 This is Chapter 8, Book 3 of A Journey in Other Worlds. The water jug, being empty, erralt took it up and, crossing the ridge of a small hill, descended to a running brook. He had filled it, and was straightening himself when the stone on which he stood turned, and he might have fallen, had not the bishop of whose presence he had been unaware, stretched out his hand, and upheld him. I thought you might need a little help, he said with a smile, and so walk beside you, though you knew it not. Water is heavy, and you may not yet have been accustomed to its satturian weight. Many thanks, my master, replied erralt, retaining his hand. Were it not that I am engaged to the girl I love, and am sometimes haunted by the thought that in my absence she may be forgetting me, I should wish to spend the rest of my natural life here, unless I could persuade you to go with me to the earth. By remaining here, replied the spirit with a sad look, you would be losing the most priceless opportunities of doing good. Neither will I go with you, but as your distress is real, I will tell you of anything happening on earth that you wish to know. Tell me, then, what the person now in my thoughts is doing. She is standing in a window facing west, watering some forget-me-nuts with a small silver sprinkler which has a ruby in the handle. Can you see anything else? Beneath the jewel is an inscription that runs, By those who in warm July are born, a single ruby should be worn, then will they be exempt and free from love's doubts and anxiety. Marvelous! Had I any doubts as to your prescience and power, they would be dispelled now. One thing more, let me ask, however. Does she still love me? In her mind is but one thought, and in her heart is an image, that of the man before me. She loves you with all her soul. My most eager wish is satisfied, and for the moment my heart is at rest, replied Errol, as they turned their steps towards camp. Yet such is my weakness by nature that ere twenty-four hours have passed I shall long to have you tell me again. I have been in love myself, replied the spirit, and know the feeling. Yet to be of the smallest service to you gives me far more happiness than it can give you. The mutual love in paradise exceeds even the lover's love on earth, for it is only those that loved and can love that are blessed. You can hardly realize, the bishop continued, as they rejoined Bear Warden and Cortland, the joy that a spirit in paradise experiences when, on reopening his eyes after passing death, which is but the portal, he finds himself endowed with sight that enables him to see such distances and with such distinctness. The solar system with this ringed planet, its swarm of asteroids, and its intramaccurial planets, one of which Vulcan, you have already discovered, is a beautiful sight. The planets nearest the sun receive such burning rays that their surfaces are red-hot, and at the equator, at Perhelion, are molten. These are not seen from the earth, because rising or setting almost simultaneously with the sun, they are lost in its rays. The great planet beyond Neptune's orbit is perhaps the most interesting. This we call Cassandra, because it would be a prophet of evil to any visitor from the stars who should judge the solar system by it. This planet is nearly as large as Jupiter, being 80,000 miles in diameter, but has a specific gravity lighter than Saturn. Bode's law, you know, says, write down zero, three, six, twelve, twenty-four, forty-eight, ninety-six, add four to each, and get four, seven, ten, sixteen, twenty-eight, fifty-two, one hundred. And this series of numbers represents very nearly the relative distances of the planets from the sun. According to this law, you would expect the planet next beyond Neptune to be about five billion miles from the sun, but it is about nine billion five hundred million, so that there is a gap between Neptune and Cassandra, as between Mars and Jupiter, except that in Cassandra's case there are no asteroids to show where any planet was. We must then suppose it is an exception to Bode's law, or that there was a planet that has completely disappeared. As Cassandra would be within the law, if there had been an intermediary planet, we have good prima facie reason for believing that it existed. Cassandra takes, in round numbers, a thousand years to complete its orbit, and from it the sun, though brighter, appears no larger than the Earth's evening or morning star. Cassandra has also three large moons, but these, when full, shine with a pale gray light, like the old moon in the new moon's arms, in that terrestrial phenomenon when the Earth, by reflecting the crescent's light, and that of the sun, makes the dark part visible. The temperature at Cassandra's surface is but little above the cold of space, and no water exists in the liquid state, it being as much a solid as aluminum or glass. There are rivers and lakes, but these consist of liquefied hydrogen and other gases, the heavier liquid collected in deep places, and the lighter, with less than half the specific gravity of ether, floating upon it without mixing, as oil on water. When the heavier penetrates to a sufficient depth, the interior being still warm, it is converted into gas, and driven back to the surface, only to be recondensed on reaching the upper air. Thus it may happen that two rains, composed of separate liquids, may fall together. There being but little of any other atmosphere, much of it consists of what you might call the vapor of hydrogen, and many of the well-known gases and liquids on Earth exist only as liquids and solids, so that where their mortal inhabitants on Cassandra, they might build their houses of blocks of oxygen, or chlorine, as you do of limestone or marble, and use ice that never melts, in place of glass, for transparency. They would also use mercury for bullets in their rifles, just as inhabitants of the intra-vulcan planets at the other extreme might, if their bodies consisted of asbestos, or were in any other way non-combustibly constituted, bathed in tin, lead, or even zinc, which ordinarily exist in the liquid state as water and mercury do on Earth. Though Cassandra's atmosphere, such as it is, is mostly clear, for the evaporation from the rivers and icy Mediterranean's is slight, the brightness of even the highest noon is less than an earthly twilight, and the stars never cease to shine. The dark base of the rocky cliffs is washed by the frigid tide, but there is scarcely a sound, for the pebbles cannot be moved by the weightless waves, and an occasional murmur is all that is heard. These rocks of ice reflect the light of the grey moons, and never a leaf falls or a bird sings. With the exception of the mournful ripples, the planet is silent as the grave. The animal and plant kingdoms do not exist, only the mineral and spiritual worlds. I say spiritual, because there are souls upon it, but it is the home of the condemned in hell. Here dwell the transgressors who died, unrepentant, and those who were not saved by faith. This is the one instance in which I do not enjoy my developed sight, for I sometimes glance in their direction, and the vision that meets me as my eyes focus distresses my soul. Their senses are like an imperfect mirror, magnifying all that is bad in what one another, and distorting anything still partially good when that exists. All those things that might at least distract them are hollow, their misery being the inevitable result of the condition of mine to which they became accustomed on earth, and which brought them to Cassandra. But let us turn to something brighter. Though the solar system may seem complex, the sun is but a star among the millions in the Milky Way, and compared with the planetary systems of Sirius, the stars of the Southern Cross, and the motions of the Nebula, it is simplicity itself. Compared with the splendor of Sirius, with its diameter of twelve million miles, the sun measuring but 840,000 becomes insignificant, and this giant's system includes groups and clusters of planets, many with three times the mass of Jupiter, five and six together, each a different color, revolving about a common center while they swing about their primary. Their numerous moons have satellites encircling them, with orbits in some cases at right angles to the plane of the ecliptic, so that they shine perpendicularly on what would correspond to the Arctic and Antarctic regions, while their axes are so inclined that the satellites turn a complete somersault at each revolution, producing glistening effects of ice and snow at the poles. Some of the moons are at a red or white heat, and so prevent the chill of night on the planets, while they shine with more than reflected light. In addition to the five or six large planets in each group, which however are many millions of miles apart, there is in some clusters a small planet that swings backward and forward across the common center, like a pendulum, but in nearly a straight line, and while this multiplicity of motion goes on, the whole aggregation sweeps majestically around Sirius, its mighty sun. Our little solar system contains, as we know, about 1,000 planets, satellites, and asteroids large enough to be dignified by the name of heavenly bodies. Vast numbers of the stars have a hundred, and even a thousand times the mass of our sun, and their systems being relatively as complex as ours, in some cases even more so, they contain a hundred thousand or a million individual bodies. Over 60 million bright or incandescent stars were visible to the terrestrial telescopes a hundred years ago, the average size of which far exceeds our sun. To the magnificent telescopes of today, they are