This is the secret of Lyonesse, that the Divine methods of creation
had been applied to the needs of man.
Come just for a moment upon this path of thought, leaving the old
earth, to tread a course of stars, to traverse the Milky Way. Come
to the very end, to the edge of the Formless Void. And now look down
into Space, into the outer darkness, into the Ether.
The Almighty has put a stress upon it, and the Ether lives. Stressed
in one way and we know it at once for Matter, a fine dust. Its
desire for rest we know as Force, driving that dust in a whirlwind
roaring through the dark. The dust is heated by its movement, and
flames into light whirling through space. That whirling cloud of
light is a new-born sun. So suns are born. The sun cloud throws off
a lesser cloud, which gathers into a separate sphere. The little
globe whirling about its parent will cool and become a planet, like
the Earth. So worlds are born.
There are many Forces, but one group, the ripples of the Ether, form
an octave like that of music. First of the seven notes are the long,
slow ripples which we feel as heat; second, are the Hertzian ripples
used in the wireless telegraph; third, is a region of the unknown;
fourth, is the octave of Light the rays of the spectrum; fifth, the
Rontgen rays; sixth, the Gamma rays proceeding from radium; seventh,
the ripples of the Etheric Force. It is upon the notes of this vast
scale that the forces of creation play the music of the spheres.
The dust vibrations are of many kinds. One we know as gold, another
as hydrogen, a third as carbon; and when two kinds vibrate in perfect
harmony, they mingle together just like notes of music. Thus oxygen
and hydrogen vibrating in harmony are water.
The first man who ever walked upon this path of thought was John
Brand I. He measured and reproduced the vibrations of matter, the
tremours of Force. For him, in very deed, the stars sang together.
First of all mortals he heard the music of the spheres.
It was John Brand II. who made hydrogen cease to vibrate, so that it
lapsed into ether, then struck that mighty chord which brought the
ether to life again as gold. He had mastered the Divine alchemy, he
followed upon the footsteps of the Creator, he played the music of
the spheres.
For ages the alchemist, not fathoming the ways of God, had failed,
but this humble and reverent man grasped the great secret. He
learned how to make not only gold but all the elements of matter; he
struck the chords of Force.