun, which, cold and bleak, low in the horizon, was sinking. The sense
+of dread grew upon me, and I shivered as I ran. With my back towards the
+breeze I had blessed, I now fled towards the sinking sun I had cursed. I
+stretched out my arms in supplication towards that orb, for from behind
+overhanging blackness spread, and about me roared a fearful hurricane.
+Vainly. As I thought in mockery the heartless sun disappeared before my
+gaze, the hurricane surrounded me, and the wind about me became
+intensely cold, and raved furiously. It seemed as though the sun had
+fled from my presence, and with the disappearance of that orb, the
+outline of the earth was blotted from existence. It was an awful
+blackness, and the universe was now to me a blank. The cold strengthened
+and froze my body to the marrow of my bones. First came the sting of
+frost, then the pain of cold, then insensibility of flesh. My feet were
+benumbed, my limbs motionless. I stood a statue, quiescent in the midst
+of the roaring tempest. The earth, the sun, the heavens themselves, my
+very person now had disappeared. Dead to the sense of pain or touch,
+sightless, amid a blank, only the noise of the raging winds was to me a
+reality. And as the creaking frost reached my brain and congealed it,
+the sound of the tempest ceased, and then devoid of physical senses, my
+quickened intellect, enslaved, remained imprisoned in the frozen form it
+could not leave, and yet could no longer control.
+
+Reflection after reflection passed through that incarcerated thought
+entity, and as I meditated, the heinous mistakes I had committed in the
+life that had passed, arose to torment. God had answered my
+supplications, successively I had experienced the hollowness of earthly
+pleasures, and had left each lesson unheeded. Had I not alternately
+begged for and then cursed each gift of God? Had I not prayed for heat,
+cold, light, and darkness, and anathematized each? Had I not, when in
+perfect silence, prayed for sound; in sheltered caverns, prayed for
+winds and storms; in the very corridors of heaven, and in the presence
+of Etidorhpa, had I not sought for joys beyond?
+
+Had I not found each pleasure of life a mockery, and notwithstanding
+each bitter lesson, still pursued my headstrong course, alternately
+blessing and cursing my Creator, and then myself, until now, amid a
+howling waste, in perfect darkness, my conscious intellect was bound to
+the frozen, rigid semblance of a body? All about me was dead and dark,
+all within was still and cold, only my quickened intellect remained as
+in every corpse the self-conscious intellect must remain, while the body
+has a mortal form, for death of body is not attended by the immediate
+liberation of mind. The consciousness of the dead man is still acute,
+and he who thinks the dead are mindless, will realize his fearful error
+when devoid of motion he lies a corpse, conscious of all that passes on
+around him, waiting the liberation that can only come by disintegration
+and destruction of the flesh.
+
+So, unconscious of pain, unconscious of any physical sense, I existed on
+and on, enthralled, age after age passed and piled upon one another, for
+time was to me unchangeable, no more an entity. I now prayed for change
+of any kind, and envied the very devils in hell their pleasures, for
+were they not gifted with the power of motion, could they not hear, and
+see, and realize the pains they suffered? I prayed for death--death
+absolute, death eternal. Then, at last, the darkness seemed to lessen,
+and I saw the frozen earth beneath, the monstrous crags of ice above,
+the raging tempest about, for I now had learned by reflection to
+perceive by pure intellect, to see by the light within. My body, solid
+as stone, was fixed and preserved in a waste of ice. The world was
+frozen. I perceived that the sun, and moon, and stars, nearly stilled,
+dim and motionless, had paled in the cold depths of space. The universe
+itself was freezing, and amid the desolation only my deserted intellect
+remained. Age after age had passed, aeons of ages had fled, nation after
+nation had grown and perished, and in the uncounted epochs behind,
+humanity had disappeared. Unable to free itself from the frozen body, my
+own intellect remained the solitary spectator of the dead silence about.
+At last, beneath my vision, the moon disappeared, the stars faded one by
+one, and then I watched the sun grow dim, until at length only a milky,
+gauze-like film remained to indicate her face, and then--vacancy. I had
+lived the universe away. And in perfect darkness the living intellect,
+conscious of all that had transpired in the ages past, clung still
+enthralled to the body of the frozen mortal. I thought of my record in
+the distant past, of the temptations I had undergone, and called myself
+a fool, for, had I listened to the tempter, I could at least have
+suffered, I could have had companionship even though it were of the
+devils--in hell. I lived my life over and over, times without number; I
+thought of my tempters, of the offered cups, and thinking, argued with
+myself:
+
+"No," I said; "no, I had made the promise, I have faith in Etidorhpa,
+and were it to do over again I would not drink."
+
+Then, as this thought sped from me, the ice scene dissolved, the
+enveloped frozen form of myself faded from view, the sand shrunk into
+nothingness, and with my natural body, and in normal condition, I found
+myself back in the earth cavern, on my knees, beside the curious
+inverted fungus, of which fruit I had eaten in obedience to my guide's
+directions. Before me the familiar figure of my guide stood, with folded
+arms, and as my gaze fell upon him he reached out his hand and raised me
+to my feet.
+
+"Where have you been during the wretched epochs that have passed since I
+last saw you?" I asked.
+
+"I have been here," he replied, "and you have been there."
+
+"You lie, you villainous sorcerer," I cried; "you lie again as you have
+lied to me before. I followed you to the edge of demon land, to the
+caverns of the drunkards, and then you deserted me. Since last we met I
+have spent a million, billion years of agony inexpressible, and have had
+that agony made doubly horrible by contrast with the thought, yes, the
+very sight and touch of Heaven. I passed into a double eternity, and
+have experienced the ecstacies of the blessed, and suffered the torments
+of the damned, and now you dare boldly tell me that I have been here,
+and that you have been there, since last I saw you stand by this cursed
+fungus bowl."
+
+"Yes," he said, taking no offense at my violence; "yes, neither of us
+has left this spot; you have sipped of the drink of an earth-damned
+drunkard, you have experienced part of the curses of intemperance, the
+delirium of narcotics. Thousands of men on earth, in their drunken
+hallucination, have gone through hotter hells than you have seen; your
+dream has not exaggerated the sufferings of those who sup of the
+delirium of intemperance."
+
+And then he continued:
+
+"Let me tell you of man's conception of eternity."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLII.
+
+    ETERNITY WITHOUT TIME.
+
+
+"Man's conception of eternity is that of infinite duration, continuance
+without beginning or end, and yet everything he knows is bounded by two
+or more opposites. From a beginning, as he sees a form of matter, that
+substance passes to an end." Thus spoke my guide.
+
+Then he asked, and showed by his question that he appreciated the nature
+of my recent experiences: "Do you recall the instant that you left me
+standing by this bowl to start, as you imagined, with me as a companion,
+on the journey to the cavern of the grotesque?"
+
+"No; because I did not leave you. I sipped of the liquid, and then you
+moved on with me from this spot; we were together, until at last we were
+separated on the edge of the cave of drunkards."
+
+"Listen," said he; "I neither left you nor went with you. You neither
+went from this spot nor came back again. You neither saw nor experienced
+my presence nor my absence; there was no beginning to your journey."
+
+"Go on."
+
+"You ate of the narcotic fungus; you have been intoxicated."
+
+"I have not," I retorted. "I have been through your accursed caverns,
+and into hell beyond. I have been consumed by eternal damnation in the
+journey, have experienced a heaven of delight, and also an eternity of
+misery."
+
+"Upon the contrary, the time that has passed since you drank the liquid
+contents of that fungus fruit has only been that which permitted you to
+fall upon your knees. You swallowed the liquor when I handed you the
+shell cup; you dropped upon your knees, and then instantly awoke. See,"
+he said; "in corroboration of my assertion the shell of the fungus fruit
+at your feet is still dripping with the liquid you did not drink. Time
+has been annihilated. Under the influence of this potent earth-bred
+narcoto-intoxicant, your dream begun inside of eternity; you did not
+pass into it."
+
+"You say," I interrupted, "that I dropped upon my knees, that I have
+experienced the hallucination of intoxication, that the experiences of
+my vision occurred during the second of time that was required for me to
+drop upon my knees."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Then by your own argument you demonstrate that eternity requires time,
+for even a millionth part of a second is time, as much so as a million
+of years."
+
+"You mistake," he replied, "you misinterpret my words. I said that all
+you experienced in your eternity of suffering and pleasure, occurred
+between the point when you touched the fungus fruit to your lips, and
+that when your knees struck the stone."
+
+"That consumed time," I answered.
+
+"Did I assert," he questioned, "that your experiences were scattered
+over that entire period?"
+
+"No."
+
+"May not all that occurred to your mind have been crushed into the
+second that accompanied the mental impression produced by the liquor, or
+the second of time that followed, or any other part of that period, or a
+fraction of any integral second of that period?"
+
+"I can not say," I answered, "what part of the period the hallucination,
+as you call it, occupied."
+
+"You admit that so far as your conception of time is concerned, the
+occurrences to which you refer may have existed in either an inestimable
+fraction of the first, the second, or the third part of the period."
+
+"Yes," I replied, "yes; if you are correct in that, they were
+illusions."
+
+"Let me ask you furthermore," he said; "are you sure that the flash that
+bred your hallucination was not instantaneous, and a part of neither the
+first, second, nor third second?"
+
+"Continue your argument."
+
+"I will repeat a preceding question with a slight modification. May not
+all that occurred to your mind have been crushed into the space between
+the second of time that preceded the mental impression produced by the
+liquor, and the second that followed it? Need it have been a part of
+either second, or of time at all? Indeed, could it have been a part of
+time if it were instantaneous?"
+
+"Go on."
+
+"Suppose the entity that men call the soul of man were in process of
+separation from the body. The process you will admit would occupy time,
+until the point of liberation was reached. Would not dissolution, so far
+as the separation of matter and spirit is concerned at its critical
+point be instantaneous?"
+
+I made no reply.
+
+"If the critical point is instantaneous, there would be no beginning,
+there could be no end. Therein rests an eternity greater than man can
+otherwise conceive of, for as there is neither beginning nor end, time
+and space are annihilated. The line that separates the soul that is in
+the body from the soul that is out of the body is outside of all things.
+It is a between, neither a part of the nether side nor of the upper
+side; it is outside the here and the hereafter. Let us carry this
+thought a little further," said he. "Suppose a good man were to undergo
+this change, could not all that an eternity of happiness might offer be
+crushed into this boundless conception, the critical point? All that a
+mother craves in children dead, could reappear again in their once loved
+forms; all that a good life earns, would rest in the soul's experience
+in that eternity, but not as an illusion, although no mental pleasure,
+no physical pain is equal to that of hallucinations. Suppose that a
+vicious life were ended, could it escape the inevitable critical point?
+Would not that life in its previous journey create its own sad eternity?
+You have seen the working of an eternity with an end but not a beginning
+to it, for you can not sense the commencement of your vision. You have
+been in the cavern of the grotesque,--the realms of the beautiful, and
+have walked over the boundless sands that bring misery to the soul, and
+have, as a statue, seen the frozen universe dissolve. You are thankful
+that it was all an illusion as you deem it now; what would you think had
+only the heavenly part been spread before you?"
+
+"I would have cursed the man who dispelled the illusion," I answered.
+
+"Then," he said, "you are willing to admit that men who so live as to
+gain such an eternity, be it mental illusion, hallucination or real,
+make no mistake in life."
+
+"I do," I replied; "but you confound me when you argue in so cool a
+manner that eternity may be everlasting to the soul, and yet without the
+conception of time."
+
+"Did I not teach you in the beginning of this journey," he interjected,
+"that time is not as men conceive it. Men can not grasp an idea of
+eternity and retain their sun bred, morning and evening, conception of
+time. Therein lies their error. As the tip of the whip-lash passes with
+the lash, so through life the soul of man proceeds with the body. As
+there is a point just when the tip of the whip-lash is on the edge of
+its return, where all motion of the line that bounds the tip ends, so
+there is a motionless point when the soul starts onward from the body of
+man. As the tip of the whip-lash sends its cry through space, not while
+it is in motion either way, but from the point where motion ceases, the
+spaceless, timeless point that lies between the backward and the
+forward, so the soul of man leaves a cry (eternity) at the critical
+point. It is the death echo, and thus each snap of the life-thread
+throws an eternity, its own eternity, into eternity's seas, and each
+eternity is made up of the entities thus cast from the critical point.
+With the end of each soul's earth journey, a new eternity springs into
+existence, occupying no space, consuming no time, and not conflicting
+with any other, each being exactly what the soul-earth record makes it,
+an eternity of joy (heaven), or an eternity of anguish (hell). There can
+be no neutral ground."
+
+Then he continued:
+
+"The drunkard is destined to suffer in the drunkard's eternity, as you
+have suffered; the enticement of drink is evanescent, the agony to
+follow is eternal. You have seen that the sub-regions of earth supply an
+intoxicant. Taste not again of any intoxicant; let your recent lesson be
+your last. Any stimulant is an enemy to man, any narcotic is a fiend. It
+destroys its victim, and corrupts the mind, entices it into pastures
+grotesque, and even pleasant at first, but destined to eternal misery in
+the end. Beware of the eternity that follows the snapping of the
+life-thread of a drunkard. Come," he abruptly said, "we will pursue our
+journey."
+
+     [NOTE.--Morphine, belladonna, hyoscyamus and cannabis indica are
+     narcotics, and yet each differs in its action from the others.
+     Alcohol and methyl alcohol are intoxicants; ether, chloroform,
+     and chloral are anaesthetics, and yet no two are possessed of the
+     same qualities. Is there any good reason to doubt that
+     combinations of the elements as yet hidden from man can not cause
+     hallucinations that combine and intensify the most virulent of
+     narcotics, intoxicants, and anaesthetics, and pall the effects of
+     hashish or of opium?
+
+     If, in the course of experimentation, a chemist should strike
+     upon a compound that in traces only would subject his mind and
+     drive his pen to record such seemingly extravagant ideas as are
+     found in the hallucinations herein pictured, would it not be his
+     duty to bury the discovery from others, to cover from mankind the
+     existence of such a noxious fruit of the chemist's or
+     pharmaceutist's art? Introduce such an intoxicant, and start it
+     to ferment in humanity's blood, and before the world were advised
+     of its possible results, might not the ever increasing potency
+     gain such headway as to destroy, or debase, our civilization, and
+     even to exterminate mankind?--J. U. L.]
+
+
+
+
+INTERLUDE.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIII.
+
+    THE LAST CONTEST.
+
+
+I, Lewellyn Drury, had been so absorbed in the fantastic story the old
+man read so fluently from the execrably written manuscript, and in the
+metaphysical argument which followed his account of the vision he had
+introduced so artfully as to lead me to think it was a part of his
+narrative, that I scarcely noted the passage of time. Upon seeing him
+suspend his reading, fold the manuscript, and place it in his pocket, I
+reverted to material things, and glancing at the clock, perceived that
+the hands pointed to bed-time.
+
+"To-morrow evening," said he, "I will return at nine o'clock. In the
+interim, if you still question any part of the story, or wish further
+information on any subject connected with my journey, I will be prepared
+to answer your queries. Since, however, that will be your last
+opportunity, I suggest that you make notes of all subjects that you wish
+to discuss."
+
+Then, in his usual self-possessed, exquisitely polite manner, he bowed
+himself out.
+
+I spent the next day reviewing the most questionable features of his
+history, recalling the several statements that had been made.
+Remembering the humiliation I had experienced in my previous attempts to
+confute him, I determined to select such subjects as would appear the
+most difficult to explain, and to attack the old man with vehemence.
+
+I confess, that notwithstanding my several failures, and his successful
+and constant elucidation and minute details in regard to occurrences
+which he related, and which anticipated many points I had once had in
+mind to question, misgivings still possessed me concerning the
+truthfulness of the story. If these remarkable episodes were true,
+could there be such a thing as fiction? If not all true, where did fact
+end and fancy begin?
+
+Accordingly I devoted the following day to meditating my plan of attack,
+for I felt that I had been challenged to a final contest. Late the next
+day, I felt confident of my own ability to dispossess him, and in order
+further to test his power, when night came I doubly locked the door to
+my room, first with the key and next with the inside bolt. I had
+determined to force him again to induce inert material to obey his
+command, as he had done at our first interview. The reader will remember
+that Prof. Chickering had deemed that occurrence an illusion, and I
+confess that time had dimmed the vividness of the scene in my own mind.
+Hence I proposed to verify the matter. Therefore, at the approach of
+nine o'clock, the evening following, I sat with my gaze riveted on the
+bolt of the door, determined not to answer his knock.
+
+He gave me no chance to neglect a response to his rap. Exactly at the
+stroke of nine the door swung noiselessly on its hinges, the wizard
+entered, and the door closed again. The bolt had not moved, the knob did
+not turn. The bar passed through the catch and back to its seat,--I
+sprung from my chair, and excitedly and rudely rushed past my guest. I
+grasped the knob, wrenched it with all my might. Vainly; the door was
+locked, the bolt was fastened. Then I turned to my visitor. He was
+quietly seated in his accustomed place, and apparently failed to notice
+my discomposure, although he must have realized that he had withstood my
+first test.
+
+This pronounced defeat, at the very beginning of our proposed contest,
+produced a depressing effect; nevertheless I made an effort at
+self-control, and seating myself opposite, looked my antagonist in the
+face. Calm, dignified, with the brow of a philosopher, and the
+countenance of a philanthropist, a perfect type of the exquisite
+gentleman, and the cultured scholar, my guest, as serene and complacent
+as though, instead of an intruder, he were an invited participant of the
+comforts of my fireside, or even the host himself, laid his hat upon the
+table, stroked his silvery, translucent beard, and said:
+
+"Well?"
+
+I accepted the challenge, for the word, as he emphasized it, was a
+challenge, and hurled at him, in hopes to catch him unprepared, the
+following abrupt sentence:
+
+"I doubt the possibility of the existence of a great cavern such as you
+have described. The superincumbent mass of earth would crush the
+strongest metal. No material known to man could withstand a pressure so
+great as would overlie an arch as large as that you depict; material
+would succumb even if the roof were made of steel."
+
+"Do not be so positive," he replied. "By what authority do you make this
+assertion?"
+
+"By the authority of common sense as opposed to an unreasonable
+hypothesis. You should know that there is a limit to the strength of all
+things, and that no substance is capable of making an arch of thousands
+of miles, which, according to your assertion, must have been the
+diameter of the roof of your inland sea."
+
+"Ah," he replied, "and so you again crush my facts with your theory.
+Well, let me ask a question."
+
+"Proceed."
+
+"Did you ever observe a bubble resting on a bubble?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Did you ever place a pipe-stem in a partly filled bowl of soap water,
+and by blowing through it fill the bowl with bubbles?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Did you ever calculate the tensile strength of the material from which
+you blew the bubble?"
+
+"No; for soap water has no appreciable strength."
+
+"And yet you know that a bubble made of suds has not only strength, but
+elasticity. Suppose a bubble of energy floating in space were to be
+covered to the depth of the thickness of a sheet of tissue paper with
+the dust of space, would that surprise you?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Suppose two such globes of energy, covered with dust, were to be
+telescoped or attached together, would you marvel at the fact?"
+
+"No."
+
+He drew a picture on a piece of paper, in which one line was inclosed by
+another, and remarked:
+
+"The pencil mark on this paper is proportionately thicker than the crust
+of the earth over the earth cavern I have described. Even if it were
+made of soap suds, it could revolve through space and maintain its
+contour."
+
+"But the earth is a globe," I interjected.
+
+"You do not mean an exact globe?"
+
+"No; it is flattened at the poles."
+
+He took from his pocket two thin rubber balls, one slightly larger than
+the other. With his knife he divided the larger ball, cutting it into
+halves. He then placed one of the sections upon the perfect ball, and
+held the arrangement between the gas light and the wall.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 33. A A, telescoped energy spheres.]
+
+"See; is not the shadow flattened, as your earth is, at the poles?"
+
+"Yes; but the earth is not a shadow."
+
+"We will not argue that point now," he replied, and then asked: "Suppose
+such a compound shell as this were to revolve through space and
+continuously collect dust, most of it of the earth's temperature,
+forming a fluid (water), would not that dust be propelled naturally from
+the poles?"
+
+"Yes; according to our theory."
+
+"Perhaps," said he, "the contact edge of the invisible spheres of energy
+which compose your earth bubbles, for planets are bubbles, that have
+been covered with water and soil during the time the energy bubble,
+which is the real bone of the globe, has been revolving through space;
+perhaps, could you reach the foundation of the earth dust, you would
+find it not a perfect sphere, but a compound skeleton, as of two bubbles
+locked, or rather telescoped together. [See Fig. 34.]
+
+"Are you sure that my guide did not lead me through the space between
+the bubbles?"
+
+Then he continued:
+
+"Do not be shocked at what I am about to assert, for, as a member of
+materialistic humanity, you will surely consider me irrational when I
+say that matter, materials, ponderous substances, one and all, so far as
+the ponderous part is concerned have no strength."
+
+"What! no strength?"
+
+"None whatever."
+
+I grasped the poker.
+
+"Is not this matter?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"I can not break it."
+
+"No."
+
+"Have not I strength?"
+
+"Confine your argument now to the poker; we will consider you next. You
+can not break it."
+
+"I can break this pencil, though," and I snapped it in his face.
+
+"Yes."
+
+I curled my lip in disdain.
+
+"You carry this argument too far."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"I can break the pencil, I can not break the poker; had these materials
+not different strengths there could be no distinction; had I no strength
+I could not have broken either."
+
+"Are you ready to listen?" he replied.
+
+"Yes; but do not exasperate me."
+
+"I did not say that the combination you call a poker had no strength,
+neither did I assert that you could not break a pencil."
+
+"A distinction without a difference; you play upon words."
+
+"I said that matter, the ponderous side of material substances, has no
+strength."
+
+"And I say differently."
+
+He thrust the end of the poker into the fire, and soon drew it forth
+red-hot.
+
+"Is it as strong as before?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Heat it to whiteness and it becomes plastic."
+
+"Yes."
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 34. B B, telescoped energy spheres covered with
+space dirt, inclosing space between.]
