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diff --git a/22472.txt b/22472.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f76087e --- /dev/null +++ b/22472.txt @@ -0,0 +1,13811 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Book of the Damned, by Charles Fort + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Book of the Damned + +Author: Charles Fort + +Release Date: August 31, 2007 [EBook #22472] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BOOK OF THE DAMNED *** + + + + +Produced by Julie Barkley, Graeme Mackreth and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + +THE BOOK OF THE DAMNED + + + + +1 + + +A procession of the damned. + +By the damned, I mean the excluded. + +We shall have a procession of data that Science has excluded. + +Battalions of the accursed, captained by pallid data that I have +exhumed, will march. You'll read them--or they'll march. Some of them +livid and some of them fiery and some of them rotten. + +Some of them are corpses, skeletons, mummies, twitching, tottering, +animated by companions that have been damned alive. There are giants +that will walk by, though sound asleep. There are things that are +theorems and things that are rags: they'll go by like Euclid arm in arm +with the spirit of anarchy. Here and there will flit little harlots. +Many are clowns. But many are of the highest respectability. Some are +assassins. There are pale stenches and gaunt superstitions and mere +shadows and lively malices: whims and amiabilities. The naive and the +pedantic and the bizarre and the grotesque and the sincere and the +insincere, the profound and the puerile. + +A stab and a laugh and the patiently folded hands of hopeless propriety. + +The ultra-respectable, but the condemned, anyway. + +The aggregate appearance is of dignity and dissoluteness: the aggregate +voice is a defiant prayer: but the spirit of the whole is processional. + +The power that has said to all these things that they are damned, is +Dogmatic Science. + +But they'll march. + +The little harlots will caper, and freaks will distract attention, and +the clowns will break the rhythm of the whole with their +buffooneries--but the solidity of the procession as a whole: the +impressiveness of things that pass and pass and pass, and keep on and +keep on and keep on coming. + +The irresistibleness of things that neither threaten nor jeer nor defy, +but arrange themselves in mass-formations that pass and pass and keep on +passing. + + * * * * * + +So, by the damned, I mean the excluded. + +But by the excluded I mean that which will some day be the excluding. + +Or everything that is, won't be. + +And everything that isn't, will be-- + +But, of course, will be that which won't be-- + +It is our expression that the flux between that which isn't and that +which won't be, or the state that is commonly and absurdly called +"existence," is a rhythm of heavens and hells: that the damned won't +stay damned; that salvation only precedes perdition. The inference is +that some day our accursed tatterdemalions will be sleek angels. Then +the sub-inference is that some later day, back they'll go whence they +came. + + * * * * * + +It is our expression that nothing can attempt to be, except by +attempting to exclude something else: that that which is commonly called +"being" is a state that is wrought more or less definitely +proportionately to the appearance of positive difference between that +which is included and that which is excluded. + +But it is our expression that there are no positive differences: that +all things are like a mouse and a bug in the heart of a cheese. Mouse +and a bug: no two things could seem more unlike. They're there a week, +or they stay there a month: both are then only transmutations of cheese. +I think we're all bugs and mice, and are only different expressions of +an all-inclusive cheese. + +Or that red is not positively different from yellow: is only another +degree of whatever vibrancy yellow is a degree of: that red and yellow +are continuous, or that they merge in orange. + +So then that, if, upon the basis of yellowness and redness, Science +should attempt to classify all phenomena, including all red things as +veritable, and excluding all yellow things as false or illusory, the +demarcation would have to be false and arbitrary, because things colored +orange, constituting continuity, would belong on both sides of the +attempted borderline. + +As we go along, we shall be impressed with this: + +That no basis for classification, or inclusion and exclusion, more +reasonable than that of redness and yellowness has ever been conceived +of. + +Science has, by appeal to various bases, included a multitude of data. +Had it not done so, there would be nothing with which to seem to be. +Science has, by appeal to various bases, excluded a multitude of data. +Then, if redness is continuous with yellowness: if every basis of +admission is continuous with every basis of exclusion, Science must have +excluded some things that are continuous with the accepted. In redness +and yellowness, which merge in orangeness, we typify all tests, all +standards, all means of forming an opinion-- + +Or that any positive opinion upon any subject is illusion built upon the +fallacy that there are positive differences to judge by-- + +That the quest of all intellection has been for something--a fact, a +basis, a generalization, law, formula, a major premise that is positive: +that the best that has ever been done has been to say that some things +are self-evident--whereas, by evidence we mean the support of something +else-- + +That this is the quest; but that it has never been attained; but that +Science has acted, ruled, pronounced, and condemned as if it had been +attained. + +What is a house? + +It is not possible to say what anything is, as positively distinguished +from anything else, if there are no positive differences. + +A barn is a house, if one lives in it. If residence constitutes +houseness, because style of architecture does not, then a bird's nest is +a house: and human occupancy is not the standard to judge by, because we +speak of dogs' houses; nor material, because we speak of snow houses of +Eskimos--or a shell is a house to a hermit crab--or was to the mollusk +that made it--or things seemingly so positively different as the White +House at Washington and a shell on the seashore are seen to be +continuous. + +So no one has ever been able to say what electricity is, for instance. +It isn't anything, as positively distinguished from heat or magnetism or +life. Metaphysicians and theologians and biologists have tried to define +life. They have failed, because, in a positive sense, there is nothing +to define: there is no phenomenon of life that is not, to some degree, +manifest in chemism, magnetism, astronomic motions. + +White coral islands in a dark blue sea. + +Their seeming of distinctness: the seeming of individuality, or of +positive difference one from another--but all are only projections from +the same sea bottom. The difference between sea and land is not +positive. In all water there is some earth: in all earth there is some +water. + +So then that all seeming things are not things at all, if all are +inter-continuous, any more than is the leg of a table a thing in itself, +if it is only a projection from something else: that not one of us is a +real person, if, physically, we're continuous with environment; if, +psychically, there is nothing to us but expression of relation to +environment. + +Our general expression has two aspects: + +Conventional monism, or that all "things" that seem to have identity of +their own are only islands that are projections from something +underlying, and have no real outlines of their own. + +But that all "things," though only projections, are projections that are +striving to break away from the underlying that denies them identity of +their own. + +I conceive of one inter-continuous nexus, in which and of which all +seeming things are only different expressions, but in which all things +are localizations of one attempt to break away and become real things, +or to establish entity or positive difference or final demarcation or +unmodified independence--or personality or soul, as it is called in +human phenomena-- + +That anything that tries to establish itself as a real, or positive, or +absolute system, government, organization, self, soul, entity, +individuality, can so attempt only by drawing a line about itself, or +about the inclusions that constitute itself, and damning or excluding, +or breaking away from, all other "things": + +That, if it does not so act, it cannot seem to be; + +That, if it does so act, it falsely and arbitrarily and futilely and +disastrously acts, just as would one who draws a circle in the sea, +including a few waves, saying that the other waves, with which the +included are continuous, are positively different, and stakes his life +upon maintaining that the admitted and the damned are positively +different. + +Our expression is that our whole existence is animation of the local by +an ideal that is realizable only in the universal: + +That, if all exclusions are false, because always are included and +excluded continuous: that if all seeming of existence perceptible to us +is the product of exclusion, there is nothing that is perceptible to us +that really is: that only the universal can really be. + +Our especial interest is in modern science as a manifestation of this +one ideal or purpose or process: + +That it has falsely excluded, because there are no positive standards to +judge by: that it has excluded things that, by its own pseudo-standards, +have as much right to come in as have the chosen. + + * * * * * + +Our general expression: + +That the state that is commonly and absurdly called "existence," is a +flow, or a current, or an attempt, from negativeness to positiveness, +and is intermediate to both. + +By positiveness we mean: + +Harmony, equilibrium, order, regularity, stability, consistency, unity, +realness, system, government, organization, liberty, independence, soul, +self, personality, entity, individuality, truth, beauty, justice, +perfection, definiteness-- + +That all that is called development, progress, or evolution is movement +toward, or attempt toward, this state for which, or for aspects of +which, there are so many names, all of which are summed up in the one +word "positiveness." + +At first this summing up may not be very readily acceptable. At first it +may seem that all these words are not synonyms: that "harmony" may mean +"order," but that by "independence," for instance, we do not mean +"truth," or that by "stability" we do not mean "beauty," or "system," or +"justice." + +I conceive of one inter-continuous nexus, which expresses itself in +astronomic phenomena, and chemic, biologic, psychic, sociologic: that it +is everywhere striving to localize positiveness: that to this attempt in +various fields of phenomena--which are only quasi-different--we give +different names. We speak of the "system" of the planets, and not of +their "government": but in considering a store, for instance, and its +management, we see that the words are interchangeable. It used to be +customary to speak of chemic equilibrium, but not of social equilibrium: +that false demarcation has been broken down. We shall see that by all +these words we mean the same state. As every-day conveniences, or in +terms of common illusions, of course, they are not synonyms. To a child +an earth worm is not an animal. It is to the biologist. + +By "beauty," I mean that which seems complete. + +Obversely, that the incomplete, or the mutilated, is the ugly. + +Venus de Milo. + +To a child she is ugly. + +When a mind adjusts to thinking of her as a completeness, even though, +by physiologic standards, incomplete, she is beautiful. + +A hand thought of only as a hand, may seem beautiful. + +Found on a battlefield--obviously a part--not beautiful. + +But everything in our experience is only a part of something else that +in turn is only a part of still something else--or that there is nothing +beautiful in our experience: only appearances that are intermediate to +beauty and ugliness--that only universality is complete: that only the +complete is the beautiful: that every attempt to achieve beauty is an +attempt to give to the local the attribute of the universal. + +By stability, we mean the immovable and the unaffected. But all seeming +things are only reactions to something else. Stability, too, then, can +be only the universal, or that besides which there is nothing else. +Though some things seem to have--or have--higher approximations to +stability than have others, there are, in our experience, only various +degrees of intermediateness to stability and instability. Every man, +then, who works for stability under its various names of "permanency," +"survival," "duration," is striving to localize in something the state +that is realizable only in the universal. + +By independence, entity, and individuality, I can mean only that +besides which there is nothing else, if given only two things, they must +be continuous and mutually affective, if everything is only a reaction +to something else, and any two things would be destructive of each +other's independence, entity, or individuality. + +All attempted organizations and systems and consistencies, some +approximating far higher than others, but all only intermediate to Order +and Disorder, fail eventually because of their relations with outside +forces. All are attempted completenesses. If to all local phenomena +there are always outside forces, these attempts, too, are realizable +only in the state of completeness, or that to which there are no outside +forces. + +Or that all these words are synonyms, all meaning the state that we call +the positive state-- + +That our whole "existence" is a striving for the positive state. + +The amazing paradox of it all: + +That all things are trying to become the universal by excluding other +things. + +That there is only this one process, and that it does animate all +expressions, in all fields of phenomena, of that which we think of as +one inter-continuous nexus: + +The religious and their idea or ideal of the soul. They mean distinct, +stable entity, or a state that is independent, and not a mere flux of +vibrations or complex of reactions to environment, continuous with +environment, merging away with an infinitude of other interdependent +complexes. + +But the only thing that would not merge away into something else would +be that besides which there is nothing else. + +That Truth is only another name for the positive state, or that the +quest for Truth is the attempt to achieve positiveness: + +Scientists who have thought that they were seeking Truth, but who were +trying to find out astronomic, or chemic, or biologic truths. But Truth +is that besides which there is nothing: nothing to modify it, nothing to +question it, nothing to form an exception: the all-inclusive, the +complete-- + +By Truth I mean the Universal. + +So chemists have sought the true, or the real, and have always failed in +their endeavors, because of the outside relations of chemical +phenomena: have failed in the sense that never has a chemical law, +without exceptions, been discovered: because chemistry is continuous +with astronomy, physics, biology--For instance, if the sun should +greatly change its distance from this earth, and if human life could +survive, the familiar chemic formulas would no longer work out: a new +science of chemistry would have to be learned-- + +Or that all attempts to find Truth in the special are attempts to find +the universal in the local. + +And artists and their striving for positiveness, under the name of +"harmony"--but their pigments that are oxydizing, or are responding to a +deranging environment--or the strings of musical instruments that are +differently and disturbingly adjusting to outside chemic and thermal and +gravitational forces--again and again this oneness of all ideals, and +that it is the attempt to be, or to achieve, locally, that which is +realizable only universally. In our experience there is only +intermediateness to harmony and discord. Harmony is that besides which +there are no outside forces. + +And nations that have fought with only one motive: for individuality, or +entity, or to be real, final nations, not subordinate to, or parts of, +other nations. And that nothing but intermediateness has ever been +attained, and that history is record of failures of this one attempt, +because there always have been outside forces, or other nations +contending for the same goal. + +As to physical things, chemic, mineralogic, astronomic, it is not +customary to say that they act to achieve Truth or Entity, but it is +understood that all motions are toward Equilibrium: that there is no +motion except toward Equilibrium, of course always away from some other +approximation to Equilibrium. + +All biologic phenomena act to adjust: there are no biologic actions +other than adjustments. + +Adjustment is another name for Equilibrium. Equilibrium is the +Universal, or that which has nothing external to derange it. + +But that all that we call "being" is motion: and that all motion is the +expression, not of equilibrium, but of equilibrating, or of equilibrium +unattained: that life-motions are expressions of equilibrium unattained: +that all thought relates to the unattained: that to have what is called +being in our quasi-state, is not to be in the positive sense, or is to +be intermediate to Equilibrium and Inequilibrium. + +So then: + +That all phenomena in our intermediate state, or quasi-state, represent +this one attempt to organize, stabilize, harmonize, individualize--or to +positivize, or to become real: + +That only to have seeming is to express failure or intermediateness to +final failure and final success: + +That every attempt--that is observable--is defeated by Continuity, or by +outside forces--or by the excluded that are continuous with the +included: + +That our whole "existence" is an attempt by the relative to be the +absolute, or by the local to be the universal. + +In this book, my interest is in this attempt as manifested in modern +science: + +That it has attempted to be real, true, final, complete, absolute: + +That, if the seeming of being, here, in our quasi-state, is the product +of exclusion that is always false and arbitrary, if always are included +and excluded continuous, the whole seeming system, or entity, of modern +science is only quasi-system, or quasi-entity, wrought by the same false +and arbitrary process as that by which the still less positive system +that preceded it, or the theological system, wrought the illusion of its +being. + +In this book, I assemble some of the data that I think are of the +falsely and arbitrarily excluded. + +The data of the damned. + +I have gone into the outer darkness of scientific and philosophical +transactions and proceedings, ultra-respectable, but covered with the +dust of disregard. I have descended into journalism. I have come back +with the quasi-souls of lost data. + +They will march. + + * * * * * + +As to the logic of our expressions to come-- + +That there is only quasi-logic in our mode of seeming: + +That nothing ever has been proved-- + +Because there is nothing to prove. + +When I say that there is nothing to prove, I mean that to those who +accept Continuity, or the merging away of all phenomena into other +phenomena, without positive demarcations one from another, there is, in +a positive sense, no one thing. There is nothing to prove. + +For instance nothing can be proved to be an animal--because animalness +and vegetableness are not positively different. There are some +expressions of life that are as much vegetable as animal, or that +represent the merging of animalness and vegetableness. There is then no +positive test, standard, criterion, means of forming an opinion. As +distinct from vegetables, animals do not exist. There is nothing to +prove. Nothing could be proved to be good, for instance. There is +nothing in our "existence" that is good, in a positive sense, or as +really outlined from evil. If to forgive be good in times of peace, it +is evil in wartime. There is nothing to prove: good in our experience is +continuous with, or is only another aspect of evil. + +As to what I'm trying to do now--I accept only. If I can't see +universally, I only localize. + +So, of course then, that nothing ever has been proved: + +That theological pronouncements are as much open to doubt as ever they +were, but that, by a hypnotizing process, they became dominant over the +majority of minds in their era: + +That, in a succeeding era, the laws, dogmas, formulas, principles, of +materialistic science never were proved, because they are only +localizations simulating the universal; but that the leading minds of +their era of dominance were hypnotized into more or less firmly +believing them. + +Newton's three laws, and that they are attempts to achieve positiveness, +or to defy and break Continuity, and are as unreal as are all other +attempts to localize the universal: + +That, if every observable body is continuous, mediately or immediately, +with all other bodies, it cannot be influenced only by its own inertia, +so that there is no way of knowing what the phenomena of inertia may be; +that, if all things are reacting to an infinitude of forces, there is no +way of knowing what the effects of only one impressed force would be; +that if every reaction is continuous with its action, it cannot be +conceived of as a whole, and that there is no way of conceiving what it +might be equal and opposite to-- + +Or that Newton's three laws are three articles of faith: + +Or that demons and angels and inertias and reactions are all +mythological characters: + +But that, in their eras of dominance, they were almost as firmly +believed in as if they had been proved. + + * * * * * + +Enormities and preposterousnesses will march. + +They will be "proved" as well as Moses or Darwin or Lyell ever "proved" +anything. + + * * * * * + +We substitute acceptance for belief. + +Cells of an embryo take on different appearances in different eras. + +The more firmly established, the more difficult to change. + +That social organism is embryonic. + +That firmly to believe is to impede development. + +That only temporarily to accept is to facilitate. + + * * * * * + +But: + +Except that we substitute acceptance for belief, our methods will be the +conventional methods; the means by which every belief has been +formulated and supported: or our methods will be the methods of +theologians and savages and scientists and children. Because, if all +phenomena are continuous, there can be no positively different methods. +By the inconclusive means and methods of cardinals and fortune tellers +and evolutionists and peasants, methods which must be inconclusive, if +they relate always to the local, and if there is nothing local to +conclude, we shall write this book. + +If it function as an expression of its era, it will prevail. + + * * * * * + +All sciences begin with attempts to define. + +Nothing ever has been defined. + +Because there is nothing to define. + +Darwin wrote _The Origin of Species_. + +He was never able to tell what he meant by a "species." + +It is not possible to define. + +Nothing has ever been finally found out. + +Because there is nothing final to find out. + +It's like looking for a needle that no one ever lost in a haystack that +never was-- + +But that all scientific attempts really to find out something, whereas +really there is nothing to find out, are attempts, themselves, really to +be something. + +A seeker of Truth. He will never find it. But the dimmest of +possibilities--he may himself become Truth. + +Or that science is more than an inquiry: + +That it is a pseudo-construction, or a quasi-organization: that it is an +attempt to break away and locally establish harmony, stability, +equilibrium, consistency, entity-- + +Dimmest of possibilities--that it may succeed. + + * * * * * + +That ours is a pseudo-existence, and that all appearances in it partake +of its essential fictitiousness-- + +But that some appearances approximate far more highly to the positive +state than do others. + +We conceive of all "things" as occupying gradations, or steps in series +between positiveness and negativeness, or realness and unrealness: that +some seeming things are more nearly consistent, just, beautiful, +unified, individual, harmonious, stable--than others. + +We are not realists. We are not idealists. We are intermediatists--that +nothing is real, but that nothing is unreal: that all phenomena are +approximations one way or the other between realness and unrealness. + +So then: + +That our whole quasi-existence is an intermediate stage between +positiveness and negativeness or realness and unrealness. + +Like purgatory, I think. + +But in our summing up, which was very sketchily done, we omitted to make +clear that Realness is an aspect of the positive state. + +By Realness, I mean that which does not merge away into something else, +and that which is not partly something else: that which is not a +reaction to, or an imitation of, something else. By a real hero, we mean +one who is not partly a coward, or whose actions and motives do not +merge away into cowardice. But, if in Continuity, all things do