Lumen

by Camille Flammarion

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  LUMEN

  _The One Hundred and Forty-first of the Minor Planets, situated between Mars and Jupiter, which was discovered at the Paris Observatory by M. Paul Henry, on the 13th of January 1875, received the name of LUMEN in honour of the Author of this Work._

  LUMEN

  BY CAMILLE FLAMMARION

  AUTHORISED TRANSLATION FROM THE FRENCH

  BY A. A. M. AND R. M.

  _With portions of the last chapter written specially for the English Edition_

  NEW YORK DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY 1897

  _Copyright, 1897,_ BY DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY.

  _Fifty-two thousand copies of the French original of this volume have been sold_

  University Press: JOHN WILSON AND SON, CAMBRIDGE, U.S.A.

  CONTENTS

  FIRST CONVERSATION

  PAGE RESURRECTIO PRAETERITI 1-63

  Death--The soul--The hour of death--Separation of the soul--Sight of the soul in Heaven--The Solar System in the heavens--The Earth as seen from the heavens--The star Capella--Velocity of light--The terrestrial planet seen from afar--The worlds seen from afar--Lumen--Lumen sees again his own life.

  SECOND CONVERSATION

  REFLUUM TEMPORIS 64-105

  Journey on a ray of light--Events retraced--Re-ascending the Ages--Psychical optics--Light and sound--Man organised from the planet--The soul and destiny.

  THIRD CONVERSATION

  HOMO HOMUNCULUS 106-128

  The sphere of human observation--Time and space--Events in space--Time, space, and eternity.

  FOURTH CONVERSATION

  ANTERIORES VITAE 129-196

  Space and light--The star Gamma in Virgo--The system of Gamma in Virgo--Former existence--The plurality of existences--The unknown--The constellations--The elements--Life on the earth--The process of alimentation--Nutritive atmospheres--Poetry on the Earth--A humanity--The organisation of beings--The development of life--The genealogical tree of life--The men-plants--Souls and atoms--Other senses--Atoms and monads.

  FIFTH CONVERSATION

  INGENIUM AUDAX: NATURA AUDACIOR 197-224

  A world in Orion--Analysis of the nervous system--The Commune--Animated molecules--Various forms of life--Infinite diversity on Sirius--Phosphorescent passions--Lives too long--Infinite diversity--The magnifying power of time--A chrono-telescope--Light.

  LUMEN

  FIRST CONVERSATION

  RESURRECTIO PRAETERITI

  QUAERENS. You promised, dear Lumen, to describe to me that supremest ofmoments which immediately succeeds death, and to relate to me how, bya natural law, singular though it may seem, you lived again your pastlife, and penetrated a hitherto-unrevealed mystery.

  LUMEN. Yes, my old friend, I will now keep my word; and I trust that,thanks to the life-long communion of our souls, you will be able tounderstand the phenomenon you deem so strange.

  [Sidenote: Life and death.]

  There are many conceptions which a mortal mind finds difficult tograsp. Death, which has delivered me from the weak and easily-tiredsenses of the body, has not yet touched you with its liberating hand;you still belong to the living world, and in spite of your isolationin this retreat of yours amid the royal towers of the Faubourg St.Jaques, you still belong to the life of Earth, and are occupied withits petty distinctions. You must not, therefore, be surprised if,whilst I am explaining to you this mystery, I beg of you to isolateyourself still further from outer things, and to give me the most_fixed attention_ of which your mind is capable.

  QUAERENS. My one desire is to listen to your revelations; speak,therefore, without fear and to the point, and deign to acquaint me withthose impressions, as yet to me unknown, which are experienced upon thecessation of life.

  LUMEN. From what point do you wish me to begin my recital?

  QUAERENS. If you can recall it, I shall be pleased if you will begin atthe moment when my trembling hands closed your eyes.

  [Sidenote: Death.]

  LUMEN. The separation of the thinking principle from the nervous systemleaves no remembrance. It is as though the impressions made upon thebrain which constitute memory were entirely effaced, to be renewedafterwards in another form. The first sensation of identity feltafter death resembles that which is felt during life on awakening inthe morning, when still confused with the visions of the night, themind, wavering between the past and the future, endeavours to recoveritself, and at the same time to retain the vanishing dreams, thepictures and events of which are still passing before it. At times whenthus absorbed in the recollection of a delightful dream, the eyelidsclose, and in a half slumber the visions reappear. It is thus that ourthinking faculty is divided at death, between a reality that it doesnot yet comprehend and a dream which has completely disappeared. Themost conflicting impressions mingle in and confuse the mind, and if,overwhelmed by perishable feelings, a regret comes into the mind forthe world that has been left behind, a sense of indefinable sadnessweighs upon and darkens the imagination and hinders clearness of vision.

  QUAERENS. Did you feel these sensations immediately after death?

  [Sidenote: No such thing as death.]

  [Sidenote: Not death, but change.]

  LUMEN. After death? There is no such thing as death. What you calldeath--the separation of the body from the soul--is not, strictlyspeaking, effected in a material form like the chemical separation ofa combination of elements such as one sees in the world of matter. Oneis no more conscious of this final separation, which seems to you socruel, than the new-born babe is aware of his birth. We are born intothe heavenly life as unconsciously as we were born into the earthly;only the soul, no longer enveloped by its bodily covering, acquiresmore rapidly the consciousness of its individuality and of its powers.This faculty of perception varies essentially between one soul andanother. There are those who, during their earthly life, never lifttheir souls toward heaven, and never feel a desire to penetrate thelaws of creation; these, being still dominated by fleshly appetites,remain long in a troubled and semi-conscious state. There are otherswhose aspirations have happily flown upwards towards the eternalheights; to these the moment of separation comes with calmness andpeace. They know that progress is the law of being, and that thelife to come will be better than that which they have quitted. Theyfollow, step by step, that lethargy which reaches at last to theheart, and when, slowly and insensibly, the last pulsation ceases,the departed are already above the body whose falling asleep theyhave been watching. Freeing themselves from the magnetic bonds, theyfeel themselves swiftly borne, by an unknown force, toward the pointof creation, to which their sentiments, their aspirations, and theirhopes have drawn them.

  QUAERENS. The conversation into which I have drawn you, my dear master,recalls to my memory the dialogues of Plato on the immortality of thesoul; and as Phaedrus asked his master, Socrates, on the day he hadto drink the hemlock in obedience to the iniquitous sentence of theAthenians, I ask you--you who have passed the dread boundary--what isthe essential difference which distinguishes the soul from the body,since the latter dies, whilst the former cannot die?

  [Sidenote: Life viewed scientifically.]

  LUMEN. I shall not imitate Socrates by giving a metaphysical answer tothis question, nor shall I, with the theologians, reply in a dogmaticway; but I will give you instead a scientific answer, for you, likemyself, accept only as of real
value the results of positive knowledge.

  [Sidenote: Renewal of the body.]

  [Sidenote: Atoms and molecules.]

  We find in the human being three principles, _different, and yet incomplete union_: 1. The body; 2. The vital energy; 3. The soul. Iname them thus in order that I may follow the _a posteriori_ method.The body is an association of molecules which are themselves formedof groups of atoms. The atoms are inert, passive, immutable, andindestructible. They enter into the organism by means of respirationand alimentation; they renew the tissues incessantly, and arecontinually replaced by others, and when cast out from the body go toform other bodies. In a few months the human body is entirely renewed,and neither in the blood, nor in the flesh, nor in the brain, nor inthe bones, does an atom remain of those which constituted the bodya few months before. The atoms travel without ceasing from body tobody, chiefly by the grand medium of the atmosphere. The molecule ofiron is the same whether it be incorporated in the blood which throbsin the temples of an illustrious man, or form part of a fragment ofrusty iron; the molecule of oxygen is the same in the blush raised bya loving glance, or when in union with hydrogen it forms the flame ofone of the thousand jets of gas that illuminate Paris by night, or whenit falls from the clouds in the shape of a drop of water. The bodiesof the living are formed of the ashes of the dead, and if all the deadwere to be resuscitated, the last comers might find the material fortheir bodies wanting, owing to their predecessors having appropriatedall that was available. Moreover, during life many exchanges are madebetween enemies and friends, between men, animals, and plants, whichamaze the analyst who looks at them with the eyes of science. Thatwhich you breathe, eat, and drink, has been breathed, drunk, and eatenmillions of times before. Such is the human body, an assemblage ofmolecules of matter which are constantly being renewed. The principleby which these molecules are grouped according to a certain form so asto produce an organism, is the vital energy of life. The inert, passiveatoms, incapable of guiding themselves, are ruled by vital force, whichcalls them, makes them come, takes hold of them, places and disposes ofthem according to certain laws, and forms this marvellously-organisedbody, which the anatomist and the physiologist contemplate with wonder.

