Lumen

of beings o

e directly seen myself there, for, according to the law of light, it would require the same length of time to travel from Venus to Capella as it would from the Earth to C

se annular planet belonging to the constellation Cygnus, situated in the

only plants are there, and neither an

t world of plants there are vegetable races more advanced than those existin

ning

don!-I would say improbable, incompr

st-so much so, that I myself belonged to them. Fift

a plant reason without a bra

elf think, and by what transformation of motion your so

fail to find, the material explanation

possible bec

Earth, do you therefore believe that there are similar brains and spinal marrows upon all the worlds in space? This would be an error too childish. The law of progress governs the vital system of each world. This vital system diff

of the h

p in the ladder of the animal kingdom receives the human transfiguration by force of circumstance, and b

lopment

orned rhinoceros, the cave-hyena, the elk, the mastodon, the oppossum, &c., and prior to these the pleiosaurus, the ichthyosaurus, the iguanodon, the pterodactyl, &c., and again before these the fishes, the crustacea, the mollusca, &c., have been the result of the vital forces in action upon the Earth, dependent upon the stat

se than the bear, the bear than the tortoise.

he series. Then, as the ages advanced, their forms became more pure

e gardens of the Earth, and spread sweet p

ogical tre

uspension in the waves. Seaweed and sea-wrack were the first forms of vegetation. On the rocks, live creatures for which one has no name. There, sponges swell out. Here, a tree of coral lifts up itself. Further on, the Medus? detach themselves and float like balls of jelly. Are these animals? Are these plants? Science does not answer. They are animal-plants, zoophites. But life is not limited to these forms. There are creatures not

of the ani

solely in the first direction, with the result that there would have been but one kingdom instead of two, and the creative progress would have operated in that kingdom as it operated in the animal kingdom. It would not have been arrested at the formation of sensitives, superior plants which are already gifted with a veritable nervous system; nor would it have stopped at the formation of flowers, which are already bordering on ours in their organic functions; but, continuing its ascension, would

more than the previous one, and I find it difficult to pic

-pl

average of five or six centuries, and is calm, sweet, uniform, and without revolutions. But do not think that these men-plants live only a vegetable life. On the contrary, they have an existence both personal and positive. They are divided, not by caste, regulated by birth and fortune, according to that absurd custom on the earth, but by families, whose native value differs precisely according to its kind. They have an unwritten social history, but nothing whic

s if it be true that they think? And besides, master, how was i

life upo

wths upon its surface, and I principally remarked their singular manner of grouping: here two and two, there three and three, farther off ten and ten, besides others in larger clusters. Some were seated, as it were, upon the brink of a f

xtremity of this arm to its head, and pluck one of the magnificent flowers ornamenting its crown, and then present the same, with an inclination of the head, to another fig-tree growing some little distance apart, of slender and gr

elf known to another. Thus, then, the meaning of this tableau was borne in upon me

which were grouped around me I recognised my children; for I recollected that the tints of the flowers

s of men

h perceive divers sounds with exquisite sensitiveness; and, in fine, not only hear each other perfectly, but also the butterfly messengers. These rudiments are developed to a veritable degree of civilisation upon the world of which I speak, and these beings are as complete in their kind as

master, that they see without

nd are only m

and that is sufficient) be endowed with an apparatus in correspondence with them, which might be only a simple nerve. The eye and the ear are the apparatus for your terrestrial nature. In another natural organisation the optic ner

es myriads of

s of motion. Upon the Earth you are so formed as to be able to appreciate chiefly

us aspects. Some of these senses take the place of your eyes and of your ears, and others are

n-plants in the world of Cygnus, the idea occurr

ermined

of p

e in the same soil, the same situation, under the same conditions; why should the first produce an oak and the second a peach tree? Because an organic force inherent in the oak will construct its special kind of vegetable, and another organic force, another sou

and

ity of t

the monad of salt, or of carbon, or of oxygen, absorbs and incorporates them in its structure. Our human soul in our terrestrial body upon the Earth governs, without being conscious of it, all the elementary souls forming the constituent parts of its body. Matter is not a solid and compassable substance. It is an assemb

ost wise instructor, that I fa

example which will demonstrate the truth of all

the Princess Scheherazade, and have you been fascin

CONVER

UDAX: NATU

(θ) in

of the famous nebula. This system θ of Orion is one of the most singular which is to be found in the vast treasure-house which contains such a variety of celestial jewels. It is composed of four principal Suns disposed in a quadrilat