merge, +by Realness, I mean the Universal, besides which there is nothing with +which to merge. + +That, though the local might be universalized, it is not conceivable +that the universal can be localized: but that high approximations there +may be, and that these approximate successes may be translated out of +Intermediateness into Realness--quite as, in a relative sense, the +industrial world recruits itself by translating out of unrealness, or +out of the seemingly less real imaginings of inventors, machines which +seem, when set up in factories, to have more of Realness than they had +when only imagined. + +That all progress, if all progress is toward stability, organization, +harmony, consistency, or positiveness, is the attempt to become real. + +So, then, in general metaphysical terms, our expression is that, like a +purgatory, all that is commonly called "existence," which we call +Intermediateness, is quasi-existence, neither real nor unreal, but +expression of attempt to become real, or to generate for or recruit a +real existence. + +Our acceptance is that Science, though usually thought of so +specifically, or in its own local terms, usually supposed to be a prying +into old bones, bugs, unsavory messes, is an expression of this one +spirit animating all Intermediateness: that, if Science could absolutely +exclude all data but its own present data, or that which is assimilable +with the present quasi-organization, it would be a real system, with +positively definite outlines--it would be real. + +Its seeming approximation to consistency, stability, +system--positiveness or realness--is sustained by damning the +irreconcilable or the unassimilable-- + +All would be well. + +All would be heavenly-- + +If the damned would only stay damned. + + + + +2 + + +In the autumn of 1883, and for years afterward, occurred +brilliant-colored sunsets, such as had never been seen before within the +memory of all observers. Also there were blue moons. + +I think that one is likely to smile incredulously at the notion of blue +moons. Nevertheless they were as common as were green suns in 1883. + +Science had to account for these unconventionalities. Such publications +as _Nature_ and _Knowledge_ were besieged with inquiries. + +I suppose, in Alaska and in the South Sea Islands, all the medicine men +were similarly upon trial. + +Something had to be thought of. + +Upon the 28th of August, 1883, the volcano of Krakatoa, of the Straits +of Sunda, had blown up. + +Terrific. + +We're told that the sound was heard 2,000 miles, and that 36,380 persons +were killed. Seems just a little unscientific, or impositive, to me: +marvel to me we're not told 2,163 miles and 36,387 persons. The volume +of smoke that went up must have been visible to other planets--or, +tormented with our crawlings and scurryings, the earth complained to +Mars; swore a vast black oath at us. + +In all text-books that mention this occurrence--no exception so far so I +have read--it is said that the extraordinary atmospheric effects of 1883 +were first noticed in the last of August or the first of September. + +That makes a difficulty for us. + +It is said that these phenomena were caused by particles of volcanic +dust that were cast high in the air by Krakatoa. + +This is the explanation that was agreed upon in 1883-- + +But for seven years the atmospheric phenomena continued-- + +Except that, in the seven, there was a lapse of several years--and where +was the volcanic dust all that time? + +You'd think that such a question as that would make trouble? + +Then you haven't studied hypnosis. You have never tried to demonstrate +to a hypnotic that a table is not a hippopotamus. According to our +general acceptance, it would be impossible to demonstrate such a thing. +Point out a hundred reasons for saying that a hippopotamus is not a +table: you'll have to end up agreeing that neither is a table a +table--it only seems to be a table. Well, that's what the hippopotamus +seems to be. So how can you prove that something is not something else, +when neither is something else some other thing? There's nothing to +prove. + +This is one of the profundities that we advertised in advance. + +You can oppose an absurdity only with some other absurdity. But Science +is established preposterousness. We divide all intellection: the +obviously preposterousness and the established. + +But Krakatoa: that's the explanation that the scientists gave. I don't +know what whopper the medicine men told. + +We see, from the start, the very strong inclination of science to deny, +as much as it can, external relations of this earth. + +This book is an assemblage of data of external relations of this earth. +We take the position that our data have been damned, upon no +consideration for individual merits or demerits, but in conformity with +a general attempt to hold out for isolation of this earth. This is +attempted positiveness. We take the position that science can no more +succeed than, in a similar endeavor, could the Chinese, or than could +the United States. So then, with only pseudo-consideration of the +phenomena of 1883, or as an expression of positivism in its aspect of +isolation, or unrelatedness, scientists have perpetrated such an +enormity as suspension of volcanic dust seven years in the +air--disregarding the lapse of several years--rather than to admit the +arrival of dust from somewhere beyond this earth. Not that scientists +themselves have ever achieved positiveness, in its aspect of unitedness, +among themselves--because Nordenskiold, before 1883, wrote a great deal +upon his theory of cosmic dust, and Prof. Cleveland Abbe contended +against the Krakatoan explanation--but that this is the orthodoxy of the +main body of scientists. + +My own chief reason for indignation here: + +That this preposterous explanation interferes with some of my own +enormities. + +It would cost me too much explaining, if I should have to admit that +this earth's atmosphere has such sustaining power. + +Later, we shall have data of things that have gone up in the air and +that have stayed up--somewhere--weeks--months--but not by the sustaining +power of this earth's atmosphere. For instance, the turtle of Vicksburg. +It seems to me that it would be ridiculous to think of a good-sized +turtle hanging, for three or four months, upheld only by the air, over +the town of Vicksburg. When it comes to the horse and the barn--I think +that they'll be classics some day, but I can never accept that a horse +and a barn could float several months in this earth's atmosphere. + +The orthodox explanation: + +See the _Report of the Krakatoa Committee of the Royal Society_. It +comes out absolutely for the orthodox explanation--absolutely and +beautifully, also expensively. There are 492 pages in the "Report," and +40 plates, some of them marvelously colored. It was issued after an +investigation that took five years. You couldn't think of anything done +more efficiently, artistically, authoritatively. The mathematical parts +are especially impressive: distribution of the dust of Krakatoa; +velocity of translation and rates of subsidence; altitudes and +persistences-- + +_Annual Register_, 1883-105: + +That the atmospheric effects that have been attributed to Krakatoa were +seen in Trinidad before the eruption occurred: + +_Knowledge_, 5-418: + +That they were seen in Natal, South Africa, six months before the +eruption. + + * * * * * + +Inertia and its inhospitality. + +Or raw meat should not be fed to babies. + +We shall have a few data initiatorily. + +I fear me that the horse and the barn were a little extreme for our +budding liberalities. + +The outrageous is the reasonable, if introduced politely. + +Hailstones, for instance. One reads in the newspapers of hailstones the +size of hens' eggs. One smiles. Nevertheless I will engage to list one +hundred instances, from the _Monthly Weather Review_, of hailstones the +size of hens' eggs. There is an account in _Nature_, Nov. 1, 1894, of +hailstones that weighed almost two pounds each. See Chambers' +Encyclopedia for three-pounders. _Report of the Smithsonian +Institution_, 1870-479--two-pounders authenticated, and six-pounders +reported. At Seringapatam, India, about the year 1800, fell a +hailstone-- + +I fear me, I fear me: this is one of the profoundly damned. I blurt out +something that should, perhaps, be withheld for several hundred +pages--but that damned thing was the size of an elephant. + +We laugh. + +Or snowflakes. Size of saucers. Said to have fallen at Nashville, Tenn., +Jan. 24, 1891. One smiles. + +"In Montana, in the winter of 1887, fell snowflakes 15 inches across, +and 8 inches thick." (_Monthly Weather Review_, 1915-73.) + +In the topography of intellection, I should say that what we call +knowledge is ignorance surrounded by laughter. + + * * * * * + +Black rains--red rains--the fall of a thousand tons of butter. + +Jet-black snow--pink snow--blue hailstones--hailstones flavored like +oranges. + +Punk and silk and charcoal. + + * * * * * + +About one hundred years ago, if anyone was so credulous as to think that +stones had ever fallen from the sky, he was reasoned with: + +In the first place there are no stones in the sky: + +Therefore no stones can fall from the sky. + +Or nothing more reasonable or scientific or logical than that could be +said upon any subject. The only trouble is the universal trouble: that +the major premise is not real, or is intermediate somewhere between +realness and unrealness. + +In 1772, a committee, of whom Lavoisier was a member, was appointed by +the French Academy, to investigate a report that a stone had fallen from +the sky at Luce, France. Of all attempts at positiveness, in its aspect +of isolation, I don't know of anything that has been fought harder for +than the notion of this earth's unrelatedness. Lavoisier analyzed the +stone of Luce. The exclusionists' explanation at that time was that +stones do not fall from the sky: that luminous objects may seem to fall, +and that hot stones may be picked up where a luminous object seemingly +had landed--only lightning striking a stone, heating, even melting it. + +The stone of Luce showed signs of fusion. + +Lavoisier's analysis "absolutely proved" that this stone had not fallen: +that it had been struck by lightning. + +So, authoritatively, falling stones were damned. The stock means of +exclusion remained the explanation of lightning that was seen to strike +something--that had been upon the ground in the first place. + +But positiveness and the fate of every positive statement. It is not +customary to think of damned stones raising an outcry against a sentence +of exclusion, but, subjectively, aerolites did--or data of them +bombarded the walls raised against them-- + +_Monthly Review_, 1796-426 + +"The phenomenon which is the subject of the remarks before us will seem +to most persons as little worthy of credit as any that could be offered. +The falling of large stones from the sky, without any assignable cause +of their previous ascent, seems to partake so much of the marvelous as +almost entirely to exclude the operation of known and natural agents. +Yet a body of evidence is here brought to prove that such events have +actually taken place, and we ought not to withhold from it a proper +degree of attention." + +The writer abandons the first, or absolute, exclusion, and modifies it +with the explanation that the day before a reported fall of stones in +Tuscany, June 16, 1794, there had been an eruption of Vesuvius-- + +Or that stones do fall from the sky, but that they are stones that have +been raised to the sky from some other part of the earth's surface by +whirlwinds or by volcanic action. + +It's more than one hundred and twenty years later. I know of no aerolite +that has ever been acceptably traced to terrestrial origin. + +Falling stones had to be undamned--though still with a reservation that +held out for exclusion of outside forces. + +One may have the knowledge of a Lavoisier, and still not be able to +analyze, not be able even to see, except conformably with the hypnoses, +or the conventional reactions against hypnoses, of one's era. + +We believe no more. + +We accept. + +Little by little the whirlwind and volcano explanations had to be +abandoned, but so powerful was this exclusion-hypnosis, sentence of +damnation, or this attempt at positiveness, that far into our own times +some scientists, notably Prof. Lawrence Smith and Sir Robert Ball, +continued to hold out against all external origins, asserting that +nothing could fall to this earth, unless it had been cast up or whirled +up from some other part of this earth's surface. + +It's as commendable as anything ever has been--by which I mean it's +intermediate to the commendable and the censurable. + +It's virginal. + +Meteorites, data of which were once of the damned, have been admitted, +but the common impression of them is only a retreat of attempted +exclusion: that only two kinds of substance fall from the sky: metallic +and stony: that the metallic objects are of iron and nickel-- + +Butter and paper and wool and silk and resin. + +We see, to start with, that the virgins of science have fought and wept +and screamed against external relations--upon two grounds: + +There in the first place; + +Or up from one part of this earth's surface and down to another. + +As late as November, 1902, in _Nature Notes_, 13-231, a member of the +Selborne Society still argued that meteorites do not fall from the sky; +that they are masses of iron upon the ground "in the first place," that +attract lightning; that the lightning is seen, and is mistaken for a +falling, luminous object-- + +By progress we mean rape. + +Butter and beef and blood and a stone with strange inscriptions upon +it. + + + + +3 + + +So then, it is our expression that Science relates to real knowledge no +more than does the growth of a plant, or the organization of a +department store, or the development of a nation: that all are +assimilative, or organizing, or systematizing processes that represent +different attempts to attain the positive state--the state commonly +called heaven, I suppose I mean. + +There can be no real science where there are indeterminate variables, +but every variable is, in finer terms, indeterminate, or irregular, if +only to have the appearance of being in Intermediateness is to express +regularity unattained. The invariable, or the real and stable, would be +nothing at all in Intermediateness--rather as, but in relative terms, an +undistorted interpretation of external sounds in the mind of a dreamer +could not continue to exist in a dreaming mind, because that touch of +relative realness would be of awakening and not of dreaming. Science is +the attempt to awaken to realness, wherein it is attempt to find +regularity and uniformity. Or the regular and uniform would be that +which has nothing external to disturb it. By the universal we mean the +real. Or the notion is that the underlying super-attempt, as expressed +in Science, is indifferent to the subject-matter of Science: that the +attempt to regularize is the vital spirit. Bugs and stars and chemical +messes: that they are only quasi-real, and that of them there is nothing +real to know; but that systematization of pseudo-data is approximation +to realness or final awakening-- + +Or a dreaming mind--and its centaurs and canary birds that turn into +giraffes--there could be no real biology upon such subjects, but +attempt, in a dreaming mind, to systematize such appearances would be +movement toward awakening--if better mental co-ordination is all that we +mean by the state of being awake--relatively awake. + +So it is, that having attempted to systematize, by ignoring externality +to the greatest possible degree, the notion of things dropping in upon +this earth, from externality, is as unsettling and as unwelcome to +Science as--tin horns blowing in upon a musician's relatively symmetric +composition--flies alighting upon a painter's attempted harmony, and +tracking colors one into another--suffragist getting up and making a +political speech at a prayer meeting. + +If all things are of a oneness, which is a state intermediate to +unrealness and realness, and if nothing has succeeded in breaking away +and establishing entity for itself, and could not continue to "exist" in +intermediateness, if it should succeed, any more than could the born +still at the same time be the uterine, I of course know of no positive +difference between Science and Christian Science--and the attitude of +both toward the unwelcome is the same--"it does not exist." + +A Lord Kelvin and a Mrs. Eddy, and something not to their liking--it +does not exist. + +Of course not, we Intermediates say: but, also, that, in +Intermediateness, neither is there absolute non-existence. + +Or a Christian Scientist and a toothache--neither exists in the final +sense: also neither is absolutely non-existent, and, according to our +therapeutics, the one that more highly approximates to realness will +win. + +A secret of power-- + +I think it's another profundity. + +Do you want power over something? + +Be more nearly real than it. + +We'll begin with yellow substances that have fallen upon this earth: +we'll see whether our data of them have a higher approximation to +realness than have the dogmas of those who deny their existence--that +is, as products from somewhere external to this earth. + +In mere impressionism we take our stand. We have no positive tests nor +standards. Realism in art: realism in science--they pass away. In 1859, +the thing to do was to accept Darwinism; now many biologists are +revolting and trying to conceive of something else. The thing to do was +to accept it in its day, but Darwinism of course was never proved: + +The fittest survive. + +What is meant by the fittest? + +Not the strongest; not the cleverest-- + +Weakness and stupidity everywhere survive. + +There is no way of determining fitness except in that a thing does +survive. + +"Fitness," then, is only another name for "survival." + +Darwinism: + +That survivors survive. + +Although Darwinism, then, seems positively baseless, or absolutely +irrational, its massing of supposed data, and its attempted coherence +approximate more highly to Organization and Consistency than did the +inchoate speculations that preceded it. + +Or that Columbus never proved that the earth is round. + +Shadow of the earth on the moon? + +No one has ever seen it in its entirety. The earth's shadow is much +larger than the moon. If the periphery of the shadow is curved--but the +convex moon--a straight-edged object will cast a curved shadow upon a +surface that is convex. + +All the other so-called proofs may be taken up in the same way. It was +impossible for Columbus to prove that the earth is round. It was not +required: only that with a higher seeming of positiveness than that of +his opponents, he should attempt. The thing to do, in 1492, was +nevertheless to accept that beyond Europe, to the west, were other +lands. + +I offer for acceptance, as something concordant with the spirit of this +first quarter of the 20th century, the expression that beyond this earth +are--other lands--from which come things as, from America, float things +to Europe. + +As to yellow substances that have fallen upon this earth, the endeavor +to exclude extra-mundane origins is the dogma that all yellow rains and +yellow snows are colored with pollen from this earth's pine trees. +_Symons' Meteorological Magazine_ is especially prudish in this respect +and regards as highly improper all advances made by other explainers. + +Nevertheless, the _Monthly Weather Review_, May, 1877, reports a +golden-yellow fall, of Feb. 27, 1877, at Peckloh, Germany, in which four +kinds of organisms, not pollen, were the coloring matter. There were +minute things shaped like arrows, coffee beans, horns, and disks. + +They may have been symbols. They may have been objective hieroglyphics-- + +Mere passing fancy--let it go-- + +In the _Annales de Chimie_, 85-288, there is a list of rains said to +have contained sulphur. I have thirty or forty other notes. I'll not use +one of them. I'll admit that every one of them is upon a fall of pollen. +I said, to begin with, that our methods would be the methods of +theologians and scientists, and they always begin with an appearance of +liberality. I grant thirty or forty points to start with. I'm as liberal +as any of them--or that my liberality won't cost me anything--the +enormousness of the data that we shall have. + +Or just to look over a typical instance of this dogma, and the way it +works out: + +In the _American Journal of Science_, 1-42-196, we are told of a yellow +substance that fell by the bucketful upon a vessel, one "windless" night +in June, in Pictou Harbor, Nova Scotia. The writer analyzed the +substance, and it was found to "give off nitrogen and ammonia and an +animal odor." + +Now, one of our Intermediatist principles, to start with, is that so far +from positive, in the aspect of Homogeneousness, are all substances, +that, at least in what is called an elementary sense, anything can be +found anywhere. Mahogany logs on the coast of Greenland; bugs of a +valley on the top of Mt. Blanc; atheists at a prayer meeting; ice in +India. For instance, chemical analysis can reveal that almost any dead +man was poisoned with arsenic, we'll say, because there is no stomach +without some iron, lead, tin, gold, arsenic in it and of it--which, of +course, in a broader sense, doesn't matter much, because a certain +number of persons must, as a restraining influence, be executed for +murder every year; and, if detectives aren't able really to detect +anything, illusion of their success is all that is necessary, and it is +very honorable to give up one's life for society as a whole. + +The chemist who analyzed the substance of Pictou sent a sample to the +Editor of the _Journal_. The Editor of course found pollen in it. + +My own acceptance is that there'd have to be some pollen in it: that +nothing could very well fall through the air, in June, near the pine +forests of Nova Scotia, and escape all floating spores of pollen. But +the Editor does not say that this substance "contained" pollen. He +disregards "nitrogen, ammonia, and an animal odor," and says that the +substance was pollen. For the sake of our thirty or forty tokens of +liberality, or pseudo-liberality, if we can't be really liberal, we +grant that the chemist of the first examination probably wouldn't know +an animal odor if he were janitor of a menagerie. As we go along, +however, there can be no such sweeping ignoring of this phenomenon: + +The fall of animal-matter from the sky. + +I'd suggest, to start with, that we'd put ourselves in the place of +deep-sea fishes: + +How would they account for the fall of animal-matter from above? + +They wouldn't try-- + +Or it's easy enough to think of most of us as deep-sea fishes of a kind. + +_Jour. Franklin Inst._, 90-11: + +That, upon the 14th of February, 1870, there fell, at Genoa, Italy, +according to Director Boccardo, of the Technical Institute of Genoa, and +Prof. Castellani, a yellow substance. But the microscope revealed +numerous globules of cobalt blue, also corpuscles of a pearly color that +resembled starch. See _Nature_, 2-166. + +_Comptes Rendus_, 56-972: + +M. Bouis says of a substance, reddish varying to yellowish, that fell +enormously and successively, or upon April 30, May 1 and May 2, in +France and Spain, that it carbonized and spread the odor of charred +animal matter--that it was not pollen--that in alcohol it left a residue +of resinous matter. + +Hundreds of thousands of tons of this matter must have fallen. + +"Odor of charred animal matter." + +Or an aerial battle that occurred in inter-planetary space several +hundred years ago--effect of time in making diverse remains uniform in +appearance-- + +It's all very absurd because, even though we are told of a prodigious +quantity of animal matter that fell from the sky--three days--France and +Spain--we're not ready yet: that's all. M. Bouis says that this +substance was not pollen; the vastness of the fall makes acceptable that +it was not pollen; still, the resinous residue does suggest pollen of +pine trees. We shall hear a great deal of a substance with a resinous +residue that has fallen from the sky: finally we shall divorce it from +all suggestion of pollen. + +_Blackwood's Magazine_, 3-338: + +A yellow powder that fell at Gerace, Calabria, March 14, 1813. Some of +this substance was collected by Sig. Simenini, Professor of Chemistry, +at Naples. It had an earthy, insipid taste, and is described as +"unctuous." When heated, this matter turned brown, then black, then red. +According to the _Annals of Philosophy_, 11-466, one of the components +was a greenish-yellow substance, which, when dried, was found to be +resinous. + +But concomitants of this fall: + +Loud noises were heard in the sky. + +Stones fell from the sky. + +According to Chladni, these concomitants occurred, and to me they +seem--rather brutal?