literally countless, and the number can be indefinitely extended as your optical resources grow. Yet the number of stars you see is utterly insignificant compared with the cold and dark ones you cannot see, but concerning which you are constantly learning more by observing their effect on the bright ones, both by perturbing them and by obscuring their rays. Occasionally, as you know, a star of the 12th or 15th magnitude, or one that has been invisible, flares up for several months to the fourth or fifth through a collision with some dark giant, and then returns to what it was in the beginning, a gaseous, filmy nebula. These innumerable hosts of dark monsters, though dead, are centers of systems, like most of the stars you can see. A slight consideration of these figures will show that, notwithstanding the number of souls the Creator has given life on earth, each one might in fact have a system to himself, and that however long the little globe may remain, as it were, a mint in which souls are tried by fire and mold it and receive their final stamp, they will always have room to circulate, and will be prized according to the impress their faces or hearts must show. But Sirius itself is moving many times faster than the swiftest cannonball, carrying its system with it, and I see you asking, to what does all this motion tend? I will show you. Many quadrillions of miles away, so far that your most powerful telescopes have not yet caught a glimmer, rest in its serene grandeur a star that we call cosmos, because it is the center of this universe. Its diameter is as great as the diameter of Cassandra's orbit, and notwithstanding its terrific heat, its specific gravity, on account of the irresistible pressure at and near the center, is as great as that of the planet Mercury. This holds all that your eyes or mind can see, and the so-called motions of the stars, for we know that Sirius, among others, is receding, is but the difference in the rate at which the different systems and constellations swing around cosmos, though in doing so they often revolve about other systems or swing around common centers, because that many are satellites of satellites many times repeated. The orbits of some are circular, and of others elliptical, as those of comets, and some revolve about each other, or as we have seen about a common point while they perform their celestial journey. A star therefore recedes or advances as Jupiter and Venus with relation to the Earth. The planet in the smaller orbit moves faster than that in the larger, so that the intervening distances wax and wane, though all are going in the same general direction. In the case of the members of the solar system, astronomical record can tell you when even a most distant known planet has been in opposition or conjunction, but the Earth has scarcely been habitable since the Sun was last in its present position in its orbit around cosmos. The curve that our system follows is of such radius that it would require the most precise observations for centuries to show that it was not a straight line. We call this the universe, because it is all that the clearest eyes or telescopes have been able to see, but it is only a subdivision, in fact, but a system on a vaster scale than that of the Sun or of Sirius. Far beyond this visible universe, my intuition tells me our other systems more gigantic than this, and entirely different in many respects. Even the effects of gravitation are modified by the changed condition, for these systems are spread out flat, like the rings of this planet, and the ether of space is luminous instead of black as here. These systems are, but in a later stage of development than ours, and in the course of evolution, our visible universe will be changed in the same way, as I can explain. In incalculable ages, the forward motion of the planets and their satellites will be checked by the resistance of the ether of space, and the meteorites, and solid matter they encounter. Meteorites also overtake them, and by striking them as it were in the rear, propel them, but more are encountered in front, an illustration of which you can have by walking rapidly or riding on horseback on a rainy day, in which case more drops will strike your chest than your back. The same rule applies to bodies in space, while the meteorites encountered have more effect than those following, since in one case it is the speed of the meteor minus that of the planet, and in the other the sum of the two velocities. With this checking of the forward motion, the centrifugal force decreases, and the attraction of the central body has more effect. When this takes place, the planet or satellite falls slightly towards the body around which it revolves, thereby increasing its speed till the centrifugal force again balances the centripetal. This would seem to make it descend by fits and starts, but in reality the approach is nearly constant, so that the orbits are in fact slightly spiral. What is true of the planets and satellites is also true of the stars with reference to cosmos, though many even of these have subordinate motions in their great journey. Though the satellites of the moons revolve about the primaries in orbits inclined at all kinds of angles to the planes of the ecliptics, and even the moons vary in their paths about the planets, the planets themselves revolve about the stars, like those of this system about the sun, in substantially the same plane, and what is true of the planets is even more true of the stars in their orbits about cosmos, so that when, after incalculable ages, they do fall. They strike this monster's sun at or near its equator, and not falling perpendicularly, but in a line varying but slightly from a tangent, and at terrific speed, they cause the colossus to rotate more and more rapidly on its own axis till it must become greatly flattened at the poles, as the earth is slightly, and as Jupiter and Saturn are a good deal. Even though not all the stars are exactly in the plane of cosmos equator, as you can see, there are not as many above as below it, so that the general average will be there, and as all are moving in the same direction, it is not necessary for all to strike the same line. Though striking near the poles, where the circles are smaller, and where the surface is not being carried forward so fast by the giant's rotation, will have even more effect in increasing its speed, since it will be like attaching the driving rods of a locomotive near the axle, instead of near the circumference, and with enough power will produce even greater results. As cosmos waxes greater from the result of these continual accretions, its attraction for the stars will increase, until those coming from the outer regions of its universe will move at such terrific speed in their spiral orbits that before coming in contact, they will be almost invisible, having already absorbed all solid matter revolving about themselves. These accessions of moving matter continually received at or near its equator will cause cosmos to spread out like Saturn's rings till it becomes flat, though the balance of forces will be so perfect that it is doubtful whether an animal or a man placed there would feel much change. But these universes, or more accurately divisions of the universe, already planes, though the vast surfaces are not so flat as to preclude beautiful and gently rolling slopes, are spirit lands and will be inhabited only by spirits. Then there are great phosphorescent areas and the color of the surface changes with every hour of the day, from the most brilliant crimson to the softest shade of blue, radiant with many colors that your eyes cannot now see. There are also myriads of scented streams consisting of hundreds of different and multicolored liquids, each with a perfume sweeter than the most delicate flower, and pouring forth the most heavenly music as they go on their way. But be not surprised at the magnitude of the change, for is it not written in Revelation, I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away. Nor can we be surprised at vastness, sublimity, and beauty such as never were conceived of, for do we not find this in his word? I hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. In this blissful state, those that feared God and obeyed their consciences will live on forever. But their rest can never become stagnation, for evolution is one of the most constant laws, and never ceases, and they must always go onward and upward, unspeakably blessed by the consciences they made their rule in life, till impurity and power they shall equal or exceed the angels of their Lord in heaven. But you men of finite understanding will ask, as I myself should have asked, how by the law of hydrostatics can liquids flow on a plane? Remember that, though these divisions are astronomical or geometrical planes, their surfaces undulate, but the moving cause is this. At the center of these planes is a pole, the analog, we will say, of the magnetic pole on earth that has a more effective attraction for a gas than for a liquid. When liquids approach the periphery of the circle and the rapid rotation and decreased pressure cause them to break up, whereupon the elementary gases return to the center in the atmosphere, if near the surface, forming a gentle breeze. On nearing the center, the cause of the separation being removed, the gases reunite to form a liquid, and the centrifugal force again sends this on its journey. Is there no way, asked Bear Warden, by which a man may retrieve himself if he has lost or misused his opportunities on earth? The way a man lays up treasures in heaven when on earth, replied the spirit, is by gladly doing