CHAPTER XXXII.
MATTER IS RETARDED MOTION.
"It is possible--is it not?--for you to imagine a continuous volley ofiron balls passing near you in one line, in a horizontal direction, withconsiderable velocity. Suppose that a pane of glass were to be graduallymoved so that a corner of it would be struck by one of the balls; thenthe entire sheet of glass would be shivered by the concussion, eventhough the bullet struck but a single spot of glass, the point ofcontact covering only a small area. Imagine now that the velocity of thevolley of bullets be increased a thousand fold; then a plate of glassthrust into their track would be smoothly cut, as though with a filethat would gnaw its way without producing a single radiating fracture. Aperson standing near the volley would now hear a deep purr or growlingsound, caused by the friction between the bullets and the air. Increasegradually the rapidity of their motion, and this growl would become moreacute, passing from a deep, low murmur, into one less grave, and as thevelocity increased, the tone would become sharper, and at lastpiercingly shrill. Increase now the rapidity of the train of bulletsagain, and again the notes would decrease in turn, passing back againsuccessively through the several keys that had preceded, and finallywould reach the low growl which first struck the ear, and with a furtherincrease of speed silence would ensue, silence evermore, regardless ofincreasing velocity.[10] From these hundreds of miles in a second atwhich the volley is now passing, let the rapidity be augmented athousand times, reaching in their flight into millions of miles eachsecond, and to the eye, from the point where the sound disappeared, asthe velocity increased, a dim redness would appear, a glow justperceptible, indicating to the sense of sight, by a continuous line,the track of the moving missiles. To all appearance, the line would beas uniform as an illuminated pencil mark, even though the severalintegral bullets of the trail might be separated one from another bymiles 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 theedges of glass close to either side of the orifice would be shown, onwithdrawing the glass, to have been fused. Conceive now that thevelocity of the bullets be doubled and trebled, again and again, theline of red light becomes brighter, then brilliant, and finally as thevelocity increases, at a certain point pure white results, and to man'ssense the trail would now be a continuous something, as solid as a barof metal if at a white heat, and (even if the bullets were a thousandmiles apart) man could not bring proof of their separate existence tohis senses. That portion of a pane of glass or other substance, evensteel or adamant, which should cross its track now would simply meltaway, the portion excised and carried out of that pathway neithershowing itself as scintillations, nor as fragments of matter. The solidwould instantly liquefy, and would spread itself as a thin film over thesurface of each ball of that white, hot mass of fleeing metal, now toall essential conditions as uniform as a bar of iron. Madly increase thevelocity to millions upon millions of miles per second, and the heatwill disappear gradually as did the sound, while the bright light willpass backward successively through the primary shades of color that arenow known to man, beginning with violet, and ending with red, and as thered fades away the train of bullets will disappear to the sense of man.Neither light nor sound now accompanies the volley, neither the humaneye nor the human ear can perceive its presence. Drop a pane of glass orany other object edgewise through it, and it gives to the sense of manno evidence; the molecules of the glass separate from in front to closein from behind, and the moving train passes through it as freely aslight, 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 passingthrough another quality of matter without disturbance to either, and itis a law in physics that two substances can not occupy the same space atthe same time."
"That law holds good as man understands the subject, but bullets are nolonger matter. Motion of mass was first changed into motion ofmolecules, and motion of molecule became finally augmented into motionof free force entities as the bullets disintegrated into molecularcorpuscles, and then were dissociated, atoms resulting. At this lastpoint the sense of vision, and of touch, ceased to be affected by thatmoving column (neither matter nor force), and at the next jump invelocity the atoms themselves disappeared, and free intangible motionresulted--nothing, vacancy.