--or not associable with something so soft and +gentle as a fall of pollen? + + * * * * * + +Black rains and black snows--rains as black as a deluge of +ink--jet-black snowflakes. + +Such a rain as that which fell in Ireland, May 14, 1849, described in +the _Annals of Scientific Discovery_, 1850, and the _Annual Register_, +1849. It fell upon a district of 400 square miles, and was the color of +ink, and of a fetid odor and very disagreeable taste. + +The rain at Castlecommon, Ireland, April 30, 1887--"thick, black rain." +(_Amer. Met. Jour._, 4-193.) + +A black rain fell in Ireland, Oct. 8 and 9, 1907. (_Symons' Met. Mag._ +43-2.) "It left a most peculiar and disagreeable smell in the air." + +The orthodox explanation of this rain occurs in _Nature_, March 2, +1908--cloud of soot that had come from South Wales, crossing the Irish +Channel and all of Ireland. + +So the black rain of Ireland, of March, 1898: ascribed in _Symons' Met. +Mag._ 33-40, to clouds of soot from the manufacturing towns of North +England and South Scotland. + +Our Intermediatist principle of pseudo-logic, or our principle of +Continuity is, of course, that nothing is unique, or individual: that +all phenomena merge away into all other phenomena: that, for +instance--suppose there should be vast celestial super-oceanic, or +inter-planetary vessels that come near this earth and discharge volumes +of smoke at times. We're only supposing such a thing as that now, +because, conventionally, we are beginning modestly and tentatively. But +if it were so, there would necessarily be some phenomenon upon this +earth, with which that phenomenon would merge. Extra-mundane smoke and +smoke from cities merge, or both would manifest in black precipitations +in rain. + +In Continuity, it is impossible to distinguish phenomena at their +merging-points, so we look for them at their extremes. Impossible to +distinguish between animal and vegetable in some infusoria--but +hippopotamus and violet. For all practical purposes they're +distinguishable enough. No one but a Barnum or a Bailey would send one a +bunch of hippopotami as a token of regard. + +So away from the great manufacturing centers: + +Black rain in Switzerland, Jan. 20, 1911. Switzerland is so remote, and +so ill at ease is the conventional explanation here, that _Nature_, +85-451, says of this rain that in certain conditions of weather, snow +may take on an appearance of blackness that is quite deceptive. + +May be so. Or at night, if dark enough, snow may look black. This is +simply denying that a black rain fell in Switzerland, Jan. 20, 1911. + +Extreme remoteness from great manufacturing centers: + +_La Nature_, 1888, 2-406: + +That Aug. 14, 1888, there fell at the Cape of Good Hope, a rain so black +as to be described as a "shower of ink." + +Continuity dogs us. Continuity rules us and pulls us back. We seemed to +have a little hope that by the method of extremes we could get away from +things that merge indistinguishably into other things. We find that +every departure from one merger is entrance upon another. At the Cape of +Good Hope, vast volumes of smoke from great manufacturing centers, as an +explanation, cannot very acceptably merge with the explanation of +extra-mundane origin--but smoke from a terrestrial volcano can, and that +is the suggestion that is made in _La Nature_. + +There is, in human intellection, no real standard to judge by, but our +acceptance, for the present, is that the more nearly positive will +prevail. By the more nearly positive we mean the more nearly Organized. +Everything merges away into everything else, but proportionately to its +complexity, if unified, a thing seems strong, real, and distinct: so, in +aesthetics, it is recognized that diversity in unity is higher beauty, +or approximation to Beauty, than is simpler unity; so the logicians feel +that agreement of diverse data constitute greater convincingness, or +strength, than that of mere parallel instances: so to Herbert Spencer +the more highly differentiated and integrated is the more fully evolved. +Our opponents hold out for mundane origin of all black rains. Our method +will be the presenting of diverse phenomena in agreement with the notion +of some other origin. We take up not only black rains but black rains +and their accompanying phenomena. + +A correspondent to _Knowledge_, 5-190, writes of a black rain that fell +in the Clyde Valley, March 1, 1884: of another black rain that fell two +days later. According to the correspondent, a black rain had fallen in +the Clyde Valley, March 20, 1828: then again March 22, 1828. According +to _Nature_, 9-43, a black rain fell at Marlsford, England, Sept. 4, +1873; more than twenty-four hours later another black rain fell in the +same small town. + +The black rains of Slains: + +According to Rev. James Rust (_Scottish Showers_): + +A black rain at Slains, Jan. 14, 1862--another at Carluke, 140 miles +from Slains, May 1, 1862--at Slains, May 20, 1862--Slains, Oct. 28, +1863. + +But after two of these showers, vast quantities of a substance described +sometimes as "pumice stone," but sometimes as "slag," were washed upon +the sea coast near Slains. A chemist's opinion is given that this +substance was slag: that it was not a volcanic product: slag from +smelting works. We now have, for black rains, a concomitant that is +irreconcilable with origin from factory chimneys. Whatever it may have +been the quantity of this substance was so enormous that, in Mr. Rust's +opinion, to have produced so much of it would have required the united +output of all the smelting works in the world. If slag it were, we +accept that an artificial product has, in enormous quantities, fallen +from the sky. If you don't think that such occurrences are damned by +Science, read _Scottish Showers_ and see how impossible it was for the +author to have this matter taken up by the scientific world. + +The first and second rains corresponded, in time, with ordinary +ebullitions of Vesuvius. + +The third and fourth, according to Mr. Rust, corresponded with no known +volcanic activities upon this earth. + +_La Science Pour Tous_, 11-26: + +That, between October, 1863, and January, 1866, four more black rains +fell at Slains, Scotland. + +The writer of this supplementary account tells us, with a better, or +more unscrupulous, orthodoxy than Mr. Rust's, that of the eight black +rains, five coincided with eruptions of Vesuvius and three with +eruptions of Etna. + +The fate of all explanation is to close one door only to have another +fly wide open. I should say that my own notions upon this subject will +be considered irrational, but at least my gregariousness is satisfied in +associating here with the preposterous--or this writer, and those who +think in his rut, have to say that they can think of four discharges +from one far-distant volcano, passing over a great part of Europe, +precipitating nowhere else, discharging precisely over one small +northern parish-- + +But also of three other discharges, from another far-distant volcano, +showing the same precise preference, if not marksmanship, for one small +parish in Scotland. + +Nor would orthodoxy be any better off in thinking of exploding +meteorites and their debris: preciseness and recurrence would be just as +difficult to explain. + +My own notion is of an island near an oceanic trade-route: it might +receive debris from passing vessels seven times in four years. + +Other concomitants of black rains: + +In Timb's _Year Book_, 1851-270, there is an account of "a sort of +rumbling, as of wagons, heard for upward of an hour without ceasing," +July 16, 1850, Bulwick Rectory, Northampton, England. On the 19th, a +black rain fell. + +In _Nature_, 30-6, a correspondent writes of an intense darkness at +Preston, England, April 26, 1884: page 32, another correspondent writes +of black rain at Crowle, near Worcester, April 26: that a week later, or +May 3, it had fallen again: another account of black rain, upon the 28th +of April, near Church Shetton, so intense that the following day brooks +were still dyed with it. According to four accounts by correspondents to +_Nature_ there were earthquakes in England at this time. + +Or the black rain of Canada, Nov. 9, 1819. This time it is orthodoxy to +attribute the black precipitate to smoke of forest fires south of the +Ohio River-- + +Zurcher, _Meteors_, p. 238: + +That this black rain was accompanied by "shocks like those of an +earthquake." + +_Edinburgh Philosophical Journal_, 2-381: + +That the earthquake had occurred at the climax of intense darkness and +the fall of black rain. + + * * * * * + +Red rains. + +Orthodoxy: + +Sand blown by the sirocco, from the Sahara to Europe. + +Especially in the earthquake regions of Europe, there have been many +falls of red substance, usually, but not always, precipitated in rain. +Upon many occasions, these substances have been "absolutely identified" +as sand from the Sahara. When I first took this matter up, I came +across assurance after assurance, so positive to this effect, that, had +I not been an Intermediatist, I'd have looked no further. Samples +collected from a rain at Genoa--samples of sand forwarded from the +Sahara--"absolute agreement" some writers said: same color, same +particles of quartz, even the same shells of diatoms mixed in. Then the +chemical analyses: not a disagreement worth mentioning. + +Our intermediatist means of expression will be that, with proper +exclusions, after the scientific or theological method, anything can be +identified with anything else, if all things are only different +expressions of an underlying oneness. + +To many minds there's rest and there's satisfaction in that expression +"absolutely identified." Absoluteness, or the illusion of it--the +universal quest. If chemists have identified substances that have fallen +in Europe as sand from African deserts, swept up in African whirlwinds, +that's assuasive to all the irritations that occur to those cloistered +minds that must repose in the concept of a snug, isolated, little world, +free from contact with cosmic wickednesses, safe from stellar guile, +undisturbed by inter-planetary prowlings and invasions. The only trouble +is that a chemist's analysis, which seems so final and authoritative to +some minds, is no more nearly absolute than is identification by a child +or description by an imbecile-- + +I take some of that back: I accept that the approximation is higher-- + +But that it's based upon delusion, because there is no definiteness, no +homogeneity, no stability, only different stages somewhere between them +and indefiniteness, heterogeneity, and instability. There are no +chemical elements. It seems acceptable that Ramsay and others have +settled that. The chemical elements are only another disappointment in +the quest for the positive, as the definite, the homogeneous, and the +stable. If there were real elements, there could be a real science of +chemistry. + +Upon Nov. 12 and 13, 1902, occurred the greatest fall of matter in the +history of Australia. Upon the 14th of November, it "rained mud," in +Tasmania. It was of course attributed to Australian whirlwinds, but, +according to the _Monthly Weather Review_, 32-365, there was a haze all +the way to the Philippines, also as far as Hong Kong. It may be that +this phenomenon had no especial relation with the even more tremendous +fall of matter that occurred in Europe, February, 1903. + +For several days, the south of England was a dumping ground--from +somewhere. + +If you'd like to have a chemist's opinion, even though it's only a +chemist's opinion, see the report of the meeting of the Royal Chemical +Society, April 2, 1903. Mr. E.G. Clayton read a paper upon some of the +substance that had fallen from the sky, collected by him. The Sahara +explanation applies mostly to falls that occur in southern Europe. +Farther away, the conventionalists are a little uneasy: for instance, +the editor of the _Monthly Weather Review_, 29-121, says of a red rain +that fell near the coast of Newfoundland, early in 1890: "It would be +very remarkable if this was Sahara dust." Mr. Clayton said that the +matter examined by him was "merely wind-borne dust from the roads and +lanes of Wessex." This opinion is typical of all scientific opinion--or +theological opinion--or feminine opinion--all very well except for what +it disregards. The most charitable thing I can think of--because I think +it gives us a broader tone to relieve our malices with occasional +charities--is that Mr. Clayton had not heard of the astonishing extent +of this fall--had covered the Canary Islands, on the 19th, for instance. +I think, myself, that in 1903, we passed through the remains of a +powdered world--left over from an ancient inter-planetary dispute, +brooding in space like a red resentment ever since. Or, like every other +opinion, the notion of dust from Wessex turns into a provincial thing +when we look it over. + +To think is to conceive incompletely, because all thought relates only +to the local. We metaphysicians, of course, like to have the notion that +we think of the unthinkable. + +As to opinions, or pronouncements, I should say, because they always +have such an authoritative air, of other chemists, there is an analysis +in _Nature_, 68-54, giving water and organic matter at 9.08 per cent. +It's that carrying out of fractions that's so convincing. The substance +is identified as sand from the Sahara. + +The vastness of this fall. In _Nature_, 68-65, we are told that it had +occurred in Ireland, too. The Sahara, of course--because, prior to +February 19, there had been dust storms in the Sahara--disregarding that +in that great region there's always, in some part of it, a dust storm. +However, just at present, it does look reasonable that dust had come +from Africa, via the Canaries. + +The great difficulty that authoritativeness has to contend with is some +other authoritativeness. When an infallibility clashes with a +pontification-- + +They explain. + +_Nature_, March 5, 1903: + +Another analysis--36 per cent organic matter. + +Such disagreements don't look very well, so, in _Nature_, 68-109, one of +the differing chemists explains. He says that his analysis was of muddy +rain, and the other was of sediment of rain-- + +We're quite ready to accept excuses from the most high, though I do +wonder whether we're quite so damned as we were, if we find ourselves in +a gracious and tolerant mood toward the powers that condemn--but the tax +that now comes upon our good manners and unwillingness to be too +severe-- + +_Nature_, 68-223: + +Another chemist. He says it was 23.49 per cent water and organic matter. + +He "identifies" this matter as sand from an African desert--but after +deducting organic matter-- + +But you and I could be "identified" as sand from an African desert, +after deducting all there is to us except sand-- + +Why we cannot accept that this fall was of sand from the Sahara, +omitting the obvious objection that in most parts the Sahara is not red +at all, but is usually described as "dazzling white"-- + +The enormousness of it: that a whirlwind might have carried it, but +that, in that case it would be no supposititious, or doubtfully +identified whirlwind, but the greatest atmospheric cataclysm in the +history of this earth: + +_Jour. Roy. Met. Soc._, 30-56: + +That, up to the 27th of February, this fall had continued in Belgium, +Holland, Germany and Austria; that in some instances it was not sand, or +that almost all the matter was organic: that a vessel had reported the +fall as occurring in the Atlantic Ocean, midway between Southampton and +the Barbados. The calculation is given that, in England alone, +10,000,000 tons of matter had fallen. It had fallen in Switzerland +(_Symons' Met. Mag._, March, 1903). It had fallen in Russia (_Bull. Com. +Geolog._, 22-48). Not only had a vast quantity of matter fallen several +months before, in Australia, but it was at this time falling in +Australia (_Victorian Naturalist_, June, 1903)--enormously--red +mud--fifty tons per square mile. + +The Wessex explanation-- + +Or that every explanation is a Wessex explanation: by that I mean an +attempt to interpret the enormous in terms of the minute--but that +nothing can be finally explained, because by Truth we mean the +Universal; and that even if we could think as wide as Universality, that +would not be requital to the cosmic quest--which is not for Truth, but +for the local that is true--not to universalize the local, but to +localize the universal--or to give to a cosmic cloud absolute +interpretation in terms of the little dusty roads and lanes of Wessex. I +cannot conceive that this can be done: I think of high approximation. + +Our Intermediatist concept is that, because of the continuity of all +"things," which are not separate, positive, or real things, all +pseudo-things partake of the underlying, or are only different +expressions, degrees, or aspects of the underlying: so then that a +sample from somewhere in anything must correspond with a sample from +somewhere in anything else. + +That, by due care in selection, and disregard for everything else, or +the scientific and theological method, the substance that fell, +February, 1903, could be identified with anything, or with some part or +aspect of anything that could be conceived of-- + +With sand from the Sahara, sand from a barrel of sugar, or dust of your +great-great-grandfather. + +Different samples are described and listed in the _Journal of the Royal +Meteorological Society_, 30-57--or we'll see whether my notion that a +chemist could have identified some one of these samples as from anywhere +conceivable, is extreme or not: + +"Similar to brick dust," in one place; "buff or light brown," in +another place; "chocolate-colored and silky to the touch and slightly +iridescent"; "gray"; "red-rust color"; "reddish raindrops and gray +sand"; "dirty gray"; "quite red"; "yellow-brown, with a tinge of pink"; +"deep yellow-clay color." + +In _Nature_, it is described as of a peculiar yellowish cast in one +place, reddish somewhere else, and salmon-colored in another place. + +Or there could be real science if there were really anything to be +scientific about. + +Or the science of chemistry is like a science of sociology, prejudiced +in advance, because only to see is to see with a prejudice, setting out +to "prove" that all inhabitants of New York came from Africa. + +Very easy matter. Samples from one part of town. Disregard for all the +rest. + +There is no science but Wessex-science. + +According to our acceptance, there should be no other, but that +approximation should be higher: that metaphysics is super-evil: that the +scientific spirit is of the cosmic quest. + +Our notion is that, in a real existence, such a quasi-system of fables +as the science of chemistry could not deceive for a moment: but that in +an "existence" endeavoring to become real, it represents that endeavor, +and will continue to impose its pseudo-positiveness until it be driven +out by a higher approximation to realness: + +That the science of chemistry is as impositive as fortune-telling-- + +Or no-- + +That, though it represents a higher approximation to realness than does +alchemy, for instance, and so drove out alchemy, it is still only +somewhere between myth and positiveness. + +The attempt at realness, or to state a real and unmodified fact here, is +the statement: + +All red rains are colored by sands from the Sahara Desert. + +My own impositivist acceptances are: + +That some red rains are colored by sands from the Sahara Desert; + +Some by sands from other terrestrial sources; + +Some by sands from other worlds, or from their deserts--also from +aerial regions too indefinite or amorphous to be thought of as "worlds" +or planets-- + +That no supposititious whirlwind can account for the hundreds of +millions of tons of matter that fell upon Australia, Pacific Ocean and +Atlantic Ocean and Europe in 1902 and 1903--that a whirlwind that could +do that would not be supposititious. + +But now we shall cast off some of our own wessicality by accepting that +there have been falls of red substance other than sand. + +We regard every science as an expression of the attempt to be real. But +to be real is to localize the universal--or to make some one thing as +wide as all things--successful accomplishment of which I cannot conceive +of. The prime resistance to this endeavor is the refusal of the rest of +the universe to be damned, excluded, disregarded, to receive Christian +Science treatment, by something else so attempting. Although all +phenomena are striving for the Absolute--or have surrendered to and have +incorporated themselves in higher attempts, simply to be phenomenal, or +to have seeming in Intermediateness is to express relations. + +A river. + +It is water expressing the gravitational relation of different levels. + +The water of the river. + +Expression of chemic relations of hydrogen and oxygen--which are not +final. + +A city. + +Manifestation of commercial and social relations. + +How could a mountain be without base in a greater body? + +Storekeeper live without customers? + +The prime resistance to the positivist attempt by Science is its +relations with other phenomena, or that it only expresses those +relations in the first place. Or that a Science can have seeming, or +survive in Intermediateness, as something pure, isolated, positively +different, no more than could a river or a city or a mountain or a +store. + +This Intermediateness-wide attempt by parts to be wholes--which cannot +be realized in our quasi-state, if we accept that in it the +co-existence of two or more wholes or universals is impossible--high +approximation to which, however, may be thinkable-- + +Scientists and their dream of "pure science." + +Artists and their dream of "art for art's sake." + +It is our notion that if they could almost realize, that would be almost +realness: that they would instantly be translated into real existence. +Such thinkers are good positivists, but they are evil in an economic and +sociologic sense, if, in that sense, nothing has justification for +being, unless it serve, or function for, or express the relations of, +some higher aggregate. So Science functions for and serves society at +large, and would, from society at large, receive no support, unless it +did so divert itself or dissipate and prostitute itself. It seems that +by prostitution I mean usefulness. + +There have been red rains that, in the middle ages, were called "rains +of blood." Such rains terrified many persons, and were so unsettling to +large populations, that Science, in its sociologic relations, has +sought, by Mrs. Eddy's method, to remove an evil-- + +That "rains of blood" do not exist; + +That rains so called are only of water colored by sand from the Sahara +Desert. + +My own acceptance is that such assurances, whether fictitious or not, +whether the Sahara is a "dazzling white" desert or not, have wrought +such good effects, in a sociologic sense, even though prostitutional in +the positivist sense, that, in the sociologic sense, they were well +justified: + +But that we've gone on: that this is the twentieth century; that most of +us have grown up so that such soporifics of the past are no longer +necessary: + +That if gushes of blood should fall from the sky upon New York City, +business would go on as usual. + +We began with rains that we accepted ourselves were, most likely, only +of sand. In my own still immature hereticalness--and by heresy, or +progress, I mean, very largely, a return, though with many +modifications, to the superstitions of the past, I think I feel +considerable aloofness to the idea of rains of blood. Just at present, +it is my conservative, or timid purpose, to express only that there +have been red rains that very strongly suggest blood or finely divided +animal matter-- + +Debris from inter-planetary disasters. + +Aerial battles. + +Food-supplies from cargoes of super-vessels, wrecked in inter-planetary +traffic. + +There was a red rain in the Mediterranean region, March 6, 1888. Twelve +days later, it fell again. Whatever this substance may have been, when +burned, the odor of animal matter from it was strong and persistent. +(_L'Astronomie_, 1888-205.) + +But--infinite heterogeneity--or debris from many different kinds of +aerial cargoes--there have been red rains that have been colored by +neither sand nor animal matter. + +_Annals of Philosophy_, 16-226: + +That, Nov. 2, 1819--week before the black rain and earthquake of +Canada--there fell, at Blankenberge, Holland, a red rain. As to sand, +two chemists of Bruges concentrated 144 ounces of the rain to 4 +ounces--"no precipitate fell." But the color was so marked that had +there been sand, it would have been deposited, if the substance had been +diluted instead of concentrated. Experiments were made, and various +reagents did cast precipitates, but other than sand. The chemists +concluded that the rain-water contained muriate of cobalt--which is not +very enlightening: that could be said of many substances carried in +vessels upon the Atlantic Ocean. Whatever it may have been, in the +_Annales de Chimie_, 2-12-432, its color is said to have been +red-violet. For various chemic reactions, see _Quar. Jour. Roy. Inst._, +9-202, and _Edin. Phil. Jour._, 2-381. + +Something that fell with dust said to have been meteoric, March 9, 10, +11, 1872: described in the _Chemical News_, 25-300, as a "peculiar +substance," consisted of red iron ocher, carbonate of lime, and organic +matter. + +Orange-red hail, March 14, 1873, in Tuscany. (Notes and Queries 9-5-16.) + +Rain of lavender-colored substance, at Oudon, France, Dec. 19, 1903. +(_Bull. Soc. Met. de France_, 1904-124.) + +_La Nature_, 1885-2-351: + +That, according to Prof. Schwedoff, there fell, in