+
+"Heat it still more and it changes to a liquid."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Has liquid iron strength?"
+
+"Very little, if any."
+
+"Is it still matter?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Is it the material of the iron, or is it the energy called heat that
+qualifies the strength of the metal? It seems to me that were I in your
+place I would now argue that absence of heat constitutes strength," he
+sarcastically continued.
+
+"Go on."
+
+"Cool this red-hot poker by thrusting it into a pail of cold water, and
+it becomes very hard and brittle."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Cool it slowly, and it is comparatively soft and plastic."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"The material is the same, is it not?"
+
+"Go on."
+
+"What strength has charcoal?"
+
+"Scarcely any."
+
+"Crystallize it, and the diamond results."
+
+"I did not speak of diamond."
+
+"Ah! and is not the same amount of the same material present in each, a
+grain of diamond and a grain of charcoal? What is present in a grain of
+diamond that is not present in a grain of charcoal?"
+
+"Go on."
+
+"Answer my question."
+
+"I can not."
+
+"Why does brittle, cold zinc, when heated, become first ductile, and
+then, at an increased temperature, become brittle again? In each case
+the same material is present."
+
+"I do not know; but this I do know: I am an organized being, and I have
+strength of body."
+
+The old man grasped the heavy iron poker with both hands, and suddenly
+rising to his full height, swung it about his head, then with a motion
+so menacing that I shrunk back into my chair and cried out in alarm,
+seemed about to strike, with full force, my defenseless brow.
+
+"My God," I shouted, "what have I done that you should murder me?"
+
+He lowered the weapon, and calmly asked:
+
+"Suppose that I had crushed your skull--where then would be your vaunted
+strength?"
+
+I made no reply, for as yet I had not recovered from the mental shock.
+
+"Could you then have snapped a pencil? Could you have broken a reed?
+Could you even have blown the down from a thistle bloom?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Would not your material body have been intact?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Listen," said he. "Matter has no strength, matter obeys spirit, and
+spirit dominates all things material. Energy in some form holds
+particles of matter together, and energy in other forms loosens them.
+'Tis this imponderable force that gives strength to substances, not the
+ponderable side of the material. Granite crushed is still granite, but
+destitute of rigidity. Creatures dead are still organic structures, but
+devoid of strength or motion. The spirit that pervades all material
+things gives to them form and existence. Take from your earth its vital
+spirit, the energy that subjects matter, and your so-called adamantine
+rocks would disintegrate, and sift as dust into the interstices of
+space. Your so-called rigid globe, a shell of space dust, would
+dissolve, collapse, and as the spray of a burst bubble, its ponderous
+side would vanish in the depths of force."
+
+I sat motionless.
+
+"Listen," he repeated. "You wrong your own common sense when you place
+dead matter above the spirit of matter. Atoms come and go in their
+ceaseless transmigrations, worlds move, universes circulate, not because
+they are material bodies, but because as points of matter, in a flood of
+force, they obey the spirit that can blot out a sun, or dissolve the
+earth, as easily as it can unlink two atoms. Matter is an illusion,
+spirit is the reality."
+
+I felt that he had silenced me against my will, and although I could not
+gainsay his assertions, I determined to study the subject carefully, at
+my leisure.
+
+"As you please," he interjected into my musings; "but since you are so
+determined, you would better study from books that are written by
+authors who know whereof they write, and who are not obliged to theorize
+from speculative data concerning the intrastructural earth crust."
+
+"But where can I find such works? I do not know of any."
+
+"Then," said he, "perhaps it would be better to cease doubting the word
+of one who has acquired the knowledge to write such a book, and who has
+no object in misleading you."
+
+"Still other questions arise," I said.
+
+"Well?"
+
+"I consider the account of the intra-earth fungus intoxicant beyond the
+realm of fact."
+
+"In what respect?"
+
+"The perfect loss of self that resulted immediately, in an instant,
+after swallowing the juice of the fungous fruit, so that you could not
+distinguish between the real guide at your side and the phantom that
+sprung into existence, is incredible. [See p. 234.] An element of time
+is a factor in the operation of nerve impressions."[12]
+
+    [12] It is well that reference was made to this point. Few readers
+    would probably notice that Chapter XXXVI. begun a narcotic
+    hallucination.--J. U. L.
+
+"Have you investigated all possible anaesthetics?" he asked.
+
+"Of course not."
+
+"Or all possible narcotics?"
+
+"No."
+
+"How long does it require for pure prussic acid to produce its
+physiological action?"
+
+"I do not know."
+
+He ignored my reply, and continued:
+
+"Since there exists a relative difference between the time that is
+required for ether and chloroform to produce insensibility, and between
+the actions and resultant effects of all known anaesthetics, intoxicants,
+and narcotics, I think you are hypercritical. Some nerve excitants known
+to you act slowly, others quickly; why not others still instantaneously?
+If you can rest your assertion on any good basis, I will gladly meet
+your questions, but I do not accept such evidence as you now introduce,
+and I do not care to argue for both parties."
+
+Again I was becoming irritated, for I was not satisfied with the manner
+in which I upheld my part of the argument, and naturally, as is usually
+the case with the defeated party, became incensed at my invincible
+antagonist.
+
+"Well," I said, "I criticise your credulity. The drunkards of the
+drunkards' cavern were beyond all credence. I can not conceive of such
+abnormal creations, even in illusion. Had I met with your experiences I
+would not have supposed, for an instant, that the fantastic shapes could
+have been aught but a dream, or the result of hallucination, while,
+without a question, you considered them real."
+
+"You are certainly pressed for subjects about which to complain when you
+resort to criticising the possibilities in creations of a mind under the
+influence of a more powerful intoxicant than is known to surface earth,"
+he remarked. "However, I will show you that nature fashions animals in
+forms more fantastic than I saw, and that even these figures were not
+overdrawn--"
+
+Without heeding his remark, I interrupted his discourse, determined to
+have my say:
+
+"And I furthermore question the uncouth personage you describe as your
+guide. Would you have me believe that such a being has an existence
+outside an abnormal thought-creation?"
+
+"Ah," he replied, "you have done well to ask these two questions in
+succession, for you permit me to answer both at once. Listen: The
+Monkey, of all animals, seems to approach closest to man in figure, the
+Siamang Gibon of Asia, the Bald-headed Saki of South America, with its
+stub of a tail, being nearest. From these types we have great deviations
+as in the Wanderer of India, with its whiskered face, and the Black
+Macaque of the Island of Celebes, with its hairy topknot, and hairless
+stub of a tail, or the well-known Squirrel Monkey, with its long supple
+tail, and the Thumbless Spider Monkey, of South America. Between these
+types we have among monkeys, nearly every conceivable shape of limb and
+figure, and in color of their faces and bodies, all the shades of the
+rainbow.
+
+"Some Squirrels jump and then sail through the air. The Sloth can barely
+move on the earth. Ant-eaters have no teeth at all, while the Grizzly
+Bear can crush a gun barrel with its molars.
+
+"The Duck-billed Platypus of South Australia has the body of a mole, the
+tail of a raccoon, the flat bill of a duck, and the flipper of a seal,
+combined with the feet of a rat. It lays eggs as birds do, but suckles
+its young as do other mammalia. The Opossum has a prehensile tail, as
+have some monkeys, and in addition a living bag or pouch in which the
+female carries her tiny young. The young of a kind of tree frog of the
+genus Hylodes, breathe through a special organ in their tails; the young
+of the Pipa, a great South American toad, burrow into the skin of the
+mother, and still another from Chili, as soon as hatched, creep down the
+throat of the father frog, and find below the jaw an opening into a
+false membrane covering the entire abdomen, in which they repose in
+safety. Three species of frogs and toads have no tongue at all, while in
+all the others the tongue is attached by its tip to the end of the
+mouth, and is free behind. The ordinary Bullfrog has conspicuous great
+legs, while a relative, the Coecilia (and others as well) have a head
+reminding of the frog, but neither tail nor legs, the body being
+elongated as if it were a worm. The long, slender fingers of a Bat are
+united by means of a membrane that enables it to fly like a bird, while
+as a contrast, the fingers of a Mole, its near cousin, are short and
+stubby, and massive as compared with its frame. The former flies through
+the air, the latter burrows (almost flies) through the earth. The Great
+Ant-eater has a curved head which is drawn out into a slender snout, no
+teeth, a long, slender tongue, a great bushy tail, and claws that
+neither allow the creature to burrow in the earth nor climb into trees,
+but which are admirably adapted to tear an ant-hill into fragments. Its
+close relatives, the Apar and Armadillo, have a round body covered with
+bony plates, and a short, horny, curved tail, while another relative,
+the Long-tailed Pangolin, has a great alligator-like tail which,
+together with its body, is covered with horny, overlapping scales.
+
+"The Greenland Whale has an enormous head occupying more than one-third
+its length, no teeth, and a throat scarcely larger than that of a sucker
+fish. The Golden Mole has a body so nearly symmetrical that, were it not
+for the snout, it would be difficult to determine the location of the
+head without close inspection, and it has legs so short that, were it
+not for the powerful claws, they would not be observed at all. The
+Narwhal has a straight, twisted tusk, a--"
+
+"Hold, hold," I interrupted; "do you think that I am concerned in these
+well known contrasts in animal structure?"
+
+"Did you not question the possibility of the description I gave of my
+grotesque drunkards, and of the form of my subterranean guide?" my guest
+retorted.
+
+"Yes; but I spoke of men, you describe animals."
+
+"Man is an animal, and between the various species of animals that you
+say are well known, greater distinctions can be drawn than between my
+guide and surface-earth man. Besides, had you allowed me to proceed to a
+description of animal life beneath the surface of the earth, I would
+have shown you that my guide partook of their attributes. Of the
+creatures described, one only was of the intra-earth origin--the
+Mole,--and like my guide, it is practically eyeless."
+
+"Go on," I said; "'tis useless for me to resist. And yet--"
+
+"And yet what?"
+
+"And yet I have other subjects to discuss."
+
+"Proceed."
+
+"I do not like the way in which you constantly criticise science,
+especially in referring thereto the responsibilities of the crazed
+anatomist.[13] It seems to me that he was a monomaniac, gifted, but
+crazed, and that science was unfortunate in being burdened with such an
+incubus."
+
+    [13] This section (see p. 190) was excised, being too
+    painful.--J. U. L.
+
+"True, and yet science advances largely by the work of such apparently
+heartless creatures. Were it not for investigators who overstep the
+bounds of established methods, and thus criticise their predecessors,
+science would rust and disintegrate. Besides, why should not science be
+judged by the rule she applies to others?"
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"Who is more free to criticise religion than the materialistic man of
+science?"
+
+"But a religious man is not cruel."
+
+"Have you not read history? Have you not shuddered at the crimes
+recorded in the name of the religions of man?"
+
+"Yes; but these cruelties were committed by misguided men under the
+cloak of the church, or of false religions, during the dark ages. Do not
+blame religion, but the men who abused the cause."
+
+"Yes," he added, "you are right; they were fanatics, crazed beings, men;
+yes, even communities, raving mad. Crazed leaders can infuse the minds
+of the people with their fallacies, and thus become leaders of crazed
+nations. Not, as I have depicted in my scientific enthusiast, one man
+alone in the privacy of his home torturing a single child, but whole
+nations pillaging, burning, torturing, and destroying. But this is
+foreign to our subject. Beware, I reiterate, of the science of human
+biology. The man who enters the field can not foresee the end, the man
+who studies the science of life, and records his experiments, can not
+know the extremes to which a fanatical follower may carry the
+thought-current of his leader. I have not overdrawn the lesson. Besides,
+science is now really torturing, burning, maiming, and destroying
+humanity. The act of destruction has been transferred from barbarians
+and the fanatic in religion to the follower of the devotees of science."
+
+"No; I say, no."
+
+"Who created the steam engine? Who evolves improved machinery? Who
+creates improved artillery, and explosives? Scientific men."
+
+He hesitated.
+
+"Go on."
+
+"Accumulate the maimed and destroyed each year; add together the
+miseries and sorrows that result from the explosions, accidents, and
+catastrophes resulting from science improvements, and the dark ages
+scarcely offer a parallel. Add thereto the fearful destruction that
+follows a war among nations scientific, and it will be seen that the
+scientific enthusiast of the present has taken the place of the
+misguided fanatic of the past. Let us be just. Place to the credit of
+religion the good that religion has done, place to the credit of science
+the good that science is doing, and yet do not mistake, both leave in
+their wake an atmosphere saturated with misery, a road whitened with
+humanity's bones. Neither the young nor the old are spared, and so far
+as the sufferer is concerned it matters not whether the person has been
+racked by the tortures of an inquisition, or the sword of an infidel, is
+shrieking in the agony of a scald by super-heated steam, or is mangled
+by an explosion of nitroglycerin."
+
+Again he hesitated.
+
+"Go on."
+
+"One of science's most serious responsibilities, from which religion has
+nearly escaped, is that of supplying thought-food to fanatics, and from
+this science can not escape."
+
+"Explain yourself."
+
+"Who places the infidel in possession of arguments to combat sacred
+teachings? Who deliberately tortures animals, and suggests that
+biological experimentation in the name of science, before cultured
+audiences even, is legitimate, such as making public dissections of
+living creatures?"
+
+"Enough, enough," I cried, thinking of his crazed anatomist, and
+covering my face with my hands; "you make my blood creep."
+
+"Yes," he added sarcastically; "you shudder now and criticise my
+truthful study, and to-morrow you will forget the lesson, and perhaps
+for dinner you will relish your dish of veal, the favorite food of
+mothers, the nearest approach to the flesh of babies."
+
+Then his manner changed, and in his usual mild, pleasant way, he said:
+
+"Take what I have said kindly; I wish only to induce your religious part
+to have more charity for your scientific self, and the reverse. Both
+religion and science are working towards the good of man, although their
+devotees are human, and by human errors bring privations, sufferings,
+and sorrows to men. Neither can fill the place of the other; each should
+extend a helping hand, and have charity for the shortcomings of the
+other; they are not antagonists, but workers in one field; both must
+stand the criticisms of mutual antagonists, and both have cause to fear
+the evils of fanaticism within their own ranks more than the attacks of
+opponents from without. Let the religious enthusiast exercise care; his
+burning, earnest words may lead a weak-minded father to murder an
+innocent family, and yet 'tis not religion that commits the crime. Let
+the zealous scientific man hesitate; he piles up fuel by which minds
+unbalanced, or dispositions perverted, seek to burn and destroy hopes
+that have long served the yearnings of humanity's soul. Neither pure
+religion nor true science is to blame for the acts of its devotees, and
+yet each must share the responsibility of its human agents."
+
+"We will discuss the subject no further," I said; "it is not agreeable."
+
+Then I continued:
+
+"The idea of eternity without time is not quite clear to me, although I
+catch an imperfect conception of the argument advanced. Do you mean to
+say that when a soul leaves the body, the earth life of the individual,
+dominated by the soul, is thrown off from it as is the snap of a
+whip-lash, and that into the point between life and death, the hereafter
+of that mortal may be concentrated?"
+
+"I simply give you the words of my guide," he replied, "but you have
+expressed the idea about as well as your word language will admit. Such
+a conception of eternity is more rational to one who, like myself, has
+lived through an instant that covered, so far as mind is concerned, a
+million years of time, than is an attempt to grasp a conception of an
+eternity, without beginning or end, by basing an argument on conditions
+governing material substances, as these substances are known to man. You
+have the germ of the idea which may be simply a thought for you to
+ponder over; you can study the problem at your leisure. Do not, however,
+I warn you, attempt to comprehend the notion of eternity by throwing
+into it the conception of time as men accept that term, for the very
+word time, as men define it, demands that there be both a beginning and
+an end. With the sense of time in one's mind, there can be no conception
+of the term eternity."
+
+Then, as I had so often done before, I unwarily gave him an opportunity
+to enlarge on his theme, to my disadvantage. I had determined not to ask
+any questions concerning his replies to my criticism, for whenever I had
+previously done so, the result had been disastrous to me. In this case I
+unwittingly said:
+
+"Why do you say that our language will not permit of clearer conceptions
+than you give?"
+
+"Because your education does not permit you to think outside of words;
+you are word-bound."
+
+"You astonish me by making such an arrogant assertion. Do you mean to
+assert that I can not think without using words?"
+
+"Yes. Every thought you indulge in is circumscribed. You presumably
+attempt to throw a thought-line forward, and yet you step backward and
+spin it in words that have been handed you from the past, and, struggle
+as you may, you can not liberate yourself from the dead incubus. Attempt
+to originate an idea, and see if you can escape your word-master?"
+
+"Go on; I am listening."
+
+"Men scientific think in language scientific. Men poetical think in
+language poetic. All educated men use words in thinking of their
+subjects, words that came to them from the past, and enslave their
+intellect. Thus it is that the novelist can not make fiction less real
+than is fact; that scientists can not commence at the outside, and build
+a theory back to phenomena understood. In each case the foundation of a
+thought is a word that in the very beginning carries to the mind a
+meaning, a something from the past. Each thought ramification is an
+offshoot from words that express ideas and govern ideas, yes, create
+ideas, even dominating the mind. Men speak of ideas when they intend to
+refer to an image in the mind, but in reality they have no ideas outside
+of the word sentences they unconsciously reformulate. Define the term
+idea correctly, and it will be shown that an idea is a sentence, and if
+a sentence is made of words already created, there can be no new idea,
+for every word has a fixed meaning. Hence, when men think, they only
+rearrange words that carry with themselves networks of ideas, and thus
+play upon their several established meanings. How can men so
+circumscribed construct a new idea or teach a new science?"
+
+"New words are being created."
+
+"Language is slowly progressing, but no new word adds itself to a
+language; it is linked to thought-chains that precede. In order to
+create a word, as a rule, roots are used that are as established in
+philology as are building materials in architecture. When a new sound is
+thrust into a language, its intent must be introduced by words already
+known, after which it conveys a meaning derived from the past, and
+becomes a part of mind sentences already constructed, as it does of
+spoken language. Language has thus been painfully and slowly evolved and
+is still being enlarged, but while new impressions may be felt by an
+educated person, the formulated feeling is inseparable, from well-known
+surviving words."
+
+"Some men are dumb."
+
+"Yes; and yet they frame mind-impressions into unspoken words of their
+own, otherwise they would be scarcely more than animals. Place an
+uneducated dumb person in a room with a complicated instrument, and
+although he may comprehend its uses, he can not do so unless he frames
+sense-impressions into, what is to him, a formulated mind-word
+sequence."
+
+"But he can think about it."
+
+"No; unless he has already constructed previous impressions into
+word-meanings of his own, he can not think about it at all. Words,
+whether spoken or unspoken, underlie all ideas. Try, if you believe I am
+mistaken, try to think of any subject outside of words?"
+
+I sat a moment, and mentally attempted the task, and shook my head.
+
+"Then," said the old man, "how can I use words with established meanings
+to convey to your senses an entirely new idea? If I use new sounds,
+strung together, they are not words to you, and convey no meaning; if I
+use words familiar, they reach backward as well as forward. Thus it is
+possible to instruct you, by a laborious course of reasoning, concerning
+a phenomenon that is connected with phenomena already understood by you,
+for your word-language can be thrust out from the parent stalk, and can
+thus follow the outreaching branches. However, in the case of phenomena
+that exist on other planes, or are separated from any known material, or
+force, as is the true conception that envelops the word eternity, there
+being neither connecting materials, forces, nor words to unite the
+outside with the inside, the known with the unknown, how can I tell you
+more than I have done? You are word-bound."
+
+"Nevertheless, I still believe that I can think outside of words."
+
+"Well, perhaps after you attempt to do so, and fail again and again, you
+will appreciate that a truth is a truth, humiliating as it may be to
+acknowledge the fact."
+
+"A Digger Indian has scarcely a word-language," I asserted, loth to
+relinquish the argument.
+
+"You can go farther back if you desire, back to primitive man; man
+without language at all, and with ideas as circumscribed as those of the
+brutes, and still you have not strengthened your argument concerning
+civilized man. But you are tired, I see."
+
+"Yes; tired of endeavoring to combat your assertions. You invariably
+lead me into the realms of speculation, and then throw me upon the
+defensive by asking me to prove my own theories, or with apparent
+sincerity, you advance an unreasonable hypothesis, and then, before I am
+aware of your purpose, force me to acquiesce because I can not find
+facts to confute you. You very artfully throw the burden of proof on me
+in all cases, for either by physical comparisons that I can not make, I
+must demonstrate the falsity of your metaphysical assertions, or by
+abstract reasonings disprove statements you assert to be facts."
+
+"You are peevish and exhausted, or you would perceive that I have
+generally allowed you to make the issue, and more than once have
+endeavored to dissuade you from doing so. Besides, did I not several
+times in the past bring experimental proof to dispel your incredulity?
+Have I not been courteous?"
+
+"Yes," I petulantly admitted; "yes."
+
+Then I determined to imitate his artful methods, and throw him upon the
+defensive as often as he had done with me. I had finally become familiar
+with his process of arguing a question, for, instead of coming
+immediately to his subject, he invariably led by circuitous route to the
+matter under discussion. Before reaching the point he would manage to
+commit me to his own side of the subject, or place me in a defenseless
+position. So with covert aim I began:
+
+"I believe that friction is one method of producing heat."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"I have been told that the North American Indians make fires by rubbing
+together two pieces of dry wood."
+
+"True."
+
+"I have understood that the light of a shooting star results from the
+heat of friction, producing combustion of its particles."
+
+"Partly," he answered.
+
+"That when the meteoric fragment of space dust strikes the air, the
+friction resulting from its velocity heats it to redness, fuses its
+surface, or even burns its very substance into ashes."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"I have seen the spindle of a wheel charred by friction."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"I have drawn a wire rapidly through a handkerchief tightly grasped in
+my hands, and have warmed the wire considerably in doing so."
+
+"Yes."
+
+I felt that I had him committed to my side of the question, and I
+prepared to force him to disprove the possibility of one assertion that
+he had made concerning his journey.
