Lumen

ity of

marvellous calculations, which enable us to touch, as it were, the other worlds, show us their years, their seasons, their days, and make us acquainted with the varieties of nature living on their surface. All these elements have enabled contemporaneous astronomy to establish the fact of human existence in the other worlds on a strong and imperishable

ch we have under consideration, and w

e the events with which my spiritual life is actually woven. But since you can see the possibility and probability of the

cause chiefly that I am

s of giving to the disincarnated soul a d

ellat

ormer only after 72 years, and the latter after 172 years. I see myself at present from Capella as I was upon the earth 72 years ago, and as I was upon Virgo 172

rom

of per

hat neither the constellations drawn upon the celestial globe, nor the position of the stars upon that globe, are either real or absolute, but are only the result of the position of the Earth in space, and thus are simply a question of perspective. Go to the top of a mountain and fix upon a map the respective positions of all the summits surrounding you in that circular panorama, its hills, its valleys, its villages, its lakes; a map so constructed could only serve for the place from whence it was drawn. Now transport yourself ten miles farther; the same summits are visible, but their respective positions in regard to each other are different, resulting from the change in perspective. The panorama of the Alps and of the Oberland, a

ging our position we change our perspective, and our sky is no longer the same. But, then, ought we not to have a change of celestial perspective every six months, sinc

comprehended the principle of the deformation of the

a dimension sufficiently vast for the two opposite points

ty-four millio

he perspectives of the stars, than taking a step in the cupola of the Pantheon woul

of the Mi

ns, such as Andromeda, the Lyre, Cassiopea, and the Eagle, in the same region as the Seraphim, the Cherubim, and the Thrones.

e object of my various conversations is the demonstration of this truth. Upon the world of Andromeda of which I speak, there is nothing resembling the constellation of Andromeda. Seen from the Earth, those stars which appear joined and have served on the cel

of the he

ike to be transported there without fear of the monster, and without solicitude for the young Perseus bearing the head of the Medusa, and mounted on his famous Pegasus. But now, thanks to the scalpel of science, there is no longer an unveiled princess bound to a roc

ronomy grander t

ent, to the rapt scientific contemplation of celestial grandeurs and the sublime movements of nature? What impression can strike the soul more profoundly than the fact of the expanse crowded with worlds, and the immensity of the sidereal systems? What

errors and become worthy of the majes

of the world

elem

those on the Earth. It is a world without sleep and without fixity. It is entirely enveloped in a rose-coloured ocean, less dense than terrestrial water, and more dense than our atmosphere. It is a substance holding a middle place as a fluid, between air and water. Terrestrial chemistry does not produce any similar substance, therefore it would be in vain to try and represent it to you. Carbolic acid gas that can be held invisible at the bottom of a glass, and can be poured out like wa

fixes the condi

Earth flying o

ce, you would see all the water on the Earth become solid, and gases in their turn become liquids; then as to solids themselves . . . you would see! No, you could not see this by remaining upon the Earth, but you could from the depths of space witness this curious spectacle, should your globe ever indulge in the freak of escaping from its orbit at a tangent. And note fur

lacial state.

g out of gla

ree or four thousand years later, when the planet returns from its dark and frozen aphelion to its brilliant perihelion, towards the sun-whose fertilising heat caressing its surface with welcoming rays will rapidly increase-and when it has reached the degree which betokens the normal temperature of these beings, they will be resuscitated at the age at which they were when overtaken by sleep; they will take up their affairs from the moment of their interruption (long interruption

of And

ocean which none have ever sounded: from their birth to their death they have not one moment's repose. Incessant activity is the condition of their existence. Should they become stationary they would perish. In order to bre

of nou

n their constitution and that of terrestrial man? It is that on the Earth we breathe without being conscious of the act, and obtain oxygen without exertion, not being compelled with difficult

d is inferior to ours i

ess, it is a great advantage to be furnished with a pneumatic mechanism, which opens involuntarily every time that our organism needs the least breath of air, and which acts automatically and unceasi

life on

on of nature! All these efforts and these labours, bringing in their wake feebleness and disease! All this traffic to amass a little gold at the expense of others! Man taking advantage of his brother man! Castes, aristocracies, robbery and ruin, ambitions, thrones, wars! In a word, personal interests, always selfish, often sordid, and the reign o

as if you thought it were po

ace are subject to an operation so ridiculous as this? Happily, i

eric nu

naturally in the atmosphere; the second is derived from nourishment. Nutrition produces blood; from the blood come the tissues, the muscles, the bones, the cartilages, the flesh, the brain, the nerves, in a word, the organic constituents

ss of ali

ces in a gaseous state. These aliments are found in the solids that you absorb; digestion is the function which separates them, and which causes them to assimilate with the organs to which they belong. When, for example, you eat a morsel of bread, you introduce into your stomach a grain of starch, a substance insoluble in water, and which is not

r all these material terms, and condescend to make use of them. But the memories that I have brought from the Earth are still vivid

ese aliments could be found in a gaseous state in the composition of the atmosphere, we should create by this me

tricted sphere of his observation, Nature has put

struck by the suave and angelic beauty of a maiden, reclining in a gondola as it floated gently on the blue waters of the Bosphorus before Constantinople. Red velvet cushions, embroidered with brilliant silks, whose heavy tassels of gold touched the water, formed the divan of this young Circassian. Before her knelt a

of passing enchantment, the bark reached the landing-stage, and the maiden, leaning on a slave, seated herself on a couch

Masticating morsels of some kind of animal which her pearly teeth did not disdain to chew, and again fragments of another animal which her virginal lips opened without hesitation to receive and swallow! What a diet: a medley of ingredients drawn

he struggle

ng three parts of their nutriment supplied by the air, as is the case on your globe: they must work to obtain what may be called their oxygen, and, without ceasing, they are condemned to use their lungs in order to prepare the nutritious air the

e been born! But does not the sa

to agitate, to dream, ad infinitum? Of what use is all this? Would not one be just as advanced if one were extinguished the day after birth, or, better still, if one did not take the trouble to com

y in An

ani

ing their judgment on science, instead of aspiring to the truth, and of using their eyes to see and their reason to comprehend-in a word, in place of establishing the foundations of their philosophy upon knowledge as exact as possible of the order which governs the world-they are divided into sects, who are voluntarily blind, and believe they render homage to their pretended God by ceasing to reas

owardly and indifferent, deliberately choosing, rather than govern themselves, to be led by an individual claiming to be their Basileus, their king. This chief deprives them of three-fourths of their resources, keeping for himself and his, the atmosphere cont

hich they call the field of honour, they then destroy one another like furious fools, without knowing w

t favoured by chance, live to return,

han to celebrate their thanksgivings in company with the dignitaries of their sects, supplicating their God

of the beings

pon the Earth we do not regulate our affairs in this manner. . . . In short, upon their globe there is only one living kingdom, and that a mobile on

ries ago? A world also containing only one kingdom, and that not a mo

imals and men he