Russia, June 14, +1880, red hailstones, also blue hailstones, also gray hailstones. + +_Nature_, 34-123: + +A correspondent writes that he had been told by a resident of a small +town in Venezuela, that there, April 17, 1886, had fallen hailstones, +some red, some blue, some whitish: informant said to have been one +unlikely ever to have heard of the Russian phenomenon; described as an +"honest, plain countryman." + +_Nature_, July 5, 1877, quotes a Roman correspondent to the London +_Times_ who sent a translation from an Italian newspaper: that a red +rain had fallen in Italy, June 23, 1877, containing "microscopically +small particles of sand." + +Or, according to our acceptance, any other story would have been an evil +thing, in the sociologic sense, in Italy, in 1877. But the English +correspondent, from a land where terrifying red rains are uncommon, does +not feel this necessity. He writes: "I am by no means satisfied that the +rain was of sand and water." His observations are that drops of this +rain left stains "such as sandy water could not leave." He notes that +when the water evaporated, no sand was left behind. + +_L'Annee Scientifique_, 1888-75: + +That, Dec. 13, 1887, there fell, in Cochin China, a substance like +blood, somewhat coagulated. + +_Annales de Chimie_, 85-266: + +That a thick, viscous, red matter fell at Ulm, in 1812. + +We now have a datum with a factor that has been foreshadowed; which will +recur and recur and recur throughout this book. It is a factor that +makes for speculation so revolutionary that it will have to be +reinforced many times before we can take it into full acceptance. + +_Year Book of Facts_, 1861-273: + +Quotation from a letter from Prof. Campini to Prof. Matteucci: + +That, upon Dec. 28, 1860, at about 7 A.M., in the northwestern part of +Siena, a reddish rain fell copiously for two hours. + +A second red shower fell at 11 o'clock. + +Three days later, the red rain fell again. + +The next day another red rain fell. + +Still more extraordinarily: + +Each fall occurred in "exactly the same quarter of town." + + + + +4 + + +It is in the records of the French Academy that, upon March 17, 1669, in +the town of Chatillon-sur-Seine, fell a reddish substance that was +"thick, viscous, and putrid." + +_American Journal of Science_, 1-41-404: + +Story of a highly unpleasant substance that had fallen from the sky, in +Wilson County, Tennessee. We read that Dr. Troost visited the place and +investigated. Later we're going to investigate some investigations--but +never mind that now. Dr. Troost reported that the substance was clear +blood and portions of flesh scattered upon tobacco fields. He argued +that a whirlwind might have taken an animal up from one place, mauled it +around, and have precipitated its remains somewhere else. + +But, in volume 44, page 216, of the _Journal_, there is an apology. The +whole matter is, upon newspaper authority, said to have been a hoax by +Negroes, who had pretended to have seen the shower, for the sake of +practicing upon the credulity of their masters: that they had scattered +the decaying flesh of a dead hog over the tobacco fields. + +If we don't accept this datum, at least we see the sociologically +necessary determination to have all falls accredited to earthly +origins--even when they're falls that don't fall. + +_Annual Register_, 1821-687: + +That, upon the 13th of August, 1819, something had fallen from the sky +at Amherst, Mass. It had been examined and described by Prof. Graves, +formerly lecturer at Dartmouth College. It was an object that had upon +it a nap, similar to that of milled cloth. Upon removing this nap, a +buff-colored, pulpy substance was found. It had an offensive odor, and, +upon exposure to the air, turned to a vivid red. This thing was said to +have fallen with a brilliant light. + +Also see the _Edinburgh Philosophical Journal_, 5-295. In the _Annales +de Chimie_, 1821-67, M. Arago accepts the datum, and gives four +instances of similar objects or substances said to have fallen from the +sky, two of which we shall have with our data of gelatinous, or viscous +matter, and two of which I omit, because it seems to me that the dates +given are too far back. + +In the _American Journal of Science_, 1-2-335, is Professor Graves' +account, communicated by Professor Dewey: + +That, upon the evening of August 13, 1819, a light was seen in +Amherst--a falling object--sound as if of an explosion. + +In the home of Prof. Dewey, this light was reflected upon a wall of a +room in which were several members of Prof. Dewey's family. + +The next morning, in Prof. Dewey's front yard, in what is said to have +been the only position from which the light that had been seen in the +room, the night before, could have been reflected, was found a substance +"unlike anything before observed by anyone who saw it." It was a +bowl-shaped object, about 8 inches in diameter, and one inch thick. +Bright buff-colored, and having upon it a "fine nap." Upon removing this +covering, a buff-colored, pulpy substance of the consistency of +soft-soap, was found--"of an offensive, suffocating smell." + +A few minutes of exposure to the air changed the buff color to "a livid +color resembling venous blood." It absorbed moisture quickly from the +air and liquefied. For some of the chemic reactions, see the _Journal_. + +There's another lost quasi-soul of a datum that seems to me to belong +here: + +London _Times_, April 19, 1836: + +Fall of fish that had occurred in the neighborhood of Allahabad, India. +It is said that the fish were of the chalwa species, about a span in +length and a seer in weight--you know. + +They were dead and dry. + +Or they had been such a long time out of water that we can't accept that +they had been scooped out of a pond, by a whirlwind--even though they +were so definitely identified as of a known local species-- + +Or they were not fish at all. + +I incline, myself, to the acceptance that they were not fish, but +slender, fish-shaped objects of the same substance as that which fell at +Amherst--it is said that, whatever they were, they could not be eaten: +that "in the pan, they turned to blood." + +For details of this story see the _Journal of the Asiatic Society of +Bengal_, 1834-307. May 16 or 17, 1834, is the date given in the +_Journal_. + +In the _American Journal of Science_, 1-25-362, occurs the inevitable +damnation of the Amherst object: + +Prof. Edward Hitchcock went to live in Amherst. He says that years +later, another object, like the one said to have fallen in 1819, had +been found at "nearly the same place." Prof. Hitchcock was invited by +Prof. Graves to examine it. Exactly like the first one. Corresponded in +size and color and consistency. The chemic reactions were the same. + +Prof. Hitchcock recognized it in a moment. + +It was a gelatinous fungus. + +He did not satisfy himself as to just the exact species it belonged to, +but he predicted that similar fungi might spring up within twenty-four +hours-- + +But, before evening, two others sprang up. + +Or we've arrived at one of the oldest of the exclusionists' +conventions--or nostoc. We shall have many data of gelatinous substance +said to have fallen from the sky: almost always the exclusionists argue +that it was only nostoc, an Alga, or, in some respects, a fungous +growth. The rival convention is "spawn of frogs or of fishes." These two +conventions have made a strong combination. In instances where testimony +was not convincing that gelatinous matter had been seen to fall, it was +said that the gelatinous substance was nostoc, and had been upon the +ground in the first place: when the testimony was too good that it had +fallen, it was said to be spawn that had been carried from one place to +another in a whirlwind. + +Now, I can't say that nostoc is always greenish, any more than I can say +that blackbirds are always black, having seen a white one: we shall +quote a scientist who knew of flesh-colored nostoc, when so to know was +convenient. When we come to reported falls of gelatinous substances, I'd +like it to be noticed how often they are described as whitish or +grayish. In looking up the subject, myself, I have read only of +greenish nostoc. Said to be greenish, in Webster's Dictionary--said to +be "blue-green" in the New International Encyclopedia--"from bright +green to olive-green" (_Science Gossip_, 10-114); "green" (_Science +Gossip_, 7-260); "greenish" (_Notes and Queries_, 1-11-219). It would +seem acceptable that, if many reports of white birds should occur, the +birds are not blackbirds, even though there have been white blackbirds. +Or that, if often reported, grayish or whitish gelatinous substance is +not nostoc, and is not spawn if occurring in times unseasonable for +spawn. + +"The Kentucky Phenomenon." + +So it was called, in its day, and now we have an occurrence that +attracted a great deal of attention in its own time. Usually these +things of the accursed have been hushed up or disregarded--suppressed +like the seven black rains of Slains--but, upon March 3, 1876, something +occurred, in Bath County, Kentucky, that brought many newspaper +correspondents to the scene. + +The substance that looked like beef that fell from the sky. + +Upon March 3, 1876, at Olympian Springs, Bath County, Kentucky, flakes +of a substance that looked like beef fell from the sky--"from a clear +sky." We'd like to emphasize that it was said that nothing but this +falling substance was visible in the sky. It fell in flakes of various +sizes; some two inches square, one, three or four inches square. The +flake-formation is interesting: later we shall think of it as signifying +pressure--somewhere. It was a thick shower, on the ground, on trees, on +fences, but it was narrowly localized: or upon a strip of land about 100 +yards long and about 50 yards wide. For the first account, see the +_Scientific American_, 34-197, and the _New York Times_, March 10, 1876. + +Then the exclusionists. + +Something that looked like beef: one flake of it the size of a square +envelope. + +If we think of how hard the exclusionists have fought to reject the +coming of ordinary-looking dust from this earth's externality, we can +sympathize with them in this sensational instance, perhaps. Newspaper +correspondents wrote broadcast and witnesses were quoted, and this time +there is no mention of a hoax, and, except by one scientist, there is no +denial that the fall did take place. + +It seems to me that the exclusionists are still more emphatically +conservators. It is not so much that they are inimical to all data of +externally derived substances that fall upon this earth, as that they +are inimical to all data discordant with a system that does not include +such phenomena-- + +Or the spirit or hope or ambition of the cosmos, which we call attempted +positivism: not to find out the new; not to add to what is called +knowledge, but to systematize. + +_Scientific American Supplement_, 2-426: + +That the substance reported from Kentucky had been examined by Leopold +Brandeis. + +"At last we have a proper explanation of this much talked of +phenomenon." + +"It has been comparatively easy to identify the substance and to fix its +status. The Kentucky 'wonder' is no more or less than nostoc." + +Or that it had not fallen; that it had been upon the ground in the first +place, and had swollen in rain, and, attracting attention by greatly +increased volume, had been supposed by unscientific observers to have +fallen in rain-- + +What rain, I don't know. + +Also it is spoken of as "dried" several times. That's one of the most +important of the details. + +But the relief of outraged propriety, expressed in the _Supplement_, is +amusing to some of us, who, I fear, may be a little improper at times. +Very spirit of the Salvation Army, when some third-rate scientist comes +out with an explanation of the vermiform appendix or the os coccygis +that would have been acceptable to Moses. To give completeness to "the +proper explanation," it is said that Mr. Brandeis had identified the +substance as "flesh-colored" nostoc. + +Prof. Lawrence Smith, of Kentucky, one of the most resolute of the +exclusionists: + +_New York Times_, March 12, 1876: + +That the substance had been examined and analyzed by Prof. Smith, +according to whom it gave every indication of being the "dried" spawn of +some reptile, "doubtless of the frog"--or up from one place and down in +another. As to "dried," that may refer to condition when Prof. Smith +received it. + +In the _Scientific American Supplement_, 2-473, Dr. A. Mead Edwards, +President of the Newark Scientific Association, writes that, when he saw +Mr. Brandeis' communication, his feeling was of conviction that +propriety had been re-established, or that the problem had been solved, +as he expresses it: knowing Mr. Brandeis well, he had called upon that +upholder of respectability, to see the substance that had been +identified as nostoc. But he had also called upon Dr. Hamilton, who had +a specimen, and Dr. Hamilton had declared it to be lung-tissue. Dr. +Edwards writes of the substance that had so completely, or +beautifully--if beauty is completeness--been identified as nostoc--"It +turned out to be lung-tissue also." He wrote to other persons who had +specimens, and identified other specimens as masses of cartilage or +muscular fibers. "As to whence it came, I have no theory." Nevertheless +he endorses the local explanation--and a bizarre thing it is: + +A flock of gorged, heavy-weighted buzzards, but far up and invisible in +the clear sky-- + +They had disgorged. + +Prof. Fassig lists the substance, in his "Bibliography," as fish spawn. +McAtee (_Monthly Weather Review_, May, 1918) lists it as a jelly-like +material, supposed to have been the "dried" spawn either of fishes or of +some batrachian. + +Or this is why, against the seemingly insuperable odds against all +things new, there can be what is called progress-- + +That nothing is positive, in the aspects of homogeneity and unity: + +If the whole world should seem to combine against you, it is only unreal +combination, or intermediateness to unity and disunity. Every resistance +is itself divided into parts resisting one another. The simplest +strategy seems to be--never bother to fight a thing: set its own parts +fighting one another. + +We are merging away from carnal to gelatinous substance, and here there +is an abundance of instances or reports of instances. These data are so +improper they're obscene to the science of today, but we shall see that +science, before it became so rigorous, was not so prudish. Chladni was +not, and Greg was not. + +I shall have to accept, myself, that gelatinous substance has often +fallen from the sky-- + +Or that, far up, or far away, the whole sky is gelatinous? + +That meteors tear through and detach fragments? + +That fragments are brought down by storms? + +That the twinkling of stars is penetration of light through something +that quivers? + +I think, myself, that it would be absurd to say that the whole sky is +gelatinous: it seems more acceptable that only certain areas are. + +Humboldt (_Cosmos_, 1-119) says that all our data in this respect must +be "classed amongst the mythical fables of mythology." He is very sure, +but just a little redundant. + +We shall be opposed by the standard resistances: + +There in the first place; + +Up from one place, in a whirlwind, and down in another. + +We shall not bother to be very convincing one way or another, because of +the over-shadowing of the datum with which we shall end up. It will mean +that something had been in a stationary position for several days over a +small part of a small town in England: this is the revolutionary thing +that we have alluded to before; whether the substance were nostoc, or +spawn, or some kind of a larval nexus, doesn't matter so much. If it +stood in the sky for several days, we rank with Moses as a chronicler of +improprieties--or was that story, or datum, we mean, told by Moses? Then +we shall have so many records of gelatinous substance said to have +fallen with meteorites, that, between the two phenomena, some of us will +have to accept connection--or that there are at least vast gelatinous +areas aloft, and that meteorites tear through, carrying down some of the +substance. + +_Comptes Rendus_, 3-554: + +That, in 1836, M. Vallot, member of the French Academy, placed before +the Academy some fragments of a gelatinous substance, said to have +fallen from the sky, and asked that they be analyzed. There is no +further allusion to this subject. + +_Comptes Rendus_, 23-542: + +That, in Wilna, Lithuania, April 4, 1846, in a rainstorm, fell nut-sized +masses of a substance that is described as both resinous and +gelatinous. It was odorless until burned: then it spread a very +pronounced sweetish odor. It is described as like gelatine, but much +firmer: but, having been in water 24 hours, it swelled out, and looked +altogether gelatinous-- + +It was grayish. + +We are told that, in 1841 and 1846, a similar substance had fallen in +Asia Minor. + +In _Notes and Queries_, 8-6-190, it is said that, early in August, 1894, +thousands of jellyfish, about the size of a shilling, had fallen at +Bath, England. I think it is not acceptable that they were jellyfish: +but it does look as if this time frog spawn did fall from the sky, and +may have been translated by a whirlwind--because, at the same time, +small frogs fell at Wigan, England. + +_Nature_, 87-10: + +That, June 24, 1911, at Eton, Bucks, England, the ground was found +covered with masses of jelly, the size of peas, after a heavy rainfall. +We are not told of nostoc, this time: it is said that the object +contained numerous eggs of "some species of Chironomus, from which +larvae soon emerged." + +I incline, then, to think that the objects that fell at Bath were +neither jellyfish nor masses of frog spawn, but something of a larval +kind-- + +This is what had occurred at Bath, England, 23 years before. + +London _Times_, April 24, 1871: + +That, upon the 22nd of April, 1871, a storm of glutinous drops neither +jellyfish nor masses of frog spawn, but something of a [line missing +here in original text. Ed.] railroad station, at Bath. "Many soon +developed into a worm-like chrysalis, about an inch in length." The +account of this occurrence in the _Zoologist_, 2-6-2686, is more like +the Eton-datum: of minute forms, said to have been infusoria; not forms +about an inch in length. + +_Trans. Ent. Soc. of London_, 1871-proc. xxii: + +That the phenomenon has been investigated by the Rev. L. Jenyns, of +Bath. His description is of minute worms in filmy envelopes. He tries to +account for their segregation. The mystery of it is: What could have +brought so many of them together? Many other falls we shall have record +of, and in most of them segregation is the great mystery. A whirlwind +seems anything but a segregative force. Segregation of things that have +fallen from the sky has been avoided as most deep-dyed of the damned. +Mr. Jenyns conceives of a large pool, in which were many of these +spherical masses: of the pool drying up and concentrating all in a small +area; of a whirlwind then scooping all up together-- + +But several days later, more of these objects fell in the same place. + +That such marksmanship is not attributable to whirlwinds seems to me to +be what we think we mean by common sense: + +It may not look like common sense to say that these things had been +stationary over the town of Bath, several days-- + +The seven black rains of Slains; + +The four red rains of Siena. + +An interesting sidelight on the mechanics of orthodoxy is that Mr. +Jenyns dutifully records the second fall, but ignores it in his +explanation. + +R.P. Greg, one of the most notable of cataloguers of meteoritic +phenomena, records (_Phil. Mag._: 4-8-463) falls of viscid substance in +the years 1652, 1686, 1718, 1796, 1811, 1819, 1844. He gives earlier +dates, but I practice exclusions, myself. In the _Report of the British +Association_, 1860-63, Greg records a meteor that seemed to pass near +the ground, between Barsdorf and Freiburg, Germany: the next day a +jelly-like mass was found in the snow-- + +Unseasonableness for either spawn or nostoc. + +Greg's comment in this instance is: "Curious if true." But he records +without modification the fall of a meteorite at Gotha, Germany, Sept. 6, +1835, "leaving a jelly-like mass on the ground." We are told that this +substance fell only three feet away from an observer. In the _Report of +the British Association_, 1855-94, according to a letter from Greg to +Prof. Baden-Powell, at night, Oct. 8, 1844, near Coblenz, a German, who +was known to Greg, and another person saw a luminous body fall close to +them. They returned next morning and found a gelatinous mass of grayish +color. + +According to Chladni's account (_Annals of Philosophy_, n.s., 12-94) a +viscous mass fell with a luminous meteorite between Siena and Rome, +May, 1652; viscous matter found after the fall of a fire ball, in +Lusatia, March, 1796; fall of a gelatinous substance, after the +explosion of a meteorite, near Heidelberg, July, 1811. In the _Edinburgh +Philosophical Journal_, 1-234, the substance that fell at Lusatia is +said to have been of the "color and odor of dried, brown varnish." In +the _Amer. Jour. Sci._, 1-26-133, it is said that gelatinous matter fell +with a globe of fire, upon the island of Lethy, India, 1718. + +In the _Amer. Jour. Sci._, 1-26-396, in many observations upon the +meteors of November, 1833, are reports of falls of gelatinous substance: + +That, according to newspaper reports, "lumps of jelly" were found on the +ground at Rahway, N.J. The substance was whitish, or resembled the +coagulated white of an egg: + +That Mr. H.H. Garland, of Nelson County, Virginia, had found a +jelly-like substance of about the circumference of a twenty-five-cent +piece: + +That, according to a communication from A.C. Twining to Prof. Olmstead, +a woman at West Point, N.Y., had seen a mass the size of a teacup. It +looked like boiled starch: + +That, according to a newspaper, of Newark, N.J., a mass of gelatinous +substance, like soft soap, had been found. "It possessed little +elasticity, and, on the application of heat, it evaporated as readily as +water." + +It seems incredible that a scientist would have such hardihood, or +infidelity, as to accept that these things had fallen from the sky: +nevertheless, Prof. Olmstead, who collected these lost souls, says: + +"The fact that the supposed deposits were so uniformly described as +gelatinous substance forms a presumption in favor of the supposition +that they had the origin ascribed to them." + +In contemporaneous scientific publications considerable attention was +given to Prof. Olmstead's series of papers upon this subject of the +November meteors. You will not find one mention of the part that treats +of gelatinous matter. + + + + +5 + + +I shall attempt not much of correlation of dates. A mathematic-minded +positivist, with his delusion that in an intermediate state twice two +are four, whereas, if we accept Continuity, we cannot accept that there +are anywhere two things to start with, would search our data for +periodicities. It is so obvious to me that the mathematic, or the +regular, is the attribute of the Universal, that I have not much +inclination to look for it in the local. Still, in this solar system, +"as a whole," there is considerable approximation to regularity; or the +mathematic is so nearly localized that eclipses, for instance, can, with +rather high approximation, be foretold, though I have notes that would +deflate a little the astronomers' vainglory in this respect--or would if +that were possible. An astronomer is poorly paid, uncheered by crowds, +considerably isolated: he lives upon his own inflations: deflate a bear +and it couldn't hibernate. This solar system is like every other +phenomenon that can be regarded "as a whole"--or the affairs of a ward +are interfered with by the affairs of the city of which it is a part; +city by county; county by state; state by nation; nation by other +nations; all nations by climatic conditions; climatic conditions by +solar circumstances; sun by general planetary circumstances; solar +system "as a whole" by other solar systems--so the hopelessness of +finding the phenomena of entirety in the ward of a city. But positivists +are those who try to find the unrelated in the ward of a city. In our +acceptance this is the spirit of cosmic religion. Objectively the state +is not realizable in the ward of a city. But, if a positivist could +bring himself to absolute belief that he had found it, that would be a +subjective realization of that which is unrealizable objectively. Of +course we do not draw a positive line between the objective and the +subjective--or that all phenomena called things or persons are +subjective within one all-inclusive nexus, and that thoughts within +those that are commonly called "persons" are sub-subjective. It is +rather as if Intermediateness strove for Regularity in this solar +system and failed: then generated the mentality of astronomers, and, in +that secondary expression, strove for conviction that failure had been +success. + +I have tabulated all the data of this book, and a great deal +besides--card system--and several proximities, thus emphasized, have +been revelations to me: nevertheless, it is only the method of +theologians and scientists--worst of all, of statisticians. + +For instance, by the statistic method, I could "prove" that a black rain +has fallen "regularly" every seven months, somewhere upon this earth. To +do this, I'd have to include red rains and yellow rains, but, +conventionally, I'd pick out the black particles in red substances and +in yellow substances, and disregard the rest. Then, too, if here and +there a black rain should be a week early or a month late--that would be +"acceleration" or "retardation." This is supposed to be legitimate in +working out the periodicities of comets. If black rains, or red or +yellow rains with black particles in them, should not appear at all near +some dates--we have not read Darwin in vain--"the records are not +complete." As to other, interfering black rains, they'd be either gray +or brown, or for them we'd find other periodicities. + +Still, I have had to notice the year 1819, for instance. I shall not +note them all in this book, but I have records of 31 extraordinary +events in 1883. Someone should write a book upon the phenomena of this +one year--that is, if books should be written. 