THE SOLILOQUY OF PROF. DANIEL VAUGHN.--"GRAVITATION IS THE
BEGINNING AND GRAVITATION IS THE END: ALL EARTHLY BODIES KNEEL TO
GRAVITATION."
"Please continue, I am intensely interested; I wish that I could give
you my reasons for the desire; I can not do so, but I beg you to
continue."
"I should add," continued Vaughn, ignoring my remarks, "that we have
established rules to measure the force of gravitation, and have
estimated the decrease of attraction as we leave the surfaces of the
planets. We have made comparative estimates of the weight of the earth
and planets, and have reason to believe that the force expression of
gravitation attains a maximum at about one-sixth the distance toward the
center of the earth, then decreases, until at the very center of our
planet, matter has no weight. This, together with the rule I repeated a
few moments ago, is about all we know, or think we know, of gravitation.
Gravitation is the beginning and gravitation is the end; all earthly
bodies kneel to gravitation. I can not imagine a Beyond, and yet
gravitation," mused the rapt philosopher, "may also be an expression
of--" he hesitated again, forgetting me completely, and leaned his shaggy
head upon his hands. I realized that his mind was lost in conjecture,
and that he was absorbed in the mysteries of the scientific immensity.
Would he speak again? I could not think of disturbing his reverie, and
minutes passed in silence. Then he slowly, softly, reverently murmured:
"Gravitation, Gravitation, thou art seemingly the one permanent, ever
present earth-bound expression of Omnipotence. Heat and light come and
go, as vapors of water condense into rain and dissolve into vapor to
return again to the atmosphere. Electricity and magnetism appear and
disappear; like summer storms they move in diversified channels, or even
turn and fly from contact with some bodies, seemingly forbidden to
appear, but thou, Gravitation, art omnipresent and omnipotent. Thou
createst motion, and yet maintainest the equilibrium of all things
mundane and celestial. An attempt to imagine a body destitute of thy
potency, would be to bankrupt and deaden the material universe. O!
Gravitation, art thou a voice out of the Beyond, and are other forces
but echoes--tremulous reverberations that start into life to vibrate for
a spell and die in the space caverns of the universe while thou
continuest supreme?"
[Illustration: "SOLILOQUY OF PROF. DANIEL VAUGHN.
'GRAVITATION IS THE BEGINNING, AND GRAVITATION IS THE END; ALL EARTHLY
BODIES KNEEL TO GRAVITATION.'"]
His bowed head and rounded shoulders stooped yet lower; he unconsciously
brushed his shaggy locks with his hand, and seemed to confer with a
familiar Being whom others could not see.
"A voice from without," he repeated; "from beyond our realm! Shall the
subtle ears of future scientists catch yet lighter echoes? Will the
brighter thoughts of more gifted men, under such furtherings as the
future may bring, perchance commune with beings who people immensity,
distance disappearing before thy ever-reaching spirit? For with thee,
who holdest the universe together, space is not space, and there is no
word expressing time. Art thou a voice that carriest the history of the
past from the past unto and into the present, and for which there is no
future, all conditions of time being as one to thee, thy self covering
all and connecting all together? Art thou, Gravitation, a voice? If so,
there must be a something farther out in those fathomless caverns,
beyond mind imaginings, from which thou comest, for how could
nothingness have formulated itself into a voice? The suns and universe
of suns about us, may be only vacant points in the depths of an
all-pervading entity in which even thyself dost exist as a momentary
echo, linked to substances ponderous, destined to fade away in the
inter-stellar expanse outside, where disturbances disappear, and matter
and gravitation together die; where all is pure, quiescent, peaceful and
dark. Gravitation, Gravitation, imperishable Gravitation; thou seemingly
art the ever-pervading, unalterable, but yet moving spirit of a cosmos
of solemn mysteries. Art thou now, in unperceived force expressions,
speaking to dumb humanity of other universes; of suns and vortices of
suns; bringing tidings from the solar planets, or even infinitely
distant star mists, the silent unresolved nebulae, and spreading before
earth-bound mortal minds, each instant, fresh tidings from without,
that, in ignorance, we can not read? May not beings, perhaps like
ourselves but higher in the scale of intelligence, those who people some
of the planets about us, even now beckon and try to converse with us
through thy subtle, ever-present self? And may not their efforts at
communication fail because of our ignorance of a language they can read?