  [Sidenote: Atoms indestructible.]

  [Sidenote: Vital energy or force in nature and man.]

  [Sidenote: Vital force has limits.]

  The atoms are indestructible; vital force is not: atoms have no age;vital force is born, grows old, and dies. Why is an octogenarianolder than a youth of twenty, since the atoms of which his body iscomposed have only belonged to his frame a few months, and sinceatoms are neither old nor young? The constituent elements of hisbody when analysed have no age, and what is old in him is solely hisvital energy, which is but one of the forms of the general energy ofthe universe, and which in his case has become exhausted. Life istransmitted by generation, and sustains the body instinctively, and,as it were, unconsciously. It has a beginning and an end. It is anunconscious physical force, which organises and maintains the bodyof which it is the preserving element. The soul is an intellectual,thinking, immaterial being. The world of ideas in which the soul livesis not the world of matter. It has no age, it does not grow old. It isnot changed in a few months like the body; for after months, years,dozens of years, we feel that we have preserved our identity--thatour _ego_, ourself, is always ours. On the other hand, if the soul didnot exist, and if the faculty of thinking were only a function of thebrain, we should no longer be able to say that _we have_ a body, forit would be our body, our brain, _that would have us_. Besides, fromtime to time our consciousness would change; we should no longer havea feeling of identity, and we should no longer be responsible for theresolutions, secreted by the molecules, which had passed through thebrain many months before. The soul is not the vital force; for thatis limited and is transmitted by generation, has no consciousness ofitself, is born, grows up, declines, and dies. All these states areopposed to those of the soul, which is immaterial, unlimited, nottransmissible, conscious.

  [Sidenote: The soul has no limits.]

  The development of the vital force may be represented geometricallyby a spindle, which swells out gradually to the middle, and decreasesagain to a point. When the soul reaches the middle of life, it doesnot become less, like a spindle, and dwindle down to the end, butfollows its parabolic curve into the infinite. Moreover, the mode ofexistence of the soul is essentially different from that of the vitalforce. It lives in a spiritual way. The conceptions of the soul, suchas the sentiments of justice or injustice, of truth or falsehood, ofgood and evil, as well as knowledge, mathematics, analysis, synthesis,contemplation, admiration, love, affection or hatred, esteem orcontempt--in a word, the occupations of the soul, whatever they may be,are of an intellectual and moral order, which neither the atoms northe physical forces can apprehend, and which have as real an existenceas the physical order of things. The chemical or mechanical work ofcerebral cells, however subtle they may be, can never produce anintellectual judgment, such, for instance, as the knowledge of the factthat four multiplied by four is equal to sixteen, or that the threeangles of a triangle are equal to two right angles.

  [Sidenote: The soul survives the body.]

  These three elements of the human being are reproduced in the universeat large: 1. The atoms, the material world inert, passive; 2. Thephysical forces which regulate the world, and which are continuallytransformed into one another or into others; 3. God, the eternal andinfinite spirit, the _intellectual_ organiser of the _mathematical_laws which these forces obey, the unknown being in whom reside thesupreme principles of truth, of beauty, of goodness. The soul can beattached to the body only by means of the vital force. When life isextinct the soul naturally separates from the organism and ceases tohave any immediate connection with time and space. After death the soulremains in that part of the universe where the Earth happens to be atthe moment of its separation from the body. You know that the Earth isa planet in the heavens like Venus and Jupiter. The Earth continues torun in its orbit at the rate of 12,700 kilometres an hour, so that thesoul an hour after death is at that distance from its body because ofits immobility in space, when no longer subject to the laws of matter.Thus we are in the heavens immediately after death, where, however, wehave also been during the whole of our lives; but we then had weightwhich held us to the Earth. I must add, however, that as a rule thesoul takes some time to disengage itself from the nervous organism,and that it occasionally remains many days, and even many months,magnetically connected with the old body, which it is reluctant toforsake. Moreover, it has special faculties by means of which it cantransport itself from one point of space to another.

  QUAERENS. Now for the first time I am able to understand death as anatural process, and to comprehend the individual existence of thesoul, its independence of the body and of life, its personality, itssurvival, and its obvious position in the universe. This synthetictheory has prepared me, I hope, to understand and appreciate yourrevelation. But you said that a singular event struck you on yourentrance into the eternal life; at what moment did that take place?

  [Sidenote: The hour of death.]

  [Sidenote: Last impressions of the parting soul.]

  [Sidenote: Separation of the soul.]

  LUMEN. Well, my dear friend, let me go on with my story. Midnighthad just struck, you will remember, on the sonorous bell of my oldtimepiece, and the full Moon shed its pale light on my dying bed,when my daughter, my grandson, and other friends withdrew to takesome rest. You wished to remain with me, and you promised my daughternot to leave me till the morning. I would thank you for your warm andtender devotion if we were not so truly brothers. We had been aloneabout half-an-hour, for the star of night was declining, when I tookyour hand and told you that life had already abandoned my extremities.You assured me that it was not so; but I was calmly observing myphysiological state, and I knew that in a few moments I should ceaseto breathe. You moved gently towards the room where my children weresleeping, but concen
trating my powers by an extreme effort I stoppedyou. Returning with tears in your eyes, you said to me, "You are right;you have given them your last wishes, and to-morrow morning will betime enough to send for them." There was in these words a contradictionthat I felt without expressing it to you. Do you remember that then Iasked you to open the window. It was a beautiful night in October; morebeautiful than those of the Scottish bards sung by Ossian. Not far fromthe horizon, just level with my eyes, I could distinguish the Pleiades,veiled by mist, whilst Castor and Pollux floated triumphantly a littlehigher up. Above, forming a triangle with them, shone the beautifulstar with rays of gold, which, on maps of the zodiac, is marked"Capella." You see how clearly I remember it all. When you had openedthe window the perfume of the roses, sleeping under the wings of night,ascended upwards to me and mingled with the silent rays of the stars.I cannot express to you how sweet were these last impressions that Ireceived from the Earth; language fails me to describe what I felt. Inthe hours of my sweetest happiness, of my tenderest love, I never feltsuch an intensity of joy, so glorious a serenity, such real bliss, asI experienced then in the ecstatic enjoyment of the perfumed breathof the flowers and the tender gleam of the distant stars.... When youbent over me I seemed to return to the outer world, and with my handsclasped over my breast, my sight and my thoughts, united in prayer,together took flight into space. Before my ears closed for ever I heardthe last words as they fell from my lips: "Adieu! my old friend, I feelthat death is bearing me away to those unknown regions where I trust weshall one day meet. When the dawn effaces these stars, only my mortalbody will be here. Repeat then to my daughter my last wish: to bring upher children in the contemplation of the eternal goodness." And whilstyou wept, as you knelt by my bed, I added, "Recite the beautifulprayer of Jesus," and you began with trembling voice, "Our Father, ...Forgive us ... our trespasses, ... as we ... forgive those ... that ...trespass ... against us...." These were the last thoughts that passedthrough my soul by means of the senses; my sight grew dim as I lookedat the star Capella, and immediately I became unconscious.

  [Sidenote: Time does not exist outside the Earth]

  Years, days, and hours are constituted by the movements of the Earth.In space, outside these movements time _does not exist_; indeed, it isimpossible to have any notion of time. I think, however, that the eventI am now going to describe to you occurred on the very day of my death,for, as you will see presently, my body was not yet buried when thisvision appeared to my soul.

  [Sidenote: Sight of the soul in the heavens.]