1849 is notable for +extraordinary falls, so far apart that a local explanation seems +inadequate--not only the black rain of Ireland, May, 1849, but a red +rain in Sicily and a red rain in Wales. Also, it is said (Timb's _Year +Book_, 1850-241) that, upon April 18 or 20, 1849, shepherds near Mt. +Ararat, found a substance that was not indigenous, upon areas measuring +8 to 10 miles in circumference. Presumably it had fallen there. + +We have already gone into the subject of Science and its attempted +positiveness, and its resistances in that it must have relations of +service. It is very easy to see that most of the theoretic science of +the 19th century was only a relation of reaction against theologic +dogma, and has no more to do with Truth than has a wave that bounds back +from a shore. Or, if a shop girl, or you or I, should pull out a piece +of chewing gum about a yard long, that would be quite as scientific a +performance as was the stretching of this earth's age several hundred +millions of years. + +All "things" are not things, but only relations, or expressions of +relations: but all relations are striving to be the unrelated, or have +surrendered to, and subordinated to, higher attempts. So there is a +positivist aspect to this reaction that is itself only a relation, and +that is the attempt to assimilate all phenomena under the materialist +explanation, or to formulate a final, all-inclusive system, upon the +materialist basis. If this attempt could be realized, that would be the +attaining of realness; but this attempt can be made only by disregarding +psychic phenomena, for instance--or, if science shall eventually give in +to the psychic, it would be no more legitimate to explain the immaterial +in terms of the material than to explain the material in terms of the +immaterial. Our own acceptance is that material and immaterial are of a +oneness, merging, for instance, in a thought that is continuous with a +physical action: that oneness cannot be explained, because the process +of explaining is the interpreting of something in terms of something +else. All explanation is assimilation of something in terms of something +else that has been taken as a basis: but, in Continuity, there is +nothing that is any more basic than anything else--unless we think that +delusion built upon delusion is less real than its pseudo-foundation. + +In 1829 (Timb's _Year Book_, 1848-235) in Persia fell a substance that +the people said they had never seen before. As to what it was, they had +not a notion, but they saw that the sheep ate it. They ground it into +flour and made bread, said to have been passable enough, though insipid. + +That was a chance that science did not neglect. Manna was placed upon a +reasonable basis, or was assimilated and reconciled with the system that +had ousted the older--and less nearly real--system. It was said that, +likely enough, manna had fallen in ancient times--because it was still +falling--but that there was no tutelary influence behind it--that it was +a lichen from the steppes of Asia Minor--from one place in a whirlwind +and down in another place. "In the _American Almanac_, 1833-71, it is +said that this substance--to the inhabitants of the region"--was +"immediately recognized" by scientists who examined it: and that "the +chemical analysis also identified it as a lichen." + +This was back in the days when Chemical Analysis was a god. Since then +his devotees have been shocked and disillusioned. Just how a chemical +analysis could so botanize, I don't know--but it was Chemical Analysis +who spoke, and spoke dogmatically. It seems to me that the ignorance of +inhabitants, contrasting with the local knowledge of foreign scientists, +is overdone: if there's anything good to eat, within any distance +conveniently covered by a whirlwind--inhabitants know it. I have data of +other falls, in Persia and Asiatic Turkey, of edible substances. They +are all dogmatically said to be "manna"; and "manna" is dogmatically +said to be a species of lichens from the steppes of Asia Minor. The +position that I take is that this explanation was evolved in ignorance +of the fall of vegetable substances, or edible substances, in other +parts of the world: that it is the familiar attempt to explain the +general in terms of the local; that, if we shall have data of falls of +vegetable substance, in, say, Canada or India, they were not of lichens +from the steppes of Asia Minor; that, though all falls in Asiatic Turkey +and Persia are sweepingly and conveniently called showers of "manna," +they have not been even all of the same substance. In one instance the +particles are said to have been "seeds." Though, in _Comptes Rendus_, +the substance that fell in 1841 and 1846 is said to have been +gelatinous, in the _Bull. Sci. Nat. de Neuchatel_, it is said to have +been of something, in lumps the size of a filbert, that had been ground +into flour; that of this flour had been made bread, very +attractive-looking, but flavorless. + +The great difficulty is to explain segregation in these showers-- + +But deep-sea fishes and occasional falls, down to them, of edible +substances; bags of grain, barrels of sugar; things that had not been +whirled up from one part of the ocean-bottom, in storms or submarine +disturbances, and dropped somewhere else-- + +I suppose one thinks--but grain in bags never has fallen-- + +Object of Amherst--its covering like "milled cloth"-- + +Or barrels of corn lost from a vessel would not sink--but a host of them +clashing together, after a wreck--they burst open; the corn sinks, or +does when saturated; the barrel staves float longer-- + +If there be not an overhead traffic in commodities similar to our own +commodities carried over this earth's oceans--I'm not the deep-sea fish +I think I am. + +I have no data other than the mere suggestion of the Amherst object of +bags or barrels, but my notion is that bags and barrels from a wreck on +one of this earth's oceans, would, by the time they reached the bottom, +no longer be recognizable as bags or barrels; that, if we can have data +of the fall of fibrous material that may have been cloth or paper or +wood, we shall be satisfactory and grotesque enough. + +_Proc. Roy. Irish Acad._, 1-379: + +"In the year 1686, some workmen, who had been fetching water from a +pond, seven German miles from Memel, on returning to their work after +dinner (during which there had been a snowstorm) found the flat ground +around the pond covered with a coal-black, leafy mass; and a person who +lived near said he had seen it fall like flakes with the snow." + +Some of these flake-like formations were as large as a table-top. "The +mass was damp and smelt disagreeably, like rotten seaweed, but, when +dried, the smell went off." + +"It tore fibrously, like paper." + +Classic explanation: + +"Up from one place, and down in another." + +But what went up, from one place, in a whirlwind? Of course, our +Intermediatist acceptance is that had this been the strangest substance +conceivable, from the strangest other world that could be thought of; +somewhere upon this earth there must be a substance similar to it, or +from which it would, at least subjectively, or according to description, +not be easily distinguishable. Or that everything in New York City is +only another degree or aspect of something, or combination of things, in +a village of Central Africa. The novel is a challenge to vulgarization: +write something that looks new to you: someone will point out that the +thrice-accursed Greeks said it long ago. Existence is Appetite: the gnaw +of being; the one attempt of all things to assimilate all other things, +if they have not surrendered and submitted to some higher attempt. It +was cosmic that these scientists, who had surrendered to and submitted +to the Scientific System, should, consistently with the principles of +that system, attempt to assimilate the substance that fell at Memel with +some known terrestrial product. At the meeting of the Royal Irish +Academy it was brought out that there is a substance, of rather rare +occurrence, that has been known to form in thin sheets upon marsh land. + +It looks like greenish felt. + +The substance of Memel: + +Damp, coal-black, leafy mass. + +But, if broken up, the marsh-substance is flake-like, and it tears +fibrously. + +An elephant can be identified as a sunflower--both have long stems. A +camel is indistinguishable from a peanut--if only their humps be +considered. + +Trouble with this book is that we'll end up a lot of intellectual roues: +we'll be incapable of being astonished with anything. We knew, to start +with, that science and imbecility are continuous; nevertheless so many +expressions of the merging-point are at first startling. We did think +that Prof. Hitchcock's performance in identifying the Amherst phenomenon +as a fungus was rather notable as scientific vaudeville, if we acquit +him of the charge of seriousness--or that, in a place where fungi were +so common that, before a given evening two of them sprang up, only he, a +stranger in this very fungiferous place, knew a fungus when he saw +something like a fungus--if we disregard its quick liquefaction, for +instance. It was only a monologue, however: now we have an all-star +cast: and they're not only Irish; they're royal Irish. + +The royal Irishmen excluded "coal-blackness" and included fibrousness: +so then that this substance was "marsh paper," which "had been raised +into the air by storms of wind, and had again fallen." + +Second act: + +It was said that, according to M. Ehrenberg, "the meteor-paper was found +to consist partly of vegetable matter, chiefly of conifervae." + +Third act: + +Meeting of the royal Irishmen: chairs, tables, Irishmen: + +Some flakes of marsh-paper were exhibited. + +Their composition was chiefly of conifervae. + +This was a double inclusion: or it's the method of agreement that +logicians make so much of. So no logician would be satisfied with +identifying a peanut as a camel, because both have humps: he demands +accessory agreement--that both can live a long time without water, for +instance. + +Now, it's not so very unreasonable, at least to the free and easy +vaudeville standards that, throughout this book, we are considering, to +think that a green substance could be snatched up from one place in a +whirlwind, and fall as a black substance somewhere else: but the royal +Irishmen excluded something else, and it is a datum that was as +accessible to them as it is to me: + +That, according to Chladni, this was no little, local deposition that +was seen to occur by some indefinite person living near a pond +somewhere. + +It was a tremendous fall from a vast sky-area. + +Likely enough all the marsh paper in the world could not have supplied +it. + +At the same time, this substance was falling "in great quantities," in +Norway and Pomerania. Or see Kirkwood, _Meteoric Astronomy_, p. 66: + +"Substance like charred paper fell in Norway and other parts of northern +Europe, Jan. 31, 1686." + +Or a whirlwind, with a distribution as wide as that, would not +acceptably, I should say, have so specialized in the rare substance +called "marsh paper." There'd have been falls of fence rails, roofs of +houses, parts of trees. Nothing is said of the occurrence of a tornado +in northern Europe, in January, 1686. There is record only of this one +substance having fallen in various places. + +Time went on, but the conventional determination to exclude data of all +falls to this earth, except of substances of this earth, and of ordinary +meteoric matter, strengthened. + +_Annals of Philosophy_, 16-68: + +The substance that fell in January, 1686, is described as "a mass of +black leaves, having the appearance of burnt paper, but harder, and +cohering, and brittle." + +"Marsh paper" is not mentioned, and there is nothing said of the +"conifervae," which seemed so convincing to the royal Irishmen. Vegetable +composition is disregarded, quite as it might be by someone who might +find it convenient to identify a crook-necked squash as a big fishhook. + +Meteorites are usually covered with a black crust, more or less +scale-like. The substance of 1686 is black and scale-like. If so be +convenience, "leaf-likeness" is "scale-likeness." In this attempt to +assimilate with the conventional, we are told that the substance is a +mineral mass: that it is like the black scales that cover meteorites. + +The scientist who made this "identification" was Von Grotthus. He had +appealed to the god Chemical Analysis. Or the power and glory of +mankind--with which we're not always so impressed--but the gods must +tell us what we want them to tell us. We see again that, though nothing +has identity of its own, anything can be "identified" as anything. Or +there's nothing that's not reasonable, if one snoopeth not into its +exclusions. But here the conflict did not end. Berzelius examined the +substance. He could not find nickel in it. At that time, the presence of +nickel was the "positive" test of meteoritic matter. Whereupon, with a +supposititious "positive" standard of judgment against him, Von Grotthus +revoked his "identification." (_Annals and Mag. of Nat. Hist._, +1-3-185.) + +This equalization of eminences permits us to project with our own +expression, which, otherwise, would be subdued into invisibility: + +That it's too bad that no one ever looked to +see--hieroglyphics?--something written upon these sheets of paper? + +If we have no very great variety of substances that have fallen to this +earth; if, upon this earth's surface there is infinite variety of +substances detachable by whirlwinds, two falls of such a rare substance +as marsh paper would be remarkable. + +A writer in the _Edinburgh Review_, 87-194, says that, at the time of +writing, he had before him a portion of a sheet of 200 square feet, of a +substance that had fallen at Carolath, Silesia, in 1839--exactly similar +to cotton-felt, of which clothing might have been made. The god +Microscopic Examination had spoken. The substance consisted chiefly of +conifervae. + +_Jour. Asiatic Soc. of Bengal_, 1847-pt. 1-193: + +That March 16, 1846--about the time of a fall of edible substance in +Asia Minor--an olive-gray powder fell at Shanghai. Under the microscope, +it was seen to be an aggregation of hairs of two kinds, black ones and +rather thick white ones. They were supposed to be mineral fibers, but, +when burned, they gave out "the common ammoniacal smell and smoke of +burnt hair or feathers." The writer described the phenomenon as "a cloud +of 3800 square miles of fibers, alkali, and sand." In a postscript, he +says that other investigators, with more powerful microscopes, gave +opinion that the fibers were not hairs; that the substance consisted +chiefly of conifervae. + +Or the pathos of it, perhaps; or the dull and uninspired, but courageous +persistence of the scientific: everything seemingly found out is doomed +to be subverted--by more powerful microscopes and telescopes; by more +refined, precise, searching means and methods--the new pronouncements +irrepressibly bobbing up; their reception always as Truth at last; +always the illusion of the final; very little of the Intermediatist +spirit-- + +That the new that has displaced the old will itself some day be +displaced; that it, too, will be recognized as myth-stuff-- + +But that if phantoms climb, spooks of ladders are good enough for them. + +_Annual Register_, 1821-681: + +That, according to a report by M. Laine, French Consul at Pernambuco, +early in October, 1821, there was a shower of a substance resembling +silk. The quantity was as tremendous as might be a whole cargo, lost +somewhere between Jupiter and Mars, having drifted around perhaps for +centuries, the original fabrics slowly disintegrating. In _Annales de +Chimie_, 2-15-427, it is said that samples of this substance were sent +to France by M. Laine, and that they proved to have some resemblances to +silky filaments which, at certain times of the year, are carried by the +wind near Paris. + +In the _Annals of Philosophy_, n.s., 12-93, there is mention of a +fibrous substance like blue silk that fell near Naumberg, March 23, +1665. According to Chladni (_Annales de Chimie_, 2-31-264), the quantity +was great. He places a question mark before the date. + +One of the advantages of Intermediatism is that, in the oneness of +quasiness, there can be no mixed metaphors. Whatever is acceptable of +anything, is, in some degree or aspect, acceptable of everything. So it +is quite proper to speak, for instance, of something that is as firm as +a rock and that sails in a majestic march. The Irish are good monists: +they have of course been laughed at for their keener perceptions. So +it's a book we're writing, or it's a procession, or it's a museum, with +the Chamber of Horrors rather over-emphasized. A rather horrible +correlation occurs in the _Scientific American_, 1859-178. What +interests us is that a correspondent saw a silky substance fall from the +sky--there was an aurora borealis at the time--he attributes the +substance to the aurora. + +Since the time of Darwin, the classic explanation has been that all +silky substances that fall from the sky are spider webs. In 1832, aboard +the _Beagle_, at the mouth of La Plata River, 60 miles from land, Darwin +saw an enormous number of spiders, of the kind usually known as +"gossamer" spiders, little aeronauts that cast out filaments by which +the wind carries them. + +It's difficult to express that silky substances that have fallen to this +earth were not spider webs. My own acceptance is that spider webs are +the merger; that there have been falls of an externally derived silky +substance, and also of the webs, or strands, rather, of aeronautic +spiders indigenous to this earth; that in some instances it is +impossible to distinguish one from the other. Of course, our expression +upon silky substances will merge away into expressions upon other +seeming textile substances, and I don't know how much better off we'll +be-- + +Except that, if fabricable materials have fallen from the sky-- + +Simply to establish acceptance of that may be doing well enough in this +book of first and tentative explorations. + +In _All the Year Round_, 8-254, is described a fall that took place in +England, Sept. 21, 1741, in the towns of Bradly, Selborne, and +Alresford, and in a triangular space included by these three towns. The +substance is described as "cobwebs"--but it fell in flake-formation, or +in "flakes or rags about one inch broad and five or six inches long." +Also these flakes were of a relatively heavy substance--"they fell with +some velocity." The quantity was great--the shortest side of the +triangular space is eight miles long. In the _Wernerian Nat. Hist. Soc. +Trans._, 5-386, it is said that there were two falls--that they were +some hours apart--a datum that is becoming familiar to us--a datum that +cannot be taken into the fold, unless we find it repeated over and over +and over again. It is said that the second fall lasted from nine o'clock +in the morning until night. + +Now the hypnosis of the classic--that what we call intelligence is only +an expression of inequilibrium; that when mental adjustments are made, +intelligence ceases--or, of course, that intelligence is the confession +of ignorance. If you have intelligence upon any subject, that is +something you're still learning--if we agree that that which is learned +is always mechanically done--in quasi-terms, of course, because nothing +is ever finally learned. + +It was decided that this substance was spiders' web. That was +adjustment. But it's not adjustment to me; so I'm afraid I shall have +some intelligence in this matter. If I ever arrive at adjustment upon +this subject, then, upon this subject, I shall be able to have no +thoughts, except routine-thoughts. I haven't yet quite decided +absolutely everything, so I am able to point out: + +That this substance was of quantity so enormous that it attracted wide +attention when it came down-- + +That it would have been equally noteworthy when it went up-- + +That there is no record of anyone, in England or elsewhere, having seen +tons of "spider webs" going up, September, 1741. + +Further confession of intelligence upon my part: + +That, if it be contested, then, that the place of origin may have been +far away, but still terrestrial-- + +Then it's that other familiar matter of incredible "marksmanship" +again--hitting a small, triangular space for hours--interval of +hours--then from nine in the morning until night: same small triangular +space. + +These are the disregards of the classic explanation. There is no mention +of spiders having been seen to fall, but a good inclusion is that, +though this substance fell in good-sized flakes of considerable weight, +it was viscous. In this respect it was like cobwebs: dogs nosing it on +grass, were blindfolded with it. This circumstance does strongly suggest +cobwebs-- + +Unless we can accept that, in regions aloft, there are vast viscous or +gelatinous areas, and that things passing through become daubed. Or +perhaps we clear up the confusion in the descriptions of the substance +that fell in 1841 and 1846, in Asia Minor, described in one publication +as gelatinous, and in another as a cereal--that it was a cereal that had +passed through a gelatinous region. That the paper-like substance of +Memel may have had such an experience may be indicated in that Ehrenberg +found in it gelatinous matter, which he called "nostoc." (_Annals and +Mag. of Nat. Hist._, 1-3-185.) + +_Scientific American_, 45-337: + +Fall of a substance described as "cobwebs," latter part of October, +1881, in Milwaukee, Wis., and other towns: other towns mentioned are +Green Bay, Vesburge, Fort Howard, Sheboygan, and Ozaukee. The aeronautic +spiders are known as "gossamer" spiders, because of the extreme +lightness of the filaments that they cast out to the wind. Of the +substance that fell in Wisconsin, it is said: + +"In all instances the webs were strong in texture and very white." + +The Editor says: + +"Curiously enough, there is no mention in any of the reports that we +have seen, of the presence of spiders." + +So our attempt to divorce a possible external product from its +terrestrial merger: then our joy of the prospector who thinks he's found +something: + +The _Monthly Weather Review_, 26-566, quotes the _Montgomery_ (Ala.) +_Advertiser_: + +That, upon Nov. 21, 1898, numerous batches of spider-web-like substance +fell in Montgomery, in strands and in occasional masses several inches +long and several inches broad. According to the writer, it was not +spiders' web, but something like asbestos; also that it was +phosphorescent. + +The Editor of the _Review_ says that he sees no reason for doubting that +these masses were cobwebs. + +_La Nature_, 1883-342: + +A correspondent writes that he sends a sample of a substance said to +have fallen at Montussan (Gironde), Oct. 16, 1883. According to a +witness, quoted by the correspondent, a thick cloud, accompanied by rain +and a violent wind, had appeared. This cloud was composed of a woolly +substance in lumps the size of a fist, which fell to the ground. The +Editor (Tissandier) says of this substance that it was white, but was +something that had been burned. It was fibrous. M. Tissandier astonishes +us by saying that he cannot identify this substance. We thought that +anything could be "identified" as anything. He can say only that the +cloud in question must have been an extraordinary conglomeration. + +_Annual Register, 1832-447:_ + +That, March, 1832, there fell, in the fields of Kourianof, Russia, a +combustible yellowish substance, covering, at least two inches thick, an +area of 600 or 700 square feet. It was resinous and yellowish: so one +inclines to the conventional explanation that it was pollen from pine +trees--but, when torn, it had the tenacity of cotton. When placed in +water, it had the consistency of resin. "This resin had the color of +amber, was elastic, like India rubber, and smelled like prepared oil +mixed with wax." + +So in general our notion of cargoes--and our notion of cargoes of food +supplies: + +In _Philosophical Transactions_, 19-224, is an extract from a letter by +Mr. Robert Vans, of Kilkenny, Ireland, dated Nov. 15, 1695: that there +had been "of late," in