+
+"You stated that you rode in a boat on the underground lake."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"With great rapidity?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Rapid motion produces friction, I believe?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And heat?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Why did not your boat become heated even to redness? You rode at the
+rate of nine hundred miles an hour," I cried exultingly.
+
+"For two reasons," he calmly replied; "two natural causes prevented such
+a catastrophe."
+
+And again he warned me, as he had done before, by saying:
+
+"While you should not seek for supernatural agencies to account for any
+phenomena in life, for all that is is natural, neither should you fail
+to study the differences that varying conditions produce in results
+already known. A miracle ceases to be a miracle when we understand the
+scientific cause underlying the wonder; occultism is natural, for if
+there be occult phenomena they must be governed by natural law; mystery
+is not mysterious if the veil of ignorance that envelops the
+investigator is lifted. What you have said is true concerning the heat
+that results from friction, but--
+
+"First, the attraction of gravitation was inconsiderable where the boat,
+to which you refer, rested on the water.
+
+"Second, the changing water carried away the heat as fast as it was
+produced. While it is true that a cannon ball becomes heated in its
+motion through the air, its surface is cooled when it strikes a body of
+water, notwithstanding that its great velocity is altogether overcome by
+the water. The friction between the water and the iron does not result
+in heated iron, but the contrary. The water above the rapids of a river
+has practically the temperature of the water below the rapids,
+regardless of the friction that ensues between these points. Admit,
+however, that heat is liberated as the result of the friction of solids
+with water, and still it does not follow that this heat will perceptibly
+affect the solid. With a boat each particle of water carries the heat
+away, each succeeding portion of water takes up the heat liberated by
+that preceding it. Thus the great body of water, over which our boat
+sped, in obedience to the ordinary law, became slightly warmed, but its
+effect upon the boat was scarcely perceptible. Your comparison of the
+motion of a meteor, with that of our boat, was unhappy. We moved
+rapidly, it is true, in comparison with the motion of vessels such as
+you know, but comparison can not be easily drawn between the velocity of
+a boat and that of a meteor. While we moved at the rate of many miles a
+minute, a meteor moves many times faster, perhaps as many miles in a
+second. Then you must remember that the force of gravitation was so
+slight in our position that--"
+
+"Enough," I interrupted. "We will pass the subject. It seems that you
+draw upon science for knowledge to support your arguments, however
+irrational they may be, and then you sneer at this same method of
+argument when I employ it."
+
+He replied to my peevish complaint with the utmost respect by calling to
+my attention the fact that my own forced argument had led to the answer,
+and that he had simply replied to my attacks. Said he:
+
+"If I am wrong in my philosophy, based on your science thought, I am
+right in my facts, and science thought is thus in the wrong, for facts
+overbalance theory. I ask you only to give me the attention that my
+statements merit. I am sincere, and aim to serve your interests. Should
+investigation lead you hereafter to infer that I am in error, at our
+final interview you can have my considerate attention. Be more
+charitable, please."
+
+Then he added:
+
+"Is there any other subject you wish to argue?"
+
+"Yes," I answered, and again my combativeness arose; "yes. One of the
+truly edifying features of your narrative is that of the intelligent
+guide," and I emphasized the word intelligent, and curled up my lip in a
+sarcastic manner.
+
+"Proceed."
+
+"He was verily a wonderful being; an eyeless creature, and yet possessed
+of sight and perception beyond that of mortal man; a creature who had
+been locked in the earth, and yet was more familiar with its surface
+than a philosopher; a cavern-bred monstrosity, and yet possessed of the
+mind of a sage; he was a scientific expert, a naturalist, a metaphysical
+reasoner, a critic of religion, and a prophet. He could see in absolute
+darkness as well as in daylight; without a compass he could guide a boat
+over a trackless sea, and could accomplish feats that throw Gulliver and
+Munchausen into disrepute."
+
+In perfect composure my aged guest listened to my cynical, and almost
+insulting tirade. He made no effort to restrain my impetuous sentences,
+and when I had finished replied in the polished language of a scholarly
+gentleman.
+
+"You state truly, construe my words properly, as well as understand
+correctly."
+
+Then he continued musingly, as though speaking to himself:
+
+"I would be at fault and deserve censure did I permit doubts to be
+thrown upon so clear a subject, or discredit on so magnanimous a
+person."
+
+Turning to me he continued:
+
+"Certainly I did not intend to mislead or to be misunderstood, and am
+pleased to find you so earnest a scholar."
+
+And then in his soft, mild manner, he commenced his detail reply,
+pouring oil upon the waters of my troubled soul, his sweet, melodious
+voice being so in contrast to my rash harangue. He began with his
+expressive and often repeated word, "listen."
+
+[Illustration: "WE PASSED THROUGH CAVERNS FILLED WITH CREEPING
+REPTILES."]
+
+"Listen. You are right, my guide was a being wonderful to mortals. He
+was eyeless, but as I have shown you before, and now swear to the fact,
+was not sightless; surely," he said, "surely you have not forgotten
+that long ago I considered the phenomenal instinct at length. He
+predicted the future by means of his knowledge of the past--there is
+nothing wonderful in that. Can not a civil engineer continue a line into
+the beyond, and predict where the projection of that line will strike;
+can he not also calculate the effect that a curve will have on his
+line's destiny? Why should a being conversant with the lines and curves
+of humanity's journey for ages past not be able to indicate the lines
+that men must follow in the future? Of course he could guide the boat,
+in what was to me a trackless waste of water, but you err in asserting
+that I had said he did not have a guide, even if it were not a compass.
+Many details concerning this journey have not been explained to you;
+indeed, I have acquainted you with but little that I experienced. Near
+surface earth we passed through caverns filled with creeping reptiles;
+through others we were surrounded by flying creatures, neither beast nor
+bird; we passed through passages of ooze and labyrinths of apparently
+interminable intra-earth structures; to have disported on such features
+of my journey would have been impracticable. From time to time I
+experienced strains of melody, such as never before had I conceived,
+seemingly choruses of angels were singing in and to my very soul. From
+empty space about me, from out the crevices beyond and behind me, from
+the depths of my spirit within me, came these strains in notes clear and
+distinct, but yet indescribable. Did I fancy, or was it real? I will not
+pretend to say. Flowers and structures beautiful, insects gorgeous and
+inexplicable were spread before me. Figures and forms I can not attempt
+to indicate in word descriptions, ever and anon surrounded, accompanied,
+and passed me by. The canvas conceptions of earth-bred artists bring to
+mind no forms so strange and weird and yet so beautiful as were these
+compound beings. Restful beyond description was it to drink in the
+indescribable strains of poetry of motion that I appreciated in the
+movements of fair creatures I have not mentioned, and it was no less
+soothing to experience the soul relief wrought by the sounds about me,
+for musicians know no notes so sweet and entrancing.
+
+"There were also, in side caverns to which I was led, combinations of
+sounds and scenes in which floating strains and fleeting figures were
+interwoven and interlaced so closely that the senses of both sight and
+hearing became blended into a single sense, new, weird, strange, and
+inexpressible. As flavor is the combination of odor and taste, and is
+neither taste nor odor, so these sounds and scenes combined were neither
+scenes nor sounds, but a complex sensation, new, delicious. Sometimes I
+begged to be permitted to stop and live forever 'mid those heavenly
+charms, but with as firm a hand as when helping me through the chambers
+of mire, ooze, and creeping reptiles, my guide drew me onward.
+
+"But to return to the subject. As to my guide being a cavern-bred
+monstrosity, I do not remember to have said that he was cavern-bred, and
+if I have forgotten a fact, I regret my short memory. Did I say that he
+was always a cavern being? Did I assert that he had never lived among
+mortals of upper earth? If so, I do not remember our conversation on
+that subject. He was surely a sage in knowledge, as you have experienced
+from my feeble efforts in explaining the nature of phenomena that were
+to you unknown, and yet have been gained by me largely through his
+instruction. He was a metaphysician, as you assert; you are surely
+right; he was a sincere, earnest reasoner and teacher. He was a
+conscientious student, and did not by any word lead me to feel that he
+did not respect all religions, and bow to the Creator of the universe,
+its sciences, and its religions. His demeanor was most considerate, his
+methods faultless, his love of nature deep, his patience inexhaustible,
+his sincerity unimpeachable. Yes," the old man said; "you are right in
+your admiration of this lovely personage, and when you come to meet this
+being as you are destined yet to do--for know now that you too will some
+day pass from surface earth, and leave only your name in connection with
+this story of myself--you will surely then form a still greater love and
+a deeper respect for one so gifted, and yet so self-sacrificing."
+
+"Old man," I cried, "you mock me. I spoke facetiously, and you answer
+literally. Know that I have no confidence in your sailor-like tales,
+your Marco Polo history."
+
+"Ah! You discredit Marco Polo? And why do you doubt?"
+
+"Because I have never seen such phenomena, I have never witnessed such
+occurrences. I must see a thing to believe it."
+
+"And so you believe only what you see?" he queried.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Now answer promptly," he commanded, and his manner changed as by magic
+to that of a master. "Did you ever see Greenland?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Iceland?"
+
+"No."
+
+"A geyser?"
+
+"No."
+
+"A whale?"
+
+"No."
+
+"England?"
+
+"No."
+
+"France?"
+
+"No."
+
+"A walrus?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Then you do not believe that these conditions, countries, and animals
+have an existence?"
+
+"Of course they have."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Others have seen them."
+
+"Ah," he said; "then you wish to modify your assertion--you only believe
+what others have seen?"
+
+"Excepting one person," I retorted.
+
+Then he continued, seemingly not having noticed my personal allusion:
+
+"Have you ever seen your heart?"
+
+I hesitated.
+
+"Answer," he commanded.
+
+"No."
+
+"Your stomach?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Have you seen the stomach of any of your friends?"
+
+"No."
+
+"The back of your head?"
+
+I became irritated, and made no reply.
+
+"Answer," he again commanded.
+
+"I have seen its reflection in a glass."
+
+"I say no," he replied; "you have not."
+
+"You are impudent," I exclaimed.
+
+"Not at all," he said, good humoredly; "how easy it is to make a
+mistake. I venture to say that you have never seen the reflection of the
+back of your head in a mirror."
+
+"Your presumption astounds me."
+
+"I will leave it to yourself."
+
+He took a hand-glass from the table and held it behind my head.
+
+"Now, do you see the reflection?"
+
+"No; the glass is behind me."
+
+"Ah, yes; and so is the back of your head."
+
+"Look," I said, pointing to the great mirror on the bureau; "look, there
+is the reflection of the back of my head."
+
+"No; it is the reflection of the reflection in my hand-glass."
+
+"You have tricked me; you quibble!"
+
+"Well," he said, ignoring my remark; "what do you believe?"
+
+"I believe what others have seen, and what I can do."
+
+"Excluding myself as to what others have seen," he said facetiously.
+
+"Perhaps," I answered, relenting somewhat.
+
+"Has any man of your acquaintance seen the middle of Africa?"
+
+"No."
+
+"The center of the earth?"
+
+"No."
+
+"The opposite side of the moon?"
+
+"No."
+
+"The soul of man?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Heat, light, electricity?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Then you do not believe that Africa has a midland, the earth a center,
+the moon an opposite side, man a soul, force an existence?"
+
+"You distort my meaning."
+
+"Well, I ask questions in accord with your suggestions, and you defeat
+yourself. You have now only one point left. You believe only what _you_
+can do?"
+
+[Illustration: "FLOWERS AND STRUCTURES BEAUTIFUL, INSECTS GORGEOUS."]
+
+"Yes."
+
+"I will rest this case on one statement, then, and you may be the
+judge."
+
+"Agreed."
+
+"You can not do what any child in Cincinnati can accomplish. I assert
+that any other man, any other woman in the city can do more than you
+can. No cripple is so helpless, no invalid so feeble as not, in this
+respect, to be your superior."
+
+"You insult me," I again retorted, almost viciously.
+
+"Do you dispute the assertion seriously?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Well, let me see you kiss your elbow."
+
+Involuntarily I twisted my arm so as to bring the elbow towards my
+mouth, then, as I caught the full force of his meaning, the ridiculous
+result of my passionate wager came over me, and I laughed aloud. It was
+a change of thought from the sublime to the ludicrous.
+
+The white-haired guest smiled in return, and kindly said:
+
+"It pleases me to find you in good humor at last. I will return
+to-morrow evening and resume the reading of my manuscript. In the
+meantime take good exercise, eat heartily, and become more cheerful."
+
+He rose and bowed himself out.
+
+
+
+
+THE OLD MAN CONTINUES HIS MANUSCRIPT.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIV.
+
+    THE FATHOMLESS ABYSS.--THE EDGE OF THE EARTH SHELL.
+
+
+Promptly at eight o'clock the next evening the old man entered my room.
+He did not allude to the occurrences of the previous evening, and for
+this considerate treatment I felt thankful, as my part in those episodes
+had not been enviable. He placed his hat on the table, and in his usual
+cool and deliberate manner, commenced reading as follows:
+
+For a long time thereafter we journeyed on in silence, now amid stately
+stone pillars, then through great cliff openings or among gigantic
+formations that often stretched away like cities or towns dotted over a
+plain, to vanish in the distance. Then the scene changed, and we
+traversed magnificent avenues, bounded by solid walls which expanded
+into lofty caverns of illimitable extent, from whence we found ourselves
+creeping through narrow crevices and threading winding passages barely
+sufficient to admit our bodies. For a considerable period I had noted
+the absence of water, and as we passed from grotto to temple reared
+without hands, it occurred to me that I could not now observe evidence
+of water erosion in the stony surface over which we trod, and which had
+been so abundant before we reached the lake. My guide explained by
+saying in reply to my thought question, that we were beneath the water
+line. He said that liquids were impelled back towards the earth's
+surface from a point unnoticed by me, but long since passed. Neither did
+I now experience hunger nor thirst, in the slightest degree, a
+circumstance which my guide assured me was perfectly natural in view of
+the fact that there was neither waste of tissue nor consumption of heat
+in my present organism.
+
+[Illustration: "WITH FEAR AND TREMBLING I CREPT ON MY KNEES TO HIS
+SIDE."]
+
+At last I observed far in the distance a slanting sheet of light that,
+fan-shaped, stood as a barrier across the way; beyond it neither earth
+nor earth's surface appeared. As we approached, the distinctness of its
+outline disappeared, and when we came nearer, I found that it streamed
+into the space above, from what appeared to be a crevice or break in the
+earth that stretched across our pathway, and was apparently limitless
+and bottomless.
+
+"Is this another hallucination?" I queried.
+
+"No; it is a reality. Let us advance to the brink."
+
+Slowly we pursued our way, for I hesitated and held back. I had really
+begun to distrust my own senses, and my guide in the lead was even
+forced to demonstrate the feasibility of the way, step by step, before I
+could be induced to follow. At length we neared the edge of the chasm,
+and while he stood boldly upright by the brink, with fear and trembling
+I crept on my knees to his side, and together we faced a magnificent but
+fearful void that stretched beneath and beyond us, into a profundity of
+space. I peered into the chamber of light, that indescribable gulf of
+brilliancy, but vainly sought for an opposite wall; there was none. As
+far as the eye could reach, vacancy, illuminated vacancy, greeted my
+vision. The light that sprung from that void was not dazzling, but was
+possessed of a beauty that no words can suggest. I peered downward, and
+found that we stood upon the edge of a shelving ledge of stone that
+receded rapidly beneath us, so that we seemed to rest upon the upper
+side of its wedge-like edge. I strained my vision to catch a glimpse of
+the bottom of this chasm, but although I realized that my eyes were
+glancing into miles and miles of space, there was no evidence of earthly
+material other than the brink upon which we stood.
+
+The limit of vision seemed to be bounded by a silvery blending of light
+with light, light alone, only light. The dead silence about, and the new
+light before me, combined to produce a weird sensation, inexplicable,
+overpowering. A speck of dust on the edge of immensity, I clung to the
+stone cliff, gazing into the depths of that immeasurable void.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLV.
+
+    MY HEART THROB IS STILLED, AND YET I LIVE.
+
+
+"It now becomes my duty to inform you that this is one of the stages in
+our journey that can only be passed by the exercise of the greatest will
+force. Owing to our former surroundings upon the surface of the earth,
+and to your inheritance of a so-called instinctive education, you would
+naturally suppose that we are now on the brink of an impassable chasm.
+This sphere of material vacuity extends beneath us to a depth that I am
+sure you will be astonished to learn is over six thousand miles. We may
+now look straight into the earth cavity, and this streaming light is the
+reflected purity of the space below. The opposite side of this crevice,
+out of sight by reason of its distance, but horizontally across from
+where we stand, is precipitous and comparatively solid, extending upward
+to the material that forms the earth's surface. We have, during our
+journey, traversed an oblique, tortuous natural passage, that extends
+from the spot at which you entered the cave in Kentucky, diagonally down
+into the crust of the globe, terminating in this shelving bluff. I would
+recall to your mind that your journey up to this time has been of your
+own free will and accord. At each period of vacillation--and you could
+not help but waver occasionally--you have been at liberty to return to
+surface earth again, but each time you decided wisely to continue your
+course. You can now return if your courage is not sufficient to overcome
+your fear, but this is the last opportunity you will have to reconsider,
+while in my company."
+
+"Have others overcome the instinctive terrors to which you allude?"
+
+"Yes; but usually the dread of death, or an unbearable uncertainty,
+compels the traveler to give up in despair before reaching this spot,
+and the opportunity of a lifetime is lost. Yes; an opportunity that
+occurs only in the lifetime of one person out of millions, of but few in
+our brotherhood."
+
+"Then I can return if I so elect?"
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"Will you inform me concerning the nature of the obstacle I have to
+overcome, that you indicate by your vague references?"
+
+"We must descend from this cliff."
+
+"You can not be in earnest."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Do you not see that the stone recedes from beneath us, that we stand on
+the edge of a wedge overhanging bottomless space?"
+
+"That I understand."
+
+"There is no ladder," and then the foolish remark abashed me as I
+thought of a ladder six thousand miles in length.
+
+"Go on."
+
+He made no reference to my confusion.
+
+"There is practically no bottom," I asserted, "if I can believe your
+words; you told me so."
+
+"And that I reiterate."
+
+"The feat is impracticable, impossible, and only a madman would think of
+trying to descend into such a depth of space."
+
+Then an idea came over me; perhaps there existed a route at some other
+point of the earth's crevice by which we could reach the under side of
+the stone shelf, and I intimated as much to the guide.
+
+"No; we must descend from this point, for it is the only entrance to the
+hollow beneath."
+
+We withdrew from the brink, and I meditated in silence. Then I crept
+again to the edge of the bluff, and lying flat on my chest, craned my
+head over, and peered down into the luminous gulf. The texture of the
+receding mineral was distinctly visible for a considerable distance, and
+then far, far beneath all semblance to material form disappeared--as the
+hull of a vessel fades in deep, clear water. As I gazed into the gulf it
+seemed evident that, as a board floating in water is bounded by water,
+this rock really ended. I turned to my guide and questioned him.
+
+"Stone in this situation is as cork," he replied; "it is nearly devoid
+of weight; your surmise is correct. We stand on the shelving edge of a
+cliff of earthly matter, that in this spot slants upward from beneath
+like the bow of a boat. We have reached the bottom of the film of space
+dust on the bubble of energy that forms the skeleton of earth."
+
+I clutched the edge of the cliff with both hands.
+
+"Be not frightened; have I not told you that if you wish to return you
+can do so. Now hearken to me:
+
+"A short time ago you endeavored to convince me that we could not
+descend from this precipice, and you are aware that your arguments were
+without foundation. You drew upon your knowledge of earth materials, as
+you once learned them, and realized at the time that you deluded
+yourself in doing so, for you know that present conditions are not such
+as exist above ground. You are now influenced by surroundings that are
+entirely different from those that govern the lives of men upon the
+earth's surface. You are almost without weight. You have nearly ceased
+to breathe, as long since you discovered, and soon I hope will agree
+entirely to suspend that harsh and wearying movement. Your heart
+scarcely pulsates, and if you go with me farther in this journey, will
+soon cease to beat."
+
+I started up and turned to flee, but he grasped and held me firmly.
+
+"Would you murder me? Do you think I will mutely acquiesce, while you
+coolly inform me of your inhuman intent, and gloat over the fact that my
+heart will soon be as stone, and that I will be a corpse?" He attempted
+to break in, but I proceeded in frenzy. "I _will_ return to upper earth,
+to sunshine and humanity. I _will_ retreat while yet in health and
+strength, and although I have in apparent willingness accompanied you to
+this point, learn now that at all times I have been possessed of the
+means to defend myself from personal violence." I drew from my pocket
+the bar of iron. "See, this I secreted about my person in the fresh air
+of upper earth, the sweet sunshine of heaven, fearing that I might fall
+into the hands of men with whom I must combat. Back, back," I cried.
+
+He released his hold of my person, and folded his arms upon his breast,
+then quietly faced me, standing directly between myself and the passage
+we had trod, while I stood on the brink, my back to that fearful chasm.
+
+By a single push he could thrust me into the fathomless gulf below, and
+with the realization of that fact, I felt that it was now a life and
+death struggle. With every muscle strained to its utmost tension, with
+my soul on fire, my brain frenzied, I drew back the bar of iron to smite
+the apparently defenseless being in the forehead, but he moved not, and
+as I made the motion, he calmly remarked: "Do you remember the history
+of Hiram Abiff?"
+
+[Illustration: "I DREW BACK THE BAR OF IRON TO SMITE THE APPARENTLY
+DEFENSELESS BEING IN THE FOREHEAD."]
+
+The hand that held the weapon dropped as if stricken by paralysis, and a
+flood of recollections concerning my lost home overcame me. I had raised
+my hand against a brother, the only being of my kind who could aid me,
+or assist me either to advance or recede. How could I, unaided, recross
+that glassy lake, and pass through the grotesque forests of fungi and
+the labyrinth of crystal grottoes of the salt bed? How could I find my
+way in the utter darkness that existed in the damp, soppy, dripping
+upper caverns that I must retrace before I could hope to reach the
+surface of the earth? "Forgive me," I sobbed, and sunk at his feet.