  As I was born in 1793, I was then, in 1864, in my seventy-second year,so I was not a little surprised to find myself animated by a vivacityof mind as ardent as in the prime of my life. I had no body, and yetI was not incorporeal; I felt and saw that I was constituted of asubstance which, however, bore no analogy to the material form ofterrestrial bodies. I know not how I traversed the celestial spaces,but by some unknown force I soon found that I was approaching amagnificent golden sun, the splendour of which did not, however,dazzle me. I perceived that it was surrounded by a number of worlds,each enveloped in one or more rings. By the same unconscious forceI was driven towards one of these rings, and was a spectator of themarvellous phenomena of light, for the starry spaces were crossedeverywhere by rainbow bridges. I lost sight of the golden sun, andI found myself in a sort of night coloured with hues of a thousandshades. The sight of my soul far exceeded that of my body, and, tomy surprise, this power of sight appeared to be subject to my will.The sight of the soul is so marvellous that I must not stop to-day todescribe it. Suffice it to say that instead of seeing the stars in theheavens as you see them on the Earth, I could distinguish clearly theworlds revolving round each other; and strange to say, when I desiredto examine more closely these worlds, and to avoid the brilliance ofthe central sun, it disappeared from my sight, and left me under themost favourable conditions for observing any one of them I wished.[1]Further, when my attention was concentrated on one particular world,I could distinguish its continents and its seas, its clouds and itsrivers, although they did not appear to become larger, as objects seenthrough a telescope do. I saw any special thing that I fixed my sightupon, such as a town or a tract of country, with perfect clearness anddistinctness.

  [Sidenote: The soul clothed in a new body.]

  When I reached this ringed world I found myself clothed in a form likethat of its inhabitants. It appeared that my soul had attracted toitself the constituent atoms of a new body. Living bodies on the Earthare composed of molecules which do not touch one another, and which areconstantly renewed by respiration, by nutrition, and by assimilation.The envelope of the soul is formed more quickly in that far-off world.I felt myself more alive than the supernatural beings whose passionsand sorrows Dante celebrates. One of the special faculties of this newworld is that of seeing very far.

  QUAERENS. But pardon a rather simple remark. Is it not likely thatthe worlds or planets that revolve round each star must mingle in adistant view with their central sun; for instance, when you see our Sunfrom afar with the planets of his system, is it possible for you todistinguish our Earth amongst them?

  [Sidenote: The soul's powers of vision.]

  LUMEN. You have raised the single geometrical objection which seemsto contradict all previous experience. In point of fact, at a certaindistance the planets are absorbed in their suns, and our terrestrialeyes would have difficulty in distinguishing them. You know thatfrom Saturn the Earth is invisible. But you must remember that thisdiscrepancy arises as much from the imperfection of our sight as fromthe geometrical law of the decrease of surfaces. Now, in the worldon which I had just landed, the inhabitants are not incarnated in agross form, as we are here below, but are free beings, and endowedwith eminently powerful faculties of perception. They can, as I havetold you, _isolate_ the source of light from the object lighted, and,moreover, they can perceive distinctly details which at that distancewould be absolutely hidden from the eyes of those dwelling upon thisEarth.

  QUAERENS. Do they make use, then, of instruments superior to ourtelescopes?

  LUMEN. Well, if, in order to realise this marvellous faculty, you findit easier to suppose that they possess such instruments, you may do so,in theory. Imagine a telescope which, by a succession of lenses andan arrangement of diaphragms, brings near in succession these distantworlds, and isolates each one in the field of view in order to study itseparately. I should also inform you that these beings are endowed witha special sense by which they can regulate at will the powers of theirmarvellous organs of sight.

  And you must further understand that this power and this regulationof vision are natural in those worlds, and not supernatural. In orderto conceive of the faculties possessed by these ultra-terrestrialbeings, reflect for a moment upon the eyes of some insects--of those,for instance, which have the power to draw in, to lengthen out, or toflatten the crystalline lens so as to make it magnify in differentdegrees; or of those which can concentrate on the field of view amultitude of eyes in order to bring them to bear upon the desiredobject.

  QUAERENS. Yes, I can imagine it to be possible. Then you are able to seethe Earth, and to distinguish from above even the towns and villages ofour lower world?

  [Sidenote: Lumen on a star world.]

  LUMEN. Let me proceed with my description. I found myself then uponthe ring-shaped world, the size of which I told you is great enoughto make two hundred worlds like yours. The mountain on which I stoodwas covered with trees woven into arboreal palaces. These fairy-likechateaux seemed to me either to grow naturally, or else to be producedby a skilful arrangement of branches and of tall flowering plants. Thetown, where I entered it, was thickly peopled, and on the summit of themountain I noticed a group of old men, twenty or thirty in number, whowere looking with the most fixed and anxious attention at a beautifulstar in the southern constellation of the Altar on the confines of theMilky Way. They did not observe my arrival amongst them, so absorbedwere they in observing and examining this star, or perhaps one o
f theworlds belonging to its system.

  [Sidenote: Lumen learns the language of spirits.]

  As for myself, I became aware, on arriving in this atmosphere, thatI was clothed in a body resembling that of its inhabitants, and tomy still greater surprise I heard these old men speaking of theEarth--yes, of the Earth in that universal spirit-language which allbeings comprehend from the seraphim to the trees of the forest. And notonly were they talking about the Earth, but about France. "What canbe the meaning of these legal massacres?" they said. "Is it possiblethat brute force reigns supreme there? Will civil war decimate thesepeople, and will rivers of blood run in this capital, at one time somagnificent and so gay?"

  I could not follow the drift of this speech, I who had just come fromthe Earth with the swiftness of thought, and who but yesterday hadbreathed in the heart of this tranquil and peaceful capital. I joinedthe group, fixing my eyes, as they did, on the beautiful star, and Itried at the same time to understand what they were talking about.Presently I saw to the left of the star a pale-blue sphere--that wasthe Earth.

  [Sidenote: The Solar System in the heavens.]

  You are aware, my friend, that, notwithstanding the apparent paradox,the Earth is really a star in the sky, as I reminded you just now. Seenfrom one of the stars comparatively near to your system, it appearsto the spiritual sight, of which I have told you, like a family ofstars composed of eight principal worlds crowding round the Sun, whichis itself reduced to a star. Jupiter and Saturn first arrest theattention, because of their great size; then one notices Uranus andNeptune, and at length, quite near to the Sun-star, Mars and the Earth.Venus is very difficult to make out. Mercury remains invisible becauseof its too great proximity to the Sun. Such is the appearance of theplanetary system in the heavens.

  [Sidenote: The Earth as seen from the heavens.]

  My attention was fixed exclusively on the little terrestrial sphereby the side of which I perceived the Moon. I soon remarked the whitesnow of the North Pole, the yellow triangle of Africa, and theoutlines of the Ocean. Whilst my attention was concentrated on ourplanet, the Sun-star became eclipsed before my eyes. Then I was ableto distinguish, in the midst of an expanse of azure, a brown cleft orhollow, and pursuing my investigations I discovered a town in the midstof this cleft. I had no difficulty in recognising that this continentalhollow was France, and that the town was Paris. The first sign by whichI recognised it was the silver ribbon of the Seine, that describes somany graceful convolutions to the west of the great town. By the use ofmy new optical organs I could see it in detail. At the eastern side ofthe city I saw the nave and towers of Notre Dame in the form of a Latincross. The Boulevards wound round the north. To the south I recognisedthe gardens of the Luxembourg and the Observatory. The cupola of thePantheon covered like a grey hood the Mount of Ste. Genevieve. To thewest the grand avenue of the Champs-Elysees formed a straight line.Farther on I could distinguish the Bois de Boulogne, the environs ofSt. Cloud, the Wood of Meudon, Sevres, Ville d'Avray, and Montretout.

  [Sidenote: Paris.]

  The whole scene was lighted up by splendid sunshine; but, strange tosay, the hills were covered with snow as in the month of January,whilst I had left it in October when the country was perfectly green.I was fully convinced that I was looking at Paris; but as I couldnot understand the exclamations of my companions, I endeavoured toascertain more details.

  [Sidenote: Old Paris.]

  [Sidenote: No Arc de Triomphe visible.]

  [Sidenote: No Column Vendome.]

  [Sidenote: No obelisk in the Place de la Concorde.]