the counties of Limerick and Tipperary, showers +of a sort of matter like butter or grease... having "a very stinking +smell." + +There follows an extract from a letter by the Bishop of Cloyne, upon "a +very odd phenomenon," which was observed in Munster and Leinster: that +for a good part of the spring of 1695 there fell a substance which the +country people called "butter"--"soft, clammy, and of a dark +yellow"--that cattle fed "indifferently" in fields where this substance +lay. + +"It fell in lumps as big as the end of one's finger." It had a "strong +ill scent." His Grace calls it a "stinking dew." + +In Mr. Vans' letter, it is said that the "butter" was supposed to have +medicinal properties, and "was gathered in pots and other vessels by +some of the inhabitants of this place." + +And: + +In all the following volumes of _Philosophical Transactions_ there is no +speculation upon this extraordinary subject. Ostracism. The fate of this +datum is a good instance of damnation, not by denial, and not by +explaining away, but by simple disregard. The fall is listed by +Chladni, and is mentioned in other catalogues, but, from the absence of +all inquiry, and of all but formal mention, we see that it has been +under excommunication as much as was ever anything by the preceding +system. The datum has been buried alive. It is as irreconcilable with +the modern system of dogmas as ever were geologic strata and vermiform +appendix with the preceding system-- + +If, intermittently, or "for a good part of the spring," this substance +fell in two Irish provinces, and nowhere else, we have, stronger than +before, a sense of a stationary region overhead, or a region that +receives products like this earth's products, but from external sources, +a region in which this earth's gravitational and meteorological forces +are relatively inert--if for many weeks a good part of this substance +did hover before finally falling. We suppose that, in 1685, Mr. Vans and +the Bishop of Cloyne could describe what they saw as well as could +witnesses in 1885: nevertheless, it is going far back; we shall have to +have many modern instances before we can accept. + +As to other falls, or another fall, it is said in the _Amer. Jour. +Sci._, 1-28-361, that, April 11, 1832--about a month after the fall of +the substance of Kourianof--fell a substance that was wine-yellow, +transparent, soft, and smelling like rancid oil. M. Herman, a chemist +who examined it, named it "sky oil." For analysis and chemic reactions, +see the _Journal_. The _Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal_, 13-368, +mentions an "unctuous" substance that fell near Rotterdam, in 1832. In +_Comptes Rendus_, 13-215, there is an account of an oily, reddish matter +that fell at Genoa, February, 1841. + +Whatever it may have been-- + +Altogether, most of our difficulties are problems that we should leave +to later developers of super-geography, I think. A discoverer of America +should leave Long Island to someone else. If there be, plying back and +forth from Jupiter and Mars and Venus, super-constructions that are +sometimes wrecked, we think of fuel as well as cargoes. Of course the +most convincing data would be of coal falling from the sky: +nevertheless, one does suspect that oil-burning engines were discovered +ages ago in more advanced worlds--but, as I say, we should leave +something to our disciples--so we'll not especially wonder whether these +butter-like or oily substances were food or fuel. So we merely note that +in the _Scientific American_, 24-323, is an account of hail that fell, +in the middle of April, 1871, in Mississippi, in which was a substance +described as turpentine. + +Something that tasted like orange water, in hailstones, about the first +of June, 1842, near Nimes, France; identified as nitric acid (_Jour. de +Pharmacie_, 1845-273). + +Hail and ashes, in Ireland, 1755 (_Sci. Amer._, 5-168). + +That, at Elizabeth, N.J., June 9, 1874, fell hail in which was a +substance, said, by Prof. Leeds, of Stevens Institute, to be carbonate +of soda (_Sci. Amer._, 30-262). + +We are getting a little away from the lines of our composition, but it +will be an important point later that so many extraordinary falls have +occurred with hail. Or--if they were of substances that had had origin +upon some other part of this earth's surface--had the hail, too, that +origin? Our acceptance here will depend upon the number of instances. +Reasonably enough, some of the things that fall to this earth should +coincide with falls of hail. + +As to vegetable substances in quantities so great as to suggest lost +cargoes, we have a note in the _Intellectual Observer_, 3-468: that, +upon the first of May, 1863, a rain fell at Perpignan, "bringing down +with it a red substance, which proved on examination to be a red meal +mixed with fine sand." At various points along the Mediterranean, this +substance fell. + +There is, in _Philosophical Transactions_, 16-281, an account of a +seeming cereal, said to have fallen in Wiltshire, in 1686--said that +some of the "wheat" fell "enclosed in hailstones"--but the writer in +_Transactions_, says that he had examined the grains, and that they were +nothing but seeds of ivy berries dislodged from holes and chinks where +birds had hidden them. If birds still hide ivy seeds, and if winds still +blow, I don't see why the phenomenon has not repeated in more than two +hundred years since. + +Or the red matter in rain, at Siena, Italy, May, 1830; said, by Arago, +to have been vegetable matter (Arago, _OEuvres_, 12-468). + +Somebody should collect data of falls at Siena alone. + +In the _Monthly Weather Review_, 29-465, a correspondent writes that, +upon Feb. 16, 1901, at Pawpaw, Michigan, upon a day that was so calm +that his windmill did not run, fell a brown dust that looked like +vegetable matter. The Editor of the _Review_ concludes that this was no +widespread fall from a tornado, because it had been reported from +nowhere else. + +Rancidness--putridity--decomposition--a note that has been struck many +times. In a positive sense, of course, nothing means anything, or every +meaning is continuous with all other meanings: or that all evidences of +guilt, for instance, are just as good evidences of innocence--but this +condition seems to mean--things lying around among the stars a long +time. Horrible disaster in the time of Julius Caesar; remains from it +not reaching this earth till the time of the Bishop of Cloyne: we leave +to later research the discussion of bacterial action and decomposition, +and whether bacteria could survive in what we call space, of which we +know nothing-- + +_Chemical News_, 35-183: + +Dr. A.T. Machattie, F.C.S., writes that, at London, Ontario, Feb. 24, +1868, in a violent storm, fell, with snow, a dark-colored substance, +estimated at 500 tons, over a belt 50 miles by 10 miles. It was examined +under a microscope, by Dr. Machattie, who found it to consist mainly of +vegetable matter "far advanced in decomposition." The substance was +examined by Dr. James Adams, of Glasgow, who gave his opinion that it +was the remains of cereals. Dr. Machattie points out that for months +before this fall the ground of Canada had been frozen, so that in this +case a more than ordinarily remote origin has to be thought of. Dr. +Machattie thinks of origin to the south. "However," he says, "this is +mere conjecture." + +_Amer. Jour. Sci._, 1841-40: + +That, March 24, 1840--during a thunderstorm--at Rajkit, India, occurred +a fall of grain. It was reported by Col. Sykes, of the British +Association. + +The natives were greatly excited--because it was grain of a kind unknown +to them. + +Usually comes forward a scientist who knows more of the things that +natives know best than the natives know--but it so happens that the +usual thing was not done definitely in this instance: + +"The grain was shown to some botanists, who did not immediately +recognize it, but thought it to be either a spartium or a vicia." + + + + +6 + + +Lead, silver, diamonds, glass. + +They sound like the accursed, but they're not: they're now of the +chosen--that is, when they occur in metallic or stony masses that +Science has recognized as meteorites. We find that resistance is to +substances not so mixed in or incorporated. + +Of accursed data, it seems to me that punk is pretty damnable. In the +_Report of the British Association_, 1878-376, there is mention of a +light chocolate-brown substance that has fallen with meteorites. No +particulars given; not another mention anywhere else that I can find. In +this English publication, the word "punk" is not used; the substance is +called "amadou." I suppose, if the datum has anywhere been admitted to +French publications, the word "amadou" has been avoided, and "punk" +used. + +Or oneness of allness: scientific works and social registers: a +Goldstein who can't get in as Goldstein, gets in as Jackson. + +The fall of sulphur from the sky has been especially repulsive to the +modern orthodoxy--largely because of its associations with the +superstitions or principles of the preceding orthodoxy--stories of +devils: sulphurous exhalations. Several writers have said that they have +had this feeling. So the scientific reactionists, who have rabidly +fought the preceding, because it was the preceding: and the scientific +prudes, who, in sheer exclusionism, have held lean hands over pale eyes, +denying falls of sulphur. I have many notes upon the sulphurous odor of +meteorites, and many notes upon phosphorescence of things that come from +externality. Some day I shall look over old stories of demons that have +appeared sulphurously upon this earth, with the idea of expressing that +we have often had undesirable visitors from other worlds; or that an +indication of external derivation is sulphurousness. I expect some day +to rationalize demonology, but just at present we are scarcely far +enough advanced to go so far back. + +For a circumstantial account of a mass of burning sulphur, about the +size of a man's fist, that fell at Pultusk, Poland, Jan. 30, 1868, upon +a road, where it was stamped out by a crowd of villagers, see _Rept. +Brit. Assoc._, 1874-272. + +The power of the exclusionists lies in that in their stand are combined +both modern and archaic systematists. Falls of sandstone and limestone +are repulsive to both theologians and scientists. Sandstone and +limestone suggest other worlds upon which occur processes like +geological processes; but limestone, as a fossiliferous substance, is of +course especially of the unchosen. + +In _Science_, March 9, 1888, we read of a block of limestone, said to +have fallen near Middleburg, Florida. It was exhibited at the +Sub-tropical Exposition, at Jacksonville. The writer, in _Science_, +denies that it fell from the sky. His reasoning is: + +There is no limestone in the sky; + +Therefore this limestone did not fall from the sky. + +Better reasoning I cannot conceive of--because we see that a final major +premise--universal--true--would include all things: that, then, would +leave nothing to reason about--so then that all reasoning must be based +upon "something" not universal, or only a phantom intermediate to the +two finalities of nothingness and allness, or negativeness and +positiveness. + +_La Nature_, 1890-2-127: + +Fall, at Pel-et-Der (L'Aube), France, June 6, 1890, of limestone +pebbles. Identified with limestone at Chateau-Landon--or up and down in +a whirlwind. But they fell with hail--which, in June, could not very +well be identified with ice from Chateau-Landon. Coincidence, perhaps. + +Upon page 70, _Science Gossip_, 1887, the Editor says, of a stone that +was reported to have fallen at Little Lever, England, that a sample had +been sent to him. It was sandstone. Therefore it had not fallen, but had +been on the ground in the first place. But, upon page 140, _Science +Gossip_, 1887, is an account of "a large, smooth, water-worn, gritty +sandstone pebble" that had been found in the wood of a full-grown beech +tree. Looks to me as if it had fallen red-hot, and had penetrated the +tree with high velocity. But I have never heard of anything falling +red-hot from a whirlwind-- + +The wood around this sandstone pebble was black, as if charred. + +Dr. Farrington, for instance, in his books, does not even mention +sandstone. However, the British Association, though reluctant, is less +exclusive: _Report_ of 1860, p. 197: substance about the size of a +duck's egg, that fell at Raphoe, Ireland, June 9, 1860--date questioned. +It is not definitely said that this substance was sandstone, but that it +"resembled" friable sandstone. + +Falls of salt have occurred often. They have been avoided by +scientific writers, because of the dictum that only water and +not substances held in solution, can be raised by evaporation. +However, falls of salty water have received attention from +Dalton and others, and have been attributed to whirlwinds from the sea. +This is so reasonably contested--quasi-reasonably--as to places not +far from the sea-- + +But the fall of salt that occurred high in the mountains of +Switzerland-- + +We could have predicted that that datum could be found somewhere. Let +anything be explained in local terms of the coast of England--but also +has it occurred high in the mountains of Switzerland. + +Large crystals of salt fell--in a hailstorm--Aug. 20, 1870, in +Switzerland. The orthodox explanation is a crime: whoever made it, +should have had his finger-prints taken. We are told (_An. Rec. Sci._, +1872) that these objects of salt "came over the Mediterranean from some +part of Africa." + +Or the hypnosis of the conventional--provided it be glib. One reads such +an assertion, and provided it be suave and brief and conventional, one +seldom questions--or thinks "very strange" and then forgets. One has an +impression from geography lessons: Mediterranean not more than three +inches wide, on the map; Switzerland only a few more inches away. These +sizable masses of salt are described in the _Amer. Jour. Sci._, 3-3-239, +as "essentially imperfect cubic crystals of common salt." As to +occurrence with hail--that can in one, or ten, or twenty, instances be +called a coincidence. + +Another datum: extraordinary year 1883: + +London _Times_, Dec. 25, 1883: + +Translation from a Turkish newspaper; a substance that fell at Scutari, +Dec. 2, 1883; described as an unknown substance, in particles--or +flakes?--like snow. "It was found to be saltish to the taste, and to +dissolve readily in water." + +Miscellaneous: + +"Black, capillary matter" that fell, Nov. 16, 1857, at Charleston, S.C. +(_Amer. Jour. Sci._, 2-31-459). + +Fall of small, friable, vesicular masses, from size of a pea to size of +a walnut, at Lobau, Jan. 18, 1835 (_Rept. Brit. Assoc._, 1860-85). + +Objects that fell at Peshawur, India, June, 1893, during a storm: +substance that looked like crystallized niter, and that tasted like +sugar (_Nature_, July 13, 1893). + +I suppose sometimes deep-sea fishes have their noses bumped by cinders. +If their regions be subjacent to Cunard or White Star routes, they're +especially likely to be bumped. I conceive of no inquiry: they're +deep-sea fishes. + +Or the slag of Slains. That it was a furnace-product. The Rev. James +Rust seemed to feel bumped. He tried in vain to arouse inquiry. + +As to a report, from Chicago, April 9, 1879, that slag had fallen from +the sky, Prof. E.S. Bastian (_Amer. Jour. Sci._, 3-18-78) says that the +slag "had been on the ground in the first place." It was furnace-slag. +"A chemical examination of the specimens has shown that they possess +none of the characteristics of true meteorites." + +Over and over and over again, the universal delusion; hope and despair +of attempted positivism; that there can be real criteria, or distinct +characteristics of anything. If anybody can define--not merely suppose, +like Prof. Bastian, that he can define--the true characteristics of +anything, or so localize trueness anywhere, he makes the discovery for +which the cosmos is laboring. He will be instantly translated, like +Elijah, into the Positive Absolute. My own notion is that, in a moment +of super-concentration, Elijah became so nearly a real prophet that he +was translated to heaven, or to the Positive Absolute, with such +velocity that he left an incandescent train behind him. As we go along, +we shall find the "true test of meteoritic material," which in the past +has been taken as an absolute, dissolving into almost utmost nebulosity. +Prof. Bastian explains mechanically, or in terms of the usual reflexes +to all reports of unwelcome substances: that near where the slag had +been found, telegraph wires had been struck by lightning; that particles +of melted wire had been seen to fall near the slag--which had been on +the ground in the first place. But, according to the _New York Times_, +April 14, 1879, about two bushels of this substance had fallen. + +Something that was said to have fallen at Darmstadt, June 7, 1846; +listed by Greg (_Rept. Brit. Assoc._, 1867-416) as "only slag." + +_Philosophical Magazine_, 4-10-381: + +That, in 1855, a large stone was found far in the interior of a tree, in +Battersea Fields. + +Sometimes cannon balls are found embedded in trees. Doesn't seem to be +anything to discuss; doesn't seem discussable that any one would cut a +hole in a tree and hide a cannon ball, which one could take to bed, and +hide under one's pillow, just as easily. So with the stone of Battersea +Fields. What is there to say, except that it fell with high velocity and +embedded in the tree? Nevertheless, there was a great deal of +discussion-- + +Because, at the foot of the tree, as if broken off the stone, fragments +of slag were found. + +I have nine other instances. + +Slag and cinders and ashes, and you won't believe, and neither will I, +that they came from the furnaces of vast aerial super-constructions. +We'll see what looks acceptable. + +As to ashes, the difficulties are great, because we'd expect many falls +of terrestrially derived ashes--volcanoes and forest fires. + +In some of our acceptances, I have felt a little radical-- + +I suppose that one of our main motives is to show that there is, in +quasi-existence, nothing but the preposterous--or something intermediate +to absolute preposterousness and final reasonableness--that the new is +the obviously preposterous; that it becomes the established and +disguisedly preposterous; that it is displaced, after a while, and is +again seen to be the preposterous. Or that all progress is from the +outrageous to the academic or sanctified, and back to the +outrageous--modified, however, by a trend of higher and higher +approximation to the impreposterous. Sometimes I feel a little more +uninspired than at other times, but I think we're pretty well accustomed +now to the oneness of allness; or that the methods of science in +maintaining its system are as outrageous as the attempts of the damned +to break in. In the _Annual Record of Science_, 1875-241, Prof. Daubree +is quoted: that ashes that had fallen in the Azores had come from the +Chicago fire-- + +Or the damned and the saved, and there's little to choose between them; +and angels are beings that have not obviously barbed tails to them--or +never have such bad manners as to stroke an angel below the waist-line. + +However this especial outrage was challenged: the Editor of the _Record_ +returns to it, in the issue of 1876: considers it "in the highest degree +improper to say that the ashes of Chicago were landed in the Azores." + +_Bull. Soc. Astro. de France_, 22-245: + +Account of a white substance, like ashes, that fell at Annoy, France, +March 27, 1908: simply called a curious phenomenon; no attempt to trace +to a terrestrial source. + +Flake formations, which may signify passage through a region of +pressure, are common; but spherical formations--as if of things that +have rolled and rolled along planar regions somewhere--are commoner: + +_Nature_, Jan. 10, 1884, quotes a Kimberley newspaper: + +That, toward the close of November, 1883, a thick shower of ashy matter +fell at Queenstown, South Africa. The matter was in marble-sized balls, +which were soft and pulpy, but which, upon drying, crumbled at touch. +The shower was confined to one narrow streak of land. It would be only +ordinarily preposterous to attribute this substance to Krakatoa-- + +But, with the fall, loud noises were heard-- + +But I'll omit many notes upon ashes: if ashes should sift down upon +deep-sea fishes, that is not to say that they came from steamships. + +Data of falls of cinders have been especially damned by Mr. Symons, the +meteorologist, some of whose investigations we'll investigate +later--nevertheless-- + +Notice of a fall, in Victoria, Australia, April 14, 1875 (_Rept. Brit. +Assoc._, 1875-242)--at least we are told, in the reluctant way, that +someone "thought" he saw matter fall near him at night, and the next day +found something that looked like cinders. + +In the _Proc. of the London Roy. Soc._, 19-122, there is an account of +cinders that fell on the deck of a lightship, Jan. 9, 1873. In the +_Amer. Jour. Sci._, 2-24-449, there is a notice that the Editor had +received a specimen of cinders said to have fallen--in showery +weather--upon a farm, near Ottowa, Ill., Jan. 17, 1857. + +But after all, ambiguous things they are, cinders or ashes or slag or +clinkers, the high priest of the accursed that must speak aloud for us +is--coal that has fallen from the sky. + +Or coke: + +The person who thought he saw something like cinders, also thought he +saw something like coke, we are told. + +_Nature_, 36-119: + +Something that "looked exactly like coke" that fell--during a +thunderstorm--in the Orne, France, April 24, 1887. + +Or charcoal: + +Dr. Angus Smith, in the _Lit. and Phil. Soc. of Manchester Memoirs_, +2-9-146, says that, about 1827--like a great deal in Lyell's +_Principles_ and Darwin's _Origin_, this account is from +hearsay--something fell from the sky, near Allport, England. It fell +luminously, with a loud report, and scattered in a field. A fragment +that was seen by Dr. Smith, is described by him as having "the +appearance of a piece of common wood charcoal." Nevertheless, the +reassured feeling of the faithful, upon reading this, is burdened with +data of differences: the substance was so uncommonly heavy that it +seemed as if it had iron in it; also there was "a sprinkling of +sulphur." This material is said, by Prof. Baden-Powell, to be "totally +unlike that of any other meteorite." Greg, in his catalogue (_Rept. +Brit. Assoc._, 1860-73), calls it "a more than doubtful substance"--but +again, against reassurance, that is not doubt of authenticity. Greg says +that it is like compact charcoal, with particles of sulphur and iron +pyrites embedded. + +Reassurance rises again: + +Prof. Baden-Powell says: "It contains also charcoal, which might perhaps +be acquired from matter among which it fell." + +This is a common reflex with the exclusionists: that substances not +"truly meteoritic" did not fall from the sky, but were picked up by +"truly meteoritic" things, of course only on their surfaces, by impact +with this earth. + +Rhythm of reassurances and their declines: + +According to Dr. Smith, this substance was not merely coated with +charcoal; his analysis gives 43.59 per cent carbon. + +Our acceptance that coal has fallen from the sky will be via data of +resinous substances and bituminous substances, which merge so that they +cannot be told apart. + +Resinous substance said to have fallen at Kaba, Hungary, April 15, 1887 +(_Rept. Brit. Assoc._, 1860-94). + +A resinous substance that fell after a fireball? at Neuhaus, Bohemia, +Dec. 17, 1824 (_Rept. Brit. Assoc._, 1860-70). + +Fall, July 28, 1885, at Luchon, during a storm, of a brownish substance; +very friable, carbonaceous matter; when burned it gave out a resinous +odor (_Comptes Rendus_, 103-837). + +Substance that fell, Feb. 17, 18, 19, 1841, at Genoa, Italy, said to +have been resinous; said by Arago (_OEuvres_, 12-469) to have been +bituminous matter and sand. + +Fall--during a thunderstorm--July, 1681, near Cape Cod, upon the deck of +an English vessel, the _Albemarle_, of "burning, bituminous matter" +(_Edin. New Phil. Jour._, 26-86); a fall, at Christiania, Norway, June +13, 1822, of bituminous matter, listed by Greg as doubtful; fall of +bituminous matter, in Germany, March 8, 1798, listed by Greg. Lockyer +(_The Meteoric Hypothesis_, p. 24) says that the substance that fell at +the Cape of Good Hope, Oct. 13, 1838--about five cubic feet of it: +substance so soft that it was cuttable with a knife--"after being +experimented upon, it left a residue, which gave out a very bituminous +smell." + +And this inclusion of Lockyer's--so far as findable in all books that I +have read--is, in books, about as close as we can get to our +desideratum--that coal has fallen from the sky. Dr. Farrington, except +with a brief mention, ignores the whole subject of the fall of +carbonaceous matter from the sky. Proctor, in all of his books that I +have read--is, in books, about as close as we can get to the admission +that carbonaceous matter has been found in meteorites "in very minute +quantities"--or my own suspicion is that it is possible to damn +something else only by losing one's own soul--quasi-soul, of course. + +_Sci. Amer._, 35-120: + +That the substance that fell at the Cape of Good Hope "resembled a piece +of anthracite coal