MATTER IS RETARDED MOTION.
"It is possible--is it not?--for you to imagine a continuous volley of
iron balls passing near you in one line, in a horizontal direction, with
considerable velocity. Suppose that a pane of glass were to be gradually
moved so that a corner of it would be struck by one of the balls; then
the entire sheet of glass would be shivered by the concussion, even
though the bullet struck but a single spot of glass, the point of
contact covering only a small area. Imagine now that the velocity of the
volley of bullets be increased a thousand fold; then a plate of glass
thrust into their track would be smoothly cut, as though with a file
that would gnaw its way without producing a single radiating fracture. A
person standing near the volley would now hear a deep purr or growling
sound, caused by the friction between the bullets and the air. Increase
gradually the rapidity of their motion, and this growl would become more
acute, passing from a deep, low murmur, into one less grave, and as the
velocity increased, the tone would become sharper, and at last
piercingly shrill. Increase now the rapidity of the train of bullets
again, and again the notes would decrease in turn, passing back again
successively through the several keys that had preceded, and finally
would reach the low growl which first struck the ear, and with a further
increase of speed silence would ensue, silence evermore, regardless of
increasing velocity.[10] From these hundreds of miles in a second at
which the volley is now passing, let the rapidity be augmented a
thousand times, reaching in their flight into millions of miles each
second, and to the eye, from the point where the sound disappeared, as
the velocity increased, a dim redness would appear, a glow just
perceptible, indicating to the sense of sight, by a continuous line,
the track of the moving missiles. To all appearance, the line would be
as uniform as an illuminated pencil mark, even though the several
integral bullets of the trail might be separated one from another by
miles 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 the
edges of glass close to either side of the orifice would be shown, on
withdrawing the glass, to have been fused. Conceive now that the
velocity of the bullets be doubled and trebled, again and again, the
line of red light becomes brighter, then brilliant, and finally as the
velocity increases, at a certain point pure white results, and to man's
sense the trail would now be a continuous something, as solid as a bar
of metal if at a white heat, and (even if the bullets were a thousand
miles apart) man could not bring proof of their separate existence to
his senses. That portion of a pane of glass or other substance, even
steel or adamant, which should cross its track now would simply melt
away, the portion excised and carried out of that pathway neither
showing itself as scintillations, nor as fragments of matter. The solid
would instantly liquefy, and would spread itself as a thin film over the
surface of each ball of that white, hot mass of fleeing metal, now to
all essential conditions as uniform as a bar of iron. Madly increase the
velocity to millions upon millions of miles per second, and the heat
will disappear gradually as did the sound, while the bright light will
pass backward successively through the primary shades of color that are
now known to man, beginning with violet, and ending with red, and as the
red fades away the train of bullets will disappear to the sense of man.
Neither light nor sound now accompanies the volley, neither the human
eye nor the human ear can perceive its presence. Drop a pane of glass or
any other object edgewise through it, and it gives to the sense of man
no evidence; the molecules of the glass separate from in front to close
in from behind, and the moving train passes through it as freely as
light, 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 passing
through another quality of matter without disturbance to either, and it
is a law in physics that two substances can not occupy the same space at
the same time."
"That law holds good as man understands the subject, but bullets are no
longer matter. Motion of mass was first changed into motion of
molecules, and motion of molecule became finally augmented into motion
of free force entities as the bullets disintegrated into molecular
corpuscles, and then were dissociated, atoms resulting. At this last
point the sense of vision, and of touch, ceased to be affected by that
moving column (neither matter nor force), and at the next jump in
velocity the atoms themselves disappeared, and free intangible motion
resulted--nothing, vacancy.