  My eyes were fixed with most interest upon the Observatory. It was myfavourite quarter, and for forty years I had scarcely left it for morethan a few months. Judge, therefore, of my surprise when I came to lookmore closely at it to find that the magnificent avenue of chestnutsbetween the Luxembourg and the Observatory was nowhere to be seen,that in its place were the gardens of convents. My indignation as anartist was aroused against these municipal misdeeds, but it was quicklysuspended by still stranger feelings. I beheld a monastery in the midstof our beautiful orchard. The Boulevard St. Michel did not exist, nordid the Rue de Medici; instead I saw a confused mass of little streets,and I seemed to recognise the former Rue de l'Est and the Place St.Michel, where an ancient fountain used to supply water to the peopleof the faubourg, and I made out a number of narrow lanes which existedlong ago. The cupolas and the two side wings of the Observatory haddisappeared. By degrees, as I continued my observations, I discoveredthat Paris was indeed much changed. The Arc de Triomphe de l'Etoile,and all the brilliant avenues that meet there, had disappeared. Therewas no Boulevard de Sebastopol, no Station de l'Est, nor any otherstation, and no railway. The tower of St. Jaques was enclosed in acourt of old houses, and the Column of Victory was reached that way.The Column of the Bastile was also absent, for I should easily haverecognised the figure upon it. An equestrian statue filled the placeof the Vendome Column. The Rue Castiglione was an old green convent.The Rue de Rivoli had disappeared. The Louvre was either unfinished orpartly pulled down. Between the Court of Francis I. and the Tuileriesthere were tumble-down old hovels. There was no obelisk in the Placede la Concorde; but I saw a moving crowd, though I was unable at firstto distinguish the figures. The Madeleine and the Rue Royal wereinvisible. Behind the Isle of St. Louis I saw a small island. Insteadof the outer Boulevards there was only an old wall, and the whole wasenclosed by fortifications. In short, although I recognised the capitalof France by some familiar buildings, I was aware of a marvellousmetamorphosis, which had completely changed its aspect.

  [Sidenote: Time merely relative.]

  At first I fancied that, in place of having just come from the Earth,I must have been many years _en route_. As the notion of time isessentially relative, and there is nothing real or absolute in themeasure of duration, having once left the Earth, I had lost allstandard of measure, and I said to myself that years, centuries indeed,might have passed over my head without my perceiving it, and thatthe time had seemed short to me because of the great interest I hadtaken in my aerial voyage--a commonplace idea which shows how merelyrelative is our notion of time. Not having any means of assuring myselfof the facts of the case, I should undoubtedly have concluded that Iwas separated by many centuries from the terrestrial life which wasnow going on before my eyes in Paris, and I imagined that I saw theperiod of the twentieth or twenty-first century until I penetratedmore deeply into the details of the life picture and examined all itsfeatures. Eventually I succeeded in identifying the aspect of the town,and I gradually recognised the sites of the streets and of the publicbuildings which I had known in my early youth. The Hotel de Villeappeared to be decorated with flags, and I could distinguish the squarecentral dome of the Tuileries.

  [Sidenote: Lumen sees a scene in his past life.]

  A little further examination recalled everything to me; and then I saw,in an old convent garden, a summer-house which made me tremble withjoy. It was in that spot that I met in my youth the woman who loved meso deeply, my Sylvia, so tender and so devoted, who gave up everythingto unite her life to mine. I saw the little cupola of the terrace wherewe loved to saunter in the evenings and to study the constellations.Oh, with what joy I greeted those promenades where we had walked,keeping step with one another, those avenues where we took refuge fromthe curious eyes of intruders! You can fancy how, as I looked at thissummer-house, the sight of it alone was enough to assure me, absolutelyand convincingly, that I had before my eyes not, as it was natural tosuppose, the Paris of long _after my death_, but in reality the Paris_of the past_, old Paris of the beginning of this century or of theend of last century. But, in spite of all, you can easily imagine thatI could scarcely believe my eyes. It seemed so much more natural tothink that Paris had grown old and had suffered these transformationssince my departure from the Earth--an interval of time absolutelyunknown to me. It was so much easier to think that I beheld the cityof the future. I continued my observations carefully, in order toascertain
if it was really the old Paris, now partly demolished, thatI was looking at, or if, by a phenomenon still more incredible, it wasanother Paris, another France, another world.

  II

  [Sidenote: In the star Capella.]

  QUAERENS. What an extraordinary discovery for an analytical mind likeyours, dear Lumen! By what means did you satisfy yourself that yourconclusions were correct?

  [Sidenote: The French Terror visible in Capella.]

  [Sidenote: Old men in Capella watch the doings on the Earth.]

  LUMEN. While I was gradually arriving at the conviction of which Ihave told you, the old men around me on the mountain continued theirconversation. Suddenly the oldest of them, a venerable Nestor whoseaspect commanded both admiration and respect, called out, in a loudand mournful voice "On your knees, my brethren; let us pray forforbearance to the universal God. That world, that nation, that citycontinues to revel in blood. A fresh head, that of a king this time,is about to fall." His companions seemed to understand, for theyknelt down on the mountain, and prostrated their white faces to theground. For myself, I had not yet succeeded in distinguishing men inthe streets and squares of Paris, and not being able to verify theobservations of these old men, I remained standing, but I pursuedmy examination of the scene before me carefully. "Stranger," saidthe old man to me, "do you blame the action of your brothers sinceyou do not join your prayers to theirs?" "Senator," I replied, "Ineither approve nor blame what I do not comprehend. Having only justarrived on this mountain, I do not know the cause of your righteousindignation." I then drew near the old man, and while his companionswere rising and entering into conversation in groups, I asked himto describe the situation to me. He informed me that the order ofspirits inhabiting this world are gifted by intuition with the powerof seeing and apprehending events in the neighbouring worlds, andthat they each possess a sort of magnetic relation with the stars andsystems around them. These neighbour-worlds, or stars, are twelve orfifteen in number. Outside that limit the perceptions become confused.They have therefore a vague but distinct knowledge of the state ofhumanity in the planets of our Sun, and of the relative elevation inthe intellectual and moral order of their inhabitants. Moreover, whena great disturbance takes place, either in the physical or the moralrealm, they feel a sort of inner agitation, like that of a musicalchord which vibrates in unison with another chord at a distance.

  For a year (a year of this world is equal to ten of our years) they hadfelt themselves drawn by special attraction towards the terrestrialplanet, and had observed with unusual interest and anxiety the marchof events in that world. They had beheld the end of a reign and thedawn of glorious liberty, the conquest of the rights of man and theassertion of the great principles of human dignity. Then they had seenthe cause sacred to liberty placed in peril by those who should havebeen the first to defend it, and brute force substituted for reason andjustice.

  I saw that he was describing the great Revolution of 1789, and the fallof the old political world before the new regime. Very mournfullythey had followed the events of the Reign of Terror and the tyranny ofthat bloody time. They trembled for the future of the Earth, and feltdoubtful of the progress of a humanity which, when emancipated, so soonlost the treasure it had just acquired. I took care not to let thesenator know that I had just arrived from the Earth myself, and that Ihad lived there seventy-two years. I do not know whether he was awareof this, but I was so much surprised by this vision before me that itcompletely absorbed my mind and I did not think of myself.

  [Sidenote: Lumen witnesses the scenes of the French Revolution.]

  At last my sight was fully developed, and I perceived the spectaclein all its details. I could distinguish, in the midst of the Placede la Concorde, a scaffold, surrounded by a formidable array of war,drums, cannon, and a motley crowd armed with pikes. A cart, led bya man in red, bore the remains of Louis XVI. in the direction ofthe Faubourg St. Honore. An intoxicated mob lifted their fists toheaven. Some horsemen, sabre in hand, mournfully followed. Towards theChamps-Elysees there were ditches into which the curious stumbled. Butthe agitation was concentrated in this region. It did not extend intothe town, which appeared dead and deserted; the terror had thrown itinto a state of lethargy.

  I was not present during the events of 1793, since that was the year ofmy birth, and I felt an inexpressible interest in being thus a witnessof these scenes of which I had read in history. I have often discussedand debated the vote of the Convention, but I confess to you I see noexcuse of state in the execution of such men as Lavoisier, the creatorof chemistry, Bailly, the historian of astronomy, Andre Chenier, thesweet poet, or the condemnation of Condorcet, the philosopher. Thesehave roused my indignation much more than the punishment of Louis XVI.I was intensely interested at being thus a witness of this vanishedepoch. But you may imagine how much greater was my surprise, and howmuch more I was astonished, _that I beheld in_ 1864 _events actuallypresent before me which had taken place at the end of the last century_.

  QUAERENS. In truth, it seems to me that this feeling of itsimpossibility ought to have awakened doubt in you. Visions areessentially illusory. We cannot admit their reality even though we seethem.

  LUMEN. Yes, my friend, it was as you say, impossible! Now can youunderstand my experience in seeing with my own eyes this paradoxrealised? The common saying is, "One cannot believe one's own eyes."That was just my position. It was impossible to deny what I saw, andequally impossible to admit it.

  QUAERENS. But was it not a conception of your own mind, a creation ofyour imagination, or perhaps a reminiscence of your memory? Are yousure it was a reality, not a strange reflection from your memory?

  [Sidenote: Not a paradox.]