"This result is the all-pervading spirit of space (the ether ofmankind), as solid as adamant and as mobile as vacuity. If you canreverse the order of this phenomenon, and imagine an irregularretardation of the rapidity of such atomic motion, you can read thestory of the formation of the material universe. Follow the chainbackward, and with the decrease of velocity, motion becomes tangiblematter again, and in accordance with conditions governing the change ofmotion into matter, from time to time the various elements successivelyappear. The planets may grow without and within, and ethereal space cangenerate elemental dirt. If you can conceive of an intermediatecondition whereby pure space motion becomes partly tangible, and yet isnot gross enough to be earthy matter, you can imagine how such forces asman is acquainted with, light, heat, electricity, magnetism, or gravityeven are produced, for these are also disturbances in space motion. Itshould be easily understood that, according to the same simpleprinciple, other elements and unknown forces as well, now imperceptibleto man's limited faculties, could be and are formed outside and insidehis 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 theassertion that electricity, light, heat, magnetism, and gravity aredisturbances, and you said, 'Disturbances of what?' Think the lessonover, and you will perceive that it is easy. Let us hope that the timewill come when we will be able to glance beneath the rough, material,earth surface knowledge that man has acquired, and experience the mindexpansion that leads to the blissful insight possessed by superiorbeings who do not have to contend with the rasping elements thatencompass 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 mymind; I inferred that we were destined to meet with persons, orexistences, possessed of new senses, of a mind development that man hadnot reached, and I was on the point of questioning my pilot when themotion 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 onland at the edge of the motionless lake, and we resumed our journey. Thescenery seemed but little changed from that of the latter part of ourprevious line of travel down the inclined plane of the opposite side ofthe lake that we had crossed. The direction was still downward afterleaving the high ridge that bordered the edge of the lake, the floor ofthe cavern being usually smooth, although occasionally it was rough andcovered with stony debris. The mysterious light grew perceptiblybrighter as we progressed, the fog-like halo previously mentioned becameless dense, and the ring of obscurity widened rapidly. I coulddistinctly perceive objects at a great distance. I turned to mycompanion to ask why this was, and he replied:
"Because we are leaving one of the undiscovered conditions of the upperatmosphere that disturbs the sunlight."
"Do you say that the atmosphere is composed of substances unknown toman?"
"Yes; several of them are gases, and others are qualities of spacecondition, neither gas, liquid, nor solid.[11] One particularlyinterferes with light in its passage. It is an entity that is not movedby the motion of the air, and is unequally distributed over the earth'ssurface. As we ascend above the earth it decreases, so it does as wedescend into it. It is not vapor of water, is neither smoke, nor a truegas, and is as yet sensible to man only by its power of modifyin
g theintensity of light. It has no color, is chemically inactive, and yetmodifies the sun's rays so as to blot objects from view at acomparatively small distance from a person on the face of the earth.That this fact is known to man is evident from the knowledge hepossesses of the difference in the power of his organs of vision atdifferent parts of the earth. His sight is especially acute on the tablelands 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 thisobscuration, or absorption, of light."
"Vapor of water, unless in strata of different densities, is absolutelytransparent, 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 mechanicalmixture of condensed water and air, whereby multitudes of tiny globularwater surfaces are produced. Pure vapor of water, free from motion, ispassive to the sunlight."
"I can scarcely believe that a substance such as you describe, or thatany constituent of the air, can have escaped the perception of thechemist," 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 allspace and every description of matter, and that I have told you isreally matter itself changed into ultra atomic motion? Have chemistsexplained why one object is transparent, and another of equal weight andsolidity is opaque? Have chemists told you why vermillion is red andindigo is blue (the statement that they respectively reflect these raysof light is not an explanation of the cause for such action)? Havechemists told you why the prism disarranges or distorts sunlight toproduce the abnormal hues that men assume compose elementary rays oflight? Have chemists explained anything concerning the why or whereforeof the attributes of matter, or force, or even proven that the so-calledprimary forms of matter, or elements, are not compounds? Upon thecontrary, does not the evolution that results in the recordeddiscoveries of the chemist foretell, or at least indicate, the possiblefuture of the art, and promise that surrounding mysteries are yet to bedeveloped and expanded into open truths, thus elaborating hidden forces;and that other forms of matter and unseen force expressions, aredestined to spring into existence as the sciences progress? The chemistof to-day is groping in darkness; he is a novice as compared with theelaborated chemist of the near future; the imperfectly seen of thepresent, the silent and unsuspected, will become distinctly visible in atime that is to come, and a brightening of the intellect by thesesuccessively upward steps, up stairs of science, will, if science servesherself 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, intocommunion with the spirit world."