something for someone else, usually in some form sacrificing self. In hell no one can do anything for anyone else, because everyone can have the semblance of anything he wishes by merely concentrating his mind upon it, though when he has it, it is but a shadow and gives him no pleasure. Thus no one can give anyone else anything he can not obtain himself, and if he could, since it would be no sacrifice on his part, he would derive no great moral comfort from it. Neither can anyone comfort anyone else by putting his acts or offenses in a new light, for everyone knows the whole truth about himself and everyone else, so that nothing can be made to appear favorably or unfavorably. All this, however, is supposing there is the desire to be kind. But how can spirits that were selfish and ill-disposed on earth where there are so many softening influences have good inclinations in hell where they loathe one another with constantly increasing strength? In as much as both the good and the bad continue on the lines on which they started when on earth, we are continually drawing nearer to God while they are departing. The gulf may be only one of feeling, but that is enough. It follows, then, that with God as our limit, which we, of course, can never reach, their limit in the geometrical sense must be total separation from him. Though all spirits we are told live forever, it occurs to me that in God's mercy there may be a gradual end, for though to the happy souls in heaven a thousand years may seem as nothing, existence in hell must drag along with leaden limbs, and a single hour seem like a lifetime of regret. Since it is dreadful to think that such unsuited anguish should continue forever, I have often pondered whether it might not be that, by a form of involution or reversal of the past law, the spirit that came to life evolved from the mineral, plant, and animal worlds may mercifully retrace its steps one by one, to finally the soul shall penetrate the solid rock and hide itself by becoming part of the planet. Many people in my day believed that after death their souls would enter stately trees and spread abroad great branches, dropping dead leaves over the places on which they had stood while on earth. This might be the last step in the awful tragedy of the fall and involution of human soul. In this way, those who had wasted the priceless opportunities given them by God might be mercifully obliterated, for it seems as if they would not be needed in the economy of the universe. The Bible, however, mentions no such end and says unmistakably that hell will last forever, so that in this supposition, as in many others, the wish is probably father of the thought. But, persisted Bear Warden, how about deathbed repentances? Those replied the spirit are few and far between. The pains of death at the last hour leave but little room for ought but vain regret. A man dies suddenly, or may be unconscious sometime before the end, but they do occur. The question is, how much credit is it to be good when you can do no more harm? The time to resist evil and do that which is right is while the temptation is on and in its strength. The question is while life lasts, there is hope, but the books are sealed by death. The tree must fall to one side or the other. There is no middle ground, and as the tree falleth, so it lieth. This, however, is a gloomy subject, and one that in your heart of hearts you understand. I would rather tell you more of the beauties and splendors of space, of the orange, red, and blue stars, and of the tremendous cyclonic movements going on within them, which are even more violent than the storms that rage in the sun. The clouds, as the spectroscope has already shown, consist of iron, gold, and platinum in the form of vapor, while the openings revealed by sunspots, or rather star spots, are so tremendous that a comparatively small one would contain many dozen such globes as the earth. I could tell you also of the mysteries of the great dark companions of some of the stars, and of the stars that are themselves dark and cold, with not but the faraway constellations to cheer them, in which night reigns eternally, and that far outnumber the stars you can see. Also of the multiplicity of sex and extraordinary forms of life that exist there, though on none of them are there mortal men like those on the earth. Nature, in the process of evolution, has in all these cases gone off on an entirely different course. The most intelligent and highly developed species being in the form of marvelously complex reptiles, winged serpents that can sing most beautifully, but whose blood is cold, being prevented from freezing in the upper regions of the atmosphere by the presence of salt and chemicals, and which are so intelligent that they have practically subdued many of these dark stars to themselves. On others, the most highly developed species have hollow, bell-shaped tentacles into which they inject two or more opposing gases from opposite sides of their bodies, which in combination produce a strong explosion. This provides them with an easy and rapid locomotion, since the explosions find a sufficient resistance in the surrounding air to propel the monsters much faster than birds. These can at pleasure make their breath so poisonous that the lungs of any creatures except themselves inhaling it are at once turned to parchment. Others can give their enemies or their prey an electric shock, sending a bolt through the heart or can paralyze the mind physically by an effort of their wills, causing the brain to decompose while the victim is still alive. Others have the same power that snakes have, though vastly intensified, mesmerizing their victims from afar. Still others have such delicate senses that in a way they commune with spirits, though they have no souls themselves, for in no part or corner of the universe, except on earth, are their animals that have souls. Yet they know the meaning of the word, and often bewail their hard lot in that no part of them can live when the heart has ceased to be. Ah, my friends, if, like the aesthetic reptilia, we knew that when our dust dissolved, our existence would be over, we should realize the preciousness of what we hold so lightly now. Man and the spirits and angels are the only beings with souls, and in no place except on earth are new souls being created. This gives you the greatest and grandest idea of the dignity of life and its inestimable value, but it is as difficult to describe the higher wonders of the stellar worlds to you as to picture the glories of sunset to a blind man, for you have experienced nothing with which to compare them. Instead of seeing all that really is, you see but a small part. This is the end of the chapter 9 of a journey in other worlds, recording by Tom Weiss. Cortland asked, to live so near these loathsome dragons? Not in the least, replied the spirit. They affect us no more than the smallest microorganisms, for we see both with equal clearness. Since we are not obliged to breathe, they cannot injure us, and besides, they serve to illustrate the working of God's laws, and there is beauty in everything for those that have the senses required for perceiving it. A feature of the spiritual world is that it does not interfere with the natural, and the natural, except through faith, is not aware of its presence. Then why, asked Cortland, was it necessary for the Almighty to bring your souls to Saturn, since there would have been no overcrowding if you had remained on the earth? That, replied the spirit, was part of his wisdom, for the spirit being able at once to look back into the natural world, if in it, would be troubled at the mistakes and tribulations of his friends. Now, as a rule, before a spirit can return to earth, his or her relatives and friends have also died, or if he can return before that happens, he is so advanced that he sees the ulterior purpose, and therefore the wisdom of God's ways, and is not distressed thereby. Lastly, as their expanding senses grew, it would be painful for the blessed and condemned spirits to be together. Therefore, we are brought here, where God reveals himself to us more and more, and the flight of the other souls, those unhappy ones, does not cease till they reach Cassandra. Can the souls on Cassandra also leave it in time and roam at will? asked Cortland. I have seen none of them myself in my journeys to other planets, but as the sun shines upon the just and the unjust, and there is no exception to nature's laws, I can reply that in time they do, and with equal powers their incentive to roam would be greater, for we are drawn together by common sympathy and pure, unrequited love, while they are mutually repelled. Of course, some obtain a measure of freedom before the rest, and these naturally roam the farthest, and the more they see and the farther they go, the stronger becomes their abhorrence for everything they meet. Can not you spirits help us, and the mortals now on earth, to escape this fate? The greatest hope for your bodies and souls lies in the communion with those that have passed through death, for the least of them can tell you more than the wisest man on earth, and could you all come or send representatives to the multitudes here, who cannot as yet return to you, but few on earth would be so queatically sinful as to refuse our advice. Since, however, the greatest good comes to men from the learning that they make an effort to secure, it is for you to strive to reach us, who can act as go-betweens from God to you. It seems to me, said Bearwarden, that people are better now than formerly. The sin of idolatry, for instance, has disappeared. Has it not? Men still set