ld in

That in its turn circulated, in concert with the others and at the same time, around an invisible centre of gravity

and nig

because it was nearer to me; by a second very large and equally bright; by a third of moderate size, and by two who were like twins. These differ

here in the heavens do

ts of The

ars, and of coloured stars. You can study them yourself with your telescope. Now, on the planet of Orion, which I have just mentioned to you, the inhabitants are neither vegetables nor animals. They could not be plac

c gardens, the gigantic taper

om its resemblance to the wax tapers, placed in three o

f the nerv

t-be

eir latitude according to the seasons. But the most singular peculiarity of their organisation is that which illustrates the principle of which I have spoken to you, of the union of elementary souls in the human body. One day I visited this world, and found myself in the midst of an Orionic landscape. I beheld a being standing there like a plant ten metres high, without leaves or flowers. He consisted in fact of a cylindrical stalk, t

disinte

r to the ground. The personal existence of the individual

, and the atoms fly apart,

organic accord between the different parts. They exist in their entirety actual and complete, then suddenly they are reduced into the most simple elementary form. The cerebral molecule, which con

on, for example a conjugal scene à la Molière, or a bad quarter of an hour such as Rabelais describes, or a mournful situation such

ed mol

exist on the Earth as well as on the planet of Orion, if the principle of authority were not so firm

re in a like case. They are provinces self-governed, but subject to a superior authority. The working of this superior authority is a condition of human life-a condition which is less exclusive amongst the inferior animals. Eac

als. Cut it into five or six rings, and the operation gives you as many leeches. Thus also, a cutting of a branch of a tree will grow. In like manner a crab's claw or a lizard's tail will be reproduced. In reality the vertebrate

the perso

beings grouped together, and dominated by the plastic attraction of your personal soul, which from the centre of your being has formed your bo

n nature itself is then in a s

licanism gov

f thus disintegrated, how can he afte

cerebral molecule, the corporeal molecules are still intimately connected with one another. At a given moment they combin

centre to organise a reunion; all the little soldiers climbing one over the other, and in a moment taking their places to

yes, and you are only qualified to comprehend the facts which are within the spher

forms

ng Suns, is peopled by an organic system analog

occupied in coming from that point in space to Capella. When there, I was acquainted with the spirit w

that he has returned, like myself, into the world of spirits, he also remembers the singular republic of Orion and can see it. Yes, this is very curious, but it is quite

sight i

nt worlds. The eye of our "perisprit" is not identical with the bodily eye. In the terrestrial sight the rays diverge, so that a very small object, placed quite near the eye fills the interval of the two rays, whilst at a greater distance, a larger object is necessary to fill the space, proportionately increased, which separates the same rays. In our eye, on the contrary, the visual rays en

hand, in accordance with the law of the successive transmission of the rays of light, all the events in nature, and the hi

diversity

fixing myself in any place. I hope in the course of the next century to be reincarnated on a world dependent on the train of Sinus. The humanity the

ch take place for the maintenance of the body. From each molecule of the body, so to speak, proceeds a nerve which transmits to

life in

nt of view, the vegetables are all composed of a substance analogous to the loadstone, because silica and magnesia predomina

where day and night do not succeed each other as upon the Earth, because every portion of their spheres is continuously supplied with ligh

rimary cause being the rotation of the earth on its axis, which pro

, and it would greatly surprise them to learn, that there exists a hu

horic

mical composition that reminds one of the phosphates and the sulphates of barytes, store up the solar light received during the day; and during the night they radiate a sweet, calm, translucent light, which illumine

lar world. Its atmosphere is constantly electrical; its animals are lumi

ons phosp

all scale in your terrestrial meadows, where one sees in the sweet summer evenings the glow-worms silently consumed in an amorous flame. In the fire-flies of the north, that you see in France, the male is winged and is not luminous;

aerial unions, all the males die of exhaustion; and again in the world of bees, where the procreators are pitilessly sacrificed; and amongst spiders, where they are devoured by their companions unless the

he atmospheric environment, and to the conditions of density, of weigh

little cell which is transformed into the embryo, in which gradually appear the heart, the head, the limbs, and the different organs. T

d of the fishes of the Silurian period, but it develops into the admirable eyes of birds, of the vertebr?, and of man. The senses of smell and taste proceed from the nerves in the same way. These last two senses, with that of touch, are the most

ducing any other than the five senses, unless we except certain sensations of touch, which a