+"Forgive me, my friend, my brother; I have been wild, mad, am crazed."
+He made no reply, but pointed over my shoulder into the space beyond.
+
+I turned, and in the direction indicated, saw, in amazement, floating in
+the distant space a snow- and ice-clad vessel in full sail. She was
+headed diagonally from us, and was moving rapidly across the field of
+vision. Every spar and sail was clearly defined, and on her deck, and in
+the rigging I beheld sailors clad in winter garments pursuing their
+various duties.
+
+As I gazed, enraptured, she disappeared in the distance.
+
+"A phantom vessel," I murmured.
+
+"No," he replied; "the abstraction of a vessel sailing on the ocean
+above us. Every object on earth is the second to an imprint in another
+place. There is an apparent reproduction of matter in so-called vacancy,
+and on unseen pages a recording of all events. As that ship sailed over
+the ocean above us, she disturbed a current of energy, and it left its
+impress as an outline on a certain zone beneath, which is parallel with
+that upon which we now chance to stand."
+
+"I can not comprehend," I muttered.
+
+"No," he answered; "to you it seems miraculous, as to all men an
+unexplained phenomenon approaches the supernatural. All that is is
+natural. Have men not been told in sacred writings that their every
+movement is being recorded in the Book of Life, and do they not often
+doubt because they can not grasp the problem? May not the greatest
+scientist be the most apt skeptic?"
+
+"Yes," I replied.
+
+"You have just seen," he said, "the record of an act on earth, and in
+detail it is being printed elsewhere in the Book of Eternity. If you
+should return to earth's surface you could not by stating these facts
+convince even the persons on that same ship, of your sanity. You could
+not make them believe that hundreds of miles beneath, both their vessel
+and its crew had been reproduced in fac simile, could you?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Were you to return to earth you could not convince men that you had
+existed without breath, with a heart dead within you. If you should try
+to impress on mankind the facts that you have learned in this journey,
+what would be the result?"
+
+"I would probably be considered mentally deranged; this I have before
+admitted."
+
+"Would it not be better then," he continued, "to go with me, by your own
+free will, into the unknown future, which you need fear less than a
+return to the scoffing multitude amid the storms of upper earth? You
+know that I have not at any time deceived you. I have, as yet, only
+opened before you a part of one rare page out of the boundless book of
+nature; you have tasted of the sweets of which few persons in the flesh
+have sipped, and I now promise you a further store of knowledge that is
+rich beyond conception, if you wish to continue your journey."
+
+"What if I decide to return?"
+
+"I will retrace my footsteps and liberate you upon the surface of the
+earth, as I have others, for few persons have courage enough to pass
+this spot."
+
+"Binding me to an oath of secrecy?"
+
+[Illustration: "SPRUNG FROM THE EDGE OF THE CLIFF INTO THE ABYSS BELOW,
+CARRYING ME WITH HIM INTO ITS DEPTHS."]
+
+"No," he answered; "for if you relate these events men will consider you
+a madman, and the more clearly you attempt to explain the facts that you
+have witnessed, the less they will listen to you; such has been the fate
+of others."
+
+"It is, indeed, better for me to go with you," I said musingly; "to that
+effect my mind is now made up, my course is clear, I am ready."
+
+With a motion so quick in conception, and rapid in execution that I was
+taken altogether by surprise, with a grasp so powerful that I could not
+have repelled him, had I expected the movement and tried to protect
+myself, the strange man, or being beside me, threw his arms around my
+body. Then, as a part of the same movement, he raised me bodily from the
+stone, and before I could realize the nature of his intention, sprung
+from the edge of the cliff into the abyss below, carrying me with him
+into its depths.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVI.
+
+    THE INNER CIRCLE, OR THE END OF GRAVITATION.--IN THE BOTTOMLESS
+    GULF.
+
+
+I recall a whirling sensation, and an involuntary attempt at
+self-preservation, in which I threw my arms wildly about with a vain
+endeavor to clutch some form of solid body, which movement naturally
+ended by a tight clasping of my guide in my arms, and locked together we
+continued to speed down into the seven thousand miles of vacancy.
+Instinctively I murmured a prayer of supplication, and awaited the
+approaching hereafter, which, as I believed, would quickly witness the
+extinction of my unhappy life, the end of my material existence; but the
+moments (if time can be so divided when no sun marks the division)
+multiplied without bodily shock or physical pain of any description; I
+retained my consciousness.
+
+"Open your eyes," said my guide, "you have no cause for fear."
+
+I acquiesced in an incredulous, dazed manner.
+
+"This unusual experience is sufficient to unnerve you, but you need have
+no fear, for you are not in corporal danger, and can relax your grasp on
+my person."
+
+I cautiously obeyed him, misgivingly, and slowly loosened my hold, then
+gazed about to find that we were in a sea of light, and that only light
+was visible, that form of light which I have before said is an entity
+without source of radiation. In one direction, however, a great gray
+cloud hung suspended and gloomy, dark in the center, and shading
+therefrom in a circle, to disappear entirely at an angle of about
+forty-five degrees.
+
+"This is the earth-shelf from which we sprung," said the guide; "it will
+soon disappear."
+
+Wherever I glanced this radiant exhalation, a peaceful, luminous
+envelope, this rich, soft, beautiful white light appeared. The power of
+bodily motion I found still a factor in my frame, obedient, as before,
+to my will. I could move my limbs freely, and my intellect seemed to be
+intact. Finally I became impressed with the idea that I must be at
+perfect rest, but if so what could be the nature of the substance, or
+material, upon which I was resting so complacently? No; this could not
+be true. Then I thought: "I have been instantly killed by a painless
+shock, and my spirit is in heaven;" but my earthly body and coarse,
+ragged garments were palpable realities; the sense of touch, sight, and
+hearing surely were normal, and a consideration of these facts dispelled
+my first conception.
+
+"Where are we now?"
+
+"Moving into earth's central space."
+
+"I comprehend that a rushing wind surrounds us which is not
+uncomfortable, but otherwise I experience no unusual sensation, and can
+not realize but that I am at rest."
+
+"The sensation, as of a blowing wind, is in consequence of our rapid
+motion, and results from the friction between our bodies and the
+quiescent, attenuated atmosphere which exists even here, but this
+atmosphere becomes less and less in amount until it will disappear
+altogether at a short distance below us. Soon we will be in a perfect
+calm, and although moving rapidly, to all appearances will be at
+absolute rest."
+
+Naturally, perhaps, my mind attempted, as it so often had done, to urge
+objections to his statements, and at first it occurred to me that I did
+not experience the peculiar sinking away sensation in the chest that I
+remembered follows, on earth, the downward motion of a person falling
+from a great height, or moving rapidly in a swing, and I questioned him
+on the absence of that phenomenon.
+
+"The explanation is simple," he said; "on the surface of the earth a
+sudden motion, either upward or downward, disturbs the equilibrium of
+the organs of respiration, and of the heart, and interferes with the
+circulation of the blood. This produces a change in blood pressure
+within the brain, and the 'sinking' sensation in the chest, or the
+dizziness of the head of a person moving rapidly, or it may even result
+in unconsciousness, and complete suspension of respiration, effects
+which sometimes follow rapid movements, as in a person falling from a
+considerable height. Here circumstances are entirely different. The
+heart is quiet, the lungs in a comatose condition, and the blood
+stagnant. Mental sensations, therefore, that result from a disturbed
+condition of these organs are wanting, and, although we are experiencing
+rapid motion, we are in the full possession of our physical selves, and
+maintain our mental faculties unimpaired."
+
+Again I interposed an objection:
+
+"If, as you say, we are really passing through an attenuated atmosphere
+with increasing velocity, according to the law that governs falling
+bodies that are acted upon by gravity which continually accelerates
+their motion, the friction between ourselves and the air will ultimately
+become so intense as to wear away our bodies."
+
+"Upon the contrary," said he, "this attenuated atmosphere is decreasing
+in density more rapidly than our velocity increases, and before long it
+will have altogether disappeared. You can perceive that the wind, as you
+call it, is blowing less violently than formerly; soon it will entirely
+cease, as I have already predicted, and at that period, regardless of
+our motion, we will appear to be stationary."
+
+Pondering over the final result of this strange experience I became
+again alarmed, for accepting the facts to be as he stated, such motion
+would ultimately carry us against the opposite crust of the earth, and
+without a doubt the shock would end our existence. I inquired about
+this, to me, self-evident fact, and he replied:
+
+"Long before we reach the opposite crust of the earth, our motion will
+be arrested."
+
+I had begun now to feel a self-confidence that is surprising as I recall
+that remarkable position in connection with my narrow experience in true
+science, and can say that instead of despondency, I really enjoyed an
+elated sensation, a curious exhilaration, a feeling of delight, which I
+have no words to describe. Life disturbances and mental worry seemed to
+have completely vanished, and it appeared as if, with mental perception
+lucid, I were under the influence of a powerful soporific; the cares of
+mortals had disappeared. After a while the wind ceased to blow, as my
+guide had predicted, and with the suspension of that factor, all that
+remained to remind me of earth phenomena had vanished. There was no
+motion of material, nothing to mar or disturb the most perfect peace
+imaginable; I was so exquisitely happy that I now actually feared some
+change might occur to interrupt that quiescent existence. It was as a
+deep, sweet sleep in which, with faculties alive, unconsciousness was
+self-conscious, peaceful, restful, blissful. I listlessly turned my
+eyes, searching space in all directions--to meet vacancy everywhere,
+absolute vacancy. I took from my pocket (into which I had hastily thrust
+it) the bar of iron, and released it; the metal remained motionless
+beside me.
+
+"Traveling through this expanse with the rapidity of ourselves," said my
+guide.
+
+I closed my eyes and endeavored to convince myself that I was
+dreaming--vainly, however. I opened my eyes, and endeavored to convince
+myself that I was moving, equally in vain. I became oblivious to
+everything save the delicious sensation of absolute rest that enveloped
+and pervaded my being.
+
+"I am neither alive nor dead," I murmured; "neither asleep nor awake;
+neither moving nor at rest, and neither standing, reclining, nor
+sitting. If I exist I can not bring evidence to prove that fact, neither
+can I prove that I am dead."
+
+"Can any man prove either of these premises?" said the guide.
+
+"I have never questioned the matter," said I; "it is a self-evident
+fact."
+
+"Know then," said he, "that existence is a theory, and that man is
+incapable of demonstrating that he has a being. All evidences of mortal
+life are only as the phantasms of hallucination. As a moment in
+dreamland may span a life of time, the dreamer altogether unconscious
+that it is a dream, so may life itself be a shadow, the vision of a
+distempered fancy, the illusion of a floating thought."
+
+"Are pain, pleasure, and living, imaginary creations?" I asked
+facetiously.
+
+"Is there a madman who does not imagine, as facts, what others agree
+upon as hallucinations peculiar to himself? Is it not impossible to
+distinguish between different gradations of illusions, and is it not,
+therefore, possible that even self-existence is an illusion? What
+evidence can any man produce to prove that his idea of life is not a
+madman's dream?"
+
+"Proceed," I said.
+
+"At another time, perhaps," he remarked; "we have reached the Inner
+Circle, the Sphere of Rest, the line of gravity, and now our bodies have
+no weight; at this point we begin to move with decreased speed, we will
+soon come to a quiescent condition, a state of rest, and then start back
+on our rebound."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVII.
+
+    HEARING WITHOUT EARS.--"WHAT WILL BE THE END?"
+
+
+A flood of recollections came over me, a vivid remembrance of my
+earth-learned school philosophy. "I rebel again," I said, "I deny your
+statements. We can neither be moving, nor can we be out of the
+atmosphere. Fool that I have been not to have sooner and better used my
+reasoning faculties, not to have at once rejected your statements
+concerning the disappearance of the atmosphere."
+
+"I await your argument."
+
+"Am I not speaking? Is other argument necessary? Have I not heard your
+voice, and that, too, since you asserted that we had left the
+atmosphere?"
+
+"Continue."
+
+"Have not men demonstrated, and is it not accepted beyond the shadow of
+a doubt, that sound is produced by vibrations of the air?"
+
+"You speak truly; as men converse on surface earth."
+
+"This medium--the air--in wave vibrations, strikes upon the drum of the
+ear, and thus impresses the brain," I continued.
+
+"I agree that such is the teachings of your philosophy; go on."
+
+"It is unnecessary; you admit the facts, and the facts refute you; there
+must be an atmosphere to convey sound."
+
+"Can not you understand that you are not now on the surface of the
+earth? Will you never learn that the philosophy of your former life is
+not philosophy here? That earth-bound science is science only with
+surface-earth men? Here science is a fallacy. All that you have said is
+true of surface earth, but your argument is invalid where every
+condition is different from the conditions that prevail thereon. You use
+the organs of speech in addressing me as you once learned to use them,
+but such physical efforts are unnecessary to convey sense-impressions
+in this condition of rest and complacency, and you waste energy in
+employing them. You assert and believe that the air conveys sound; you
+have been taught such theories in support of a restricted philosophy;
+but may I ask you if a bar of iron, a stick of wood, a stream of water,
+indeed any substance known to you placed against the ear will not do the
+same, and many substances even better than the atmosphere?"
+
+"This I admit."
+
+"Will you tell me how the vibration of any of these bodies impresses the
+seat of hearing?"
+
+"It moves the atmosphere which strikes upon the tympanum of the ear."
+
+"You have not explained the phenomenon; how does that tympanic membrane
+communicate with the brain?"
+
+"By vibrations, I understand," I answered, and then I began to feel that
+this assertion was a simple statement, and not sufficient to explain how
+matter acts upon mind, whatever mind may be, and I hesitated.
+
+"Pray do not stop," he said; "how is it that a delicate vibrating film
+of animal membrane can receive and convey sound to a pulpy organic mass
+that is destitute of elasticity, and which consists mostly of water, for
+the brain is such in structure, and vibrations like those you mention,
+can not, by your own theory, pass through it as vibrations through a
+sonorous material, or even reach from the tympanum of the ear to the
+nearest convolution of the brain."
+
+"I can not explain this, I admit," was my reply.
+
+"Pass that feature, then, and concede that this tympanic membrane is
+capable of materially affecting brain tissue by its tiny vibrations, how
+can that slimy, pulpy formation mostly made up of water, communicate
+with the soul of man, for you do not claim, I hope, that brain material
+is either mind, conscience, or soul?"
+
+I confessed my inability to answer or even to theorize on the subject,
+and recognizing my humiliation, I begged him to open the door to such
+knowledge.
+
+"The vibration of the atmosphere is necessary to man, as earthy man is
+situated," he said. "The coarser attributes known as matter formations
+are the crudities of nature, dust swept from space. Man's organism is
+made up of the roughest and lowest kind of space materials; he is
+surrounded by a turbulent medium, the air, and these various conditions
+obscure or destroy the finer attributes of his ethereal nature, and
+prevent a higher spiritual evolution. His spiritual self is enveloped in
+earth, and everywhere thwarted by earthy materials. He is insensible to
+the finer influences of surrounding media by reason of the overwhelming
+necessity of a war for existence with the grossly antagonistic
+materialistic confusion that everywhere confronts, surrounds, and
+pervades him. Such a conflict with extraneous matter is necessary in
+order that he may retain his earthy being, for, to remain a mortal, he
+must work to keep body and soul together. His organs of communication
+and perception are of 'earth, earthy'; his nature is cast in a mold of
+clay, and the blood within him gurgles and struggles in his brain, a
+whirlpool of madly rushing liquid substances, creating disorder in the
+primal realms of consciousness. He is ignorant of this inward turmoil
+because he has never been without it, as ignorant as he is of the rank
+odors of the gases of the atmosphere that he has always breathed, and
+can not perceive because of the benumbed olfactory nerves. Thus it is
+that all his subtler senses are inevitably blunted and perverted, and
+his vulgar nature preponderates. The rich essential part of his own self
+is unknown, even to himself. The possibility of delight and pleasure in
+an acquaintance with the finer attributes of his own soul is clouded by
+this shrouding materialistic presence that has, through countless
+generations, become a part of man, and he even derives most of his
+mental pleasures from such acts as tend to encourage the animal
+passions. Thus it follows that the sensitive, highly developed,
+extremely attenuated part of his inner being has become subservient to
+the grosser elements. The baser part of his nature has become dominant.
+He remains insensible to impressions from the highly developed
+surrounding media which, being incapable of reaching his inner organism
+other than through mechanical agencies, are powerless to impress. Alas,
+only the coarser conditions of celestial phenomena can affect him, and
+the finer expressions of the universe of life and force are lost to his
+spiritual apprehension."
+
+"Would you have me view the soul of man as I would a material being?"
+
+"Surely," he answered; "it exists practically as does the more gross
+forms of matter, and in exact accord with natural laws. Associated with
+lower forms of matter, the soul of man is a temporary slave to the
+enveloping substance. The ear of man as now constituted can hear only by
+means of vibrations of such media as conduct vibrations in matter--for
+example, the air; but were man to be deprived of the organs of hearing,
+and then exist for generations subject to evolutions from within,
+whereby the acuteness of the spirit would become intensified, or
+permitted to perform its true function, he would learn to communicate
+soul to soul, not only with mankind, but with beings celestial that
+surround, and are now unknown to him. This he would accomplish through a
+medium of communication that requires neither ear nor tongue. To an
+extent your present condition is what men call supernatural, although in
+reality you have been divested of only a part of your former material
+grossness, which object has been accomplished under perfectly natural
+conditions; your mind no longer requires the material medium by which to
+converse with the spiritual. We are conversing now by thought contact,
+there is no atmosphere here, your tongue moves merely from habit, and
+not from necessity. I am reading your mind as you in turn are mine,
+neither of us is speaking as you were accustomed to speak."
+
+"I can not accept that assertion," I said; "it is to me impossible to
+realize the existence of such conditions."
+
+"As it is for any man to explain any phenomenon in life," he said. "Do
+you not remember that you ceased to respire, and were not conscious of
+the fact?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"That your heart had stopped beating, your blood no longer circulated,
+while you were in ignorance of the change?"
+
+"That is also true."
+
+"Now I will prove my last assertion. Close your mouth, and think of a
+question you wish to propound."
+
+I did so, and to my perfect understanding and comprehension he answered
+me with closed mouth.
+
+"What will be the end?" I exclaimed, or thought aloud. "I am possessed
+of nearly all the attributes that I once supposed inherent only in a
+corpse, yet I live, I see clearly, I hear plainly, I have a quickened
+being, and a mental perception intensified and exquisite. Why and how
+has this been accomplished? What will be the result of this eventful
+journey?"
+
+"Restful, you should say," he remarked; "the present is restful, the end
+will be peace. Now I will give you a lesson concerning the words Why and
+How that you have just used."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVIII.
+
+    WHY AND HOW.--"THE STRUGGLING RAY OF LIGHT FROM THOSE FARTHERMOST
+    OUTREACHES."
+
+
+"Confronting mankind there stands a sphinx--the vast Unknown. However
+well a man may be informed concerning a special subject, his farthermost
+outlook concerning that subject is bounded by an impenetrable infinity."
+
+"Granted," I interrupted, "that mankind has not by any means attained a
+condition of perfection, yet you must admit that questions once regarded
+as inscrutable problems are now illuminated by the discoveries of
+science."
+
+"And the 'discovered,' as I will show, has only transferred ignorance to
+other places," he replied. "Science has confined its labors to
+superficial descriptions, not the elucidation of the fundamental causes
+of phenomena."
+
+"I can not believe you, and question if you can prove what you say."
+
+"It needs no argument to illustrate the fact. Science boldly heralds her
+descriptive discoveries, and as carefully ignores her explanatory
+failures. She dare not attempt to explain the why even of the simplest
+things. Why does the robin hop, and the snipe walk? Do not tell me this
+is beneath the notice of men of science, for science claims that no
+subject is outside her realm. Search your works on natural history and
+see if your man of science, who describes the habits of these birds,
+explains the reason for this evident fact. How does the tree-frog change
+its color? Do not answer me in the usual superficial manner concerning
+the reflection of light, but tell me why the skin of that creature is
+enabled to perform this function? How does the maple-tree secrete a
+sweet, wholesome sap, and deadly nightshade, growing in the same soil
+and living on the same elements, a poison? What is it that your
+scientific men find in the cells of root, or rootlet, to indicate that
+one may produce a food, and the other a noxious secretion that can
+destroy life? Your microscopist will discuss cell tissues learnedly,
+will speak fluently of physiological structure, will describe organic
+intercellular appearances, but ignore all that lies beyond. Why does the
+nerve in the tongue respond to a sensation, and produce on the mind the
+sense of taste? What is it that enables the nerve in the nose to perform
+its discriminative function? You do not answer. Silver is sonorous, lead
+is not; why these intrinsic differences? Aluminum is a light metal, gold
+a heavy one; what reason can you offer to explain the facts other than
+the inadequate term density? Mercury at ordinary temperature is a
+liquid; can your scientist tell why it is not a solid? Of course anyone
+can say because its molecules move freely on each other. Such an answer
+evades the issue; why do they so readily exert this action? Copper
+produces green or blue salts; nickel produces green salts; have you ever
+been told why they observe these rules? Water solidifies at about
+thirty-two degrees above your so-called zero; have you ever asked an
+explanation of your scientific authority why it selects that
+temperature? Alcohol dissolves resins, water dissolves gums; have you
+any explanation to offer why either liquid should dissolve anything,
+much less exercise a preference? One species of turtle has a soft shell,
+another a hard shell; has your authority in natural history told you why
+this is so? The albumen of the egg of the hen hardens at one hundred and
+eighty degrees Fahrenheit; the albumen of the eggs of some turtles can
+not be easily coagulated by boiling the egg in pure water; why these
+differences? Iceland spar and dog-tooth spar are identical, both are
+crystallized carbonate of lime; has your mineralogist explained why this
+one substance selects these different forms of crystallization, or why
+any crystal of any substance is ever produced? Why is common salt white
+and charcoal black? Why does the dog lap and the calf drink? One child
+has black hair, another brown, a third red; why? Search your physiology
+for the answer and see if your learned authority can tell you why the
+life-current makes these distinctions? Why do the cells of the liver
+secrete bile, and those of the mouth saliva? Why does any cell secrete
+anything? A parrot can speak; what has your anatomist found in the
+structure of the brain, tongue, or larynx of that bird to explain why
+this accomplishment is not as much the birthright of the turkey? The
+elements that form morphine and strychnine, also make bread, one a food,
+the other a poison; can your chemist offer any reason for the fact that
+morphine and bread possess such opposite characters? The earth has one
+satellite, Saturn is encompassed by a ring; it is not sufficient to
+attempt to refer to these familiar facts; tell me, does your earth-bound
+astronomer explain why the ring of Saturn was selected for that planet?