up idols of wealth, passion, or ambition in their hearts. These they worship as in days gone by, only the form has changed. Could the souls on Cassandra do us bodily or mental injury if we could ever reach their planet? asked Bearwarden. They might oppress and distress you, but your faith would protect you wherever you go. Can you give us a taste of your sense of prescience? asked Bearwarden again, for since it is not clear in what degree the condemn shall receive this, and neither is it by any means sure that I shall be saved, I should like for once in my history to experience this sense of divinity before my entity ends in stone. I will transfer to you my sense of prescience, replied the spirit, that you may foresee as prophets have. In so doing I shall but anticipate, since you will yourselves in time obtain this sense in a greater or less degree. Is there any event in the future you would like to see, in order that when the vision is fulfilled it may tend to establish your faith? Since I am the oldest, replied the doctor, and shall probably die before my friends, reveal to us, I pray you, the manner of my death and the events immediately following. This may prove an object lesson to them and will greatly interest me. Your death will be caused by blood poisoning, brought on by an accident began the spirit. Some daybreak will find you weak, after a troubled night, with your bodily resources at a low ebb. Sunset will see you weaker, with your power of resistance almost gone. Midnight will find you weaker still, but little removed from the point of death. A few hours later, a kind hand will close the lids of your half-shut eyes, which never again will behold the light. The coffin will enclose your body, and the last earthly journey begin. Now the spirit continued, you shall all use my sight instead of your own. The walls of the cave seem to expand till they resemble those of a great cathedral, while the stalactites appeared to be metamorphosed into Gothic columns. They found themselves among a large congregation that had come to attend the last sad rites, while the great organ played Chopin's funeral march. The high vault and arches received the organ's tone, and a somber light pervaded the interior. There was a slight flutter and a craning of necks among those in the pews, as the procession began to ascend the aisle, while the slow step of the pallbearers, and voice of the clergyman, that headed the procession, sounded these words through the cathedral. I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth. As the beer-advanced, bearwarden, and arrow recognized themselves among the pallbearers, the former with gray mustache and hair, the latter considerably aged. The hermetically sealed lead coffin was enclosed in a wooden case, and the hole was draped and covered with flowers. Oh, my faith, cried Cortland, I see my face within, yet it is but a decomposing mass that I once described as I. Then again did the minister's voice proclaim, I am the resurrection and the life saith the Lord. He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live, and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. The bearers gently set down their burden. The minister read the ever-impressive chapter of St. Paul to the Corinthians. A bishop solemnly and silently sprinkled earth on the coffin, and the choir sang the 398th hymn, beginning with the words, hark, hark, my soul, angelic songs are swelling, which had always been Cortland's favorite, and the service was at an end. The bearers again shouldered all that was left of Henry Cortland, and his relatives accompanied this to the cemetery. Then came a sweeping change of scene. A host of monuments and gravestones reflected the sunlight, while a broad river ebbed and flowed between high banks. A sexton and a watchman stood by a granite vault, the heavy door of which they had opened with a large key. Hard by were some gardeners and laborers, and also a crowd of curiosity seekers who had come to witness the last sad rites. Suddenly a funeral procession appeared. The hearse stopped near the open vault over the door of which stood out the name of Cortland, and the accompanying minister set a short prayer while all present uncovered their heads. After this the coffin was born within and set at rest upon a slab among many generations of Cortlands. In the hearts of the relative and friends was genuine sorrow, but the curiosity seekers went their way and gave little thought. Tomorrow will be like today, they said, and more great men will die. Then came another change of scene, though it was comparatively slight. The sun slowly sank beyond the farther bank of the broad river, and the moon and stars shone softly on the gravestones and crosses. Two gardeners smoked their short clay pipes on a bench before the Cortland vault, and talked in a slow manner. "'He was a great man,' said one, and if his soul blooms like the flowers on his grave, he must be in paradise, which we know is a finer part than this. He was expert for the governor when the hearse-axis was set right,' said the second gardener, and he must have been a scholar, for his calculations have all come true. He was one of the first three men to visit the other planets, while the obituaries in the papers say his history will be read hereafter like the books of Caesar. After burying all these great people, I sometimes wish I could do the same for myself, for the people I bury seem to be remembered. After this they relapsed into their meditations, a silence being broken only by an occasional murmur from the river's steady flow. Hereupon the voyagers found they were once more in the cave. The fire had burned low, and the dawn was already in the east. Cortland wiped his forehead, shivered, and looked extremely pale. "'Thank heaven,' he cried. "'We cannot ordinarily foresee our end. Four but few would attain their predestined ending could they see it in advance. May the veil not again be raised, lest I faint before it. I looked in vain for my soul,' he continued, but could see it nowhere. "'The souls of those dying young,' replied the spirit, "'sometimes wish to hover near their ashes, as if regretting an unfinished life, or the opportunities that have departed. But those dying after middle-age are usually glad to be free from their bodies, and seldom think of them again. "'I shall append the lines now in my head to my history,' said Cortland, that where it goes they may go also. They can scarcely fail to be instructive as the conclusions of a man who has seen beyond his grave.' Whereupon he wrote a stanza in his notebook, and closed it without showing his companions what he had written. "'May they all do the good, you hope,' and much more,' replied the spirit. "'For the reward in the resurrection morning will vastly exceed all your labors now.' "'Oh, my friends,' the spirit continued most earnestly, addressing the three, "'are you prepared for your deathbeds? When your eyes glaze in their last sleep, and you lose that temporal world and what you perhaps considered all, as in a haze, your dim vision will then be displaced by the true creation that will be eternal. Your unattained ambitions, your hopes, and your ideals will be swallowed in the grave. Your works will secure you a place in history, and many will remember your names until, in time, oblivion covers your memory as the grass conceals your tombs. Are you prepared for the time when your eyes become blind and your trusted senses fail? Your sorrowing friends will mourn, and the flags of your clubs will fly at half-mast, but no earthly thing can help you then. In what condition will the resurrection morning find you when your sins of neglect and commission plead for vengeance, as ables blood from the ground? After that there can be no change. The clarification, as I have already told you, is now going on. It will then be finished. "'We are the most utterly wretched sinners,' cried Errol. "'Show us how we can be saved!' As an inhabitant of spirit land, "'I will give you worldly counsel,' replied the Bishop. During my earthly administration, as I told you, people came from far to hear me preach. This was because I had eloquence and earnestness, both gifts of God. But I was a miserably weak sinner myself. That which I would I did not, and that which I would not, that I did. And I often prayed my congregation to follow my sermons rather than my ways. I seemed to do my followers good, and Daniel thus commends my way in his last chapter. They that turn many to righteousness shall shine as the stars for ever and ever, and the explanation is clear. There is no sure way of learning than trying to teach. In teaching my several flocks I was also improved myself. I was sown in weakness, but was raised in power, strength being made perfect in weakness. Therefore improve your fellows, though yourself you cannot raise. The knowledge that you have sent many souls to heaven, though you are yourself a castaway, will give you unspeakable joy, and place you in heaven wherever you may be. Yet remember this. None of us can win heaven. Salvation is the gift of God. I have said as much now as you can remember. Farewell. Improve time while you can. Fear God and keep his commandments. This is the whole duty of man. So saying, the spirit vanished in a cloud that for a time emitted light. I am not surprised, said Bear Warden, that people took long journeys to hear him. I would do so myself. I have never had much fear of death, said Cortland, but the mere thought of it now makes my knees shake and fills my heart with dread. I thought I saw the most hateful forms about my coffin, and imagined that they might be the personification of doubt, coldness, and my other shortcomings which had come perhaps from sympathy in invisible form. I was almost afraid to ask the spirit for the explanation. I saw them also, replied Bear Warden, but took them to be swarms of microbes waiting to destroy your body, or perhaps trying in vain to penetrate your hermetically sealed coffin. Cortland seemed much upset, and spent the rest of the day in writing out the facts and trying to assign a cause. Towards evening Bear Warden, who had recovered his spirits, prepared supper, after which they sat in the entrance of the cave. This is the end of Chapter 9, in Book 3 of A Journey in Other Worlds, recording by Tom Weiss. This is Chapter 10, Book 3, of A Journey in Other Worlds. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain, recording by Tom Weiss. A Journey in Other Worlds, Book 3, Chapter 10, Errol. As the night became darker, they caught sight of the earth again, shining very faintly, and in his mind's eye Errol saw his sweetheart, and the old, old repining that, since reason and love began, has been in men's minds came upon him and almost crushed him. Without saying anything to his companions, Errol left the cave, and passing through the groove in which the spirit had paid them his second visit, went slowly to the top of the hill about half a mile off, that he might the more easily gaze at the faint star on which he could picture Sylvia. Ah! he said to himself, on reaching the summit, I will stay here till the earth rises higher, and when it is far above me I will gaze at it as at heaven. Accordingly he lay down with his head on a mound of sod, and watched the familiar planet. We were born too soon, he soliloquized, for had Sylvia and I but lived in the spiritual age foretold by the bishop, we might have held communion, while now our spirits, no matter how much in love, are separated absolutely by a mere matter of distance. It is a mockery to see Sylvia's dwelling place, and feel that she is beyond my vision. O that, in the absence of something better, my poor imperfect eyes could be transformed into those of an eagle, but with a million times the power. For though I know that with these senses I shall see the resurrection and hear the last trump, that is but perspective, while now is the time I long per sight. On the plane he had left he saw his friend's campfire, while on the other side of his elevation was a valley in which the insects chirped sharply and through which ran a stream. Feeling a desire for solitude, and to be as far removed as possible, he arose and descended towards the water. Though the autumn where they found themselves was well advanced, this night was warm, and the rings formed a grave arch above his head. Near the stream the frogs croaked happily, as if unmindful of the long, very long, Saturian winter. And though they were removed about ten degrees from the equator, the sun was so remote and the axis of the planet so inclined that it was unlikely these individual frogs would see another summer, though they might live again, in a sense, in their descendants. The insects also would soon be frozen and stiff, and the tall, graceful lilies that still clung to life would be withered and dead. The trees, as if weeping at the evanescence of the life around them, shed their leaves at the faintest breeze. These fluttered to the ground, or falling into their tranquil stream were carried away by it and passed from sight. Arult stood musing and regretting the necessity of such general death. But he thought, I would rather die than lose my love, for then I should have had the taste of bliss without its fulfillment, and should be worse off than dead. Love gills the commonplace, and defies all it touches. Love survives the winter, and in my present frame of mind I should prefer earth and cold with it to heaven and spring. Oh, why is my soul so clogged by my body? A pillar of stone standing near him was suddenly shattered, and the bishop stood where it had been. Because, said the spirit, answering his thought, it has not yet power to be free. Can a man's soul not rise till his body is dead, asked Arult? The spirit hesitated. Oh, tell me, pleaded Arult, if I could see the girl to whom I am engaged, for but a moment, could be convinced that she loves me still, my mind would be at rest, free my soul or spirit or whatever it is from this body that I may traverse intervening space and be with her. You will discover the way for yourself in time, said the spirit. I know I shall it the last day in the resurrection when I am no longer in the flesh. Then I shall have no need of your aid, for we know that in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage but are like the angels of God in heaven. It is while I am mortal and love as mortals do that I wish to see my promised bride. A spirit may have other joys and perhaps higher, but you who have lived in the world and loved show me that which is now my heart's desire. You have shown us the tomb in which Cortland will lie buried, now help me to go to one who is still alive. I pray that God will grant you this, said the spirit, and make me his instrument, for I see the depth of your distress, saying which he vanished, leaving no trace in his departure except that the pillar of stone returned to its place. With this rather vague hope, Errol set off to rejoin his companions, for he felt the need of human sympathy. Saturn's rapid rotation had brought the earth almost to the zenith, the little point shining with the unmistakably steady ray of a planet. Huge bats fluttered about him, and the great cloud masses swept across the sky, being part of Saturn's ceaseless world. He found he was in a hypnotic or spiritualistic state, for it was not necessary for him to have his eyes open to know where he was. In passing one of the pools they had noticed, he observed that the upper and previously invisible liquid had the bright color of gold, and about it rested a group of figures enveloped in light. Why do you look so sad? they asked. You are in that abode of departed spirits known as paradise, and should be happy. I suppose I should be happy where I hear as you are, as the reward of merit, he replied, but I am still in the flesh, and as such am subject to its cares. You are about to have an experience, said another speaker. This day your doubts will be at rest, for before another sunset you will know more of the woman you love. The intensity of the spiritualistic influence here somewhat weakened, for he partially lost sight of the luminous figures, and could no longer hear what they said. His heart was in his mouth as he walked, and he felt like a man about to set out on his honeymoon, or like a bride who knows not whether to laugh or to cry. An indescribable exhilaration was constantly present. I wonder, thought he, if a caterpillar has these sensations before becoming a butterfly. Though I return to the rock from which I sprang, I believe I shall be with Sylvia today. Footprints formed in the soft ground all around him, and the air was filled with spots of phosphorescent light that coincided with the relative positions of the brains, hearts, and eyes of human beings. These surrounded and often preceded him, as though leading him on while the most heavenly anthems filled the air and the vault of the sky. I believe, he thought with bounding heart, that I shall be initiated into the mysteries of space this night. At times he could hear even the words of the choruses ringing in his ears, though at others he thought the effect was altogether in his mind. Oh, for a proof, he prayed, that no sane man can doubt. My faith is implicit in the bishop and the vision, and I feel that in some way I shall return to the earth ere the close of another day, for I know I am awake and that this is no dream. A fire burned in the mouth of the cave, within which Bearwarden and Cortland lay sleeping. The specks of mica in the rocks reflected its light, but in addition to this a diffused phosphorescence filled the place, and the large sod-covered stones they used for pillows emitted purple and dark red flames. Is that you, Dick? asked Bearwarden, awaking and groping about. We build up the fire so that you should find the camp, but it seems to have gone down, saying which he struck a match whereupon Errol ceased to see the phosphorescence or bluish light. At that moment a peel of thunder awakened Cortland, who sat up and rubbed his eyes. I think, said Errol, I will go to the Callisto and get our Macintoshes before the rain sets in, whereupon he left his companions, who were soon again fast asleep. The sky had suddenly become filled with clouds, and Errol hastened towards the Callisto, intending to remain there if necessary until the storm was over. For about twenty minutes he hurried on through the growing darkness, stopping once on high ground to make sure of his bearings, and he had covered more than half the distance when the rain came on in a flood, accompanying by brilliant lightning. Seeing the huge hollow trunk of a fallen tree nearby, and not wishing to be wet through, Errol fired several solid shots from his revolver into the cavity to drive out any wild animals there might be inside, and then hurriedly crawled in, feet first. He next drew in his head and was congratulating himself on his snug retreat when the sky became lurid with a flash of lightning, then his head dropped forward and he was unconscious. This is the end of Chapter 10 in Book 3 of A Journey in Other Worlds, recording by Tom Weiss. This is Chapter 11, Book 3 of A Journey in Other Worlds. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain, recording by Tom Weiss. A Journey in Other Worlds, Book 3, Chapter 11, Dreamland to Shadowland. As Errol's consciousness returned, he fancied he heard music. So distant it was distinct and seemed to ring from the ether of space. Occasionally it sounded even more remote, but it was rhythmical and continuous, inspiring and stirring him as nothing that he had ever heard before. Finally, it was overcome by the more vivid impressions upon his other senses and he found himself walking in the streets of his native city. It was spring and the trees were white with buds. The long shadows of the late afternoon stretched across the way, but the clear sky gave indication of prolonged twilight and the air was warm and balmy. Nature was filled with life and seemed to be proclaiming that the cold was past. As he moved along the street he met a funeral procession. What a pity, he thought, a man should die with summer so near at hand. He was also surprised at the keenness of his sight, for enclosed in each man's body he saw the outline of his soul. But the dead man's body was empty, like a cage without a bird. He also read the thoughts in their minds. Now said a large man in the carriage next to hers, I may win her since she is a widow. The widow herself kept thinking, Would it had been I? His life was essential to the children, while I should scarcely have been missed. I wish I had no duties here and might follow him now. While pondering on these things he reached Sylvia's house and went into the little room in which he had so often seen her. The warm south-westerly breeze blew through the open windows, and far beyond Central Park the approaching sunset promised to be beautiful. The table was covered with flowers, and though he had often seen that variety he had never before noticed the marvelous combinations of colors while the room was filled with a thousand delicious perfumes. The thrush hanging in the window sang divinely, and in a silver frame he saw a likeness of himself. I have always loved this room, he thought, but it seems to me now like heaven. He sat down in an armchair from force of habit to await his fiancée. Oh, for a walk with Sylvia by twilight his thoughts ran on, for she need not be at home again till after seven. Presently he heard the soft rustle of her dress and rose to meet her. Though she looked in his direction she did not seem to see him and walked past him to the window. She was the picture of loveliness, silhouetted against the sky. He went towards her and gazed into her deep-sea eyes which had a faraway expression. She turned, went gracefully to the mantelpiece, and took a photograph of herself from behind the clock. On its back Erol had scrawled a boyish verse composed by himself which ran, My divine, most ideal, Sylvia, a vision with eyes so blue, to his in the highest degree consequential, to my existence in fact essential, that I should be loved by you. As she read and reread those lines with his whole soul he yearned to have her look at him. He watched the color come and go in her clear, bright complexion, and was rejoiced to see in her the personification of activity and health. With his own effusion on the photograph he saw something written in pencil. In the hand he knew so well. Did you but know how I love you? No more silly things would you ask. With my whole heart and soul I adore you. Idiot, goose, bombast! As she glanced at it these thoughts crossed her mind. I shall never call you such names again. How much I shall have to tell you! It is provoking that you stay away so long. He came still nearer, so near in fact, that he could hear the beating of her heart. But she still seemed entirely unconscious of his presence. Using his reserve and self-control he impulsively grasped at her hands, then fell on his knees and then dumbfounded, struggled to his feet. Her hands seemed to slip through his. He was not able to touch her, and she was still unaware of his presence. Suddenly a whole flood of light and the truth burst upon him. He had passed painlessly and unconsciously from the dreamland of Saturn to the shadowland of Eternity. The mystery was solved. Like the dead bishop he had become a free spirit. His prayer was answered, and his body, struck by lightning, lay far away on that great reigned planet. How he longed to take in his arms the girl who had promised herself to him, and who he now saw loved him with her whole heart. But he was only an immaterial spirit, lighter even than the ether of space, and the unchangeable laws of the universe seemed to him but the irony of fate. As a spirit he was intangible and invisible to those in the flesh, and likewise they were beyond his control. The tragedy of life then dawned upon him, and the awful results of death made themselves felt. He glanced at Sylvia. On coming in she had looked radiantly happy. Now she seemed depressed, and even the bird stopped singing. Oh, he thought, could I but return to life for one hour to tell her how incessantly she has been in my thoughts, and how I love her? Death to the agent is no loss, in fact a blessing, but now an he sombed mentally in the anguish of his soul. If he could but communicate with her, he thought. But he remembered what the departed bishop had said, that it would take most men centuries to do this, and that others could never learn. By that time she too would be dead, perhaps having been the wife of someone else, and he felt a sense of jealousy even beyond the grave, throwing himself upon a rug on the floor in a paroxysm of distress he gazed at Sylvia. Oh, horrible mockery, he thought, thinking of the spirit, he gave me worse than a stone when I asked for bread, for in place of freedom he sent me death. Could I but be alive again for a few moments? But with a bitter smile he again remembered the words of the bishop. What would a soul in hell not give for but one hour on earth? Sylvia had seated herself on a small sofa, on which and next to her he had so often sat. Her gentle eyes had a thoughtful look, while her face was the personification of intelligence and beauty. She occasionally glanced at his photograph, which she held in her hand. Sylvia, Sylvia, he suddenly cried, rising to his knees at her feet. I love, I adore you. It was my longing to be with you that brought me here. I know you can neither see nor hear me, but cannot your soul commune with mine? Is Dick here? cried Sylvia, becoming deadly pale and getting up, or am I losing my reason? Given that she was distressed by the power of his mind, Errol once more sank to the floor, burying his face in his hands. Unable to endure this longer and feeling as if his heart must break, he rushed out into the street, wishing he might soothe his anguish with a hypodermic injection of morphine, and that he had a body with which to divert and suppress his soul. It had fallen, and the electric lamps cast their white rays on the ground, while the stars overhead shone in their eternal serenity and calm. Dan was it once more brought home to him that he was a spirit, for darkness and light were alike, and he felt the beginning of that sense of prescience of which the bishop had spoken. Passing through the houses of some of the clubs to which he belonged, he saw his name still upon the list of members, and then he went to the places of amusement he knew so well. On all sides were familiar faces, but what interested him most was the great division incessantly going on. Here were jolly people enjoying life and playing cards, who his foresight showed him would in less than a year be underground, like Mercudio in Romeo and Juliet, today known as Merry Fellows, who tomorrow would be grave men. While his eyes beheld the sun, he had imagined the air felt warm and balmy. He now saw that this had been a hallucination, for he was chilled through and through. He also perceived that he cast no shadow and that no one observed his presence. He on the other hand saw not only the air as it entered and left his friends lungs, but also the substance of their brains and the seeds of disease and death, whose presence they themselves did not even suspect, and the seventy-five percent of water in their bodies making them appear like sacks of liquid. In some he saw the germs of consumption, in others affections of the heart. In all he saw the incessant struggle between the healthy blood cells and the malignant omnipresent acilli that the cells were trying to overcome. Many men and women he saw were in love, and he could tell what all were about to do. Oh, the secrets that were revealed, while the motives for acts were now laid bare that till then he had misunderstood. He had often heard the old saying that if every person in a ballroom could read the thoughts of the rest, the ball would seem a travesty on enjoyment rather than real pleasure, and he now perceived its force. He also noticed that many were better than he had supposed and were trying, in a blundering but persevering way, to obey their consciences. He saw some unselfish thoughts and acts. Many things that he had attributed to irresolution or inconsistency he perceived were in reality self-sacrifice. He went on in frantic disquiet, distance no longer being of consequence, and in his roaming chanced to pass through the graveyard in which many generations of his ancestors lay buried. Within the leaden coffins he saw the cold remains, some well-preserved, others but handfuls of dust. Call me, O my progenitors, he cried. You whose blood till this morning flowed in my veins. Is there not some way by which I, as a spirit, can commune with the material world? I have always admired your judgment and wisdom, and you have all been in shadow-land longer than I. Give me, I pray you, some ancestral advice. The only sound in answer was the hum of the insects that filled the