"This result is the all-pervading spirit of space (the ether of
mankind), as solid as adamant and as mobile as vacuity. If you can
reverse the order of this phenomenon, and imagine an irregular
retardation of the rapidity of such atomic motion, you can read the
story of the formation of the material universe. Follow the chain
backward, and with the decrease of velocity, motion becomes tangible
matter again, and in accordance with conditions governing the change of
motion into matter, from time to time the various elements successively
appear. The planets may grow without and within, and ethereal space can
generate elemental dirt. If you can conceive of an intermediate
condition whereby pure space motion becomes partly tangible, and yet is
not gross enough to be earthy matter, you can imagine how such forces as
man is acquainted with, light, heat, electricity, magnetism, or gravity
even are produced, for these are also disturbances in space motion. It
should be easily understood that, according to the same simple
principle, other elements and unknown forces as well, now imperceptible
to man's limited faculties, could be and are formed outside and inside
his 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 the
assertion that electricity, light, heat, magnetism, and gravity are
disturbances, and you said, 'Disturbances of what?' Think the lesson
over, and you will perceive that it is easy. Let us hope that the time
will come when we will be able to glance beneath the rough, material,
earth surface knowledge that man has acquired, and experience the mind
expansion that leads to the blissful insight possessed by superior
beings who do not have to contend with the rasping elements that
encompass 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 my
mind; I inferred that we were destined to meet with persons, or
existences, possessed of new senses, of a mind development that man had
not reached, and I was on the point of questioning my pilot when the
motion 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 on
land at the edge of the motionless lake, and we resumed our journey. The
scenery seemed but little changed from that of the latter part of our
previous line of travel down the inclined plane of the opposite side of
the lake that we had crossed. The direction was still downward after
leaving the high ridge that bordered the edge of the lake, the floor of
the cavern being usually smooth, although occasionally it was rough and
covered with stony debris. The mysterious light grew perceptibly
brighter as we progressed, the fog-like halo previously mentioned became
less dense, and the ring of obscurity widened rapidly. I could
distinctly perceive objects at a great distance. I turned to my
companion to ask why this was, and he replied:
"Because we are leaving one of the undiscovered conditions of the upper
atmosphere that disturbs the sunlight."
"Do you say that the atmosphere is composed of substances unknown to
man?"
"Yes; several of them are gases, and others are qualities of space
condition, neither gas, liquid, nor solid.[11] One particularly
interferes with light in its passage. It is an entity that is not moved
by the motion of the air, and is unequally distributed over the earth's
surface. As we ascend above the earth it decreases, so it does as we
descend into it. It is not vapor of water, is neither smoke, nor a true
gas, and is as yet sensible to man only by its power of modifying the
intensity of light. It has no color, is chemically inactive, and yet
modifies the sun's rays so as to blot objects from view at a
comparatively small distance from a person on the face of the earth.
That this fact is known to man is evident from the knowledge he
possesses of the difference in the power of his organs of vision at
different parts of the earth. His sight is especially acute on the table
lands 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 this
obscuration, or absorption, of light."
"Vapor of water, unless in strata of different densities, is absolutely
transparent, 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 mechanical
mixture of condensed water and air, whereby multitudes of tiny globular
water surfaces are produced. Pure vapor of water, free from motion, is
passive to the sunlight."
"I can scarcely believe that a substance such as you describe, or that
any constituent of the air, can have escaped the perception of the
chemist," 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 all
space and every description of matter, and that I have told you is
really matter itself changed into ultra atomic motion? Have chemists
explained why one object is transparent, and another of equal weight and
solidity is opaque? Have chemists told you why vermillion is red and
indigo is blue (the statement that they respectively reflect these rays
of light is not an explanation of the cause for such action)? Have
chemists told you why the prism disarranges or distorts sunlight to
produce the abnormal hues that men assume compose elementary rays of
light? Have chemists explained anything concerning the why or wherefore
of the attributes of matter, or force, or even proven that the so-called
primary forms of matter, or elements, are not compounds? Upon the
contrary, does not the evolution that results in the recorded
discoveries of the chemist foretell, or at least indicate, the possible
future of the art, and promise that surrounding mysteries are yet to be
developed and expanded into open truths, thus elaborating hidden forces;
and that other forms of matter and unseen force expressions, are
destined to spring into existence as the sciences progress? The chemist
of to-day is groping in darkness; he is a novice as compared with the
elaborated chemist of the near future; the imperfectly seen of the
present, the silent and unsuspected, will become distinctly visible in a
time that is to come, and a brightening of the intellect by these
successively upward steps, up stairs of science, will, if science serves
herself 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, into
communion with the spirit world."