And we return to the principle that has been our re-enforcement
throughout: that existence is infinite serialization, and that, except
in particulars, it repeats—
That the dot that spread upon the western horizon of Lisbon, March 4,
1493, can not be the only ship that comes back from the unknown, cargoed
with news—
And it may be Sept. this, nineteen hundred and twenty or thirty
something, or Feb. that, nineteen hundred and twenty or thirty something
else—and, later, see record of it in _Eng. Mec._, or _Sci. Amer._, vol.
and p. something or another—a speck in the sky of this earth—the return
of somebody from a San Salvador of the Sky—and the denial by the heavens
themselves, which may answer with explosions the vociferations below
them, of false calculations upon their remotenesses. If the heavens do
not participate with snow, the sky scrapers will precipitate torn up
papers and shirts and skirts, too, when the papers give out.
There will be a procession. Somebody will throw little black pebbles to
the crowds. Over his procession will fly blue-fringed cupids. Later he
will be insulted and abused and finally hounded to his death. But, in
that procession, he will lead by the nose an outrageous thing that
should not be: about ten feet long, short-winged, waddling on webbed
feet. Insult and abuse and death—he will snap his fingers under the nose
of the outrageous thing. It will be worth a great deal to lead that by
the nose and demonstrate that such things had been seen in the sky,
though they had been supposed to be angels. It will be a great moment
for somebody. He will come back to New York, and march up Broadway with
his angel.
Some now unheard-of De Soto, of this earth, will see for himself the
Father of Cloudbursts.
A Balboa of greatness now known only to himself will stand on a ridge in
the sky between two auroral seas.
Fountains of Everlasting Challenge.
Argosies in parallel lines and rabbles of individual adventurers. Well
enough may it be said that they are seeds in the sky. Of such are the
germs of colonies.