  LUMEN. That was my first idea; but it was so obvious that I saw beforeme the Paris of '93, and the events of January 21, that I couldno longer be in any doubt about it. Besides, this explanation wasanticipated by the fact that the old men of the mountain had precededme in observing these phenomena, and they had seen, and analysed, andconversed on them as actual facts without knowing anything of thehistory of our world, and were quite unaware of my knowledge of thathistory. Further, we had before our eyes _a present fact_, not a pastevent.

  QUAERENS. But, on the other hand, if the past can be thus merged intothe present, if reality and vision can be allied in this way, ifpersons long since dead can be seen again acting on the scene of life,if new structures and metamorphoses in a city like Paris can disappearand give place to the aspect of the city as it was formerly--in short,if the present can vanish and the past be re-created, what certaintycan we have of anything? What becomes of the science of observation?What becomes of deductions and theories? On what solid foundationcan we base our knowledge? If these things are true, ought we nothenceforth to doubt everything, or else to believe everything?

  [Sidenote: A reality.]

  LUMEN. Yes, my friend, these considerations and many others occupiedmy mind and tormented me, but they did not do away with the realitywhich I was observing. When I had assured myself that we had _present_before our eyes the events of the year 1793, it immediately occurredto me that science, instead of conflicting with these facts, ought tofurnish an explanation of them, for two truths can never be opposed toone another. I investigated the physical laws, and I discovered thesolution of the mystery.

  QUAERENS. What! the facts were real?

  [Sidenote: Explanation of the apparent paradox.]

  [Sidenote: Lumen ascertains the place where he was in space.]

  LUMEN. They were not only real, but comprehensible and capable ofdemonstration. You shall have an astronomical explanation of them.In the first place, I examined the position of the Earth in theconstellation of the Altar as I have told you; I took the bearings ofmy position relatively to the Polar star and to the Zodiac. I remarkedthat the constellations were not very different from those we see fromthe Earth, and that except in the case of a few particular stars,their positions were evidently the same. Orion still reigned in theultra-equatorial region, t
he Great Bear pursuing his circular coursestill pointing to the north. In comparing the apparent movements, andco-ordinating them scientifically, I calculated that the point whereI saw the group of the Sun, the Earth, and the planets, marked the17th hour of right ascension, that is to say, about the 256th degree,or nearly so. I had no instrument to take exact measurements. Iobserved, in the second place, that it was on the 44th degree from theSouth Pole. I made these observations to ascertain the star on whichI then was, and I was led to conclude that I was on a star situatedon the 76th degree of right ascension, and the 46th degree of northdeclination. On the other hand, I knew from the words of the old manthat the star on which we were was not far from our Sun, since heconsidered it to be one of the neighbouring stars. From these data Ihad no difficulty in recalling the star that stands in the position Ihad determined. One only answered to it, that of the first magnitude,Alpha in the constellation of Auriga, named also _Capella_, or the_Goat_.

  There was no doubt about this. Thus I was certain that I was on one ofthe planetary worlds of the sun Capella. From thence our Sun looks likea simple star, and appears in perspective to be in the constellation ofthe Altar, just opposite that of Auriga, as seen from the Earth.

  Then I tried to remember what was the parallax of this star. I recalledthat a friend of mine, a Russian astronomer, had made a calculation,which had been confirmed, of this parallax. It was proved to be0,''046.--When I had thus solved the mystery my heart beat with joy.Every geometrician knows that parallax indicates mathematically thedistance in units of the magnitude employed in the calculation. Isought then to recall exactly the distance which separated this starfrom the Earth, in order to prove the accuracy of the calculation. Ionly needed to find out what number corresponded to 0,''046.[2]

  [Sidenote: The velocity of light.]

  Expressed in millions of leagues, this number is 170,392,000, and so,from the star on which I was, the Earth was distant 170 billions 392thousand millions of leagues. The principle was thus established,and the problem was three parts solved. Now, here is the main point,to which I call your special attention, for you will find in it anexplanation of the most marvellous realities. Light, you know, doesnot cross instantaneously from one place to another, but in successivewaves. If you throw a stone into a pool of tranquil water, a series ofundulations form around the point where the stone fell. In the sameway, sound undulates in the air when passing from one point to another,and thus, also, light travels in space--it is transmitted in successiveundulations. The light of a star takes a certain time to reach theEarth, and this time naturally depends on the distance which separatesthe star from the Earth.

  [Sidenote: How the heavenly bodies are seen.]

  Sound travels 340 metres in a second. A cannon shot is heardimmediately by those who fire it, a second later by persons who areat a distance of 340 metres, in three seconds by those who are akilometre off, twelve seconds after the shot at four kilometres. Ittakes two minutes to reach those who are ten times farther off, andthose who live at a distance of a hundred kilometres hear this humanthunder in five minutes. Light travels with much greater swiftness,but it is not transmitted instantaneously, as the ancients supposed.It travels at the rate of 300,000 kilometres per second, and if itcould revolve, might encircle the Earth eight times in a second. Lightoccupies one second and a quarter to come from the Moon to the Earth,eight minutes and thirteen seconds to come from the Sun, forty-twominutes to come from Jupiter, two hours to come from Uranus, and fourhours to come from Neptune. Therefore, we see the heavenly bodies notas they are at the moment we observe them, but as they were when theluminous ray which reaches us left them. If a volcano were to burstforth in eruption on one of the worlds I have named, we should not seethe flames in the Moon till a second and a quarter had elapsed, if inJupiter not till forty-two minutes, in Uranus two hours after, and weshould not see it in Neptune till four hours after the eruption. Thedistances are incomparably more vast outside our planetary system, andthe light is still longer in reaching us. Thus, a luminous ray comingfrom the star nearest to us, Alpha, in Centaurus, takes four years incoming. A ray from Sirius is nearly ten years in crossing the abysswhich separates us from that sun. The star Capella, being the distanceabove mentioned from the Earth, it is easy to calculate, at the rateof 300,000 kilometres the second, what time is needed to cross thisdistance. The calculation amounts to seventy-one years, eight months,and twenty-four days. The luminous ray, therefore, which came fromCapella to the Earth, traversed space without interruption seventy-oneyears, eight months, and twenty-four days before it was visible on theEarth. In like manner, the ray of light which leaves the Earth can onlyarrive at Capella in the same period of time.

  [Sidenote: Time occupied in the transmission of light.]

  QUAERENS. If the luminous ray which comes from that star takes nearlyseventy-two years to reach us, it follows that we see the star as itwas nearly seventy-two years ago?

  LUMEN. You are quite right, and this is the fact that I want you takenote of specially.

  [Sidenote: A belated courier.]

  QUAERENS. In other words, the ray of light is like a courier who bringsdespatches from a distant country, and having been nearly seventy-twoyears on the way, his news is of events that occurred at the time ofhis departure seventy-two years ago.

  LUMEN. You have divined the mystery. Your illustration shows me thatyou have lifted the veil which shrouded it. In order to be still moreexact, the light represents a courier who brings, not written news, butphotographs, or, strictly speaking, _the real aspect_ of the countryfrom whence he came. We see this living picture such as it appeared,in all its aspects, at the moment when the luminous rays shot forthfrom the distant orb. Nothing is more simple, nothing more indubitable.When we examine the surface of a star with a telescope we see, not theactual surface as it was at the time of our observation, but such as itwas when the light was emitted from that surface.

  QUAERENS. This being so, if a star, the light of which takes ten yearsto reach us, were to be annihilated to-day, we should continue to seeit for ten years, since its last ray would not reach us before tenyears had elapsed.

  [Sidenote: We see the past, not the present, aspect of the stars.]

  LUMEN. It is precisely so. In short, the rays of light that proceedfrom the stars do not reach us instantaneously, but occupy a certaintime in crossing the distance which separates us from them, and show usthose stars not as they are now, but such as they were at the momentin which those rays set out to transmit the aspect of the stars tous. Thus we behold a wondrous _transformation of the past into thepresent_. In the star we observe we see the past, which has alreadydisappeared, while to the observer it is the present, the actual.Strictly speaking, the past of the star is positively the present ofthe observer. As the aspect of the worlds change from year to year,almost from day to day, one can imagine these aspects emerging intospace and advancing into the infinite, and thus revealing their phasesin the sight of far-distant spectators. Each aspect or appearance isfollowed by another, and so on in endless sequence. Thus a series ofundulations bears from afar the past history of the worlds which theobserver sees in its various phases as they successively reach him.The events which we see in the stars at present are already past, andthat which is actually happening there we cannot as yet see. Realiseto yourself, my friend, this presentation of an actual fact, for itis of importance to you to comprehend the precession of the waves oflight and to understand the essential nature of this undoubted truth.The appearance of things, borne to us by light, shows us those thingsnot as they are at present, but as they were in that period of the pastwhich preceded the interval of time needed for the light to traversethe distance which separates us from those events.

