THE MOTHER OF A VOLCANO.--"YOU CAN NOT DISPROVE, AND YOU DARE NOT
ADMIT."
A year from the evening of the departure of the old man, found me in my
room, expecting his presence; and I was not surprised when he opened the
door, and seated himself in his accustomed chair.
"Are you ready to challenge my statements?" he said, taking up the
subject as though our conversation had not been interrupted.
"No."
"Do you accept my history?"
"No."
"You can not disprove, and you dare not admit. Is not that your
predicament?" he asked. "You have failed in every endeavor to discredit
the truth, and your would-be scientists, much as they would like to do
so, can not serve you. Now we will continue the narrative, and I shall
await your next attempt to cast a shadow over the facts."
Then with his usual pleasant smile, he read from his manuscript a
continuation of the intra-earth journey as follows:
"Be seated," said my eyeless guide, "and I will explain some facts that
may prove of interest in connection with the nature of the superficial
crust of the earth. This crystal liquid spreading before us is a placid
sheet of water, and is the feeder of the volcano, Mount Epomeo."
"Can that be a surface of water?" I interrogated. "I find it hard to
realize that water can be so immovable. I supposed the substance before
us to be a rigid material, like glass, perhaps."
"There is no wind to ruffle this aqueous surface,--why should it not be
quiescent? This is the only perfectly smooth sheet of water that you
have ever seen. It is in absolute rest, and thus appears a rigid level
plane."
"Grant that your explanation is correct," I said, "yet I can not
understand how a quiet lake of water can give rise to a convulsion such
as the eruption of a volcano."
"Not only is this possible," he responded, "but water usually causes the
exhibition of phenomena known as volcanic action. The Island of Ischia,
in which the volcanic crater Epomeo is situated, is connected by a
tortuous crevice with the peaceful pool by which we now stand, and at
periods, separated by great intervals of time, the lake is partly
emptied by a simple natural process, and a part of its water is expelled
above the earth's surface in the form of super-heated steam, which
escapes through that distant crater."
"But I see no evidence of heat or even motion of any kind."
"Not here," he replied; "in this place there is none. The energy is
developed thousands of miles away, but since the phenomena of volcanic
action are to be partially explained to you at a future day, I will
leave that matter for the present. We shall cross this lake."
I observed as we walked along its edge that the shore of the lake was
precipitous in places, again formed a gradually descending beach, and
the dead silence of the space about us, in connection with the
death-like stillness of that rigid mass of water and its surroundings,
became increasingly impressive and awe-inspiring. Never before had I
seen such a perfectly quiet glass-like surface. Not a vibration or
undulation appeared in any direction. The solidity of steel was
exemplified in its steady, apparently inflexible contour, and yet the
pure element was so transparent that the bottom of the pool was as
clearly defined as the top of the cavern above me. The lights and shades
of the familiar lakes of Western New York were wanting here, and it
suddenly came to my mind that there were surface reflections, but no
shadows, and musing on this extraordinary fact, I stood motionless on a
jutting cliff absorbed in meditation, abstractedly gazing down into that
transparent depth. Without sun or moon, without apparent source of
light, and yet perfectly illuminated, the lofty caverns seemed cut by
that aqueous plane into two sections, one above and one below a
transparent, rigid surface line. The dividing line, or horizontal plane,
appeared as much a surface of air as a surface of water, and the
material above that plane seemed no more nor less a gas, or liquid, than
that beneath it. If two limpid, transparent liquids, immiscible, but of
different gravities, be poured into the same vessel, the line of
demarkation will be as a brilliant mirror, such as I now beheld parting
and yet uniting the surfaces of air and water.
Lost in contemplation, I unconsciously asked the mental question:
"Where are the shadows?"
My guide replied:
"You have been accustomed to lakes on the surface of the earth; water
that is illuminated from above; now you see by a light that is developed
from within and below, as well as from above. There is no outside point
of illumination, for the light of this cavern, as you know, is neither
transmitted through an overlying atmosphere nor radiated from a luminous
center. It is an inherent quality, and as objects above us and within
the lake are illuminated alike from all sides, there can be no shadows."
Musingly, I said:
"That which has occurred before in this journey to the unknown country
of which I have been advised, seemed mysterious; but each succeeding
step discovers to me another novelty that is more mysterious, with
unlooked-for phenomena that are more obscure."
"This phenomenon is not more of a mystery than is the fact that light
radiates from the sun. Man can not explain that, and I shall not now
attempt to explain this. Both conditions are attributes of force, but
with this distinction--the crude light and heat of the sun, such as men
experience on the surface of the earth, is here refined and softened,
and the characteristic glare and harshness of the light that is known to
those who live on the earth's surface is absent here. The solar ray,
after penetrating the earth's crust, is tempered and refined by agencies
which man will yet investigate understandingly, but which he can not now
comprehend."
[Illustration: "WE CAME TO A METAL BOAT."]
"Am I destined to deal with these problems?"
"Only in part."
"Are still greater wonders before us?"
"If your courage is sufficient to carry you onward, you have yet to
enter the portal of the expanse we approach."
"Lead on, my friend," I cried; "lead on to these undescribed scenes, the
occult wonderland that--"
He interrupted me almost rudely, and in a serious manner said:
"Have you not learned that wonder is an exemplification of ignorance?
The child wonders at a goblin story, the savage at a trinket, the man of
science at an unexplained manifestation of a previously unperceived
natural law; each wonders in ignorance, because of ignorance. Accept now
that all you have seen from the day of your birth on the surface of the
earth, to the present, and all that you will meet here are wonderful
only because the finite mind of man is confused with fragments of
evidence, that, from whatever direction we meet them, spring from an
unreachable infinity. We will continue our journey."
Proceeding farther along the edge of the lake we came to a metallic
boat. This my guide picked up as easily as though it were of paper, for
be it remembered that gravitation had slackened its hold here. Placing
it upon the water, he stepped into it, and as directed I seated myself
near the stern, my face to the bow, my back to the shore. The guide,
directly in front of me, gently and very slowly moved a small lever that
rested on a projection before him, and I gazed intently upon him as we
sat together in silence. At last I became impatient, and asked him if we
would not soon begin our journey.
"We have been on our way since we have been seated," he answered.
I gazed behind with incredulity: the shore had disappeared, and the
diverging wake of the ripples showed that we were rapidly skimming the
water.
"This is marvelous," I said; "incomprehensible, for without sail or oar,
wind or steam, we are fleeing over a lake that has no current."
"True, but not marvelous. Motion of matter is a result of disturbance of
energy connected therewith. Is it not scientifically demonstrated, at
least in theory, that if the motion of the spirit that causes the
magnetic needle to assume its familiar position were really arrested in
the substance of the needle, either the metal would fuse and vaporize or
(if the forces did not appear in some other form such as heat,
electricity, magnetism, or other force) the needle would be hurled
onward with great speed?"