e and been arrested on our little planet, should tak

long since, two worlds on which human beings have t

s which form a sort of cornet. These, under the scalpel and the microscope, appear to be tubes placed in juxtaposition, the outer extremity of which receives t

wledge which is wholly forbidden to us. Their organic sensations are all different from yours. Their eyes are not constructed like yours; they do not see what you see; they see what you do not see. They are conscious only of

entation. Another of the nerve-threads proceeding from the brain produced a species of winged ear, very light, by means of which the living being pe

sessors of it infallibly. It enables them also to discover things concealed in the interior of the

an infinite variety exists, and that eternity will be inexhaustibly

body, and careless of the morrow. The active sex never survive these nuptials; the passive sex, oviparous, having secured the per

too

d with

of these years, but they are so rare that the memory of a few only have been preserved in the historical records of this humanity. War between the nations has never been invented, because there is only one race, one people, one language. The natural constitutions of these organisms are remarkable. Diseases are almost unknown; there are no doctors. As a result of this great m

et it suffice that I have raised the veil sufficiently, to give you a glimpse of the incommensurable d

te div

moral as well as physical life, the result virtually of the forces of the Earth. Human strength, figure, weight, all depend on these forces. The organic functions are determined by the planet. If life is divided with you between work and rest, between activity and sleep, it is because of the rotation of the globe, and day and night. In the luminous globes, and those lighted

than those

of all dimensions, of all weights, of all colours, of all sensations, of every variety of characteristics. The universe is infinite. Our terrestrial existence is only one phase of the infinite. An inexhaustible diversity enriches this marvellous field

trial humanity, intellectual or moral worth counts for nothing in advancing a man, whatever may be the value of his ideas, or the worth of his personal character, unless he possesses the means and the determination to push himself forward. No one seeks for hidden merit. A man must needs make h

bsolutely different exists; where the constitution of the Government is such, that only those distinguished for their virtues are

not invented any Academy, as they cannot conceive that a man of worth (instead of being sought after) should be compelled to waste his time in visits of ceremony, and find, probably, that a tit

fying pow

tead of travelling exactly with the velocity of light, you were to travel with a little less velocity; note the observation that you might make: I will suppose that this voyage away from the Earth, during which you look at the lightning, lasts a minute. I will suppose also, that the lightning lasts a thousandth part of a second. You will continue to see the lightning during 60,000 times its duration. In our first supposition this voyage is identical with that of light. Light has occupied 60,000 tenths of seconds to go from the Earth to the point in space where you are. Your voyage and that of light have co-existed. Now if instead of flying with just the same velocity as light, you had flown a little less quickly, and if you had employed a thousandth part

the anal

n, and to the analysing eye it would be a nebula animated by the forces of gravitation. Did not Swedenborg imagine that the universe by which he was surrounded, seen as a whole, was in the form of an immense man? Th

ht), you would see the progress of the catastrophe, its first moment, its second, and so on successively, in thus nearly following the light, you would only see the end after an hour of observation. The event would last for you an hour instead of a few seconds. You would see the rocks, or the stones suspended in the air, and could thus ascertain the mode of production of the phenomenon, and its incidental delays. Already your terrestrial scientific knowledge enables you to take instantaneous photographs of the

no-tel

me amplified. This process cannot strictly speaking be called that of the microscope, but rather that of a chronoscope or of a chrono-telescope

ngth of 180 months (in removing one's self from the Earth with a velocity a little inferior to that of light); so, by setting out at the very moment that the Chamber had proclaim

nsmission

s imperishable, and the past is always present. The image of the Earth as it was 6000 years ago, is actually now in space at the distance that light crossed it 6000 years since. The worlds situated in that region see the Earth of that epoch. We could see again our own direct existence and our dif

t be dead before the moment at which you heard him, if, perchance, he had

ing forms unk

ersities of existence and of the possibility of living forms unknown to the Earth. Here also you see the revelatio

l discover in light the principle of every movement and the inner reason of things. Already within the last few years spectrum analysis has demonstrated to you that by the examination of a luminous ray from the Sun, or from a Star, you can learn what substances constitute that Sun and that Star. Alre

cipa

eat things are going to happen around you. After the storm I shall perhaps return for one last visit to give you proof of my existence, and to show that I have not forgotten you. Then, later, when your life upon this little planet is done, I shall co

E

riber'

" changed to "e" (the

14159" changed to "314

e" deleted. Original read (

ded to text. (surpr

omeda" changed to "Andro

hanged to "oxygen" (