  We do not see any of the stars such as they are, but such as they werewhen the luminous rays that reach us left them.

  [Sidenote: The planet Earth as seen from afar.]

  _It is not the actual condition of the heavens that is visible, buttheir past history._ Moreover, the
re are distant stars which have beenextinct for ten thousand years, but which we can see still, becausethe rays of light from them had set out before they were extinguished.Some of the double stars, the nature and movements of which we seekwith care and toil, ceased to exist long before astronomers began tomake observations. If the visible heavens were to be annihilated to-daywe should still see stars to-morrow, even next year, and for a hundredyears, a thousand years, and even for fifty and a hundred thousandyears, or more, with the exception only of the nearest stars, whichwould disappear successively as the time needed for their luminous raysto reach us expired. Alpha of Centaur would go out first, in fouryears, Sirius in ten years, and so on.

  Now, my friend, you can easily apply a scientific theory in explanationof these strange facts of which I was witness. If from the Earth onesees the star Capella, not as it is at the moment of observation, butas it was seventy-two years before, in the same way from Capella onewould see the Earth as it was seventy-two years earlier, for lighttakes the same time to traverse the distance either way.

  QUAERENS. Master, I have followed your explanation attentively. But, Iask you, does the Earth shine like a star? Surely she is not luminous?

  [Sidenote: The other planets seen from afar.]

  LUMEN. She reflects in space the light of the Sun; the greater thedistance the more our planet resembles a star. All the light thatradiates from the Sun on its surface is condensed into a disc thatbecomes smaller and smaller. Seen from the Moon our Earth appearsfourteen times more luminous than the full Moon, because she isfourteen times larger than the Moon. Seen from the planet Venus theEarth appears as bright as Jupiter appears to us. From the planetMars the Earth is the morning and the evening star, presenting phaseslike those of Venus to us. Thus, although our Earth is not luminousherself, she shines afar like the Moon and the planets, by the lightthat she receives from the Sun, and reflects into space.

  Now the events taking place on Neptune, if seen from the Earth, wouldhave a delay of four hours; in like manner the view of life on theEarth could only reach Neptune in the same time; nearly seventy-twoyears, therefore, separate Capella and the Earth.

  QUAERENS. Although these views are new and strange to me, I nowunderstand perfectly how, since the light was nearly seventy-twoyears in traversing the abyss which separates the Earth from Capella,you beheld not the Earth as it was in October 1864, the date of yourdeath, but as it appeared in January 1793. And I comprehend quite asclearly that what you saw was neither a phenomenon of memory, nor asupernatural experience, but an actual, positive, and incontestablefact, and that in very truth what had long passed away on the Earth wasonly then present to an observer at that distance. But permit me to askyou an incidental question. In coming from the Earth to Capella did youcross that distance even more quickly than light?

  [Sidenote: Thought swifter than light.]

  LUMEN. Have I not already anticipated your question in telling youthat I crossed this distance with the swiftness of thought. On the veryday of my death I found myself on this star, which I had admired andloved so much all my life on the terrestrial globe.

  QUAERENS. Ah, Master, although everything is thus explained, your visionis not the less wonderful. Truly it is an astonishing phenomenon thatof seeing thus at once the _past in the present_ in this extraordinarymanner. Not less marvellous is the thought of seeing the stars, notsuch as they are when one makes the observation, nor as they have beensimultaneously, but as they have been at different epochs accordingto their distances, and the time that the light of each has taken incoming to the Earth!

  [Sidenote: Light.]

  LUMEN. I venture to say that the natural astonishment that you feelin contemplating this truth is only the prelude to the things which Ihave now to unfold to you. Undoubtedly, it appears at first sight veryextraordinary, that by removing to a distance in space, one can becomea witness of long past events, and remount as it were the stream oftime. But this is not more strange than what I have yet to communicateto you, and which will appear to you still more imaginary if you canlisten a little longer to the narrative of that day which followed mydeath.

  QUAERENS. Go on, I beg of you, I am eager to hear you.

  III

  [Sidenote: Lumen sees his own life on Earth.]

  LUMEN. On turning away from the sanguinary scenes of the Place de laRevolution, my eyes were attracted towards a habitation of somewhatan antique style, situated in front of Notre Dame, and occupyingthe place of the present square in front of the cathedral. I sawa group of five persons before the entrance of the cathedral, whowere reclining on wooden benches in the sunshine, with their headsuncovered. When they rose and crossed the square, I perceived that onewas my father, younger than I could remember him, another my mother,still younger, and a third a cousin of mine who died the same year asmy father, now nearly forty years ago. I found it difficult at firstto recognise these persons, for instead of facing them, I saw themonly from on high above their heads. I was not a little surprised atthis unlooked-for meeting, but then I remembered that I had heard thatmy parents lived in the Place Notre Dame before my birth. I cannottell you how profoundly I was affected by this sight; my perceptionseemed to fail me, and a cloud appeared to obscure Paris from my view.I felt as though I had been carried off by a whirlwind; for, as youare aware, I had lost all sense of time. When I began again to seeobjects distinctly, I noticed a troop of children running across thePlace de Pantheon. They looked like school children coming out ofclass; for they had their portfolios and books in their hands, and wereapparently going to their homes, gambolling and gesticulating. Two ofthem attracted me especially, for I saw they were quarrelling and justpreparing to fight, and another little fellow was advancing to separatethem when he received a blow on the shoulder and was thrown down. In aninstant a woman ran to help him; this was my own mother. Words fail meto tell my amazement when I perceived that the child to whose rescue mymother came was _my own self_. Never in my seventy-two years of earthlylife, with all the unlooked-for changes and strange events with whichit was crowded, never in all its surprises and chances have I felt suchemotion as this sight caused me; I was completely overcome when in thischild I recognised--_myself!_

  QUAERENS. You saw yourself?

  LUMEN. Yes, myself, with the blond curls of six years of age, withmy little collar embroidered by my mother's hands, my little blouseof light blue colour, and the cuffs always rumpled. There I was, thevery same as you have seen in the half-effaced miniature that stood onmy mantelpiece. My mother came over to me, and sharply reproving theother boys, took me up in her arms, and then led me by the hand intothe house, which was close to the Rue d'Ulm. There I saw that, afterpassing through the house, we reappeared in the garden in the midst ofa numerous company.

  QUAERENS. Master, pardon me a criticism. I confess to you that itappears to me impossible that you could see yourself; you could not betwo persons; and since you were seventy-two years old, your infancy waspassed, and had totally disappeared. You could not see a thing that nolonger existed. I cannot comprehend how when an old man you could seeyourself as an infant.

  LUMEN. Why cannot you admit this point on the same grounds as thepreceding ones?

  QUAERENS. Because you cannot see yourself double, an infant and an oldman, at the same time.

  [Sidenote: A logical inference.]

  LUMEN. Look at the matter more closely, my friend. You admit thegeneral fact, but you do not sufficiently observe, that this lastparticular is logically inferred from that fact. You admit that theview I had of the Earth was seventy-two years in coming to me, do younot? that events reached me only at that interval of time after theyhad taken place? in short, that I saw the world as it was at thatepoch? You admit, likewise, that as I saw the streets of that time Isaw also the children running in those streets? You admit all this?

  QUAERENS. Yes, decidedly.

  LUMEN. Well, then, since I saw this troop of children, and myselfamongst them, why do you say I could not see myself as well as theothers?
<
br />   QUAERENS. But you were no longer there amongst them!

  LUMEN. Again, I repeat, this whole troop of children has ceased toexist. But I saw them such as they were at the moment the ray of lightleft the Earth, which only reached me at the present time. And as Icould distinguish the fifteen to eighteen children in the group, therewas no reason why I should disappear from amongst them because I myselfwas the distant spectator. Since any other observer could see me incompany with my comrades, why should I form an exception? I saw themall, and I saw myself amongst them.

  QUAERENS. I had not fully taken in the idea. It is evident, in short,that seeing a troop of children, of whom you were one, you could notfail to see yourself as well as you saw the others.

  [Sidenote: Lumen sees himself a child.]