more than anything else." + +It's a mistake, I think: the resemblance is to bituminous coal--but it +is from the periodicals that we must get our data. To the writers of +books upon meteorites, it would be as wicked--by which we mean departure +from the characters of an established species--quasi-established, of +course--to say that coal has fallen from the sky, as would be, to +something in a barnyard, a temptation that it climb a tree and catch a +bird. Domestic things in a barnyard: and how wild things from forests +outside seem to them. Or the homeopathist--but we shall shovel data of +coal. + +And, if over and over, we shall learn of masses of soft coal that have +fallen upon this earth, if in no instance has it been asserted that the +masses did not fall, but were upon the ground in the first place; if we +have many instances, this time we turn down good and hard the mechanical +reflex that these masses were carried from one place to another in +whirlwinds, because we find it too difficult to accept that whirlwinds +could so select, or so specialize in a peculiar substance. Among writers +of books, the only one I know of who makes more than brief mention is +Sir Robert Ball. He represents a still more antique orthodoxy, or is an +exclusionist of the old type, still holding out against even meteorites. +He cites several falls of carbonaceous matter, but with disregards that +make for reasonableness that earthy matter may have been caught up by +whirlwinds and flung down somewhere else. If he had given a full list, +he would be called upon to explain the special affinity of whirlwinds +for a special kind of coal. He does not give a full list. We shall have +all that's findable, and we shall see that against this disease we're +writing, the homeopathist's prescription availeth not. Another +exclusionist was Prof. Lawrence Smith. His psycho-tropism was to +respond to all reports of carbonaceous matter falling from the sky, by +saying that this damned matter had been deposited upon things of the +chosen by impact with this earth. Most of our data antedate him, or were +contemporaneous with him, or were as accessible to him as to us. In his +attempted positivism it is simply--and beautifully--disregarded that, +according to Berthelot, Berzelius, Cloez, Wohler and others these masses +are not merely coated with carbonaceous matter, but are carbonaceous +throughout, or are permeated throughout. How anyone could so resolutely +and dogmatically and beautifully and blindly hold out would puzzle us +were it not for our acceptance that only to think is to exclude and +include; and to exclude some things that have as much right to come in +as have the included--that to have an opinion upon any subject is to be +a Lawrence Smith--because there is no definite subject. + +Dr. Walter Flight (_Eclectic Magazine_, 89-71) says, of the substance +that fell near Alais, France, March 15, 1806, that it "emits a faint +bituminous substance" when heated, according to the observations of +Bergelius and a commission appointed by the French Academy. This time we +have not the reluctances expressed in such words as "like" and +"resembling." We are told that this substance is "an earthy kind of +coal." + +As to "minute quantities" we are told that the substance that fell at +the Cape of Good Hope has in it a little more than a quarter of organic +matter, which, in alcohol, gives the familiar reaction of yellow, +resinous matter. Other instances given by Dr. Flight are: + +Carbonaceous matter that fell in 1840, in Tennessee; Cranbourne, +Australia, 1861; Montauban, France, May 14, 1864 (twenty masses, some of +them as large as a human head, of a substance that "resembled a +dull-colored earthy lignite"); Goalpara, India, about 1867 (about 8 per +cent of a hydrocarbon); at Ornans, France, July 11, 1868; substance with +"an organic, combustible ingredient," at Hessle, Sweden, Jan. 1, 1860. + +_Knowledge_, 4-134: + +That, according to M. Daubree, the substance that had fallen in the +Argentine Republic, "resembled certain kinds of lignite and boghead +coal." In _Comptes Rendus_, 96-1764, it is said that this mass fell, +June 30, 1880, in the province Entre Rios, Argentina: that it is "like" +brown coal; that it resembles all the other carbonaceous masses that +have fallen from the sky. + +Something that fell at Grazac, France, Aug. 10, 1885: when burned, it +gave out a bituminous odor (_Comptes Rendus_, 104-1771). + +Carbonaceous substance that fell at Rajpunta, India, Jan. 22, 1911: very +friable: 50 per cent of its soluble in water (_Records Geol. Survey of +India_, 44-pt. 1-41). + +A combustible carbonaceous substance that fell with sand at Naples, +March 14, 1818 (_Amer. Jour. Sci._, 1-1-309). + +_Sci. Amer. Sup._, 29-11798: + +That, June 9, 1889, a very friable substance, of a deep, greenish black, +fell at Mighei, Russia. It contained 5 per cent organic matter, which, +when powdered and digested in alcohol, yielded, after evaporation, a +bright yellow resin. In this mass was 2 per cent of an unknown mineral. + +Cinders and ashes and slag and coke and charcoal and coal. + +And the things that sometimes deep-sea fishes are bumped by. + +Reluctances and the disguises or covered retreats of such words as +"like" and "resemble"--or that conditions of Intermediateness forbid +abrupt transitions--but that the spirit animating all Intermediateness +is to achieve abrupt transitions--because, if anything could finally +break away from its origin and environment, that would be a real +thing--something not merging away indistinguishably with the +surrounding. So all attempt to be original; all attempt to invent +something that is more than mere extension or modification of the +preceding, is positivism--or that if one could conceive of a device to +catch flies, positively different from, or unrelated to, all other +devices--up he'd shoot to heaven, or the Positive Absolute--leaving +behind such an incandescent train that in one age it would be said that +he had gone aloft in a fiery chariot, and in another age that he had +been struck by lightning-- + +I'm collecting notes upon persons supposed to have been struck by +lightning. I think that high approximation to positivism has often been +achieved--instantaneous translation--residue of negativeness left +behind, looking much like effects of a stroke of lightning. Some day I +shall tell the story of the _Marie Celeste_--"properly," as the +_Scientific American Supplement_ would say--mysterious disappearance of +a sea captain, his family, and the crew-- + +Of positivists, by the route of Abrupt Transition, I think that Manet +was notable--but that his approximation was held down by his intense +relativity to the public--or that it is quite as impositive to flout and +insult and defy as it is to crawl and placate. Of course, Manet began +with continuity with Courbet and others, and then, between him and Manet +there were mutual influences--but the spirit of abrupt difference is the +spirit of positivism, and Manet's stand was against the dictum that all +lights and shades must merge away suavely into one another and prepare +for one another. So a biologist like De Vries represents positivism, or +the breaking of Continuity, by trying to conceive of evolution by +mutation--against the dogma of indistinguishable gradations by "minute +variations." A Copernicus conceives of helio-centricity. Continuity is +against him. He is not permitted to break abruptly with the past. He is +permitted to publish his work, but only as "an interesting hypothesis." + +Continuity--and that all that we call evolution or progress is attempt +to break away from it-- + +That our whole solar system was at one time attempt by planets to break +away from a parental nexus and set up as individualities, and, failing, +move in quasi-regular orbits that are expressions of relations with the +sun and with one another, all having surrendered, being now +quasi-incorporated in a higher approximation to system: + +Intermediateness in its mineralogic aspect of positivism--or Iron that +strove to break away from Sulphur and Oxygen, and be real, homogeneous +Iron--failing, inasmuch as elemental iron exists only in text-book +chemistry: + +Intermediateness in its biologic aspect of positivism--or the wild, +fantastic, grotesque, monstrous things it conceived of, sometimes in a +frenzy of effort to break away abruptly from all preceding types--but +failing, in the giraffe-effort, for instance, or only caricaturing an +antelope-- + +All things break one relation only by the establishing of some other +relation-- + +All things cut an umbilical cord only to clutch a breast. + +So the fight of the exclusionists to maintain the traditional--or to +prevent abrupt transition from the quasi-established--fighting so that +here, more than a century after meteorites were included, no other +notable inclusion has been made, except that of cosmic dust, data of +which Nordenskiold made more nearly real than data in opposition. + +So Proctor, for instance, fought and expressed his feeling of the +preposterous, against Sir W.H. Thomson's notions of arrival upon this +earth of organisms on meteorites-- + +"I can only regard it as a jest" (_Knowledge_, 1-302). + +Or that there is nothing but jest--or something intermediate to jest and +tragedy: + +That ours is not an existence but an utterance; + +That Momus is imagining us for the amusement of the gods, often with +such success that some of us seem almost alive--like characters in +something a novelist is writing; which often to considerable degree take +their affairs away from the novelist-- + +That Momus is imagining us and our arts and sciences and religions, and +is narrating or picturing us as a satire upon the gods' real existence. + +Because--with many of our data of coal that has fallen from the sky as +accessible then as they are now, and with the scientific pronouncement +that coal is fossil, how, in a real existence, by which we mean a +consistent existence, or a state in which there is real intelligence, or +a form of thinking that does not indistinguishably merge away with +imbecility, could there have been such a row as that which was raised +about forty years ago over Dr. Hahn's announcement that he had found +fossils in meteorites? + +Accessible to anybody at that time: + +_Philosophical Magazine_, 4-17-425: + +That the substance that fell at Kaba, Hungary, April 15, 1857, contained +organic matter "analagous to fossil waxes." + +Or limestone: + +Of the block of limestone which was reported to have fallen at +Middleburg, Florida, it is said (_Science_, 11-118) that, though +something had been seen to fall in "an old cultivated field," the +witnesses who ran to it picked up something that "had been upon the +ground in the first place." The writer who tells us this, with the usual +exclusion-imagination known as stupidity, but unjustly, because there is +no real stupidity, thinks he can think of a good-sized stone that had +for many years been in a cultivated field, but that had never been seen +before--had never interfered with plowing, for instance. He is earnest +and unjarred when he writes that this stone weighs 200 pounds. My own +notion, founded upon my own experience in seeing, is that a block of +stone weighing 500 pounds might be in one's parlor twenty years, +virtually unseen--but not in an old cultivated field, where it +interfered with plowing--not anywhere--if it interfered. + +Dr. Hahn said that he had found fossils in meteorites. There is a +description of the corals, sponges, shells, and crinoids, all of them +microscopic, which he photographed, in _Popular Science_, 20-83. + +Dr. Hahn was a well-known scientist. He was better known after that. + +Anybody may theorize upon other worlds and conditions upon them that are +similar to our own conditions: if his notions be presented undisguisedly +as fiction, or only as an "interesting hypothesis," he'll stir up no +prude rages. + +But Dr. Hahn said definitely that he had found fossils in specified +meteorites: also he published photographs of them. His book is in the +New York Public Library. In the reproductions every feature of some of +the little shells is plainly marked. If they're not shells, neither are +things under an oyster-counter. The striations are very plain: one sees +even the hinges where bivalves are joined. + +Prof. Lawrence Smith (_Knowledge_, 1-258): + +"Dr. Hahn is a kind of half-insane man, whose imagination has run away +with him." + +Conservation of Continuity. + +Then Dr. Weinland examined Dr. Hahn's specimens. He gave his opinion +that they are fossils and that they are not crystals of enstatite, as +asserted by Prof. Smith, who had never seen them. + +The damnation of denial and the damnation of disregard: + +After the publication of Dr. Weinland's findings--silence. + + + + +7 + + +The living things that have come down to this earth: + +Attempts to preserve the system: + +That small frogs and toads, for instance, never have fallen from the +sky, but were--"on the ground, in the first place"; or that there have +been such falls--"up from one place in a whirlwind, and down in +another." + +Were there some especially froggy place near Europe, as there is an +especially sandy place, the scientific explanation would of course be +that all small frogs falling from the sky in Europe come from that +center of frogeity. + +To start with, I'd like to emphasize something that I am permitted to +see because I am still primitive or intelligent or in a state of +maladjustment: + +That there is not one report findable of a fall of tadpoles from the +sky. + +As to "there in the first place": + +See _Leisure Hours_, 3-779, for accounts of small frogs, or toads, said +to have been seen to fall from the sky. The writer says that all +observers were mistaken: that the frogs or toads must have fallen from +trees or other places overhead. + +Tremendous number of little toads, one or two months old, that were seen +to fall from a great thick cloud that appeared suddenly in a sky that +had been cloudless, August, 1804, near Toulouse, France, according to a +letter from Prof. Pontus to M. Arago. (_Comptes Rendus_, 3-54.) + +Many instances of frogs that were seen to fall from the sky. (_Notes and +Queries_, 8-6-104); accounts of such falls, signed by witnesses. (_Notes +and Queries_, 8-6-190.) + +_Scientific American_, July 12, 1873: + +"A shower of frogs which darkened the air and covered the ground for a +long distance is the reported result of a recent rainstorm at Kansas +City, Mo." + +As to having been there "in the first place": + +Little frogs found in London, after a heavy storm, July 30, 1838. +(_Notes and Queries_, 8-7-437); + +Little toads found in a desert, after a rainfall (_Notes and Queries_, +8-8-493). + +To start with I do not deny--positively--the conventional explanation of +"up and down." I think that there may have been such occurrences. I omit +many notes that I have upon indistinguishables. In the London _Times_, +July 4, 1883, there is an account of a shower of twigs and leaves and +tiny toads in a storm upon the slopes of the Apennines. These may have +been the ejectamenta of a whirlwind. I add, however, that I have notes +upon two other falls of tiny toads, in 1883, one in France and one in +Tahiti; also of fish in Scotland. But in the phenomenon of the +Apennines, the mixture seems to me to be typical of the products of a +whirlwind. The other instances seem to me to be typical of--something +like migration? Their great numbers and their homogeneity. Over and over +in these annals of the damned occurs the datum of segregation. But a +whirlwind is thought of as a condition of chaos--quasi-chaos: not final +negativeness, of course-- + +_Monthly Weather Review_, July, 1881: + +"A small pond in the track of the cloud was sucked dry, the water being +carried over the adjoining fields together with a large quantity of soft +mud, which was scattered over the ground for half a mile around." + +It is so easy to say that small frogs that have fallen from the sky had +been scooped up by a whirlwind; but here are the circumstances of a +scoop; in the exclusionist-imagination there is no regard for mud, +debris from the bottom of a pond, floating vegetation, loose things from +the shores--but a precise picking out of frogs only. Of all instances I +have that attribute the fall of small frogs or toads to whirlwinds, only +one definitely identifies or places the whirlwind. Also, as has been +said before, a pond going up would be quite as interesting as frogs +coming down. Whirlwinds we read of over and over--but where and what +whirlwind? It seems to me that anybody who had lost a pond would be +heard from. In _Symons' Meteorological Magazine_, 32-106, a fall of +small frogs, near Birmingham, England, June 30, 1892, is attributed to a +specific whirlwind--but not a word as to any special pond that had +contributed. And something that strikes my attention here is that these +frogs are described as almost white. + +I'm afraid there is no escape for us: we shall have to give to +civilization upon this earth--some new worlds. + +Places with white frogs in them. + +Upon several occasions we have had data of unknown things that have +fallen from--somewhere. But something not to be overlooked is that if +living things have landed alive upon this earth--in spite of all we +think we know of the accelerative velocity of falling bodies--and have +propagated--why the exotic becomes the indigenous, or from the strangest +of places we'd expect the familiar. Or if hosts of living frogs have +come here--from somewhere else--every living thing upon this earth may, +ancestrally, have come from--somewhere else. + +I find that I have another note upon a specific hurricane: + +_Annals and Mag. of Nat. Hist._, 1-3-185: + +After one of the greatest hurricanes in the history of Ireland, some +fish were found "as far as 15 yards from the edge of a lake." + +Have another: this is a good one for the exclusionists: + +Fall of fish in Paris: said that a neighboring pond had been blown dry. +(_Living Age_, 52-186.) Date not given, but I have seen it recorded +somewhere else. + +The best-known fall of fishes from the sky is that which occurred at +Mountain Ash, in the Valley of Abedare, Glamorganshire, Feb. 11, 1859. + +The Editor of the _Zoologist_, 2-677, having published a report of a +fall of fishes, writes: "I am continually receiving similar accounts of +frogs and fishes." But, in all the volumes of the _Zoologist_, I can +find only two reports of such falls. There is nothing to conclude other +than that hosts of data have been lost because orthodoxy does not look +favorably upon such reports. The _Monthly Weather Review_ records +several falls of fishes in the United States; but accounts of these +reported occurrences are not findable in other American publications. +Nevertheless, the treatment by the _Zoologist_ of the fall reported from +Mountain Ash is fair. First appears, in the issue of 1859-6493, a letter +from the Rev. John Griffith, Vicar of Abedare, asserting that the fall +had occurred, chiefly upon the property of Mr. Nixon, of Mountain Ash. +Upon page 6540, Dr. Gray, of the British Museum, bristling with +exclusionism, writes that some of these fishes, which had been sent to +him alive, were "very young minnows." He says: "On reading the evidence, +it seems to me most probably only a practical joke: that one of Mr. +Nixon's employees had thrown a pailful of water upon another, who had +thought fish in it had fallen from the sky"--had dipped up a pailful +from a brook. + +Those fishes--still alive--were exhibited at the Zoological Gardens, +Regent's Park. The Editor says that one was a minnow and that the rest +were sticklebacks. + +He says that Dr. Gray's explanation is no doubt right. + +But, upon page 6564, he publishes a letter from another correspondent, +who apologizes for opposing "so high an authority as Dr. Gray," but says +that he had obtained some of these fishes from persons who lived at a +considerable distance apart, or considerably out of range of the playful +pail of water. + +According to the _Annual Register_, 1859-14, the fishes themselves had +fallen by pailfuls. + +If these fishes were not upon the ground in the first place, we base our +objections to the whirlwind explanation upon two data: + +That they fell in no such distribution as one could attribute to the +discharge of a whirlwind, but upon a narrow strip of land: about 80 +yards long and 12 yards wide-- + +The other datum is again the suggestion that at first seemed so +incredible, but for which support is piling up, a suggestion of a +stationary source overhead-- + +That ten minutes later another fall of fishes occurred upon this same +narrow strip of land. + +Even arguing that a whirlwind may stand still axially, it discharges +tangentially. Wherever the fishes came from it does not seem thinkable +that some could have fallen and that others could have whirled even a +tenth of a minute, then falling directly after the first to fall. +Because of these evil circumstances the best adaptation was to laugh the +whole thing off and say that someone had soused someone else with a +pailful of water in which a few "very young" minnows had been caught up. + +In the London _Times_, March 2, 1859, is a letter from Mr. Aaron +Roberts, curate of St. Peter's, Carmathon. In this letter the fishes are +said to have been about four inches long, but there is some question of +species. I think, myself, that they were minnows and sticklebacks. Some +persons, thinking them to be sea fishes, placed them in salt water, +according to Mr. Roberts. "The effect is stated to have been almost +instantaneous death." "Some were placed in fresh water. These seemed to +thrive well." As to narrow distribution, we are told that the fishes +fell "in and about the premises of Mr. Nixon." "It was not observed at +the time that any fish fell in any other part of the neighborhood, save +in the particular spot mentioned." + +In the London _Times_, March 10, 1859, Vicar Griffith writes an account: + +"The roofs of some houses were covered with them." + +In this letter it is said that the largest fishes were five inches long, +and that these did not survive the fall. + +_Report of the British Association_, 1859-158: + +"The evidence of the fall of fish on this occasion was very conclusive. +A specimen of the fish was exhibited and was found to be the +_Gasterosteus leirus_." + +_Gasterosteus_ is the stickleback. + +Altogether I think we have not a sense of total perdition, when we're +damned with the explanation that someone soused someone else with a +pailful of water in which were thousands of fishes four or five inches +long, some of which covered roofs of houses, and some of which remained +ten minutes in the air. By way of contrast we offer our own acceptance: + +That the bottom of a super-geographical pond had dropped out. + +I have a great many notes upon the fall of fishes, despite the +difficulty these records have in getting themselves published, but I +pick out the instances that especially relate to our super-geographical +acceptances, or to the Principles of Super-Geography: or data of things +that have been in the air longer than acceptably could a whirlwind carry +them; that have fallen with a distribution narrower than is attributable +to a whirlwind; that have fallen for a considerable length of time upon +the same narrow area of land. + +These three factors indicate, somewhere not far aloft, a region of +inertness to this earth's gravitation, of course, however, a region +that, by the flux and variation of all things, must at times be +susceptible--but, afterward, our heresy will bifurcate-- + +In amiable accommodation to the crucifixion it'll get, I think-- + +But so impressed are we with the datum that, though there have been many +reports of small frogs that have fallen from the sky, not one report +upon a fall of tadpoles is findable, that to these circumstances another +adjustment must be made. + +Apart from our three factors of indication, an extraordinary observation +is the fall of living things without injury to them. The devotees of St. +Isaac explain that they fall upon thick grass and so survive: but Sir +James Emerson Tennant, in his _History of Ceylon_, tells of a fall of +fishes upon gravel, by which they were seemingly uninjured. Something +else apart from our three main interests is a phenomenon that looks like +what one might call an alternating series of falls of fishes, whatever +the significance may be: + +Meerut, India, July, 1824 (_Living Age_, 52-186); Fifeshire, Scotland, +summer of 1824 (_Wernerian Nat. Hist. Soc. Trans._, 5-575); Moradabad, +India, July, 1826 (_Living Age_, 52-186); Ross-shire, Scotland, 1828 +(_Living Age_, 52-186); Moradabad, India, July 20, 1829 (_Lin. Soc. +Trans._, 16-764); Perthshire, Scotland (_Living Age_, 52-186); +Argyleshire, Scotland, 1830, March 9, 1830 (_Recreative Science_, +3-339); Feridpoor, India, Feb. 19, 1830 (_Jour. Asiatic Soc. of Bengal_, +2-650). + +A psycho-tropism that arises here--disregarding serial significance--or +mechanical, unintelligent, repulsive reflex--is that the fishes of India +did not fall from the sky; that they were found upon the ground after +torrential rains, because streams had overflowed and had then receded. + +In the region of Inertness that we think we can conceive of, or a zone +that is to this earth's gravitation very much like the neutral zone