evening air. The moonlight shone softly but in a ghastly way on the marble crosses of his vault and those around, and he felt an unspeakable sadness within this abode of the dead. How many unfinished lives, he thought, have ended beneath these sods. Most talents here are buried in the ground, unattained ambitions, and those who died before their time, those who tried, in a half-hearted way, to improve their opportunities and accomplish something, and those who neglected them and did still less. All are together here, the just with the unjust, though it be for the last time. The grave absorbs their bodies and ends their probationary record, from which there is no appeal. Nearby were some open graves, ready to receive their occupants. While a little farther on, he recognized the courtland mausoleum, looking exactly as when shone him, through his second sight by the spirit on the previous day. From the graves filled recently and from many others rose threads of colored matter in the form of gases, the forerunners of miasma. He now perceived shadowy figures flitting about on the ground and in the air, from whose eyes poured streams of immaterial tears. Their brains, hearts, and vertebral columns were the parts most easily seen, and they were filled with an inextinguishable anguish and sorrow, that from its very intensity made itself seem as a blue flame. The ruffles and knickerbockers in which some of these were attired evidently by the effects of the thoughts in their minds, doubtless from force of habit from which they had worn on earth while alive, showed that they had been dead at least two hundred years. Arald also now found himself in street clothes, although when in his clubs he had worn a dress suit. "'Tell me, fellow spirits,' he said, addressing them, "'how can I communicate with one that is still alive?' They looked at him with moist eyes, but answered, not a word. I attribute it the misery in my heart,' thought Arald, entirely to the distress at losing Silvia, which God knows is enough, but though I suspected it before, I now see, via my companions, that I am in the depths of hell. This is the end of Chapter 11 in Book 3 of A Journey in Other Worlds, recording by Tom Weiss. This is Chapter 12, Book 3 of A Journey in Other Worlds. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain, recording by Tom Weiss. A Journey in Other Worlds, Book 3, Chapter 12, Sheel. Failing to find words to convey his thoughts, he threw himself into an open grave, praying that the earth might hide his soul, as he had supposed it some day would hide his body, but the ground was like crystal, and he saw the white bones in the graves all around him. Unable to endure these surroundings longer, he rushed back to his old haunts, where he knew he should find the friends of his youth. He did not pause to go by the usual way, but passed without stopping through walls and buildings. Soon he beheld the familiar scene and heard his own name mentioned, but there was no comfort here, and what he had seen of old was but an incident to what he gazed on now. Praying with his whole heart that he might make himself heard, he stepped upon a footstool and cried, Your bodies are decaying before me. You are burying your talents in the ground. We must all stand for final sentence at the last day, mortals and spirits alike. There is not a shadow of a doubt. Your every thought will be known, and for every evil deed and every idle word God will bring us into judgment. The angel of death is among you and at work in your very midst. Are you prepared to receive him? He has already killed my body, and now that I can never die I wish there was a grave for my soul. I was reassured by a vision that told me I was safe, but either it was a hallucination or I had been betrayed by some spirit. Last night I still lived, and my body obeyed my will. Since then I have experienced death, and with the resulting increased knowledge comes a loss of all hope with keener pangs than I supposed could exist. Oh that I had now their opportunities that I might write a thesis that you should live forever and save millions of souls from the anguish of mine. Inoculate your mortal bodies with the germs of faith and mutual love in a stronger degree than they dwelt in me lest you lose the life above. But no one hurt him, and he preached in vain. He again rushed forth, and after a half-involuntary effort found himself in the street before his loved one's home. Scarcely knowing why, except that it had become nature to wish to be near her, he stood for a long time opposite her dwelling. Oh, how secride inanimate object that can yet enthrall me so! I stand before your cold front as a suppliant from a very distant realm, yet in my sadness I am colder than your stones, more alone than in a desolate place. She that dwells within you holds my love. I long for her shadow or the sound of her step. I am more wretchedly in love than ever, I, an impotent, invisible spirit. Must I bear this sorrow in addition to my others in my fruitless search for rest? My life will be a waking nightmare, most bitter irony of fate. The trees swayed above his head, and the moon, in its last quarter, looked dreamily at him. Ah, thought Aril, could I but sleep and be happy? Drowsiness and weariness, fatigue's grasp is on me, or may Sylvia's nearness soothe as her voice has brought me calm. Quiet I may someday enjoy, but slumber again never. I see that souls and Hades must ever have their misdeeds before them. Any man in this world, the repentance sins are forgiven. You lose your care in sleep. Somnolence and drowsiness, balm of aching hearts, angels of mercy, mortals how blessed until you die, God sends you this rest. When I recall summer evenings with Sylvia, while gentle zephyrs fanned our brows, I would change Pope's famous line to Man Never Is, but always has been blessed. A clock in a church steeple now struck three, the sound ringing through the still night air. It will soon be time for ghosts to go, thought Aril, I must not haunt her dwelling. There was a light in Sylvia's study, and Aril remained meditatively gazing at it. Happy lamp, he thought, to shed your light on one so fair. She can see you, and you shine for her. You are better off than I. Would that her soul might shine for me, as your light shines for her? The light of my life has departed. Oh, that the darkness were complete. I am dead, his thoughts ran on, and when the privilege, bitter word, that permits me to remain here has expired, I must doubtless return to Saturn, and there, in purgatory, work out my probation. But what comfort is it that a few centuries hence I may be able to revisit my native earth? The flowers will bloom in the morning light, and the lark salute the sun. The earth will continue to roll through space, and I may be nearer my final grace, but Sylvia's life thread will be spun. Even Sylvia's house will be a heap of ruins, or its place will be taken by something else. If I had Sylvia, I should care for nothing, as I have lost her even this sight, though sweet, must always bring regret. I wish at all events I might see Sylvia, if only with these spirit eyes, since as a mortal she may never gladden my sight again. To his surprise, he now perceived that he could see, notwithstanding the drawn shades. Sylvia was at her writing desk, in a light-colored wrapper. She sat there, resting her head on her hand, looking thoughtful, but worried. Though it was so late, she had not retired. The thrush that Erol had often in life admired, and that she had for some reason brought upstairs, was silent and asleep. Happy bird, he said. You obtain rest and forgetfulness on covering your head, but what wing can cover my soul? I used to wish I might flutter towards heaven on natural wings like you, little thrush. Now I can indeed outfly you. But whatever I do, I'm unhappy, and wherever I go, I'm in hell. What is man in his helpless first spiritual state? He is but a flower, and withers soon. Had I, like the bishop, been less blind, and obeyed my conscience clear, I might have returned to my native earth while Sylvia still sojourns here, and coming thus by virtue of development I should be able to commune with her. What is life, he continued. In the retrospect, nothing. It seems to me already, as but an infinitesimal point, things that engrossed me, and seemed of such moment that overshadowed the duty of obeying my conscience. What were they, and where? Ah, where! They endured but a moment. Reality and Evanescence The light in Sylvia's room was out now, and in the east he beheld the dawn. The ubiquitous gray which he saw at night was invaded by streams of glorious crimson and blue that reached far up into the sky. He gazed at the spectacle, and then, once more, at that house in which his love was centered. What I might be her guardian angel, to guide her in the right, and keep her from all harm. Sleep on, Sylvia. Sweet one, sleep. Yon stars fade beside your eyes. Your thoughts and your soul are fairer than the east in this day's sunrise. I know what I have lost. Ah, desolating knowledge, for I have read Sylvia's heart, and know I was loved as truly as I loved. When Bear Warden and Cortland break her the news, ah, God, will she live, and do they yet know I am dead? Again came that spasm to shed spirit tears, and had he not known it impossible he would have thought his heart must break. The birds twittered, and the light grew, but Erol lay with his face upon the ground. Only the spirit of unrest drove him on. He passed the barred door of his own house, through which he had entered so often. It was unchanged, but seemed deserted. Next he went to the waterfront, where he had left his yacht. Invisibly and sadly he stood upon her upper deck, and gazed at the levers in response to his touch on which the craft had cleft the ways, reversed, or turned like a thing of life. To his pretty toy he mused, and many hours of joy have I had as I floated through life on board of her. As he moped along he beheld two unkempt Italians having a piano organ and a violin. The music was not fine, but it touched a chord in Erol's breast, for he had waltzed with Sylvia to that air, and it made his heart ache. O the acuteness of my distress he cried, the utter depth of my sorrow, can I have no peace and death, no oblivion in the grave? I am reminded of my blightest, hopeless love in all kinds of unexpected ways by unforeseen trifles. O what I might indeed die! May obliteration be my deliverer! Poor fellows he continued glancing at the Italians, for he perceived that neither of the players was happy. The pianist was avaricious, while the violinist's natural and habitual jealousy destroyed his peace of mind. Unhappiness seems the common lot, thought Erol. Peace cannot give that joy for which we sigh. Poor fellows, though you rack my ears and distress my heart, I cannot help you now. This is the end of Chapter 12 in Book 3 of A Journey in Other Worlds, recording by Tom Weiss. This is Chapter 13, Book 3 of A Journey in Other Worlds. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain, recording by Tom Weiss. A Journey in Other Worlds, Book 3, Chapter 13, The Priest's Sermon. It being the first day of the week, the morning air was filled with chimes for many steeples. Divine service always comforted me in life, thought Erol, perchance it may do so now when I have reached the state for which it tried to prepare me. Accordingly he moved on with the throng, and soon was ascending the heights of Morningside Park, after which he entered the cathedral. The priest whose voice had so often thrilled him stood at his post in his surplus, and the choir had finished the processional hymn. Following the responses in the litany, and between the commandments, while the congregation and the choir sang, he heard their natural voices as of old ascending to the vaulted roof and arrested there. He now also heard their spiritual voices, resulting from the earnestness of their prayers. These were rung through the vaster vault of space, arousing a spiritual echo beyond the constellations and the nebula. The service, which was that of the Protestant Episcopal Church, touched him deeply as usual, after which the rector ascended the steps to the pulpit. The text this morning, he began, is from the eighth chapter of St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans, at the eighteenth verse. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared to the glory that shall be revealed in us. Let us suppose that you or I, brethren, should become a free and disembodied spirit. A minute vein in the brain-bursts, or a clot, forms in the heart. It may be a mere trifle, some unexpected thing, yet the career in the flesh is ended. The eternal life of the liberated spirit begun. The soul slips from earth's grasp, as air from our fingers and finds itself in the frigid, boundless void of space. Yet through some longing this soul might rejoin us, and, though invisible, might hear the church bell's ring, and long to recall some one of the many bright Sunday mornings spent here on earth. Has a direful misfortune befallen this brother, or has a slave been set free? Let us suppose, for a moment, that the first has occurred. Vanity of vanities, said the old preacher. Calamity of calamities, says the new. That soul's probationary period is ended. His record on which he must go is for ever made. He has been in the flesh, let us say, one, two, three, or four score years, before him are the countless eons of eternity. He may have had a reasonably satisfactory life, from his point of view, and been fairly successful in stilling conscience. That still, small voice doubtless spoke pretty sharply at first, but after a while it rarely troubled him, and in the end it spoke not at all. He may, in a way, have enjoyed life and the beauties of nature. He has seen the fresh leaves come and go, but he forgot the moral, that he himself was but a leaf, and that as they all dropped to earth to make more soil, his ashes must also return to the ground. But his soul, friends and brethren, what becomes of that? Ah, it is the study of this question that moistened our eyes with tears. No evil man is really happy here, and what must be his suffering in the cold, cold land of spirits? No slumber or forgetfulness can ease his lot in Hades, and after his condemnation at the last judgment he must forever face the unsoffened realities of eternity. No evil thing or thought can find lodgement in heaven. If it could, heaven would not be a happy place. Neither can any man improve in the abyss of hell, as the horizon gradually darkens and this soul recedes from God, the time spent in the flesh must come to seem the most infinitesimal moment, more evanescent than the tick of a clock. It seems dreadful that for such short misdoings a soul should suffer so long, but no man can be saved in spite of himself. He had the opportunities, and the knowledge of this must give a soul the most acute pang. In Revelation 20, Chapter 6, we find these words. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection. On such the second death hath no power. I have often asked myself, may not this mean that those with a bad record in the general resurrection after a time cease to exist, since all suffer one death at the close of their period here? This is somewhat suggested by Proverbs Chapter 12, 28. In the way of righteousness is life, and in the pathway thereof there is no death. This might limit the everlasting damnation, so often repeated elsewhere, to the lives of the condemned, since to them in a sense it would be everlasting. Let us now turn to the bright picture. The soul that has weathered the storms of life and has reached the haven of rest. The struggles, temptations, and trials overcome have done their work of refining with the rapidity that could not have been equaled in any other way, and though perhaps very imperfect still, the journey is ever on. The reward is tenfold, yet in proportion to what this soul has done, for we know that the servant who best used his ten talents was made ruler over ten cities, while he that increased his five talents by five received five, and the saviour in whom he trusted, by whose aid he made his fight, stands ready to receive him, saying, Enter thou into the joy of thy lord. As the dark earthly background recedes, the clouds break, and the glorious light appears, the contrast heightening the ever unfolding and increasing delights, which are as great as the recipients have power to enjoy, since these righteous souls receive their rewards in proportion to the weight of the crosses that they have borne in the right spirit. These souls are a joy to their Creator, and are the heirs of him in heaven. The ceaseless, sleepless activity that must obtain in both Paradise and Hades, and that must make the hearts of the Godless grow faint at the contemplation, is also a boundless promise to those who have him who is all in all. Where is now thy saviour? Where is now thy God? The unjust man has asked in his heart when he saw his just neighbor struggling and unsuccessful. Both the righteous and the unrighteous man are dead. The one has found his saviour, the other is yearly losing God. What is the suffering of the present momentary time, eased as it is by God's mercy and presence, compared with the glories that await us? What would it be if our lives here were filled with nothing else, as ye know that your labor is not vain in the Lord? Time and eternity, the finite and the infinite, death was indeed a deliverer, and the sunset of the body is the sunrise of the soul. The priest held himself erect as a soldier while delivering this sermon, making the great cathedral ring with his earnestness and solemn voice, while Erol, as a spirit, saw how absolutely he meant and believed every word that he said. Nearly all the members of the congregation were moved. Some more, some less than they appeared. After the benediction, they rapidly dispersed, carrying in their hearts the germs he had sown. But whether these would bear fruit or wither, time alone could show. I had noticed Sylvia's father and mother in church, but Sylvia herself was not there, and he was distressed to think she might be ill. Why, pondered Erol, am I so unhappy? I was baptized, confirmed, and have taken the sacrament. I have always had an unshaken faith, and though often unsuccessful, have striven to obey my conscience. The spirits also on Saturn kept saying I should be happy. Now did this mean it was incumbent upon me to rejoice because of some blessing I already had and did not appreciate, or did their prescience show them some prospective happiness I was to enjoy? The visions also of Violet, the angel, and the lily, which I believed and still believe, were no mere empty fancies, should have given me the most unspeakable joy. It may be a mistake to apply earthly logic to heavenly things, but the fundamental laws of science cannot change. Why am I so unhappy, he continued, returning to his original questions. The visions gave promise of special grace, perhaps some special favor. True, my prayer to see Sylvia was heard, but considering the sacrifice, this has been no blessing. The request cannot have been wrong in itself, and as for the manner there was no arrogance in my heart, I asked as a mortal, as a man of but finite understanding for what concerned me most. Why, oh why so wretched!