A Journey in Other Worlds [107]
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 walked beside you, though you knew it not. Water is
heavy, and you may not yet have become accustomed to its
Saturnian weight."
"Many thanks, my master," replied Ayrault, 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-nots 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.'"
"Marvellous! 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 Ayrault, 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
Bearwarden and Cortlandt, "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 intra-Mercurial 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 perihelion 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 0, 3, 6, 12, 24, 48, 96. Add 4 to each, and get 4, 7, 10,
16, 28, 52, 100; 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 5,000,000,000 miles from the sun. But it is
about 9,500,000,000, 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
upheld him.
"I thought you might need a little help," he said with a smile,
"and so walked beside you, though you knew it not. Water is
heavy, and you may not yet have become accustomed to its
Saturnian weight."
"Many thanks, my master," replied Ayrault, 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-nots 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.'"
"Marvellous! 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 Ayrault, 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
Bearwarden and Cortlandt, "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 intra-Mercurial 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 perihelion 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 0, 3, 6, 12, 24, 48, 96. Add 4 to each, and get 4, 7, 10,
16, 28, 52, 100; 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 5,000,000,000 miles from the sun. But it is
about 9,500,000,000, 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