  LUMEN. Now you can understand into what a state of surprise I wasthrown. This child was really myself, flesh and bones, as the vulgarexpression has it--myself, at the age of six years. I saw myself aswell as the company in the garden who were playing with me saw me. Itwas no mirage, no vision, no spectre, no reminiscence, no image; itwas reality, positively myself, my thought and my body. I was therebefore my eyes. If my other senses had the perfection of my sight, itseemed as though I should have been able to touch and hear myself. Ijumped about the garden and ran round the pond, which had a balustradearound it. Some time after my grandfather took me on his knees andmade me read in a big book. It is not possible for me to describe myastonishment. I must leave you to imagine what it was to me, and torealise the fact, now that you understand upon what it was based.Suffice it to say, that I had never received such a surprise in mylife. One reflection especially puzzled me. I said to myself, thischild is really me, he is alive, he will grow up, and he ought to livesixty-six years longer. It is undoubtedly myself. And on the otherhand, here I am, having lived seventy-two years of the terrestriallife. I who now think and see these things, I am still myself, andthis child is me also. _Am I then two beings_, one there below, onthe Earth, and the other here in space--two complete persons and yetquite distinct? An observer, placed where I am, could see this child inthe garden, as I see him, and at the same time see me here. I must betwo--it is incontestable. My soul is in this child; it is no less here.It is the same soul, my own soul. How can it animate two beings? Whata strange reality! For I cannot say that I delude myself, or that whatI see is an optical illusion, for both according to nature, and by thelaws of science, I see at once a child and an old man--the one therebeyond, the other here where I am, the former joyous and free-hearted,the other pensive and agitated.

  QUAERENS. In truth it is strange!

  [Sidenote: Lumen sees himself a young man.]

  [Sidenote: Lumen witnesses the events of the Hundred Days.]

  LUMEN. Yes, but no less true. You may search through all creation andnot find such a paradox. Well, to proceed with my history, I sawmyself grow up in this vast city of Paris, I saw myself enter collegein 1804, and perform my first military exercises when the First Consulwas crowned Emperor. One day as I passed by the Carrousel I got aglimpse of the domineering and thoughtful face of Napoleon. I couldnot remember having seen him in my life, and it was interesting to seehim thus pass across my field of view. In 1810 I saw myself promotedto the Polytechnic School, and there I was talking of the course ofstudies with Francois Arago, the best of comrades. He already belongedto the institute, and had replaced Monge at the school, because theEmperor had complained of the Jesuitism of Binet. I saw myself, in likemanner, all through the brilliant years of my youth, full of projectsof travels for scientific exploration, in company with Arago andHumboldt, travels which only the latter decided to undertake. Later onI saw myself during the Hundred Days, crossing quickly the little woodof the old Luxembourg, and then the Rue de l'Est and the avenue of thegarden of the Rue St. Jaques, and hastening to meet my beloved underthe lilac-trees. Sweet meetings all to ourselves, the confidences ofour hearts, the silences of our souls, the transports of our eveningconversations, were all presented to my astonished sight, no longerveiled by distance, but actually before my eyes. I was present againat the combat with the Allies on the Hill of Montmartre, and saw theirdescent into the capital, and the fall of the statue in the PlaceVendome, when it was drawn through the streets with cries of joy. I sawthe camp of the English and the Prussians in the Champs-Elysees, thedestruction of the Louvre, the journey to Ghent, the entrance of LouisXVIII.

  [Sidenote: Napoleon at St. Helena.]

  The flag of the island of Elba floated before my eyes, and later onI sought out the far Atlantic isle where the eagle, with his wingsbroken, was chained. The rotation of the Earth soon brought beforemy eyes the Emperor in St. Helena sadly musing at the foot of asycamore-tree.

  [Sidenote: Historical events appear in succession.]

  Thus the events of the years as they passed were revealed to me infollowing my own career--my marriage, my various enterprises, myconnections, my travels, my studies, and so on. I witnessed at thesame time the development of contemporary history. To the restorationof Louis XVIII. succeeded the brief reign of Charles X. I saw thebarricades of the days of July 1830, and not far from the throne ofthe Duke of Orleans I saw the Column of the Bastile arise. Passingrapidly over eighteen years, I perceived myself at the Luxembourg atthe time when that magnificent avenue was opened, that avenue I lovedso much, and which has been threatened by a recent decree. I saw Aragoagain, this time at the Observatory, and I beheld the crowd before thedoor of the new amphitheatre. I recognised the Sorbonne of Cousin andof Guizot. Then I shuddered as I saw my mother's funeral pass. She wasa stern woman, and perhaps a little too severe in her judgments, butI loved her dearly, as you know. The singular and brief revolution of1848 surprised me as much as when I first witnessed it. On the Placede la Bourse I saw Lamoriciere, who was buried last year, and in theChamps-Elysees, Cavaignac, who has been dead five or six years. The 2ndof December found me an observer on my solitary tower, and from thenceI witnessed many striking events which passed before me, and manyothers which were unknown to me.

  QUAERENS. Did the event pass rapidly before you?

  LUMEN. I had no perception of time; but the whole retrospectivepanorama appeared to me in successive scenes--in less than a day,perhaps in a few hours.

  QUAERENS. Then I do not understand you at all. Pardon your old friendthis interruption, a little too abrupt perhaps. As I took it, you sawthe real events of your life, not merely images of them. But, in viewof the time necessary for the passage of light, these events appearedto you after they had happened. If, then, seventy-two terrestrial yearshad passed before your eyes, they should have taken seventy-two yearsto appear to you, and not a few hours. If the year 1793 appeared to youonly in 1864, the year 1864, consequently, should only in 1936 appearto you.

  [Sidenote: The anachronism explained.]

  LUMEN. You have grounds for your fresh objection, and this proves tome that you have perfectly comprehended the theory of this fact. Ifully appreciate your belief in me; indeed its consciousness helps mein my explanations. Thus it is not necessary that seventy-two yearsshould be needed in which to review my life, for under the impulse ofan involuntary force all its events passed before me in less than aday. Continuing to follow the course of my existence, I reached itslater years, rendered memorable by the striking changes which hadcome over Paris. I saw our old friends, and you yourself; my daughterand her charming children; my family, and circle of acquaintances; andlast of all I saw myself lying dead upon my bed, and I was present atthe final scene. Yes; I tell you I had returned to the Earth. Drawn bythe contemplation which absorbed my soul, I had quickly forgotten themountain, the old men, and Capella. Even as a dream all faded from mymind.

  I did not at first perceive the strange vision which captivated allmy faculties. I cannot tell you either by what law or by what powersouls can be transported with such rapidity from one place to another.Suffice it to say, _I had returned to the Earth_ in less than a day,and I had entered my chamber even at the moment of my decease. Also
inthis returning voyage I had travelled faster than the rays of light,hence the various phases of my life on Earth had unrolled themselves tomy sight in their successive stages as they occurred. When I reachedhalf-way I saw the rays of light arriving only thirty-six years behindtime, showing me the Earth, not as it appeared seventy-two years ago,but thirty-six. When I had travelled three-quarters of the way I sawthings as they had been eighteen years ago; at the half of the lastquarter, as they were nine years previously; until finally the wholeacts of my life were condensed into less than one day because of therapid rate at which my soul had travelled, which far surpassed thevelocity of the rays of light.

  QUAERENS. Was not this a very strange phenomenon?

  LUMEN. Do any other objections rise in your mind as you listen to me?

  QUAERENS. No, this is the only one; or rather, this one has puzzled andinterested me so greatly that it has absorbed all others.

  LUMEN. I would remark that there is another, an astronomical one,which I will hasten to dispel, for fear it should arise and cloudyour mind. It depends upon the Earth's movement, not only upon itsdiurnal rotation, which in itself would be sufficient to preventmy seeing the facts in succession, but this movement would alsobe greatly accelerated by the rapidity of my return to the Earth.Hence seventy-two years would pass before me in less than a day. Onreflection, I was surprised that I had not earlier perceived this;yet as I had only seen a comparatively small number of countries,panoramas, and facts, it is probable that in returning to our planet Ihad only a fleeting glance for a few moments of the successive pointsof interest. But however this may be, I can but bear evidence that Ihave been witness to the rapid succession of events both throughout thecentury and of my own life.