Are not light and heat, electricity and magnetism plodding, vacillating
agents compared with thy steady existence, and is it even further
possible?--"
His voice had gradually lowered, and now it became inaudible; he was
oblivious to my presence, and had gone forth from his own self; he was
lost in matters celestial, and abstractedly continued unintelligibly to
mutter to himself as, brushing his hair from his forehead, he picked up
his well-worn felt hat, and placed it awkwardly on his shaggy head, and
then shuffled away without bidding me farewell. The bent form,
prematurely shattered by privation; uncouth, unkempt, typical of
suffering and neglect, impressed me with the fact that in him man's life
essence, the immortal mind, had forgotten the material part of man. The
physical half of man, even of his own being, in Daniel Vaughn's
estimation, was an encumbrance unworthy of serious attention, his spirit
communed with the pure in nature, and to him science was a study of the
great Beyond.[5]
[5] Mr. Drury can not claim to have recorded verbatim Prof.
Vaughn's remarks, but has endeavored to give the substance. His
language was faultless, his word selections beautiful, his
soliloquy impressive beyond description. Perhaps Drury even
misstated an idea, or more than one, evolved then by the great
mind of that patient man. Prof. Daniel Vaughn was fitted for a
scientific throne, a position of the highest honor; but, neglected
by man, proud as a king, he bore uncomplainingly privations most
bitter, and suffered alone until finally he died from starvation
and neglect in the city of his adoption. Some persons are ready to
cry, "Shame! Shame!" at wealthy Cincinnati; others assert that men
could not give to Daniel Vaughn, and since the first edition of
ETIDORHPA appeared, the undersigned has learned of one vain
attempt to serve the interests of this peculiar man. He would not
beg, and knowing his capacities, if he could not procure a
position in which to earn a living, he preferred to starve. The
only bitterness of his nature, it is said, went out against those
who, in his opinion, kept from him such employment as returns a
livelihood to scientific men; for he well knew his intellect
earned for him such a right in Cincinnati. Will the spirit of that
great man, talented Daniel Vaughn, bear malice against the people
of the city in which none who knew him will deny that he perished
from cold and privation? Commemorated is he not by a bust of
bronze that distorts the facts in that the garments are not seedy
and unkempt, the figure stooping, the cheek hollow and the eye
pitifully expressive of an empty stomach? That bust modestly rests
in the public library he loved so well, in which he suffered so
uncomplainingly, and starved so patiently. J. U. L.
I embraced the first opportunity that presented itself to read the
works that Prof. Vaughn suggested, and sought him more than once to
question further. However, he would not commit himself in regard to the
possible existence of other forces than those with which we are
acquainted, and when I interrogated him as to possibilities in the study
of obscure force expressions, he declined to express an opinion
concerning the subject. Indeed, I fancied that he believed it probable,
or at least not impossible, that a closer acquaintance with conditions
of matter and energy might be the heirloom of future scientific
students. At last I gave up the subject, convinced that all the
information I was able to obtain from other persons whom I questioned,
and whose answers were prompt and positive, was evolved largely from
ignorance and self-conceit, and such information was insufficient to
satisfy my understanding, or to command my attention. After hearing
Vaughn, all other voices sounded empty.
I therefore applied myself to my daily tasks, and awaited the promised
return of the interesting, though inscrutable being whose subterranean
sojourneying was possibly fraught with so much potential value to
science and to man.
THE UNBIDDEN GUEST RETURNS TO READ HIS MANUSCRIPT. CONTINUING HIS
NARRATIVE.