A Journey in Other Worlds [88]
making
water-gas--preferably platinum heated by electricity--apply an
apergetic shock, and the oxygen and hydrogen will separate like
oil and water, the oxygen being so much the heavier. Lead them
in different directions as fast as the water is decomposed--since
otherwise they would reunite--and your supply of power will be
inexhaustible."
"Will you not stay and dine with us?" asked Ayrault. "While in
the flesh you must be subject to its laws, and must need food to
maintain your strength, like ourselves."
"It will give me great pleasure," replied the spirit, "to tarry
with you, and once more to taste earthly food, but most of all to
have the blessed joy of being of service to you. Here, all being
immaterial spirits, no physical injury can befall any of us; and
since no one wants anything that any one else can give, we have
no opportunity of doing anything for each other. You see we
neither eat nor sleep, neither can any of us again know physical
pain or death, nor can we comfort one another, for every one
knows the truth about himself and every one else, and we read one
another's thoughts as an open book."
"Do you," asked Bearwarden, "not eat at all?
"We absorb vitality in a sense," replied the spirit. "As the sun
combines certain substances into food for mortals, it also
produces molecular vibration and charges the air with magnetism
and electricity, which we absorb without effort. In fact, there
is a faint pleasure in the absorption of this strength, when, in
magnetic disturbances, there is an unusual amount of immortal
food. Should we try to resist it, there would eventually be a
greater pressure without than within, and we should assimilate
involuntarily. We are part of the intangible universe, and can
feel no hunger that is not instantly appeased, neither can we
ever more know thirst."
"Why," asked Cortlandt reverently, " did the angel with the sword
of flame drive Adam from the Tree of Life, since with his soul he
had received that which could never die?"
"That was part of the mercy of God," the shade replied; "for
immortality could be enjoyed but meagrely on earth, where natural
limitations are so abrupt. And know this, ye who are something
of chemists, that had Adam eaten of that substance called fruit,
he would have lived in the flesh to this day, and would have been
of all men the most unhappy."
"Will the Fountain of Youth ever be discovered?" asked Cortlandt.
"That substances exist," replied the spirit, "that render it
impossible for the germs of old age and decay to lodge in the
body, I know; in fact, it would be a break in the continuity and
balance of Nature did they not; but I believe their discovery
will be coincident with Christ's second visible advent on earth.
You are, however, only on the shore of the ocean of knowledge,
and, by continuing to advance in geometric ratio, will soon be
able to retain your mortal bodies till the average longevity
exceeds Methuselah's; but, except for more opportunities of doing
good, or setting a longer example to your fellows by your lives,
where would be the gain?
"I now see how what appeared to me while I lived on earth
insignificant incidents, were the acts of God, and that what I
thought injustice or misfortune was but evidence of his wisdom
and love; for we know that not a sparrow falleth without God, and
that the hairs of our heads are numbered. Every act of kindness
or unselfishness on my part, also, stands out like a golden
letter or a white stone, and gives me unspeakable comfort. At
the last judgment, and in eternity following, we shall have very
different but just as real bodies as those that we possessed in
the flesh. The dead at the last trump will rise clothed in them,
and at that time the souls in paradise will receive them also."
"I wonder," thought Ayrault, "on which hand we shall be placed in
that last day."
"The classification is now going on," said the spirit, answering
his thought, "and I know that in the final judgment
water-gas--preferably platinum heated by electricity--apply an
apergetic shock, and the oxygen and hydrogen will separate like
oil and water, the oxygen being so much the heavier. Lead them
in different directions as fast as the water is decomposed--since
otherwise they would reunite--and your supply of power will be
inexhaustible."
"Will you not stay and dine with us?" asked Ayrault. "While in
the flesh you must be subject to its laws, and must need food to
maintain your strength, like ourselves."
"It will give me great pleasure," replied the spirit, "to tarry
with you, and once more to taste earthly food, but most of all to
have the blessed joy of being of service to you. Here, all being
immaterial spirits, no physical injury can befall any of us; and
since no one wants anything that any one else can give, we have
no opportunity of doing anything for each other. You see we
neither eat nor sleep, neither can any of us again know physical
pain or death, nor can we comfort one another, for every one
knows the truth about himself and every one else, and we read one
another's thoughts as an open book."
"Do you," asked Bearwarden, "not eat at all?
"We absorb vitality in a sense," replied the spirit. "As the sun
combines certain substances into food for mortals, it also
produces molecular vibration and charges the air with magnetism
and electricity, which we absorb without effort. In fact, there
is a faint pleasure in the absorption of this strength, when, in
magnetic disturbances, there is an unusual amount of immortal
food. Should we try to resist it, there would eventually be a
greater pressure without than within, and we should assimilate
involuntarily. We are part of the intangible universe, and can
feel no hunger that is not instantly appeased, neither can we
ever more know thirst."
"Why," asked Cortlandt reverently, " did the angel with the sword
of flame drive Adam from the Tree of Life, since with his soul he
had received that which could never die?"
"That was part of the mercy of God," the shade replied; "for
immortality could be enjoyed but meagrely on earth, where natural
limitations are so abrupt. And know this, ye who are something
of chemists, that had Adam eaten of that substance called fruit,
he would have lived in the flesh to this day, and would have been
of all men the most unhappy."
"Will the Fountain of Youth ever be discovered?" asked Cortlandt.
"That substances exist," replied the spirit, "that render it
impossible for the germs of old age and decay to lodge in the
body, I know; in fact, it would be a break in the continuity and
balance of Nature did they not; but I believe their discovery
will be coincident with Christ's second visible advent on earth.
You are, however, only on the shore of the ocean of knowledge,
and, by continuing to advance in geometric ratio, will soon be
able to retain your mortal bodies till the average longevity
exceeds Methuselah's; but, except for more opportunities of doing
good, or setting a longer example to your fellows by your lives,
where would be the gain?
"I now see how what appeared to me while I lived on earth
insignificant incidents, were the acts of God, and that what I
thought injustice or misfortune was but evidence of his wisdom
and love; for we know that not a sparrow falleth without God, and
that the hairs of our heads are numbered. Every act of kindness
or unselfishness on my part, also, stands out like a golden
letter or a white stone, and gives me unspeakable comfort. At
the last judgment, and in eternity following, we shall have very
different but just as real bodies as those that we possessed in
the flesh. The dead at the last trump will rise clothed in them,
and at that time the souls in paradise will receive them also."
"I wonder," thought Ayrault, "on which hand we shall be placed in
that last day."
"The classification is now going on," said the spirit, answering
his thought, "and I know that in the final judgment