  QUAERENS. That difficulty had not escaped me; I had weighed the thought,and had come to the conclusion that you had revolved in space, evenas a balloon is spun round by the rotation of the globe. It is truethat the inconceivable speed with which you would be whirled throughspace would be likely to give you vertigo, nevertheless, after hearingyour experience, this hypothesis forces itself upon me, that spiritsrush through space with the lightness and velocity of thought; andin remarking on the intensity of your gaze as you approached certainparts of the Earth, may it not be admissible to infer that this veryeagerness to see certain localities, might be the reason of your beingdrawn to them, and as it were fixed above their point of vision?

  LUMEN. As to this I can affirm nothing, because I know nothing; butI do not think this is the explanation. I did not see all the eventsof my life, but only a few of the main ones, which, successivelyunfolding, passed in review before me on the same visual ray. Amagnetism drew me imperiously as with a chain to the Earth; or, if youprefer it, a force similar to that mysterious attraction of the stars,by reason of which, stars of a lesser degree would inevitably fallupon those of the first magnitude, unless retained in their orbits bycentrifugal force.

  QUAERENS. In reflecting on the effect of the concentration of thoughtupon a single point, and of the attraction which consequently ensuestowards that point, I cannot but conclude that therein lies themainspring of the mechanism of dreams.

  [Sidenote: The source of dreams.]

  LUMEN. You say truly, my friend; I can confirm you in this remark,as for many years I have made dreams the subject of a special studyand observation. When the soul, freed from the attentions, thepreoccupations, the encumbrance of the body, has a vision of theobject which charms it, and towards which it is irresistibly drawn,all disappear except the object. That alone remains, and becomes thecentre of a world of creations; the soul possesses it entirely withoutany reserve, it contemplates it, it seizes it as its own, the entireuniverse is effaced from the memory in order that its domination overthe soul may be absolute. I felt thus on being drawn earthwards. I sawbut one object, around which were grouped the ideas, the images, andthe associations to which it had given birth.

  QUAERENS. Your rapid flight to Capella and your equally rapid returnto the Earth were governed by this psychological law; and you actedmore freely than in a dream, because your soul was not impeded by themachinery of your organism. Often in our former conversations have youdiscoursed to me upon the strength of the will. Thus, willing to doso, you were enabled to return and to see yourself upon your death-bedbefore your mortal remains had been committed to the dust.

  [Sidenote: Lumen witnesses his own funeral.]

  [Sidenote: His flight to the stars.]

  LUMEN. I did return; and I blessed my family for the sincerity oftheir grief. I shed a benediction on them; I soothed their grief, andpoured balm upon their wounded hearts; and I inspired my childrenwith the belief that the body lying there was not my real self--my_ego_--but merely the shell from which my soul had risen to a spherecelestial, infinite, and far beyond their earthly ken. I witnessed myown funeral procession, and I noticed those who called themselves myfriends and who yet, for some trifling reason, begged to be excusedfrom following my remains to their last resting-place. I listened tothe various comments of those following my bier, and although in thisregion of peace we are free from that thirst for praise which clingsto most of us whilst on Earth, nevertheless I felt gratified to knowthat I had left pleasant memories behind me. When the stone of thevault was rolled away, that which separates the dead from the living,I gave a last farewell to my poor sleeping body; and, as the Sun setin its bed of purple and gold, I went out into the air until night hadfallen, plunged in admiration of the beautiful scenes which unrolledthemselves in the heavens. The aurora borealis displayed itself abovethe North Pole in bands of glistening silver, shooting stars rainedfrom Cassiopeia, and the full Moon rose slowly in the east like anew world emerging from the waves. I saw Capella scintillating andlooking at me with a glance pure and bright, and could distinguishthe crowns surrounding it, as if they were princes dowered with acelestial divinity. Then I forgot the Earth, the Moon, the PlanetarySystem, the Sun, the Comets, in one intense, overpowering attractiontowards a shining brilliant star, and I felt myself carried towardsit instinctively with a celerity far greater than that of an electricflash. After a time, the duration of which I cannot guess, I arrivedupon the same ring and upon the same mountain, from which I had firstkept watch when I saw the old men occupied in following the historyof the Earth, seventy-one years and eight months ago. They were stillabsorbed in the contemplation of events happening in the city of Lyonson the 23rd of January 1793. I will avow to you the reason of themysterious attraction of Capella for me. For marvellous as it may seem,there are in creation invisible ties which do not break like mortalties; there are means by which souls can commune with each other, inspite of the distance that separates them.

  [Sidenote: He meets the spirit of his wife.]

  [Sidenote: They recall their life on Earth.]

  On the evening of the second day, as the emerald Moon enshrined itselfin the third ring of gold--for such is the sidereal measurement oftime--I found myself walking in a lonely avenue enamelled with flowersof sweet perfume. Sauntering along, as if in a dream, imagine mydelight when I saw coming towards me my beautiful and beloved Sylvia.She was at a ripe age at her death, and notwithstanding an indefinablechange I recognised the features, whose expression had but deepenedand spiritualised, in happy correspondence with her sweet, pure life.I will not stop to describe to you the joy of our meeting, this is notthe time for it; but perchance some day we may have the opportunity ofdescanting upon the different manifestations of affection in this worldand the world beyond the grave, and I only add now that together wesought our native land on Earth, where we had passed days of peace andhappiness. We delighted to turn our gaze towards the luminous point,which our state of exaltation enabled us to perceive was a world--theone upon which we had lived in earthly form--we loved to wed the memoryof the past with the reality of our present, and in all the freshnessof our new and ecstatic sensations we sought to recall and review thescenes of our youth. It was thus we actually saw again the happy yearsof our earthly love, the pavilion of the conven
t, the flower garden,the promenades in the charming and delightful environs of Paris, andthe solitary rambles that, loving and beloved, we took together. Toretrace these years we had but to travel together into space in thedirection of the Earth, where these scenes, focused by the light, werebeing photographed. Now, my friend, I have fulfilled my promise inrevealing to you these remarkable observations.

  Behold the day breaks, and the star Lucifer is paling already under itsrosy light. I must return to the constellations....

  QUAERENS. Just one more word, Lumen, before we conclude this interview.Can earthly scenes be transmitted successively into space--if so,the present could be kept perpetually before the eyes of distantspectators, and be limited only by the power of their spiritual sight?

  [Sidenote: The precession of events as seen in space.]

  LUMEN. Yes, my friend. Let us, for example, place our first observer onthe Moon--he would perceive terrestrial events one second and a quarterafter they had happened. Let us place a second observer at four timesthe distance--he would be cognisant of them five seconds later. Doublethe distance, and a third would see them ten seconds after they hadtaken place. Again double the distance, and a fourth observer wouldhave to wait twenty seconds before he could witness them; so on and onwith ever-increasing delay, until at the Sun's distance; eight minutesand thirteen seconds must elapse before they could become visible.

  Upon certain planets, as we have seen, hours must intervene betweenthe action and the sight of it; further off still, days, months evenyears must elapse. Upon neighbouring stars earthly events are not seenuntil four, six, ten years after their occurrence; but there are starsso distant that light only reaches them after many centuries, and eventhousands of years. Indeed, there are nebulae to which light takesmillions of years to travel.

  QUAERENS. Therefore it only needs a sight sufficiently piercing towitness events historic or geologic which are long since past. Couldnot one, therefore, so gifted see the Deluge, the Garden of Eden, Adamand. . . .

  LUMEN. I have told you, my old friend, that the rising of the sun onthis hemisphere puts to flight all spirits, so I must go. Anotherinterview may be granted us some other day, when we can continue ourtalk on this subject, and I will then give you a general sketch whichwill open out for you new horizons. The stars call me, and are alreadydisappearing. I must away. Adieu, Quaerens, adieu.

  FOOTNOTES:

  [1] Physiological anatomy would probably explain this fact bysuggesting that a sort of _punctum caecum_ is displaced in order toconceal the object that one does not wish to see.

  [2] Every one knows that the farther an object is, the smaller itappears. An object which is seen under an angle of one second, is at adistance of 206,265 times its own diameter, whatever it may be; becauseas there are 1,296,000 seconds in the circumference, the ratio betweenthe circumference and its diameter being 314,159 x 2, it follows thatthis object is at a distance equal to 206,265 times its own diameter.As Capella sees the semi-diameter of the terrestrial orbit only underan angle 22 times smaller, its distance is 22 times greater. Capellais therefore at a distance of 4,484,000 times the radius of theterrestrial orbit. Future micrometrical measurements may modify theseresults concerning the parallax of this star, but they cannot changethe principle upon which the conception of this work is grounded.

  SECOND CONVERSATION

  REFLUUM TEMPORIS