+Why are the salts of aluminum astringent, the salts of magnesium
+cathartic, and the salts of arsenicum deadly poison? Ask your
+toxicologist, and silence will be your answer. Why will some substances
+absorb moisture from the air, and liquefy, while others become as dry as
+dust under like conditions? Why does the vapor of sulphuric ether
+inflame, while the vapor of chloroform is not combustible, under
+ordinary conditions? Oil of turpentine, oil of lemon, and oil of
+bergamot differ in odor, yet they are composed of the same elements,
+united in the same proportion; why should they possess such distinctive,
+individual characteristics? Further search of the chemist will explain
+only to shove the word why into another space, as ripples play with and
+toss a cork about. Why does the newly-born babe cry for food before its
+intellect has a chance for worldly education? Why--"
+
+"Stop," I interrupted; "these questions are absurd."
+
+"So some of your scientific experts would assert," he replied; "perhaps
+they would even become indignant at my presumption in asking them, and
+call them childish; nevertheless these men can not satisfy their own
+cravings in attempting to search the illimitable, and in humiliation, or
+irritation, they must ignore the word Why. That word Why to man
+dominates the universe. It covers all phenomena, and thrusts inquiry
+back from every depth. Science may trace a line of thought into the
+infinitely little, down, down, beyond that which is tangible, and at
+last in that far distant inter-microscopical infinity, monstrous by
+reason of its very minuteness, must rest its labors against the word
+Why. Man may carry his superficial investigation into the immeasurably
+great, beyond our sun and his family of satellites, into the outer
+depths of the solar system, of which our sun is a part, past his sister
+stars, and out again into the depths of the cold space channels beyond;
+into other systems and out again, until at last the nebulae shrink and
+disappear in the gloom of thought-conjecture, and as the straggling ray
+of light from those farthermost outreaches, too feeble to tell of its
+origin, or carry a story of nativity, enters his eye, he covers his face
+and rests his intellect against the word Why. From the remote space
+caverns of the human intellect, beyond the field of perception, whether
+we appeal to conceptions of the unknowable in the infinitely little, or
+the immeasurably great, we meet a circle of adamant, as impenetrable as
+the frozen cliffs of the Antarctic, that incomprehensible word--Why!
+
+"Why did the light wave spring into his field of perception by
+reflection from the microscopic speck in the depths of littleness, on
+the one hand; and how did this sliver of the sun's ray originate in the
+depths of inter-stellar space, on the other?"
+
+I bowed my head.
+
+[Illustration: DESCRIPTION OF JOURNEY FROM K. [KENTUCKY] TO P.--"THE END
+OF EARTH."]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIX.
+
+    OSCILLATING THROUGH SPACE.--EARTH'S SHELL ABOVE ME.[14]
+
+    [14] For detail illustration of the earth shell, as explained in
+    this chapter, see the plate.
+
+Continued my companion:
+
+"We have just now crossed the line of gravitation. We were drawn
+downward until at a certain point, to which I called your attention at
+the time, we recently crossed the curved plane of perfect rest, where
+gravity ceases, and by our momentum are now passing beyond that plane,
+and are now pressing against the bond of gravitation again. This shell
+in which gravity centers is concentric with that of the earth's
+exterior, and is about seven hundred miles below its surface. Each
+moment of time will now behold us carried farther from this sphere of
+attraction, and thus the increasing distance increases the force of the
+restraining influence. Our momentum is thus retarded, and consequently
+the rapidity of our motion is continually decreasing. At last when the
+forces of gravitation and mass motion neutralize each other, we will
+come to a state of rest again. When our motion in this direction ceases,
+however, gravitation, imperishable, continues to exert its equalizing
+influence, the result being a start in the opposite direction, and we
+will then reverse our course, and retrace our path, crossing again the
+central band of attraction, to retreat and fly to the opposite side of
+the power of greater attraction, into the expanse from which we came,
+and that is now above us."
+
+"Can this oscillation ever end? Are we to remain thus, as an unceasing
+pendulum, traversing space, to and fro across this invisible shell of
+attraction from now until the end of time?"
+
+"No; there are influences to prevent such an experience; one being the
+friction of the attenuated atmosphere into which we plunge each time
+that we cross the point of greater gravity, and approach the crust of
+the earth. Thus each succeeding vibration is in shorter lines, and at
+last we will come to a state of perfect rest at the center of gravity."
+
+"I can only acquiesce in meek submission, powerless even to argue, for I
+perceive that the foundations for my arguments must be based on those
+observed conditions of natural laws formerly known to me, and that do
+not encompass us here; I accept, therefore, your statements as I have
+several times heretofore, because I can not refute them. I must close my
+eyes to the future, and accept it on faith; I cease to mourn the past, I
+can not presage the end."
+
+"Well spoken," he replied; "and while we are undergoing this necessary
+delay, this oscillating motion, to which we must both submit before we
+can again continue our journey, I will describe some conditions inherent
+in the three spheres of which the rind of the earth is composed, for I
+believe that you are now ready to receive and profit by facts that
+heretofore you would have rejected in incredulity.
+
+"The outer circle, coat, or contour, of which you have heard others
+besides myself speak, is the surface crust of our globe, the great
+sphere of land and water on which man is at present an inhabitant. This
+is the exposed part of the earth, and is least desirable as a residence.
+It is affected by grievous atmospheric changes, and restless physical
+conditions, such as men, in order to exist in, must fortify against at
+the expense of much bodily and mental energy, which leads them,
+necessarily, to encourage the animal at the expense of the ethereal. The
+unmodified rays of the sun produce aerial convulsions that are marked by
+thermal contrasts, and other meteorological variations, during which the
+heat of summer and the cold of winter follow each other periodically and
+unceasingly. These successive solar pulsations generate winds, calms,
+and storms, and in order to protect himself against such exposures and
+changes in material surroundings, man toils, suffers, and comes to
+believe that the doom, if not the object, of life on earth is the
+preservation of the earthy body. All conditions and phases of nature on
+this outer crust are in an angry struggle, and this commotion envelops
+the wretched home, and governs the life of man. The surrounding cyclones
+of force and matter have distorted the peaceful side of what human
+nature might be until the shortened life of man has become a passionate,
+deplorable, sorrowful struggle for physical existence, from the cradle
+to the grave. Of these facts man is practically ignorant, although each
+individual is aware he is not satisfied with his condition. If his
+afflictions were obvious to himself, his existence would be typical of a
+life of desolation and anguish. You know full well that the condition of
+the outer sphere is, as I have described it, a bleak, turbulent surface,
+the roof of the earth on which man exists, as a creeping parasite does
+on a rind of fruit, exposed to the fury of the ever-present earth
+storms.
+
+"The central circle, or medial sphere, the shell, or layer of
+gravitation, lies conformably to the outer configuration of the globe,
+about seven hundred miles towards its center. It stretches beneath the
+outer circle (sphere) as a transparent sheet, a shell of energy, the
+center of gravitation. The material crust of the earth rests on this
+placid sphere of vigor, excepting in a few places, where, as in the
+crevice we have entered, gaps, or crevices, in matter exist, beginning
+from near the outer surface and extending diagonally through the medial
+and inner spheres into the intra-earth space beyond. This medial sphere
+is a form of pure force, a disturbance of motion, and although without
+weight it induces, or conserves, gravity. It is invisible to mortal
+eyes, and is frictionless, but really is the bone of the earth. On it
+matter, the retarded energy of space, space dust, has arranged itself as
+dust collects on a bubble of water. This we call matter. The material
+portion of the earth is altogether a surface film, an insignificant skin
+over the sphere of purity, the center of gravitation. Although men
+naturally imagine that the density and stability of the earth is
+dependent on the earthy particles, of which his own body is a part, such
+is not the case. Earth, as man upon the outer surface, can now know it,
+is an aggregation of material particles, a shell resting on this
+globular sphere of medial force, which attracts solid matter from both
+the outer and inner surfaces of earth, forming thereby the middle of the
+three concentric spheres. This middle sphere is the reverse of the
+outer, or surface, layer in one respect, for, while it attracts solids,
+gases are repelled by it, and thus the atmosphere becomes less dense as
+we descend from the outer surfaces of the earth. The greater degree of
+attraction for gases belongs, therefore, to the earth's exterior
+surface."
+
+"Exactly at the earth's exterior surface?" I asked.
+
+"Practically so. The greatest density of the air is found a few miles
+below the surface of the ocean; the air becomes more attenuated as we
+proceed in either direction from that point. Were this not the case, the
+atmosphere that surrounds the earth would be quickly absorbed into its
+substance, or expand into space and disappear."
+
+"Scientific men claim that the atmosphere is forty-five geographical
+miles in depth over the earth's surface," I said.
+
+"If the earth is eight thousand miles in diameter, how long would such
+an atmosphere, a skin only, over a great ball, resist such attraction,
+and remain above the globe? Were it really attracted towards its center
+it would disappear as a film of water sinks into a sponge."
+
+"Do you know," I interrupted, "that if these statements were made to men
+they would not be credited? Scientific men have calculated the weights
+of the planets, and have estimated therefrom the density of the earth,
+showing it to be solid, and knowing its density, they would, on this
+consideration alone, discredit your story concerning the earth shell."
+
+[Illustration: THE EARTH AND ITS ATMOSPHERE.
+
+The space between the inner and the outer lines represents the
+atmosphere upon the earth. The depth to which man has penetrated the
+earth is less than the thickness of either line, as compared with the
+diameter of the inner circle.]
+
+"You mistake, as you will presently see. It is true that man's ingenuity
+has enabled him to ascertain the weights and densities of the planets,
+but do you mean to say that these scientific results preclude the
+possibility of a hollow interior of the heavenly bodies?"
+
+"I confess, I do."
+
+"You should know then, that what men define as density of the earth, is
+but an average value, which is much higher than that exhibited by
+materials in the surface layers of the earth crust, such as come within
+the scrutiny of man. This fact allows mortals of upper earth but a vague
+conjecture as to the nature of the seemingly much heavier substances
+that exist in the interior of the earth. Have men any data on hand to
+show exactly how matter is distributed below the limited zone that is
+accessible to their investigations?"
+
+"I think not."
+
+"You may safely accept, then, that the earth shell I have described to
+you embraces in a compact form the total weight of the earth. Even
+though men take for granted that matter fills out the whole interior of
+our planet, such material would not, if distributed as on earth's
+surface, give the earth the density he has determined for it."
+
+"I must acquiesce in your explanations."
+
+"Let us now go a step further in this argument. What do you imagine is
+the nature of those heavier substances whose existence deep within the
+earth is suggested by the exceedingly high total density observed by man
+on upper earth?"
+
+"I am unable to explain, especially as the materials surrounding us
+here, seemingly, do not differ much from those with which my former life
+experience has made me acquainted."
+
+"Your observation is correct, there is no essential difference in this
+regard. But as we are descending into the interior of this globe, and
+are approaching the central seat of the shell of energy, the opposing
+force into which we plunge becomes correspondingly stronger, and as a
+consequence, matter pressed within it becomes really lighter. Your own
+experience about your weight gradually disappearing during this journey
+should convince you of the correctness of this fact."
+
+"Indeed, it does," I admitted.
+
+"You will then readily understand, that the heavy material to which
+surface-bred mortals allude as probably constituting the interior of the
+earth, is, in fact, nothing but the manifestation of a matter-supporting
+force, as exemplified in the sphere of attractive energy, the seat of
+which we are soon to encounter on our journey. Likewise the mutual
+attraction of the heavenly bodies is not a property solely of their
+material part, but an expression in which both the force-spheres and the
+matter collected thereon take part.
+
+"Tell me more of the sphere in which gravitation is intensest."
+
+"Of that you are yet to judge," he replied. "When we come to a state of
+rest in the stratum of greater gravity, we will then traverse this
+crevice in the sheet of energy until we reach the edge of the earth
+crust, after which we will ascend towards the interior of the earth,
+until we reach the inner crust, which is, as before explained, a surface
+of matter that lies conformably with the external crust of the earth,
+and which is the interior surface of the solid part of the earth. There
+is a concave world beneath the outer convex world."
+
+"I can not comprehend you. You speak of continuing our journey towards
+the center of the earth, and at the same time you say that after leaving
+the Median Circle, we will then ascend, which seems contradictory."
+
+"I have endeavored to show you that matter is resting in or on a central
+sphere of energy, which attracts solid bodies towards its central plane.
+From this fundamental and permanent seat of gravity we may regard our
+progress as up-hill, whether we proceed towards the hollow center or
+towards the outer surface of the globe. If a stick weighted on one end
+is floated upright in water, an insect on the top of the stick above the
+water will fall to the surface of the liquid, and yet the same insect
+will rise to the surface of the water if liberated beneath the water at
+the bottom of the stick. This comparison is not precisely applicable to
+our present position, for there is no change in medium here, but it may
+serve as an aid to thought and may indicate to you that which I wish to
+convey when I say 'we ascend' in both directions as we pull against
+Gravity. The terms up and down are not absolute, but relative."
+
+Thus we continued an undefined period in mind conversation; and of the
+information gained in my experience of that delightful condition, I have
+the privilege now to record but a small portion, and even this statement
+of facts appears, as I glance backward into my human existence, as if it
+may seem to others to border on the incredible. During all that time--I
+know not how long the period may have been--we were alternately passing
+and repassing through the partition of division (the sphere of gravity)
+that separated the inner from the outer substantial crust of earth. With
+each vibration our line of travel became shorter and shorter, like the
+decreasing oscillations of a pendulum, and at last I could no longer
+perceive the rushing motion of a medium like the air. Finally my guide
+said that we were at perfect rest at a point in that mysterious medial
+sphere which, at a distance of about seven hundred miles below the level
+of the sea, concentrates in its encompassing curvature, the mighty power
+of gravitation. We were fixed seven hundred miles from the outer surface
+of the globe, but more than three thousand from the center.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER L.
+
+    MY WEIGHT ANNIHILATED.--"TELL ME," I CRIED IN ALARM, "IS THIS TO
+    BE A LIVING TOMB?"
+
+
+"If you will reflect upon the condition we are now in, you will perceive
+that it must be one of unusual scientific interest. If you imagine a
+body at rest, in an intangible medium, and not in contact with a gas or
+any substance capable of creating friction, that body by the prevailing
+theory of matter and motion, unless disturbed by an impulse from
+without, would remain forever at absolute rest. We now occupy such a
+position. In whatever direction we may now be situated, it seems to us
+that we are upright. We are absolutely without weight, and in a
+perfectly frictionless medium. Should an inanimate body begin to revolve
+here, it would continue that motion forever. If our equilibrium should
+now be disturbed, and we should begin to move in a direction coinciding
+with the plane in which we are at rest, we would continue moving with
+the same rapidity in that direction until our course was arrested by
+some opposing object. We are not subject to attraction of matter, for at
+this place gravitation robs matter of its gravity, and has no influence
+on extraneous substances. We are now in the center of gravitation, the
+'Sphere of Rest.'"
+
+"Let me think it out," I replied, and reasoning from his remarks, I
+mentally followed the chain to its sequence, and was startled as
+suddenly it dawned upon me that if his argument was true we must remain
+motionless in this spot until death (could beings in conditions like
+ourselves die beyond the death we had already achieved) or the end of
+time. We were at perfect rest, in absolute vacancy, there being, as I
+now accepted without reserve, neither gas, liquid, nor solid, that we
+could employ as a lever to start us into motion. "Tell me," I cried in
+alarm, "is this to be a living tomb? Are we to remain suspended here
+forever, and if not, by what method can we hope to extricate ourselves
+from this state of perfect quiescence?" He again took the bar of iron
+from my hand, and cautiously gave it a whirling motion, releasing it as
+he did so. It revolved silently and rapidly in space without support or
+pivot.
+
+"So it would continue," he remarked, "until the end of time, were it not
+for the fact that I could not possibly release it in a condition of
+absolute horizontal rest. There is a slight, slow, lateral motion that
+will carry the object parallel with this sheet of energy to the material
+side of this crevice, when its motion will 'be arrested by the earth it
+strikes.'"
+
+"That I can understand," I replied, and then a ray of light broke upon
+me. "Had not Cavendish demonstrated that, when a small ball of lead is
+suspended on a film of silk, near a mass of iron or lead, it is drawn
+towards the greater body? We will be drawn by gravity to the nearest
+cliff," I cried.
+
+"You mistake," he answered; "Cavendish performed his experiments on the
+surface of the earth, and there gravity is always ready to start an
+object into motion. Here objects have no weight, and neither attract nor
+repel each other. The force of cohesion holds together substances that
+are in contact, but as gravitation can not now affect matter out of
+molecular contact with other forms of matter, because of the equilibrium
+of all objects, so it may be likewise said, that bodies out of contact
+have at this point no attraction for one another. If they possessed this
+attribute, long ago we would have been drawn towards the earth cliff
+with inconceivable velocity. However, if by any method our bodies should
+receive an impulse sufficient to start them into motion, ever so gently
+though it be, we in like manner would continue to move in this
+frictionless medium--until--"
+
+"We would strike the material boundary of this crevice," I interrupted.
+
+"Yes; but can you conceive of any method by which such voluntary motion
+can now be acquired?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Does it not seem to you," he continued, "that when skillful mechanics
+on the earth's surface are able to adjust balances so delicately that in
+the face of friction of metal, friction of air, inertia of mass, the
+thousandth part of a grain can produce motion of the great beams and
+pans of such balances, we, in this location where there is no friction
+and no opposing medium--none at all--should be able to induce mass
+motion?"
+
+"I can not imagine how it is possible, unless we shove each other apart.
+There is no other object to push against,--but why do you continue to
+hold me so tightly?" I interrupted myself to ask, for he was clasping me
+firmly again.
+
+"In order that you may not leave me," he replied.
+
+"Come, you trifle," I said somewhat irritated; "you have just argued
+that we are immovably suspended in a frictionless medium, and fixed in
+our present position; you ask me to suggest some method by which we can
+create motion, and I fail to devise it, and almost in the same sentence
+you say that you fear that I will leave you. Cease your incongruities,
+and advise with me rationally."
+
+"Where is the bar of iron?" he asked.
+
+I turned towards its former location; it had disappeared.
+
+"Have you not occasionally felt," he asked, "that in your former life
+your mind was a slave in an earthly prison? Have you never, especially
+in your dreams, experienced a sensation of mental confinement?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Know then," he replied, "that there is a connection between the mind
+and the body of mortal beings, in which matter confines mind, and yet
+mind governs matter. How else could the will of men and animals impart
+voluntary motion to earthy bodies? With beings situated as are the
+animals on the surface of the earth, mind alone can not overcome the
+friction of matter. A person could suspend himself accurately on a
+string, or balance himself on a pivot, and wish with the entire force of
+his mind that his body would revolve, and still he would remain at
+perfect rest."
+
+"Certainly. A man would be considered crazy who attempted it," I
+answered.
+
+"Notwithstanding your opinion, in time to come, human beings on the
+surface of the earth will investigate in this very direction," he
+replied, "and in the proper time mental evolution will, by
+experimentation, prove the fact of this mind and matter connection, and
+demonstrate that even extraneous matter may be made subservient to mind
+influences. On earth, mind acts on the matter of one's body to produce
+motion of matter, and the spirit within, which is a slave to matter,
+moves with it. Contraries rule here. Mind force acts on pure space
+motion, moving itself and matter with it, and that, too, without any
+exertion of the material body which now is a nonentity, mind here being
+the master."
+
+"How can I believe you?" I replied.
+
+"Know, then," he said, "that we are in motion now, propelled by my will
+power."
+
+"Prove it."
+
+"You may prove it yourself," he said; "but be careful, or we will
+separate forever."
+
+Releasing his grasp, he directed me to wish that I were moving directly
+to the right. I did so; the distance widened between us.
+
+"Wish intensely that you would move in a circle about me."
+
+I acquiesced, and at once my body began to circle around him.
+
+"Call for the bar of iron."
+
+I did as directed, and soon it came floating out of space into my very
+hand.
+
+"I am amazed," I ejaculated; "yes, more surprised at these phenomena
+than at anything that has preceded."
+
+"You need not be; you move now under the influences of natural laws that
+are no more obscure or wonderful than those under which you have always
+existed. Instead of exercising its influence on a brain, and thence
+indirectly on a material body, your mind force is exerting its action
+through energy on matter itself. Matter is here subservient. It is
+nearly the same as vacuity, mind being a comprehensive reality. The
+positions we have heretofore occupied have been reversed, and mind now
+dominates. Know, that as your body is now absolutely without weight, and
+is suspended in a frictionless medium, the most delicate balance of a
+chemist can not approach in sensitiveness the adjustment herein
+exemplified. Your body does not weigh the fraction of the millionth part
+of a grain, and where there is neither material weight nor possible
+friction, even the attrition that on surface earth results from a needle
+point that rests on an agate plate is immeasurably greater in
+comparison. Pure mind energy is capable of disturbing the equilibrium
+of matter in our situation, as you have seen exemplified by our
+movements and extraneous materials, 'dead matter' obeys the spiritual.
+The bar of iron obeyed your call, the spiritless metal is subservient to
+the demands of intelligence. But, come, we must continue our journey."
+
+Grasping me again, he exclaimed: "Wish with all intensity that we may
+move forward, and I will do the same."
+
+I did so.
+
+"We are now uniting our energies in the creation of motion," he said;
+"we are moving rapidly, and with continually accelerated speed; before
+long we will perceive the earthy border of this chasm."
