If a grasshopper could hop on a cannon ball, passing overhead, I could
conceive, perhaps, how something, from outer space, could flit to a
moving earth, explore a while, and then hop off.
But suppose we have to accept that there have been instances of just
such enterprise and agility, relatively to the planet Venus.
Irrespective of our notion that it may be that sometimes a vessel sails
to this earth from Venus and returns, there are striking data indicating
that, whether conceivable or not, luminous objects have appeared from
somewhere, or presumably from outer space, and have been seen
temporarily suspended over the planet Venus. This is in accord with our
indications that there are regions in the sky suspended over and near
this earth. It looks bad for our inference that this earth is
stationary, but it is the supposed rotary motion of this earth more than
the supposed orbital motion that seems to us would dislodge such
neighboring bodies; and all astronomers, except those who say that Venus
rotates in about 24 hours, say that Venus rotates in about 224 days, a
velocity that would generate little centrifugal force.
I have a note upon a determined luminosity that was bent upon Saturn, as
its objective. In the _English Mechanic_, 63-496, a correspondent writes
that, upon July 13, 1896, he saw, through his telescope, from 10 until
after 11.15, P. M., after which the planet was too near the horizon for
good seeing, a luminous object moving near Saturn. He saw it pass
several small stars. “It was certainly going toward Saturn at a good
rate.” There may be swifts of the sky that can board planets. If they
can swoop on and off an earth moving at a rate of 19 miles a second,
disregarding rotation, because entrance at a pole may be thought of,
why, then, for all I know smaller things do ride on cannon balls. Of
course if our data that indicate that the supposed solar system, or the
geo-system, is to an enormous degree smaller than is conventionally
taught be accepted, the orbital velocity of Venus is far cut down.
About the last of August, 1873—Brussels; eight o’clock in the
evening—rising above the horizon, into a clear sky, was seen a star-like
object. It mounted higher and higher, until, about ten minutes later, it
disappeared (_La Nature_, 1873-239). It seems that this conspicuous
object did appear in a local sky, and was therefore not far from this
earth. If it were not a fire-balloon, one supposes that it did come from
outer space, and then returned.
Perhaps a similar thing that visited the moon, and was then seen sailing
away—in the _Astronomical Register_, 23-205, Prof. Schafarik, of Prague,
writes that upon April 24, 1874, he saw “an object of so peculiar a
nature that I do not know what to make of it.” He saw a dazzling white
object slowly traversing the disc of the moon. He had not seen it
approaching the moon. He watched it after it left the moon. Sept. 27,
1881—South Africa—an object that was seen near the moon, by Col.
Markwick—like a comet but moving rapidly (_Jour. Liverpool Astro. Soc._,
7-117).
Our chief interest is in objects, like ships, that have “boarded” this
moving earth with the agility of a Columbus who could dodge a San
Salvador and throw out an anchor to an American coast screeching past
him at a rate of 19 miles a second, or in objects that have come as
close as atmospheric conditions, or unknown conditions, would permit to
the bottom of a kind of stationary sea. We now graduate Capt. Noble to
the extra-geographic fold. In _Knowledge_, 4-173, Capt. Noble writes
that, at 10.35 o’clock, night of August 28, 1883, he saw in the sky
something “like a new and most glorious comet.” First he saw something
like the tail of a comet, or it was like a search light, according to
Capt. Noble’s sketch of it in _Knowledge_. Then Capt. Noble saw the
nucleus from which this light came. It was a brilliant object. Upon page
207, W. K. Bradgate writes that, at 12.40 A. M., August 29, at
Liverpool, he saw an object like the planet Jupiter, a ray of light
emanating from it. Upon the nights of Sept. 11 and 13, Prof. Swift saw,
at Rochester, N. Y., an unknown object like a comet, perhaps in the
local sky of Rochester, inasmuch as it was reported from nowhere else
(_Observatory_, 6-345). In _Knowledge_, 4-219, Mrs. Harbin writes that,
upon the night of Sept. 21, at Yeovil, she saw the same brilliant
searchlight-like light that had been seen by Capt. Noble, but that it
had disappeared before she could turn her telescope upon it. And several
months later (Nov., 1883) a similar object was seen obviously not far
away, but in the local sky of Porto Rico and then of Ohio (_Amer. Met.
Jour._, 1-110, and _Sci. Amer._, 50-40, 97). It may be better not to say
at this time that we have data for thinking that a vessel carrying
something like a searchlight, visited this earth, and explored for
several months over regions as far apart as England and Porto Rico. Just
at present it is enough to record that something that was presumably not
a fire-balloon appeared in the sky of England, close to this earth, if
seen nowhere else, and in two hours traversed the distance of about 200
miles between Sussex and Liverpool.
Aug. 22, 1885—Saigon, Cochin-China—according to Lieut. Réveillère, of
the vessel _Guiberteau_—object like a magnificent red star, but larger
than the planet Venus—it moved no faster than a cloud in a moderate
wind; observed 7 or 8 minutes, then disappearing behind clouds (_C. R._,
101-680).
In this book it is my frustrated desire to subordinate the theme of this
earth’s stationariness. My subject is New Lands—things, objects, beings
that are, or may be, the data of coming expansions—
But the stationariness of this earth can not be subordinated. It is
crucial.
Again—there is no use discussing possible explorations beyond this
earth, if this earth moves at a rate of 19 miles a second, or 19 miles a
minute.
As to voyagers who may come to or near this earth from other planets—how
could they leave and return to swiftly moving planets? According to our
principles of Extra-geography, the planets move part of the time with
the revolving stars, the remotest planets remaining in, under, or near
one constellation years at a time. Anything that could reach, and then
travel from, a swiftly revolving constellation in the ecliptic could
arrive at a stellar polar region, where, relatively to a central,
stationary body, there is no motion.