+
+And yet it seemed to me that we were at perfect rest.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LI.
+
+    IS THAT A MORTAL?--"THE END OF EARTH."
+
+
+At length I perceived, in the distance, a crescent-shaped ring of silver
+luster. It grew broader, expanding beneath my gaze, and appeared to
+approach rapidly.
+
+"Hold; cease your desire for onward motion," said the guide; "we
+approach too rapidly. Quick, wish with all your mind that you were
+motionless."
+
+I did so, and we rested in front of a ridge of brilliant material, that
+in one direction, towards the earth's outer circle, broadened until it
+extended upward as far as the eye could reach in the form of a bold
+precipice, and in the other towards the inner world, shelved gradually
+away as an ocean beach might do.
+
+"Tell me, what is this barrier?" I asked.
+
+"It is the bisected edge of the earth crevice," he said. "That
+overhanging upright bluff reaches towards the external surface of the
+earth, the land of your former home. That shelving approach beneath is
+the entrance to the 'Inner Circle,' the concavity of our world."
+
+Again we approached the visible substance, moving gently under the will
+of my guide. The shore became more distinctly outlined as we advanced,
+inequalities that were before unnoticed became perceptible, and the
+silver-like material resolved itself into ordinary earth. Then I
+observed, upright and motionless, on the edge of the shore that reached
+toward the inner shell of earth, towards that "Unknown Country" beyond,
+a figure in human form.
+
+"Is that a mortal?" I asked. "Are we nearing humanity again?"
+
+"It is a being of mortal build, a messenger who awaits our coming, and
+who is to take charge of your person and conduct you farther," he
+replied. "It has been my duty to crush, to overcome by successive
+lessons your obedience to your dogmatic, materialistic earth philosophy,
+and bring your mind to comprehend that life on earth's surface is only a
+step towards a brighter existence, which may, when selfishness is
+conquered, in a time to come, be gained by mortal man, and while he is
+in the flesh. The vicissitudes through which you have recently passed
+should be to you an impressive lesson, but the future holds for you a
+lesson far more important, the knowledge of spiritual, or mental
+evolution which men may yet approach; but that I would not presume to
+indicate now, even to you. Your earthly body has become a useless shell,
+and when you lay it aside, as you soon can do, as I may say you are
+destined to do, you will feel a relief as if an abnormal excrescence had
+been removed; but you can not now comprehend such a condition. That
+change will not occur until you have been further educated in the purely
+occult secrets for which I have partly prepared you, and the material
+part of your organism will at any time thereafter come and go at command
+of your will. On that adjacent shore, the person you have observed, your
+next teacher, awaits you."
+
+"Am I to leave you?" I cried in despair, for suddenly the remembrance of
+home came into my mind, and the thought, as by a flash, that this being
+alone could guide me back to earth. "Recall your words, do not desert me
+now after leading me beyond even alchemistic imaginings into this
+subterranean existence, the result of what you call your natural, or
+pure, ethereal lessons."
+
+He shook his head.
+
+"I beg of you, I implore of you, not to abandon me now; have you no
+compassion, no feeling? You are the one tie that binds me to earth
+proper, the only intelligence that I know to be related to a human in
+all this great, bright blank."
+
+Again he shook his head.
+
+[Illustration: "SUSPENDED IN VACANCY, HE SEEMED TO FLOAT."]
+
+"Hearken to my pleadings. Listen to my allegation. You stood on the edge
+of the brook spring in Kentucky, your back to the darkness of that
+gloomy cavern, and I voluntarily gave you my hand as to a guide; I
+turned from the verdure of the earth, the sunshine of the past, and
+accompanied you into as dismal a cavern as man ever entered. I have
+since alternately rebelled at your methods, and again have trusted you
+implicitly as we passed through scenes that rational imagination
+scarce could conjure. I have successively lost my voice, my weight, my
+breath, my heart throb, and my soul for aught I know. Now an unknown
+future awaits me on the one hand, in which you say my body is to
+disappear, and on the other you are standing, the only link between
+earth and my self-existence, a semi-mortal it may be, to speak mildly,
+for God only knows your true rank in life's scale. Be you man or not,
+you brought me here, and are responsible for my future safety. I plead
+and beg of you either to go on with me into the forthcoming uncertainty
+'Within the Unknown Country' to which you allude, or carry me back to
+upper earth."
+
+He shook his head again, and motioned me onward, and his powerful will
+overcoming my feeble resistance, impelled me towards that mysterious
+shore. I floated helpless, as a fragment of camphor whirls and spins on
+a surface of clear, warm water, spinning and whirling aimlessly about,
+but moving onward. My feet rested on solid earth, and I awkwardly
+struggled a short distance onward and upward, and then stepped upon the
+slope that reached, as he had said, inward and upward towards the
+unrevealed "Inner Circle." I had entered now that mysterious third
+circle or sphere, and I stood on the very edge of the wonderful land I
+was destined to explore, "The Unknown Country." The strange, peaceful
+being whom I had observed on the shore, stepped to my side, and clasped
+both my hands, and the guide of former days waved me an adieu. I sank
+upon my knees and imploringly raised my arms in supplication, but the
+comrade of my journey turned about, and began to retrace his course.
+Suspended in vacancy, he seemed to float as a spirit would if it were
+wafted diagonally into the heavens, and acquiring momentum rapidly,
+became quickly a bright speck, seemingly a silver mote in the occult
+earth shine of that central sphere, and soon vanished from view. In all
+my past eventful history there was nothing similar to or approaching in
+keenness the agony that I suffered at this moment, and I question if
+shipwrecked sailor or entombed miner ever experienced the sense of utter
+desolation that now possessed and overcame me. Light everywhere about
+me, ever-present light, but darkness within, darkness indescribable, and
+mental distress unutterable. I fell upon my face in agony, and thought
+of other times, and those remembrances of my once happy upper earth life
+became excruciatingly painful, for when a person is in misery, pleasant
+recollections, by contrast, increase the pain. "Let my soul die now as
+my body has done," I moaned; "for even mental life, all I now possess,
+is a burden. The past to me is a painful, melancholy recollection; the
+future is--"
+
+I shuddered, for who could foretell my future? I glanced at the
+immovable being with the sweet, mild countenance, who stood silent on
+the strand beside me, and whom I shall not now attempt to describe. He
+replied:
+
+"The future is operative and speculative. It leads the contemplative to
+view with reverence and admiration the glorious works of the Creator,
+and inspires him with the most exalted ideas of the perfections of his
+divine Creator."
+
+Then he added:
+
+"Have you accepted that whatever seems to be is not, and that that which
+seems not to be, is? Have you learned that facts are fallacies, and
+physical existence a delusion? Do you accept that material bliss is
+impossible, and that while humanity is working towards the undiscovered
+land, man is not, can not be satisfied?"
+
+"Yes," I said; "I admit anything, everything. I do not know that I am
+here or that you are there. I do not know that I have ever been, or that
+any form of matter has ever had an existence. Perhaps material things
+are not, perhaps vacuity only is tangible."
+
+"Are you willing to relinquish your former associations, to cease to
+concern yourself in the affairs of men? Do you--"
+
+He hesitated, seemed to consider a point that I could not grasp; then,
+without completing his sentence, or waiting for me to answer, added:
+
+"Come, my friend, let us enter the expanses of the Unknown Country. You
+will soon behold the original of your vision, the hope of humanity, and
+will rest in the land of Etidorhpa. Come, my friend, let us hasten."
+
+Arm in arm we passed into that domain of peace and tranquillity, and as
+I stepped onward and upward perfect rest came over my troubled spirit.
+All thoughts of former times vanished. The cares of life faded; misery,
+distress, hatred, envy, jealousy, and unholy passions, were blotted from
+existence. Excepting my love for dear ones still earth-enthralled, and
+the strand of sorrow that, stretching from soul to soul, linked us
+together, the past became a blank. I had reached the land of Etidorhpa--
+
+THE END OF EARTH.
+
+
+
+
+INTERLUDE.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LII.
+
+    THE LAST FAREWELL.
+
+
+My mysterious guest, he of the silver, flowing beard, read the last word
+of the foregoing manuscript, and then laid the sheet of paper on the
+table, and rested his head upon his hand, gazing thoughtfully at the
+open fire. Thus he sat for a considerable period in silence. Then he
+said:
+
+"You have heard part of my story, that portion which I am commanded to
+make known now, and you have learned how, by natural methods, I passed
+by successive steps while in the body, to the door that death only, as
+yet, opens to humanity. You understand also that, although of human
+form, I am not as other men (for with me matter is subservient to mind),
+and as you have promised, so you must act, and do my bidding concerning
+the manuscript."
+
+"But there is surely more to follow. You will tell me of what you saw
+and experienced beyond the end of earth, within the possessions of
+Etidorhpa. Tell me of that Unknown Country."
+
+"No," he answered; "this is the end, at least so far as my connection
+with you is concerned. You still question certain portions of my
+narrative, I perceive, notwithstanding the provings I have given you,
+and yet as time passes investigation will show that every word I have
+read or uttered is true, historically, philosophically, and spiritually
+(which you now doubt), and men will yet readily understand how the
+seemingly profound, unfathomable phenomena I have encountered may be
+verified. I have studied and learned by bitter experience in a school
+that teaches from the outgoings of a deeper philosophy than human
+science has reached, especially modern materialistic science which,
+however, step by step it is destined to reach. And yet I have recorded
+but a small part of the experiences that I have undergone. What I have
+related is only a foretaste of the inexhaustible feast which, in the
+wisdom expanse of the future, will yet be spread before man, and which
+tempts him onward and upward. This narrative, which rests against the
+beginning of my real story, the Unknown Country and its possibilities
+should therefore incite to renewed exertions, both mental and
+experimental, those permitted to review it. I have carried my history to
+the point at which I can say to you, very soon afterward I gave up my
+body temporarily, by a perfectly natural process, a method that man can
+yet employ, and passed as a spiritual being into the ethereal spaces,
+through those many mansions which I am not permitted to describe at this
+time, and from which I have been forced unwillingly to return and take
+up the semblance of my body, in order to meet you and record these
+events. I must await the development and expansion of mind that will
+permit men to accept this faithful record of my history before
+completing the narrative, for men are yet unprepared. Men must seriously
+consider those truths which, under inflexible natural laws, govern the
+destiny of man, but which, if mentioned at this day can only be viewed
+as the hallucinations of a disordered mind. To many this manuscript will
+prove a passing romance, to others an enigma, to others still it will be
+a pleasing study. Men are not now in a condition to receive even this
+paper. That fact I know full well, and I have accordingly arranged that
+thirty years shall pass before it is made public. Then they will have
+begun to study more deeply into force disturbances, exhibitions of
+energy that are now known and called imponderable bodies (perhaps some
+of my statements will then even be verified), and to reflect over the
+connection of matter therewith. A few minds will then be capable of
+vaguely conceiving possibilities, which this paper will serve to
+foretell, for a true solution of the great problems of the ethereal
+unknown is herein suggested, the study of which will lead to a final
+elevation of humanity, such as I dare not prophesy."
+
+"Much of the paper is obscure to me," I said; "and there are occasional
+phrases and repetitions that appear to be interjected, possibly, with
+an object, and which are yet disconnected from the narrative proper."
+
+"That is true; the paper often contains statements that are
+emblematical, and which you can not understand, but yet such portions
+carry to others a hidden meaning. I am directed to speak to many persons
+besides yourself, and I can not meet those whom I address more directly
+than I do through this communication. These pages will serve to instruct
+many people--people whom you will never know, to whom I have brought
+messages that will in secret be read between the lines."
+
+"Why not give it to such persons?"
+
+"Because I am directed to bring it to you," he replied, "and you are
+required:
+
+"First, To seal the manuscript, and place it in the inner vault of your
+safe.
+
+"Second, To draw up a will, and provide in case of your death, that
+after the expiration of thirty years from this date, the seals are to be
+broken, and a limited edition published in book form, by one you select.
+
+"Third, An artist capable of grasping the conceptions will at the proper
+time be found, to whom the responsibility of illustrating the volume is
+to be entrusted, he receiving credit therefor. Only himself and yourself
+(or your selected agent) are to presume to select the subjects for
+illustration.
+
+"Fourth, In case you are in this city, upon the expiration of thirty
+years, you are to open the package and follow the directions given in
+the envelope therein."
+
+And he then placed on the manuscript a sealed envelope addressed to
+myself.
+
+"This I have promised already," I said.
+
+"Very well," he remarked, "I will bid you farewell."
+
+"Wait a moment; it is unjust to leave the narrative thus uncompleted.
+You have been promised a future in comparison with which the experiences
+you have undergone, and have related to me, were tame; you had just met
+on the edge of the inner circle that mysterious being concerning whom I
+am deeply interested, as I am in the continuation of your personal
+narrative, and you have evidently more to relate, for you must have
+passed into that Unknown Country. You claim to have done so, but you
+break the thread in the most attractive part by leaving the future to
+conjecture."
+
+"It must be so. This is a history of man on Earth, the continuation will
+be a history of man within the Unknown Country."
+
+"And I am not to receive the remainder of your story?" I reiterated,
+still loth to give it up.
+
+"No; I shall not appear directly to you again. Your part in this work
+will have ended when, after thirty years, you carry out the directions
+given in the sealed letter which, with this manuscript, I entrust to
+your care. I must return now to the shore that separated me from my
+former guide, and having again laid down this semblance of a body, go
+once more into--"
+
+He buried his face in his hands and sobbed. Yes; this strange, cynical
+being whom I had at first considered an impertinent fanatic, and then,
+more than once afterward, had been induced to view as a cunning
+impostor, or to fear as a cold, semi-mortal, sobbed like a child.
+
+"It is too much," he said, seemingly speaking to himself; "too much to
+require of one not yet immortal, for the good of his race. I am again
+with men, nearly a human, and I long to go back once more to my old
+home, my wife, my children. Why am I forbidden? The sweets of Paradise
+can not comfort the mortal who must give up his home and family, and yet
+carry his earth-thought beyond. Man can not possess unalloyed joys, and
+blessings spiritual, and retain one backward longing for mundane
+subjects, and I now yearn again for my earth love, my material family.
+Having tasted of semi-celestial pleasures in one of the mansions of that
+complacent, pure, and restful sphere, I now exist in the border land,
+but my earth home is not relinquished, I cling as a mortal to former
+scenes, and crave to meet my lost loved ones. All of earth must be left
+behind if Paradise is ever wholly gained, yet I have still my sublunary
+thoughts.
+
+"Etidorhpa! Etidorhpa!" he pleaded, turning his eyes as if towards one I
+could not see, "Etidorhpa, my old home calls. Thou knowest that the
+beginning of man on earth is a cry born of love, and the end of man on
+earth is a cry for love; love is a gift of Etidorhpa, and thou,
+Etidorhpa, the soul of love, should have compassion on a pleading
+mortal."
+
+He raised his hands in supplication.
+
+"Have mercy on me, Etidorhpa, as I would on you if you were I and I were
+Etidorhpa."
+
+Then with upturned face he stood long and silent, listening.
+
+"Ah," he murmured at last, as if in reply to a voice I could not catch,
+a voice that carried to his ear an answer of deep disappointment; "thou
+spokest truly in the vision, Etidorhpa: it is love that enslaves
+mankind; love that commands; love that ensnares and rules mankind, and
+thou, Etidorhpa, art the soul of Love. True it is that were there no
+Etidorhpa, there would still be tears on earth, but the cold,
+meaningless tears of pain only. No mourning people, no sorrowful
+partings, no sobbing mothers kneeling with upturned faces, no planting
+of the myrtle and the rose on sacred graves. There would be no
+child-love, no home, no tomb, no sorrow, no Beyond--"
+
+He hesitated, sank upon his knees, pleadingly raised his clasped hands
+and seemed to listen to that far-off voice, then bowed his head, and
+answered:
+
+"Yes; thou art right, Etidorhpa--although thou bringest sorrow to
+mortals, without thee and this sorrow-gift there could be no bright
+hereafter. Thou art just, Etidorhpa, and always wise. Love is the seed,
+and sorrow is the harvest, but this harvest of sadness is to man the
+richest gift of love, the golden link that joins the spirit form that
+has fled to the spirit that is still enthralled on earth. Were there no
+earth-love, there could be no heart-sorrow; were there no craving for
+loved ones gone, the soul of man would rest forever a brother of the
+clod. He who has sorrowed and not profited by his sorrow-lesson, is
+unfitted for life. He who heeds best his sorrow-teacher is in closest
+touch with humanity, and nearest to Etidorhpa. She who has drank most
+deeply of sorrow's cup has best fitted herself for woman's sphere in
+life, and a final home of immortal bliss. I will return to thy realms,
+Etidorhpa, and this silken strand of sorrow wrapped around my heart,
+reaching from earth to Paradise and back to earth, will guide at last my
+loved ones to the realms beyond--the home of Etidorhpa."
+
+Rising, turning to me, and subduing his emotion, ignoring this outburst,
+he said:
+
+"If time should convince you that I have related a faithful history, if
+in after years you come to learn my name (I have been forbidden to
+speak it), and are convinced of my identity, promise me that you will do
+your unbidden guest a favor."
+
+[Illustration: "I STOOD ALONE IN MY ROOM HOLDING THE MYSTERIOUS
+MANUSCRIPT."]
+
+"This I will surely do; what shall it be?"
+
+"I left a wife, a little babe, and a two-year-old child when I was taken
+away, abducted in the manner that I have faithfully recorded. In my
+subsequent experience I have not been able to cast them from my memory.
+I know that through my error they have been lost to me, and will be
+until they change to the spirit, after which we will meet again in one
+of the waiting Mansions of the Great Beyond. I beg you to ascertain, if
+possible, if either my children, or my children's children live, and
+should they be in want, present them with a substantial testimonial.
+Now, farewell."
+
+He held out his hand, I grasped it, and as I did so, his form became
+indistinct, and gradually disappeared from my gaze, the fingers of my
+hand met the palm in vacancy, and with extended arms I stood alone in my
+room, holding the mysterious manuscript, on the back of which I find
+plainly engrossed:
+
+    "There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio,
+       Than are dreamt of in your philosophy."
+
+
+
+
+EPILOGUE.
+
+    LETTER ACCOMPANYING THE MYSTERIOUS MANUSCRIPT.
+
+
+The allotted thirty years have passed, and as directed, I, Llewellyn
+Drury, now break the seals, and open the envelope accompanying the
+mysterious package which was left in my hand, and read as follows:
+
+     Herein find the epilogue to your manuscript. Also a picture of
+     your unwelcome guest, I--Am--The--Man, which you are directed to
+     have engraved, and to use as a frontispiece to the volume. There
+     are men yet living to bear witness to my identity, who will need
+     but this picture to convince them of the authenticity of the
+     statements in the manuscript, as it is the face of one they knew
+     when he was a young man, and will recognize now that he is in
+     age. Do not concern yourself about the reception of the work, for
+     you are in no wise responsible for its statements. Interested
+     persons, if living, will not care to appear in public in
+     connection therewith, and those who grasp and appreciate, who can
+     see the pertinence of its truths, who can read between the lines
+     and have the key to connected conditions, will assuredly keep
+     their knowledge of these facts locked in their own bosoms, or
+     insidiously oppose them, and by their silence or their attacks
+     cover from men outside the fraternity, their connection with the
+     unfortunate author. They dare not speak.
+
+     Revise the sentences; secure the services of an editor if you
+     desire, and induce another to publish the book if you shrink from
+     the responsibility, but in your revision do not in any way alter
+     the meaning of the statements made in the manuscript; have it
+     copied for the printer, and take no part in comments that may
+     arise among men concerning its reception.[15] Those who are best
+     informed regarding certain portions thereof, will seemingly be
+     least interested in the book, and those who realize most fully
+     these truths, will persistently evade the endorsement of them.
+     The scientific enthusiast, like the fraternity to which I belong,
+     if appealed to, will obstruct the mind of the student either by
+     criticism or ridicule, for many of these revelations are not
+     recorded in his books.
+
+     [15] From a review of the fac simile (see p. 35), it will be seen
+     that an exact print word for word could not be expected. In more
+     than one instance subsequent study demonstrated that the first
+     conception was erroneous, and in the interview with Etidorhpa
+     (see p. 252), after the page had been plated, it was discovered
+     that the conveyed meaning was exactly the reverse of the
+     original. Luckily the error was discovered in time to change the
+     verse, and leave the spirit of this fair creature
+     unblemished.--J. U. L.
+
+     You are at liberty to give in your own language as a prologue the
+     history of your connection with the author, reserving, however,
+     if you desire to do so, your personality, adding an introduction
+     to the manuscript, and, as interludes, every detail of our
+     several conversations, and of your experience. Introduce such
+     illustrations as the selected artist and yourself think proper in
+     order to illuminate the statements. Do not question the
+     advisability of stating all that you know to have occurred; write
+     the whole truth, for although mankind will not now accept as fact
+     all that you and I have experienced, strange phases of life
+     phenomena are revealing themselves, and humanity will yet surely
+     be led to a higher plane. As men investigate the points of
+     historical interest, and the ultra-scientific phenomena broached
+     in this narrative, the curtain of obscurity will be drawn aside,
+     and evidence of the truths contained in these details will be
+     disclosed. Finally, you must mutilate a page of the manuscript
+     that you may select, and preserve the fragment intact and in
+     secret. Do not print another edition unless you are presented
+     with the words of the part that is missing.[16]
+
+     [16] I have excised a portion (see p. 190).--J. U. L.
+
+                                            (Signed.) I--Am--The--Man.
+
+
+NOTE BY MR. DRURY.--Thus the letter ended. After mature consideration it
+has been decided to give verbatim most of the letter, and all of the
+manuscript, and to append, as a prologue, an introduction to the
+manuscript, detailing exactly the record of my connection therewith,
+including my arguments with Professors Chickering and Vaughn, whom I
+consulted concerning the statements made to me directly by its author. I
+will admit that perhaps the opening chapter in my introduction may be
+such as to raise in the minds of some persons a question concerning my
+mental responsibility, for as the principal personage in this drama
+remarks: "Mankind can not now accept as facts what I have seen." Yet I
+walk the streets of my native city, a business man of recognized
+thoughtfulness and sobriety, and I only relate on my own responsibility
+what has to my knowledge occurred. It has never been intimated that I am
+mentally irresponsible, or speculative, and even were this the case, the
+material proof that I hold, and have not mentioned as yet, and may not,
+concerning my relations with this remarkable being, effectually
+disproves the idea of mental aberration, or spectral delusion. Besides,
+many of the statements are of such a nature as to be verified easily, or
+disproved by any person who may be inclined to repeat the experiments
+suggested, or visit the localities mentioned. The part of the whole
+production that will seem the most improbable to the majority of
+persons, is that to which I can testify from my own knowledge, as
+related in the first portion and the closing chapter. This approaches
+necromancy, seemingly, and yet in my opinion, as I now see the matter,
+such unexplained and recondite occurrences appear unscientific, because
+of the shortcomings of students of science. Occult phenomena, at some
+future day, will be proved to be based on ordinary physical conditions
+to be disclosed by scientific investigations [for "All that is is
+natural, and science embraces all things"], but at present they are
+beyond our perception; yes, beyond our conception.
+
+Whether I have been mesmerized, or have written in a trance, whether I
+have been the subject of mental aberration, or have faithfully given a
+life history to the world, whether this book is altogether romance, or
+carries a vein of prophecy, whether it sets in motion a train of wild
+speculations, or combines playful arguments, science problems, and
+metaphysical reasonings, useful as well as entertaining, remains for the
+reader to determine. So far as I, Llewellyn Drury, am concerned, this
+is--
+
+THE END.
+
+[Illustration: handwritten script]
+
+Had the above communication and the missing fragment of manuscript been
+withheld (see page 161), it is needless to say that this second edition
+of Etidorhpa would not have appeared.
+
+On behalf of the undersigned, who is being most liberally scolded by
+friends and acquaintances who can not get a copy of the first edition,
+and on behalf of these same scolding mortals, the undersigned extends to
+I-Am-The-Man the collective thanks of those who scold and the
+scolded.--J. U. L.
+
+[Illustration: handwritten script]
+
+This introduction, which in the author's edition was signed by the
+writer, is here reprinted in order that my views of the book be not
+misconstrued.--J. U. L.
+
+
+
+
+THE LIFE OF
+
+PROF. DANIEL VAUGHN
+
+BY PROF. RICHARD NELSON
+
+TO WHICH IS ADDED
+
+AN ACCOUNT OF HIS DEATH
+
+BY FATHER EUGENE BRADY, S.J.
+
+
+
+[Illustration: PROF. DANIEL VAUGHN.]
+
+
+Story of the Life of Prof. Daniel Vaughn.[17]
+
+
+    [17] Reprinted from the Cincinnati Tribune.
+
+BY PROF. RICHARD NELSON.
+
+HIS VALUABLE LIBRARY SHOWING MARKS OF MUCH STUDY.
+
+Twelve Years' Record in the Chair of Chemistry at the Cincinnati College
+of Medicine.
+
+[A paper read before the Literary Club by Prof. Richard Nelson.]
+
+
+Few men, if any, so eminent in science and philosophy have been known to
+live and die in such obscurity as the subject of this paper. A
+mathematician whose knowledge has never been fathomed, an original
+investigator in terrestrial and celestial chemistry, most of whose
+speculations are now accepted as law; a contributor to the philosophical
+journals of Europe, whose papers were received with distinguished favor;
+an astronomer, who, in those papers, ventured to differ with Laplace,
+and, too, as will be shown, a man skilled in classical scholarship, yet
+unknown to his nearest neighbors and recognized by only a few in his own
+city. He lived and died in obscurity and poverty in a city distinguished
+for its schools of science and art, and the liberality and public spirit
+of its men of wealth; who, if any, were to blame? One object of this
+paper is to unravel the mystery.
+
+
+HIS BIRTHPLACE AND PARENTAGE.
+
+Daniel Vaughn was born in the year 1818 at Glenomara, four miles from
+Killaloe, County Clare, Ireland. His father's name was John, who had two
+brothers, Daniel and Patrick. John, like Daniel, was educated for the
+church, but, being the eldest son, remained on the farm. Daniel became,
+subsequently, the parish priest of Killaloe, and in 1845 was ordained
+Bishop.
+
+John Vaughn had three children, Daniel (the subject of this paper), Owen
+and Margaret, afterward Mrs. Kent. The distance to the nearest school
+being four Irish miles, John had his sons educated by a tutor till they
+were prepared to enter a classical academy.
+
+At the age of about sixteen Dan, as he was familiarly called, was placed
+under the care of his uncle and namesake at Killaloe, where he entered
+the academy. There the young student pursued the study of Greek, Latin
+and mathematics, giving some attention to certain branches of physics,
+for which he evinced peculiar aptitude.
+
+
+HE EMIGRATES AND FINDS A HOME.
+
+About the year 1840 his uncle, desirous of having the young man enter
+the church, advanced him a sum of money to defray his expenses at a
+theological school in Cork, but on seeing the American liners when he
+reached Queenstown, the temptation to take the voyage to the land of
+promise was too great for the young adventurer to resist, so he secured
+a passage to New York. When at school he made wonderful advancement in
+study, especially in higher mathematics, and felt he ought to go to a
+country where he could be free to pursue his favorite line of thought
+and where attainments in science would not be circumscribed, as in the
+church.
+
+Of his voyage and subsequent wanderings little is known until he reached
+Kentucky. That he visited many schools and paid his way in part by
+teaching there is no question. The college of the late Dr. Campbell, in
+Virginia, was one of the institutions visited, but he felt he must push
+on to Kentucky. About 1842 he had reached the Blue Grass region, near
+the home of the late Colonel Stamps, in Bourbon County. The Colonel saw
+him engaged at work and was quick to observe that the stranger was no
+common man. Taking him to his house and supplying his wants, the Colonel
+soon installed him as his guest, and eventually made him instructor of
+his children. Access to the Colonel's library was a boon to the
+stranger, developing in him traits of genius of which his host was very
+proud.
+
+It was only a short time till the neighboring farmers heard of the
+distinguished young scholar, and desired to have the more mature members
+of their families under his care. A school was opened in the Colonel's
+house for instruction in the higher mathematics, the classics, geology,
+physical geography and astronomy. The young people were pleased with
+their teacher and made commendable progress, but the curriculum was too
+varied and comprehensive for an instructor, who, though far advanced in
+scholarship, had not yet studied the art of teaching.
+
+
+ACCEPTS A PROFESSORSHIP.
+
+In 1845 he accepted the chair of Greek in a neighboring college, which
+afforded him leisure for his scientific pursuits. After an absence of
+seven years the Professor returned to his old friend, Colonel Stamps and
+family, where he remained some two years, leaving them to settle in
+Cincinnati.
+
+During his stay at the Colonel's (1851) he became a member of the
+American Association for the Advancement of Science, and in 1852
+contributed to it his first article, entitled "On the Motions of
+Numerous Small Bodies and the Phenomena Resulting Therefrom." Having
+accumulated a valuable collection of books on science and philosophy and
+obtained access to several libraries, public and private, in the city,
+he was now in a condition to devote most of his time and energies to his
+favorite sciences. For subsistence he delivered lectures before
+teachers' institutes and colleges till 1856, when an affection of the
+lungs compelled him to abandon the lecture field.
+
+In the meantime he had offered papers for publication to Silliman's
+Journal, the principal scientific magazine of America at that time,
+but, receiving no response to his communications and being denied
+publication, he took the advice of a friend and sent his subsequent
+articles to the British Association for the Advancement of Science and
+to the Philosophic Magazine, where they were received with favor. He was
+much gratified to find his article on "Meteoric Astronomy" published in
+the report of the Liverpool meeting of the association in 1854. Six
+papers, which he subsequently sent in 1857, 1859 and 1861, met with
+similar favor.
+
+For several years he visited schools, colleges and teachers' institutes
+in Oxford, Lebanon, Cleveland and other cities, lecturing on his
+favorite branches of science. It had been his intention to popularize
+the science of physical astronomy by the publication of tracts or
+pamphlets.
+
+
+PUBLISHES PAMPHLETS.
+
+In the year 1856, at the request of teachers before whom he had lectured
+at the institutes, and with a view to popularize scientific knowledge,
+the Professor commenced the publication of pamphlets. The first number
+treated of "The Geological Agency of Water and Subterranean Forces."
+Only two of these pamphlets came into the possession of the
+administrator. One of them was a good-sized volume, as may be inferred
+from the following articles it contained:
+
+    "The Influence of Magnitude on Stability."
+    "The Doctrine of Gravitation."
+    "Theory of Tides."
+    "Effects of Tides."
+    "Cases of Excessive Tidal Action and Planetary Instability."
+    "The Rings of Saturn."
+    "The Supposed Influence of Satellites in Preserving Planetary Rings."
+    "Movements of Comets."
+    "The Tails of Comets."
+    "Mass and Density of Comets."
+    "Cometary Catastrophes."
+    "Phenomena Attending the Fall of Meteors."
+    "The Origin of Solar and Meteoric Light."
+    "Variable Stars and the Sun's Spots."
+    "Temporary Stars."
+    "Electrical Light and the Aurora Borealis."
+    "Proof of the Stability of the Solar System," with an appendix.
+
+Some of these subjects had been treated of at greater length and
+published by American and British associations for the advancement of
+science.
+
+He sent to the British Association for the Advancement of Science:
+
+    "Cases of Planetary Instability Indicated by the Appearance of
+      Temporary Stars."
+    "Appearance of Temporary Stars."
+
+Other papers appeared:
+
+    "Note on the Sunspots," Philosophical Magazine for December, 1858.
+    "On the Solar Spots and Variable Stars," idem, Vol. 15, p. 359.
+    "Changes in the Conditions of Celestial Bodies," an essay.
+    "The Origin of Worlds," Popular Science Monthly, May, 1879.
+    "Planetary Rings and New Stars," Popular Science Monthly,
+      February, 1879.
+    "Astronomical History of Worlds," idem, September, 1878.
+    "On the Stability of Satellites in Small Orbits and the Theory of
+      Saturn's Rings," Philosophical Magazine, May, 1861.
+    "On the Origin of the Asteroids." Contributed to the American
+      Association for the Advancement of Science.
+    "Static and Dynamic Stability in the Secondary Systems,"
+      Philosophical Magazine, December, 1861.
+    "On Phenomena which May be Traced to the Presence of a Medium
+      Pervading all Space," idem, May 11, 1861.
+
+The Professor contributed to other publications on both sides of the
+Atlantic, but as he failed to retain copies of the articles or of the
+magazines in which they were published, doubtless many papers of
+interest are among the number.
+
+The year 1860 found the Professor possessed of a valuable collection of
+books, the accumulation of ten or fifteen years, all showing the marks
+of wear, some of them besmeared with the drippings from his candle.
+Among them were works of some of the most prominent authors in branches
+of theoretical and practical science. Those of Laplace, Kepler,
+Tycho-Brahe, Leibnitz, Herschel, Newton and others, together with many
+pamphlets and periodicals, composed his library. He possessed a familiar
+knowledge of the German, French, Italian and Spanish languages, and of
+ancient Greek and Latin. Many of his papers appeared in the continental
+languages. It may be here stated that for the eminent astronomer,
+Laplace, as a scientist and writer, Prof. Vaughn entertained great
+respect, though he could not accept his nebular hypothesis, because
+important parts of it would not bear mathematical investigation. [The
+proof is in the papers in my possession.--N.] In an article of the
+Professor to the Popular Science Monthly (February, 1879) is a case of
+the kind, showing that the distinguished astronomer ignored his own
+famous theory. The article reads: "In endeavoring to account for the
+direct motion in secondary systems Laplace contends that, in consequence
+of friction the supposed primitive solar rings would have a greater
+velocity in their outer than in their inner zones. Now, if friction is
+to counteract to such an extent the normal effects of gravitation, it
+must be an eternal bar against the origin of worlds by nebulous
+dismemberment, and if the ring of attenuated matter were placed under
+the circumstances suggested by the eminent astronomer, it would be
+ultimately doomed, not to form a planet, but to coalesce with the
+immense spheroid of fiery vapor it was supposed to have environed."
+
+It is interesting to know that the theory of our Professor was the
+correct one, as proved by a recent discovery of Prof. James E. Keeler,
+astronomer of the Allegheny Observatory. As announced in a daily paper:
+"Prof. James E. Keeler, of the Allegheny Observatory, has made a
+wonderful discovery. It is a scientific and positive demonstration of
+the fact that the rings of Saturn are made up of many small bodies and
+that the satellites of the inner edge of the rings move faster than the
+outer."
+
+As to satellites, Prof. Vaughn, in the paper quoted, page 466, states:
+"The matter spread over the wide annular fields is ever urged by its own
+attraction to collect together and form satellites, which are ever
+destroyed by attractive disturbance of the primary, and have their parts
+scattered once more over a wide space."
+
+
+INSTALLED AS PROFESSOR OF CHEMISTRY.
+
+The Professor was elected to the chair of chemistry in the Cincinnati
+College of Medicine and Surgery in 1860, where he served with
+distinction for twelve years. His scholarly valedictory at that
+institution is one of the papers reserved for publication in his
+memoirs.
+
+While in the college he continued his investigations in science,
+applying his knowledge of terrestrial chemistry to the chemistry of the
+heavens, as shown in nearly all his writings. Besides the position held
+in the college, he gave lessons in schools and seminaries in geology,
+astronomy, chemistry, Latin and Greek.
+
+In 1873 he visited Lexington, where he met his old friend, Dr. J. C.
+Darby, and delivered lectures in public, at the Sayre Institute and the
+Baptist School, returning to Cincinnati the following spring. Except
+from his writings, he seemed to have no source of revenue for several
+years. How he managed to exist his most intimate friends could only
+conjecture. True, he contributed papers to monthly publications, but
+they appeared at such long intervals they could not be relied on for
+support, so, in the autumn of 1878 his friends organized for him a
+course of lectures, which were well patronized by physicians and others
+versed in science. In the meantime, negotiations were opened with
+prominent citizens of suburban towns for other lectures, and efforts
+were made to retire the Professor on an annuity.
+
+
+HIS END DRAWING NEAR.
+
+Enfeebled health, which confined him to his room for several weeks,
+prevented him from entering on the suburban course, so a second course
+was projected for the city and one of the lectures delivered. From what
+transpired after that lecture his friends were again anxious regarding
+his health, and, as the time approached for the delivery of the second,
+determined to see him. For reasons stated elsewhere it was with some
+difficulty he was found. Prostrated on a couch, he was suffering from a
+hemorrhage of the lungs of a few days previous, with evidences all
+around of a state of extreme destitution. No time was lost in having him
+removed to comfortable quarters in the Good Samaritan Hospital, where
+his friends arranged for his care as a private patient. Next day, April
+3, he expressed himself as greatly benefited by the change and talked
+cheerfully and hopefully of the future. Next day, Friday, he continued
+to improve, but on Saturday proof of his forthcoming article in the
+Popular Science Monthly reached him, and, feeling that he ought to
+return it promptly, he sat up to do the work. The effort was too great.
+Overcome with exhaustion after its completion, he sank to sleep and a
+little after two o'clock next morning, April 6, his weary spirit
+peacefully took its flight. Born in 1818, the Professor was then in the
+sixty-first year of his age.
+
+
+HIS OBSEQUIES.
+
+A committee of the more intimate friends of the deceased was formed,
+consisting of the late Jacob Traber, his nephew, J. C. Sproull, Drs. J. J.
+and William Taft and the writer.
+
+Funeral services were held in the chapel of the Hospital, where,
+considering the suddenness of the Professor's demise, many mourners were
+present. The interest evinced was profound, while the floral tributes
+that covered the casket were eloquent of affection and esteem.
+
+The remains were interred in a burial lot of Jacob Traber, who
+generously tendered its use until a separate place of interment and a
+monument could be procured. The remains of the two friends now lie side
+by side.
+
+
+HIS EFFECTS.
+
+After the funeral the committee referred to visited the room occupied by
+the Professor prior to his decease, and had the writer, as his nearest
+friend, procure letters of administration, so that papers of value, if
+any, would be cared for. A few letters, some private relics, unsalable
+remnants of books and pamphlets and scraps of manuscript constituted the
+effects. The scarcity of manuscript was easily accounted, for, as it was
+the habit of the deceased for years to print articles designed for
+publication and have them mailed to magazines and to savants in
+different parts of Europe and America.
+
+
+CHARACTERISTICS AND HABITS OF STUDY.
+
+A prominent characteristic of Prof. Vaughn was shyness--a shrinking from
+familiarity or conspicuousness. He never was the first to salute a
+casual acquaintance on the street, and when introduced to a stranger
+would extend his hand with apparent diffidence or reserve--not with the
+warmth of a hearty shake, but rather with a cautious presentation of the
+finger tips. Undemonstrative in manner, and inexperienced in the customs
+of social life, his diffidence was taken for coldness, yet he was kind
+and tender hearted almost to a fault, and a most grateful recipient of a
+favor. In his poverty he would part with money or personal property to
+people whom he considered more necessitous than himself. Of the proceeds
+of his last course of lectures he gave to one such a sum so large as to
+almost discourage his friends from helping him.
+
+Then, too, he was glad to render service to professional and public men.
+He made translations for writers and wrote lectures for others and made
+chemical analyses for the city when payment was not expected. As to his
+placing a commercial value upon his services he never learned to do it,
+though they often cost him both time and money that he could not well
+spare.
+
+His waking hours were always fully occupied in writing or study, either
+in his laboratory, the libraries or in open-air observations. He was
+thoroughly familiar with the geology of the neighborhood and the
+physical geography of the entire continent, as may be seen by his
+articles on "Volcanoes," "The Origin of Lakes and Mountains," "The
+Absence of Trees on Prairies," "Malaria," etc. His ingenuity in the
+construction of apparatus for his illustrations in chemistry was
+remarkable. Given a few tubes of glass and rubber, a piece of tin, some
+acid and alkali, a blow-pipe, soldering iron and a pair of pinchers, he
+could construct at will enough apparatus for a lesson, a lecture or an
+analysis.
+
+Considering his poverty, it may be questioned how he was able to
+maintain a laboratory. For twelve years he found a room at the Medical
+College. At other times he extemporized quarters at his humble lodgings,
+where the same apartment was to him laboratory, study and living room.
+Such a room he could not find in a private house, so he sought it
+elsewhere, as in the tenement in which he was found in his last
+illness. That life necessarily isolated him from society, its pleasures
+and advantages before he became familiar with the laws by which it was
+governed.
+
+Having acquired a mastery of Greek and Latin in his youth, he had a good
+preparation for the acquisition of the modern languages; besides, to
+prosecute his studies and investigations, he found it necessary to
+understand most of the languages of Europe.
+
+Exception has been taken to the Professor's manner as a lecturer. When
+we consider his natural diffidence in the presence of strangers we are
+surprised that he attempted to lecture at all. Take his case when he
+last lectured,--his lecture hall, the operating room of the Dental
+College, and his platform that of the operator with his audience around
+but elevated a few feet above him. The position was an exceedingly
+trying one, and some time elapsed before he was able to make a good
+start. While hesitating, on such occasions, his eyes would wander around
+the audience till they rested on those of a familiar friend. Immediately
+he addressed himself to that person, and confidence was restored. Like
+other public speakers we know of, he continued to address himself
+chiefly to the one selected, however embarrassing it might be to that
+individual.
+
+
+HIS RELIGIOUS LIFE.
+
+The Professor was a Bible student, if we judge from fragments found
+among his effects and a well-worn Bible, now a relic in possession of a
+former student. The book is a curiosity, worn as is the cover with marks
+of his fingers as he held it, often with a candle in his hand, as shown
+by occasional drippings on the page and cover.
+
+He was not a member of any church. At least, had not been up to a month
+before his decease, though he visited churches of all denominations and
+was familiar with their doctrines and polity. His religion consisted in
+his living up to his highest ideas of right and truth; hence he was
+charitable almost to a fault. When he had not money to give, he parted
+with his books.
+
+An eloquent public speaker, referring to his private life, has said: "He
+was social, kind and humane. He took pleasure in instructing the
+children and communing with friends--good men and women, who loved and
+admired him--and his humanity was gratified in bestowing what he valued
+most--knowledge. To him nothing seemed more precious than truth, and to
+shed the light of it abroad. His heart was in his work, and without a
+glance to the right or left, he pursued his arduous quest."
+
+Of the works of creation which occupied so much of his thoughts, the
+Professor's views may be had by reading the following concluding remarks
+found in his "Physical Astronomy:"
+
+"Whatever doubts may hang over all speculations respecting distant
+events, either of past or future time, we have reason to believe that
+our universe will ever exhibit great and useful operations throughout
+its extensive domains. From the ruins of some celestial bodies others
+will rise to act a part in the drama of the physical creation in future
+ages. Though nature's work may all decay, her laws remain the same, and
+numerous agencies, obedient to their control and aided by occasional
+interventions of creative power, must maintain the heavens forever in a
+harmonious condition and transform innumerable spheres into seats of
+light and intelligence. While the laws of nature have been thus widely
+ordained for such great ends, their simplicity renders them intelligible
+to the limited powers of the human mind, and the immense universe thus
+becomes a vast field of intellectual enjoyment for man."
+
+
+TESTIMONY OF THE LATE DR. JOHN HANCOCK.
+
+The late Dr. Hancock, in writing to Mrs. J. W. McLaughlin, stated that he
+attended institute lectures of Prof. Vaughn, making his acquaintance at
+a meeting of the Southwestern Ohio Normal Institute. The Professor was
+engaged to lecture on his favorite specialties, physical geography and
+astronomy. "It is my recollection," says the doctor, "that Prof. Vaughn
+was a graduate of Trinity Collage, Dublin. However that may be, there
+can be no doubt as to his wide and profound scholarship. He was not only
+deeply versed in the physical sciences, but was equally proficient in
+the classics and mathematics. It is said by competent judges that he
+read Greek and Latin as he would English, as though he thought in those
+languages, and he was one of the few Americans who read through
+Laplace's 'Mechanique Celeste.' He had a prodigious memory. At the
+Oxford Institute, to which I have referred, some dozen of the leading
+members, Prof. Vaughn among them, got up some literary games requiring
+wide reading and retentive memories for successful rivalry. In these
+games the Professor showed a wealth of reading and an ability to use it
+on the instant that I have never seen approached by any other scholar.
+It is needless to say that he was first in the game and the rest
+nowhere.
+
+"Some ten years afterward, when connected with Nelson's Commercial
+College, I edited a little educational paper, the News and Educator, of
+which Mr. Nelson was proprietor. In this relation I came much more
+frequently in contact with Prof. Vaughn than I ever did before. To this
+paper he contributed a number of articles on scientific subjects, but,
+being printed in an obscure local paper, they attracted little
+attention."
+
+
+REMINISCENCES OF MRS. STAMPS.
+
+Mrs. Eliza Stamps, widow of the late Colonel Stamps, in giving her
+experience with the Professor, said: "He was a very industrious student,
+in his profound researches pursuing them to the exclusion of every thing
+else. He would frequently forget the demands of hunger and disregard the
+summons to his meals. As to his engaging in innocent amusements, he
+considered it a sacrifice of valuable time; yet, lest he should be
+accused of selfishness or wanting in social etiquette, he sometimes left
+his books to unite with the children in their games, and, diffident
+though he was, would occasionally take part in the dance.
+
+"He enjoyed the Colonel's library, but soon exhausted its resources and
+those of the neighbors; so, to obtain a supply, he would go on foot to
+Cincinnati, one hundred miles distant, and return in the same manner,
+loaded with new books."
+
+Throughout his after life he gave evidence of his great respect and
+affection for Colonel Stamps, his benefactor, and his family, and the
+young ladies and gentlemen who had been his pupils, who never ceased to
+venerate him for his learning, or to love and cherish his memory. Some
+such were among the mourners at his funeral.
+
+
+REPUTATION IN ENGLAND.
+
+The late Jacob Traber, one of the most intimate friends of the
+Professor, has written: "In the year 1858 I was in the office of John
+Sayre, bookseller, High Holborn, where I made the purchase of books that
+were yet in the hands of the printer. I gave my address and directions
+for shipping. When in the act of leaving the office I was accosted by an
+elderly gentleman who, with the apology, 'Beg pardon, I overheard you
+when you gave your address, Cincinnati, and desire to make inquiry about
+one of your distinguished citizens, Daniel Vaughn. Assuming that you
+know him, may I ask how long it is since you have seen him?' I replied
+that I had known the Professor some four years, and had met him but a
+few months ago. At that time I regarded the Professor as a mechanical
+genius of the speculative type, and so expressed myself. A quick
+rejoinder came in that broad and forcible accent of an Englishman: 'If
+you Cincinnati people vote Vaughn as a speculative mechanic, the ripest
+and profoundest mathematical scholar in England may be marked as his
+apprentice. You have a treasure in that man. Why, sir, we send him
+problems that fail to be mastered here, and speedily have them back not
+only with a solution, but with the demonstration.' The speaker proved to
+be one of the ablest scholars and scientists in Europe."
+
+
+FIXING THE RESPONSIBILITY FOR HIS CONDITION.
+
+The subject of this paper, it will be inferred, did not inherit a
+patrimony, yet he contributed his valuable services to many worthy
+objects without pecuniary compensation. As has been stated, his great
+pleasure, next to the investigation of truth, was to impart useful
+knowledge and help the needy. When in the medical college he was paid
+with shares of stock on which a dividend was never declared, and when
+engaged in lecturing and teaching his diffidence prevented him from
+placing a sufficient value on his services. Living the life of a
+recluse, he concealed his poverty from his nearest friends, who were
+ignorant even of his address. Then, he never sought a gratuity, and his
+friends could only learn by conjecture when he was in need. When asked
+if his privations did not cause him much anxiety, he said they gave him
+no concern.
+
+On more than one occasion the writer, at the request of men of wealth
+and influence, proposed to retire him on an annuity, but he modestly but
+firmly declined to accept, and it was not until after the announcement
+of his last course that he consented. Then the proposition was to pay
+his expenses at a hotel of his choice and advance him money for his
+personal expenses, for which he was to lecture when and where he might
+choose. The gentlemen most active in this project were the following,
+now deceased: Henry Peachy, William F. Corry, Jacob Traber, Colonel
+Geoffrey and others. Favorably known to the public were Drs. J. J. and
+William Taft, Dr. Thad Reamy, J. C. Sproull, etc.
+
+The project had so far matured that the writer and another had arranged
+with Mr. Peachy to make the Lafayette National Bank the custodian of the
+funds. Had the Professor survived, he would have enjoyed a life of
+leisure and comfort, at one of the most prominent hotels in the city.
+
+The people of Cincinnati were, therefore, not responsible for the
+poverty of our friend, nor for the state of destitution in which he was
+found prior to his removal to the hospital.
+
+
+
+
+ACCOUNT OF THE DEATH OF PROF. VAUGHN, BY REV. EUGENE BRADY, S.J.
+
+    [Concerning the last days of Professor Vaughn, the following from
+    the pen of Father Brady, pastor of St. Xavier's Church, is of
+    special interest. This is peculiarly appropriate by reason of the
+    fact that Father Brady, while a boy, attended the college during
+    the time Professor Vaughn taught in Bardstown, Kentucky, and
+    finally comforted him in his last moments.--J. U. L.]
+
+    "MY DEAR MR. LLOYD:--
+
+    "Concerning the foot-note on page 160 of Etidorhpa. The
+    description of Daniel Vaughn is correct. The story of his
+    privations is quite true. He was so absorbed in science as to be
+    self-neglectful. Moreover, he was grossly neglected by those _who
+    made use of his labors_.
+
+    "A servant girl told the venerable Sister Anthony that a poor
+    lodger was dying in destitution in the west end of the city. The
+    lodger was Professor Vaughn. The Sister had the good man conveyed
+    to the Good Samaritan Hospital on April 1, 1879. She made him
+    comfortable, as he repeatedly declared. He died on April 6, 1879.
+    _Thoroughly conscious_ up to the last moment, _it was at his
+    request_ that the undersigned had the melancholy pleasure of
+    administering to him the last rites of the Catholic Church. It was
+    neither delirium nor senility that revived his faith. He was but
+    sixty-one years of age, and as rational as ever in life."
+
+                                                  --EUGENE BRADY, S.J.
+
+
+
+
+
+ETIDORHPA.
+
+TO THE RECIPIENTS OF THE AUTHOR'S EDITION OF ETIDORHPA:
+
+
+That so large an edition as 1,299 copies of an expensive book,
+previously unseen by any subscriber, should have been taken in advance
+by reason of a mere announcement, is complimentary to the undersigned;
+and yet this very confidence occasioned him not a little anxiety. Under
+such circumstances to have failed to give, either in workmanship or
+subject-matter, more than was promised in the announcement of Etidorhpa,
+would have been painfully embarrassing.
+
+Not without deep concern, then, were the returns awaited; for, while
+neither pains nor expense were spared to make the book artistically a
+prize, still, beautiful workmanship and attractive illustrations may
+serve but to make more conspicuous other failings. Humiliating indeed
+would it have been had the recipients, in a spirit of charity, spoken
+only of artistic merit and neat bookwork.
+
+When one not a bookman publishes a book, he treads the danger-line. When
+such a person, without a great publishing-house behind him, issues a
+book like Etidorhpa--a book that, spanning space, seemingly embraces
+wild imaginings and speculation, and intrudes on science and
+religion--he invites personal disaster.
+
+That in the case of the Author's Edition of Etidorhpa the reverse
+happily followed, is evidenced by hundreds of complimentary letters,
+written by men versed in this or that section wherein the book intrudes;
+and in a general way the undersigned herein gratefully extends his
+thanks to all correspondents--thanks for the cordial expressions of
+approval, and for the graceful oversights by critics and correspondents,
+that none better than he realizes have been extended towards blemishes
+that must, to others, be not less apparent than they are to himself.
+
+Since general interest has been awakened in the strange book Etidorhpa,
+and as many readers are soliciting information concerning its reception,
+it is not only as a duty, but as a pleasure, that the undersigned
+reproduces the following abstracts from public print concerning the
+Author's Edition, adding, that as in most cases the reviews were of
+great length and made by men specially selected for the purpose, the
+brief notes are but fragments and simply characteristic of their general
+tenor.
+
+The personal references indulged by the critics could not be excised
+without destroying the value of the criticisms, and the undersigned can
+offer no other apology for their introduction than to say that to have
+excluded them would have done an injustice to the writers.
+
+    Respectfully,
+    JOHN URI LLOYD.
+
+
+
+
+ETIDORHPA AS A WORK OF ART.
+
+PROFESSOR S. W. WILLIAMS, WYOMING, OHIO.
+
+
+If a fine statue or a stately cathedral is a poem in marble, a
+masterpiece of the printer's art may be called a poem in typography.
+Such is Etidorhpa. In its paper, composition, presswork, illustrations,
+and binding--it is the perfection of beauty. While there is nothing
+gaudy in its outward appearance, there is throughout a display of good
+taste. The simplicity of its neatness, like that of a handsome woman, is
+its great charm. Elegance does not consist in show nor wealth in
+glitter; so the richest as well as the costliest garb may be rich in its
+very plainness. The illustrations were drawn and engraved expressly for
+this work, and consist of twenty-one full-page, half-tone cuts, and over
+thirty half-page and text cuts, besides two photogravures. The best
+artistic skill was employed to produce them, and the printing was
+carefully attended to, so as to secure the finest effect. Only enameled
+book paper is used; and this, with the wide margins, gilt top, trimmed
+edges, and clear impressions of the type, makes the pages restful to the
+eyes in reading or looking at them. The jacket, or cover, which protects
+the binding, is of heavy paper, and bears the same imprint as the book
+itself. Altogether, as an elegant specimen of the bookmakers' art it is
+a credit to the trade. All honor to the compositors who set the type,
+the artists who drew and engraved the illustrations, the electrotyper
+who put the forms into plate, the pressman who worked off the sheets,
+and the binder who gathered and bound them in this volume.
+
+
+
+
+REVIEWS OF ETIDORHPA.
+
+
+[Sidenote: B. O. Flower, Editor of The Arena, Boston.]
+
+The present is an age of expectancy, of anticipation, and of prophecy;
+and the invention or discovery or production that occupies the attention
+of the busy world, as it rushes on its self-observed way, for more than
+the passing nine day's wonder, must needs be something great indeed.
+Such a production has now appeared in the literary world in the form of
+the volume entitled "Etidorhpa, or the End of Earth;" the very title of
+which is so striking as to arrest the attention at once.
+
+A most remarkable book.... Surpasses, in my judgment, any thing that has
+been written by the elder Dumas or Jules Verne, while in moral purpose
+it is equal to Hugo at his best.... It appeals to the thoughtful
+scientist no less than to the lover of fascinating romance.
+
+
+[Sidenote: Mr. Herbert Bates, in the Commercial Gazette, Cincinnati.]
+
+In summing, I would say that I have found the book distinctly
+stimulating. It is odd, but with the oddity of force. It has passages of
+uncanny imagination, but they excellently evade the enormous and
+extravagant. It is a book that by its title and by such features as
+strike one at a hurried glance might easily repel. Yet it is a book
+that, studied carefully, calls for re-reading and deep meditation. Its
+theories are capable of scientific demonstration, its imaginings, while
+they may not be fact, are always consistent with it. The reader who lets
+the outside repel him errs sadly. Let him read it, and he will be as
+changed in his position toward it, as ready to convert others, as is the
+reviewer, who picked it up with foreboding and laid it down with the
+sense of having read great thoughts.
+
+
+[Sidenote: Dr. W. H. Venable.]
+
+"The End of Earth" is not like any other book. The charm of adventure,
+the excitement of romance, the stimulating heat of controversy, the keen
+pursuit of scientific truth, the glow of moral enthusiasm, are all found
+in its pages. The book may be described as a sort of philosophical
+fiction, containing much exact scientific truth, many bold theories, and
+much ingenious speculation on the nature and destiny of man.... The
+occult and esoteric character of the discussions adds a strange
+fascination to them. We can hardly classify, by ordinary rules, a work
+so unusual in form and purpose, so discursive in subject-matter, so
+unconventional in its appeals to reason, religion and morality.... The
+direct teaching of the book, in so far as it aims to influence conduct,
+is always lofty and pure.
+
+
+[Sidenote: Letter from Sir Henry Irving, to the Author.]
+
+"_My Dear Sir:_ Let me thank you most heartily for sending me the
+special copy of your wonderful book 'Etidorhpa,' which I shall ever
+value. I may say that when by chance I found it in Cincinnati I read it
+with the greatest interest and pleasure, and was so struck by it that I
+have sent copies to several friends of mine here and at home. I hope I
+may have the pleasure of meeting you some day either here or in London.
+I remain, sincerely yours,      HENRY IRVING.
+
+    "20th March, 1896."
+
+
+[Sidenote: Etidorhpa as a work of art. Prof. S. W. Williams.]
+
+If a fine statute or a stately cathedral is a poem in marble, a
+masterpiece of the printer's art may be called a poem in typography.
+Such is "Etidorhpa." In its paper, composition, presswork,
+illustrations, and binding--it is the perfection of beauty. While there
+is nothing gaudy in its outward appearance, there is throughout a
+display of good taste.
+
+The illustrations were drawn and engraved expressly for this work, and
+consist of twenty-one full-page, half-tone cuts, and over thirty
+half-page and text cuts, besides two photogravures. The best artistic
+skill was employed to produce them, and the printing was carefully
+attended to, so as to secure the finest effect.
+
+
+[Sidenote: Eclectic Medical Journal, Cincinnati.]
+
+No one could have written the chapter on the "Food of Man" but Professor
+Lloyd; no one else knows and thinks of these subjects in a similar
+way.... The "old man's" description of "the spirit of stone," "the
+spirit of plants," and finally, "the spirit of man," is very fine, but
+those who hear Professor Lloyd lecture catch Lloyd's impulses
+throughout. The only regret one has in reading this entrancing work is,
+that it ends unexpectedly, for the End of Earth comes without a
+catastrophe. It should have been a hundred pages longer; the reader
+yearns for more, and closes the book wistfully.
+
+
+[Sidenote: New Idea, Detroit.]
+
+One of the great charms of the book is the space between the lines,
+which only the initiated can thoroughly comprehend. Don't fail to read
+and re-read Etidorhpa. Be sure and read it in the light of
+contemporaneous literature, for without doing so, its true beauty will
+not appear. Aside from its subject-matter, the excellency of the
+workmanship displayed by the printer, and artistic beauty of the
+illustrations, will make Etidorhpa an ornament to any library.
+
+
+[Sidenote: Cincinnati Student.]
+
+This book, to use the words of the editor of the Chicago Inter-Ocean, is
+"the literary novelty of the year."... In a literary sense, according to
+all reviewers, it abounds with "word-paintings of the highest order"--in
+some chapters being "terrible" in its vividness, several critics
+asserting that Dante's Inferno has nothing more realistic....
+
+
+[Sidenote: The British and Colonial Druggist, London, England.]
+
+We have read it with absorbed interest, the vividly-depicted scenes of
+each stage in the miraculous journey forming a theme which enthralls the
+reader till the last page is turned. Many new views of natural laws are
+given by the communicator, and argued between him and Drury, into which,
+and into the ultimate intent of Etidorhpa, we will not attempt to enter,
+but will leave it for each reader to peruse, and draw his own
+conclusions.... Professor Lloyd's style is quaint and polished, and
+perfectly clear. The printing and paper are all that can be desired, and
+an abundance of artistic and striking illustrations are admirably
+reproduced.
+
+
+[Sidenote: New York World.]
+
+Etidorhpa, the End of the Earth, is in all respects the worthiest
+presentation of occult teachings under the attractive guise of fiction
+that has yet been written. Its author, Mr. John Uri Lloyd, of
+Cincinnati, as a scientist and writer on pharmaceutical topics, has
+already a more than national reputation, but only his most intimate
+friends have been aware that he was an advanced student of occultism.
+His book is charmingly written, some of its passages being really
+eloquent; as, for instance, the apostrophe to Aphrodite--whose name is
+reversed to make the title of the story. It has as thrilling situations
+and startling phenomena as imagination has ever conceived.... There is
+no confusion between experiences and illusions, such as are common in
+the works of less instructed and conscientious writers treating of such
+matters. He knows where to draw the line and how to impress perception
+of it, as in the four awful nightmare chapters illustrating the curse of
+drink. Etidorhpa will be best appreciated by those who have "traveled
+East in search of light and knowledge."...
+
+
+[Sidenote: John Clark Ridpath, LL.D.]
+
+We are disposed to think "Etidorhpa" the most unique, original, and
+suggestive new book that we have seen in this the last decade of a not
+unfruitful century.
+
+
+[Sidenote: Times-Star, Cincinnati.]
+
+It is as fascinating as the richest romance by Dumas, and mysterious and
+awe-inspiring as the wild flights of Verne. Hugo wrote nothing more
+impassioned than those terrible chapters where "The-Man-Who-Did-It"
+drinks liquor from the mushroom cup. There never was a book like it. It
+falls partly in many classes, yet lies outside of all. It will interest
+all sorts and conditions of men and it has that in it which may make it
+popular as the most sensational novel of the day. Intricate plotting,
+marvelous mysteries, clear-cut science without empiricism, speculative
+reasoning, sermonizing, historical facts, and bold theorizing make up
+the tissue of the story, while the spirit of Etidorhpa, the spirit of
+love, pervades it all.... Happy is the scientist who can present science
+in a form so inviting as to charm not only the scholars of his own
+profession, but the laymen besides. This, Professor John Uri Lloyd has
+done in his Etidorhpa.
+
+
+[Sidenote: The Inter-Ocean, Chicago.]
+
+For eighteen years the writer has been seated at his desk, and all kinds
+of books have been passed in review, but has never before met with such
+a stumper as Etidorhpa. Its name is a stunner, and its title-page,
+head-lines, and weird, artistic pictures send you such a ghastly welcome
+as to make goblins on the walls, and fill the close room with spooks and
+mystery. The writer has only known of Professor Lloyd as a scientist and
+an expert in the most occult art of the pharmacist, and can scarcely
+conceive him in the role of the mystic and romancer in the region
+heretofore sacred to the tread of the supernatural.... The book is the
+literary novelty of the year, but those interested in such lines of
+thought will forget its novelties in a profound interest in the themes
+discussed.
+
+
+[Sidenote: The Chicago Medical Times.]
+
+The work stands so entirely alone in literature, and possesses such a
+marvelous versatility of thought and idea, that, in describing it, we
+are at a loss for comparison. In its scope it comprises alchemy,
+chemistry, science in general, philosophy, metaphysics, morals, biology,
+sociology, theosophy, materialism, and theism--the natural and
+supernatural.... It is almost impossible to describe the character of
+the work. It is realistic in expression, and weird beyond Hawthorne's
+utmost flights. It excels Bulwer-Lytton's Coming Race and Jules Verne's
+most extreme fancy. It equals Dante in vividness and eccentricity of
+plot.... The entire tone of the work is elevating. It encourages thought
+of all that is ennobling and pure. It teaches a belief and a faith in
+God and holy things, and shows God's supervision over all his works. It
+is an allegory of the life of one who desires to separate himself from
+the debasing influences of earth, and aspires to a pure and noble
+existence, as beautiful and as true to the existing conditions of human
+life as Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. The sorrow; the struggle with self;
+the physical burdens; the indescribable temptations with the presence
+and assistance of those who would assist in overcoming them; the dark
+hours, Vanity Fair, and the Beulahland, are all there.
+
+
+[Sidenote: Indianapolis Journal.]
+
+In every respect the volume bearing the title Etidorhpa, or the End of
+the Earth, is a most remarkable book. Typographically, it is both unique
+and artistic--as near perfection in conception and execution as can be
+conceived.... The author is John Uri Lloyd, of Cincinnati, a scientific
+writer whose pharmaceutical treatises are widely known and highly
+valued. That a man whose mind and time have been engrossed with the
+affairs of a specialist and man of affairs could have found time to
+enter the field of speculation, and there display not only the most
+extensive knowledge of the exact natural sciences, and refute what is
+held to be scientific truth with bold theories and ingenious
+speculations on the nature and destiny of man is marvelous....
+
+The Addenda is as original as the book itself, consisting, as it does,
+of a list of names, some of whom are not subscribers, but to whom the
+author is deeply obliged, or whom he regards as very dear friends, and
+those of a few whom he personally admires.... If each of them has a copy
+of Etidorhpa, or the End of the Earth, he possesses a book which is not
+like any other book in the world.
+
+
+[Sidenote: Cleveland Leader.]
+
+It relates to a journey made by the old man under the guidance of a
+peculiar being into the interior of the earth. The incidents of this
+journey overshadow any thing that Verne ever wrote in his palmiest days.
+But perhaps the most singular part of it is that they are all based on
+scientific grounds. Dr. Lloyd, the author of the volume, is one of the
+deepest students, and is well known as a profound writer on subjects
+pertaining to his profession, as well as one who has taken much pains in
+studying the occult sciences.... The book is a very pleasant one to
+read, a little redundant at times, but full of information.... Readers
+who succeed in securing it will be very lucky indeed.
+
+
+
+TRANSCRIBER NOTES:
+
+    Punctuation corrected without note.
+
+    page 47: no illustration is found in the original book for
+    this reference.
+
+    page 228: "siezed" changed to "seized" (The guide seized me by the
+    hand).
+
+    page 284: "begun" changed to "began" (began a narcotic
+    hallucination).
+
+    page 338: "comformably" changed to "conformably" (that lies
+    conformably with the external crust).
+
+    page 385: "wierd" changed to "weird" (and weird, artistic pictures).
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Etidorhpa or the End of Earth., by John Uri Lloyd
+
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