of +a magnet's attraction, we accept that there are bodies of water and also +clear spaces--bottoms of ponds dropping out--very interesting ponds, +having no earth at bottom--vast drops of water afloat in what is called +space--fishes and deluges of water falling-- + +But also other areas, in which fishes--however they got there: a matter +that we'll consider--remain and dry, or even putrefy, then sometimes +falling by atmospheric dislodgment. + +After a "tremendous deluge of rain, one of the heaviest falls on record" +(_All the Year Round_, 8-255) at Rajkote, India, July 25, 1850, "the +ground was found literally covered with fishes." + +The word "found" is agreeable to the repulsions of the conventionalists +and their concept of an overflowing stream--but, according to Dr. Buist, +some of these fishes were "found" on the tops of haystacks. + +Ferrel (_A Popular Treatise_, p. 414) tells of a fall of living +fishes--some of them having been placed in a tank, where they +survived--that occurred in India, about 20 miles south of Calcutta, +Sept. 20, 1839. A witness of this fall says: + +"The most strange thing which ever struck me was that the fish did not +fall helter-skelter, or here and there, but they fell in a straight +line, not more than a cubit in breadth." See _Living Age_, 52-186. + +_Amer. Jour. Sci._, 1-32-199: + +That, according to testimony taken before a magistrate, a fall occurred, +Feb. 19, 1830, near Feridpoor, India, of many fishes, of various +sizes--some whole and fresh and others "mutilated and putrefying." Our +reflex to those who would say that, in the climate of India, it would +not take long for fishes to putrefy, is--that high in the air, the +climate of India is not torrid. Another peculiarity of this fall is that +some of the fishes were much larger than others. Or to those who hold +out for segregation in a whirlwind, or that objects, say, twice as heavy +as others would be separated from the lighter, we point out that some of +these fishes were twice as heavy as others. + +In the _Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal_, 2-650, depositions of +witnesses are given: + +"Some of the fish were fresh, but others were rotten and without heads." + +"Among the number which I got, five were fresh and the rest stinking and +headless." + +They remind us of His Grace's observation of some pages back. + +According to Dr. Buist, some of these fishes weighed one and a half +pounds each and others three pounds. + +A fall of fishes at Futtepoor, India, May 16, 1833: + +"They were all dead and dry." (Dr. Buist, _Living Age_, 52-186.) + +India is far away: about 1830 was long ago. + +_Nature_, Sept. 19, 1918-46: + +A correspondent writes, from the Dove Marine Laboratory, Cuttercoats, +England, that, at Hindon, a suburb of Sunderland, Aug. 24, 1918, +hundreds of small fishes, identified as sand eels, had fallen-- + +Again the small area: about 60 by 30 yards. + +The fall occurred during a heavy rain that was accompanied by +thunder--or indications of disturbance aloft--but by no visible +lightning. The sea is close to Hindon, but if you try to think of these +fishes having described a trajectory in a whirlwind from the ocean, +consider this remarkable datum: + +That, according to witnesses, the fall upon this small area occupied ten +minutes. + +I cannot think of a clearer indication of a direct fall from a +stationary source. + +And: + +"The fish were all dead, and indeed stiff and hard, when picked up, +immediately after the occurrence." + +By all of which I mean that we have only begun to pile up our data of +things that fall from a stationary source overhead: we'll have to take +up the subject from many approaches before our acceptance, which seems +quite as rigorously arrived at as ever has been a belief, can emerge +from the accursed. + +I don't know how much the horse and the barn will help us to emerge: +but, if ever anything did go up from this earth's surface and stay +up--those damned things may have: + +_Monthly Weather Review_, May, 1878: + +In a tornado, in Wisconsin, May 23, 1878, "a barn and a horse were +carried completely away, and neither horse nor barn, nor any portion of +either have since been found." + +After that, which would be a little strong were it not for a steady +improvement in our digestions that I note as we go along, there is +little of the bizarre or the unassimilable in the turtle that hovered +six months or so over a small town in Mississippi: + +_Monthly Weather Review_, May, 1894: + +That, May 11, 1894, at Vicksburg, Miss., fell a small piece of +alabaster; that, at Bovina, eight miles from Vicksburg, fell a gopher +turtle. + +They fell in a hailstorm. + +This item was widely copied at the time: for instance, _Nature_, one of +the volumes of 1894, page 430, and _Jour. Roy. Met. Soc._, 20-273. As to +discussion--not a word. Or Science and its continuity with +Presbyterianism--data like this are damned at birth. The _Weather +Review_ does sprinkle, or baptize, or attempt to save, this infant--but +in all the meteorological literature that I have gone through, after +that date--not a word, except mention once or twice. The Editor of the +_Review_ says: + +"An examination of the weather map shows that these hailstorms occur on +the south side of a region of cold northerly winds, and were but a small +part of a series of similar storms; apparently some special local whirls +or gusts carried heavy objects from this earth's surface up to the cloud +regions." + +Of all incredibilities that we have to choose from, I give first place +to a notion of a whirlwind pouncing upon a region and scrupulously +selecting a turtle and a piece of alabaster. This time, the other +mechanical thing "there in the first place" cannot rise in response to +its stimulus: it is resisted in that these objects were coated with +ice--month of May in a southern state. If a whirlwind at all, there must +have been very limited selection: there is no record of the fall of +other objects. But there is no attempt in the _Review_ to specify a +whirlwind. + +These strangely associated things were remarkably separated. + +They fell eight miles apart. + +Then--as if there were real reasoning--they must have been high to fall +with such divergence, or one of them must have been carried partly +horizontally eight miles farther than the other. But either supposition +argues for power more than that of a local whirl or gust, or argues for +a great, specific disturbance, of which there is no record--for the +month of May, 1894. + +Nevertheless--as if I really were reasonable--I do feel that I have to +accept that this turtle had been raised from this earth's surface, +somewhere near Vicksburg--because the gopher turtle is common in the +southern states. + +Then I think of a hurricane that occurred in the state of Mississippi +weeks or months before May 11, 1894. + +No--I don't look for it--and inevitably find it. + +Or that things can go up so high in hurricanes that they stay up +indefinitely--but may, after a while, be shaken down by storms. Over and +over have we noted the occurrence of strange falls in storms. So then +that the turtle and the piece of alabaster may have had far different +origins--from different worlds, perhaps--have entered a region of +suspension over this earth--wafting near each other--long +duration--final precipitation by atmospheric disturbance--with hail--or +that hailstones, too, when large, are phenomena of suspension of long +duration: that it is highly unacceptable that the very large ones could +become so great only in falling from the clouds. + +Over and over has the note of disagreeableness, or of putrefaction, been +struck--long duration. Other indications of long duration. + +I think of a region somewhere above this earth's surface in which +gravitation is inoperative and is not governed by the square of the +distance--quite as magnetism is negligible at a very short distance from +a magnet. Theoretically the attraction of a magnet should decrease with +the square of the distance, but the falling-off is found to be almost +abrupt at a short distance. + +I think that things raised from this earth's surface to that region have +been held there until shaken down by storms-- + +The Super-Sargasso Sea. + +Derelicts, rubbish, old cargoes from inter-planetary wrecks; things cast +out into what is called space by convulsions of other planets, things +from the times of the Alexanders, Caesars and Napoleons of Mars and +Jupiter and Neptune; things raised by this earth's cyclones: horses and +barns and elephants and flies and dodoes, moas, and pterodactyls; leaves +from modern trees and leaves of the Carboniferous era--all, however, +tending to disintegrate into homogeneous-looking muds or dusts, red or +black or yellow--treasure-troves for the palaeontologists and for the +archaeologists--accumulations of centuries--cyclones of Egypt, Greece, +and Assyria--fishes dried and hard, there a short time: others there +long enough to putrefy-- + +But the omnipresence of Heterogeneity--or living fishes, also--ponds of +fresh water: oceans of salt water. + +As to the Law of Gravitation, I prefer to take one simple stand: + +Orthodoxy accepts the correlation and equivalence of forces: + +Gravitation is one of these forces. + +All other forces have phenomena of repulsion and of inertness +irrespective of distance, as well as of attraction. + +But Newtonian Gravitation admits attraction only: + +Then Newtonian Gravitation can be only one-third acceptable even to the +orthodox, or there is denial of the correlation and equivalence of +forces. + +Or still simpler: + +Here are the data. + +Make what you will, yourself, of them. + +In our Intermediatist revolt against homogeneous, or positive, +explanations, or our acceptance that the all-sufficing cannot be less +than universality, besides which, however, there would be nothing to +suffice, our expression upon the Super-Sargasso Sea, though it +harmonizes with data of fishes that fall as if from a stationary +source--and, of course, with other data, too--is inadequate to account +for two peculiarities of the falls of frogs: + +That never has a fall of tadpoles been reported; + +That never has a fall of full-grown frogs been reported-- + +Always frogs a few months old. + +It sounds positive, but if there be such reports they are somewhere out +of my range of reading. + +But tadpoles would be more likely to fall from the sky than would +frogs, little or big, if such falls be attributed to whirlwinds; and +more likely to fall from the Super-Sargasso Sea if, though very +tentatively and provisionally, we accept the Super-Sargasso Sea. + +Before we take up an especial expression upon the fall of immature and +larval forms of life to this earth, and the necessity then of conceiving +of some factor besides mere stationariness or suspension or stagnation, +there are other data that are similar to data of falls of fishes. + +_Science Gossip_, 1886-238: + +That small snails, of a land species, had fallen near Redruth, Cornwall, +July 8, 1886, "during a heavy thunderstorm": roads and fields strewn +with them, so that they were gathered up by the hatful: none seen to +fall by the writer of this account: snails said to be "quite different +to any previously known in this district." + +But, upon page 282, we have better orthodoxy. Another correspondent +writes that he had heard of the supposed fall of snails: that he had +supposed that all such stories had gone the way of witch stories; that, +to his astonishment, he had read an account of this absurd story in a +local newspaper of "great and deserved repute." + +"I thought I should for once like to trace the origin of one of these +fabulous tales." + +Our own acceptance is that justice cannot be in an intermediate +existence, in which there can be approximation only to justice or to +injustice; that to be fair is to have no opinion at all; that to be +honest is to be uninterested; that to investigate is to admit prejudice; +that nobody has ever really investigated anything, but has always sought +positively to prove or to disprove something that was conceived of, or +suspected, in advance. + +"As I suspected," says this correspondent, "I found that the snails were +of a familiar land-species"--that they had been upon the ground "in the +first place." + +He found that the snails had appeared after the rain: that "astonished +rustics had jumped to the conclusion that they had fallen." + +He met one person who said that he had seen the snails fall. + +"This was his error," says the investigator. + +In the _Philosophical Magazine_, 58-310, there is an account of snails +said to have fallen at Bristol in a field of three acres, in such +quantities that they were shoveled up. It is said that the snails "may +be considered as a local species." Upon page 457, another correspondent +says that the numbers had been exaggerated, and that in his opinion they +had been upon the ground in the first place. But that there had been +some unusual condition aloft comes out in his observation upon "the +curious azure-blue appearance of the sun, at the time." + +_Nature_, 47-278: + +That, according to _Das Wetter_, December, 1892, upon Aug. 9, 1892, a +yellow cloud appeared over Paderborn, Germany. From this cloud, fell a +torrential rain, in which were hundreds of mussels. There is no mention +of whatever may have been upon the ground in the first place, nor of a +whirlwind. + +Lizards--said to have fallen on the sidewalks of Montreal, Canada, Dec. +28, 1857. (_Notes and Queries_, 8-6-104.) + +In the _Scientific American_, 3-112, a correspondent writes, from South +Granville, N.Y., that, during a heavy shower, July 3, 1860, he heard a +peculiar sound at his feet, and looking down, saw a snake lying as if +stunned by a fall. It then came to life. Gray snake, about a foot long. + +These data have any meaning or lack of meaning or degree of damnation +you please: but, in the matter of the fall that occurred at Memphis, +Tennessee, occur some strong significances. Our quasi-reasoning upon +this subject applies to all segregations so far considered. + +_Monthly Weather Review_, Jan. 15, 1877: + +That, in Memphis, Tenn., Jan. 15, 1877, rather strictly localized, or +"in a space of two blocks," and after a violent storm in which the rain +"fell in torrents," snakes were found. They were crawling on sidewalks, +in yards, and in streets, and in masses--but "none were found on roofs +or any other elevation above ground" and "none were seen to fall." + +If you prefer to believe that the snakes had always been there, or had +been upon the ground in the first place, and that it was only that +something occurred to call special attention to them, in the streets of +Memphis, Jan. 15, 1877--why, that's sensible: that's the common sense +that has been against us from the first. + +It is not said whether the snakes were of a known species or not, but +that "when first seen, they were of a dark brown, almost black." +Blacksnakes, I suppose. + +If we accept that these snakes did fall, even though not seen to fall by +all the persons who were out sight-seeing in a violent storm, and had +not been in the streets crawling loose or in thick tangled masses, in +the first place: + +If we try to accept that these snakes had been raised from some other +part of this earth's surface in a whirlwind: + +If we try to accept that a whirlwind could segregate them-- + +We accept the segregation of other objects raised in that whirlwind. + +Then, near the place of origin, there would have been a fall of heavier +objects that had been snatched up with the snakes--stones, fence rails, +limbs of trees. Say that the snakes occupied the next gradation, and +would be the next to fall. Still farther would there have been separate +falls of lightest objects: leaves, twigs, tufts of grass. + +In the _Monthly Weather Review_ there is no mention of other falls said +to have occurred anywhere in January, 1877. + +Again ours is the objection against such selectiveness by a whirlwind. +Conceivably a whirlwind could scoop out a den of hibernating snakes, +with stones and earth and an infinitude of other debris, snatching up +dozens of snakes--I don't know how many to a den--hundreds maybe--but, +according to the account of this occurrence in the _New York Times_, +there were thousands of them; alive; from one foot to eighteen inches in +length. The _Scientific American_, 36-86, records the fall, and says +that there were thousands of them. The usual whirlwind-explanation is +given--"but in what locality snakes exist in such abundance is yet a +mystery." + +This matter of enormousness of numbers suggests to me something of a +migratory nature--but that snakes in the United States do not migrate in +the month of January, if ever. + +As to falls or flutterings of winged insects from the sky, prevailing +notions of swarming would seem explanatory enough: nevertheless, in +instances of ants, there are some peculiar circumstances. + +_L'Astronomie_, 1889-353: + +Fall of fishes, June 13, 1889, in Holland; ants, Aug. 1, 1889, +Strasbourg; little toads, Aug. 2, 1889, Savoy. + +Fall of ants, Cambridge, England, summer of 1874--"some were wingless." +(_Scientific American_, 30-193.) Enormous fall of ants, Nancy, France, +July 21, 1887--"most of them were wingless." (_Nature_, 36-349.) Fall of +enormous, unknown ants--size of wasps--Manitoba, June, 1895. (_Sci. +Amer._, 72-385.) + +However, our expression will be: + +That wingless, larval forms of life, in numbers so enormous that +migration from some place external to this earth is suggested, have +fallen from the sky. + +That these "migrations"--if such can be our acceptance--have occurred at +a time of hibernation and burial far in the ground of larvae in the +northern latitudes of this earth; that there is significance in +recurrence of these falls in the last of January--or that we have the +square of an incredibility in such a notion as that of selection of +larvae by whirlwinds, compounded with selection of the last of January. + +I accept that there are "snow worms" upon this earth--whatever their +origin may have been. In the _Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. of Philadelphia_, +1899-125, there is a description of yellow worms and black worms that +have been found together on glaciers in Alaska. Almost positively were +there no other forms of insect-life upon these glaciers, and there was +no vegetation to support insect-life, except microscopic organisms. +Nevertheless the description of this probably polymorphic species fits a +description of larvae said to have fallen in Switzerland, and less +definitely fits another description. There is no opposition here, if our +data of falls are clear. Frogs of every-day ponds look like frogs said +to have fallen from the sky--except the whitish frogs of Birmingham. +However, all falls of larvae have not positively occurred in the last of +January: + +London _Times_, April 14, 1837: + +That, in the parish of Bramford Speke, Devonshire, a large number of +black worms, about three-quarters of an inch in length, had fallen in a +snowstorm. + +In Timb's _Year Book_, 1877-26, it is said that, in the winter of 1876, +at Christiania, Norway, worms were found crawling upon the ground. The +occurrence is considered a great mystery, because the worms could not +have come up from the ground, inasmuch as the ground was frozen at the +time, and because they were reported from other places, also, in Norway. + +Immense number of black insects in a snowstorm, in 1827, at Pakroff, +Russia. (_Scientific American_, 30-193.) + +Fall, with snow, at Orenburg, Russia, Dec. 14, 1830, of a multitude of +small, black insects, said to have been gnats, but also said to have had +flea-like motions. (_Amer. Jour. Sci._, 1-22-375.) + +Large number of worms found in a snowstorm, upon the surface of snow +about four inches thick, near Sangerfield, N.Y., Nov. 18, 1850 +(_Scientific American_, 6-96). The writer thinks that the worms had been +brought to the surface of the ground by rain, which had fallen +previously. + +_Scientific American_, Feb. 21, 1891: + +"A puzzling phenomenon has been noted frequently in some parts of the +Valley Bend District, Randolph County, Va., this winter. The crust of +the snow has been covered two or three times with worms resembling the +ordinary cut worms. Where they come from, unless they fall with the snow +is inexplicable." In the _Scientific American_, March 7, 1891, the +Editor says that similar worms had been seen upon the snow near Utica, +N.Y., and in Oneida and Herkimer Counties; that some of the worms had +been sent to the Department of Agriculture at Washington. Again two +species, or polymorphism. According to Prof. Riley, it was not +polymorphism, "but two distinct species"--which, because of our data, we +doubt. One kind was larger than the other: color-differences not +distinctly stated. One is called the larvae of the common soldier beetle +and the other "seems to be a variety of the bronze cut worm." No attempt +to explain the occurrence in snow. + +Fall of great numbers of larvae of beetles, near Mortagne, France, May, +1858. The larvae were inanimate as if with cold. (_Annales Societe +Entomologique de France_, 1858.) + +_Trans. Ent. Soc. of London_, 1871-183, records "snowing of larvae," in +Silesia, 1806; "appearance of many larvae on the snow," in Saxony, +1811; "larvae found alive on the snow," 1828; larvae and snow which +"fell together," in the Eifel, Jan. 30, 1847; "fall of insects," Jan. +24, 1849, in Lithuania; occurrence of larvae estimated at 300,000 on the +snow in Switzerland, in 1856. The compiler says that most of these +larvae live underground, or at the roots of trees; that whirlwinds +uproot trees, and carry away the larvae--conceiving of them as not held +in masses of frozen earth--all as neatly detachable as currants in +something. In the _Revue et Magasin de Zoologie_, 1849-72, there is an +account of the fall in Lithuania, Jan. 24, 1849--that black larvae had +fallen in enormous numbers. + +Larvae thought to have been of beetles, but described as "caterpillars," +not seen to fall, but found crawling on the snow, after a snowstorm, at +Warsaw, Jan. 20, 1850. (_All the Year Round_, 8-253.) + +Flammarion (_The Atmosphere_, p. 414) tells of a fall of larvae that +occurred Jan. 30, 1869, in a snowstorm, in Upper Savoy: "They could not +have been hatched in the neighborhood, for, during the days preceding, +the temperature had been very low"; said to have been of a species +common in the south of France. In _La Science Pour Tous_, 14-183, it is +said that with these larvae there were developed insects. + +_L'Astronomie_, 1890-313: + +That, upon the last of January, 1890, there fell, in a great tempest, in +Switzerland, incalculable numbers of larvae: some black and some yellow; +numbers so great that hosts of birds were attracted. + +Altogether we regard this as one of our neatest expressions for external +origins and against the whirlwind explanation. If an exclusionist says +that, in January, larvae were precisely and painstakingly picked out of +frozen ground, in incalculable numbers, he thinks of a tremendous +force--disregarding its refinements: then if origin and precipitation be +not far apart, what becomes of an infinitude of other debris, conceiving +of no time for segregation? + +If he thinks of a long translation--all the way from the south of France +to Upper Savoy, he may think then of a very fine sorting over by +differences of specific gravity--but in such a fine selection, larvae +would be separated from developed insects. + +As to differences in specific gravity--the yellow larvae that fell in +Switzerland January, 1890, were three times the size of the black larvae +that fell with them. In accounts of this occurrence, there is no denial +of the fall. + +Or that a whirlwind never brought them together and held them together +and precipitated them and only them together-- + +That they came from Genesistrine. + +There's no escape from it. We'll be persecuted for it. Take it or leave +it-- + +Genesistrine. + +The notion is that there is somewhere aloft a place of origin of life +relatively to this earth. Whether it's the planet Genesistrine, or the +moon, or a vast amorphous region super-jacent to this earth, or an +island in the Super-Sargasso Sea, should perhaps be left to the +researches of other super--or extra--geographers. That the first +unicellular organisms may have come here from Genesistrine--or that men +or anthropomorphic beings may have come here before amoebae: that, upon +Genesistrine, there may have been an evolution expressible in +conventional biologic terms, but that evolution upon this earth has +been--like evolution in modern Japan--induced by external influences; +that evolution, as a whole, upon this earth, has been a process of +population by immigration or by bombardment. Some notes I have upon +remains of men and animals encysted, or covered with clay or stone, as +if fired here as projectiles, I omit now, because it seems best to +regard the whole phenomenon as a tropism--as a geotropism--probably +atavistic, or vestigial, as it were, or something still continuing long +after expiration of necessity; that, once upon a time, all kinds of +things came here from Genesistrine, but that now only a few kinds of +bugs and things, at long intervals, feel the inspiration. + +Not one instance have we of tadpoles that have fallen to this earth. It +seems reasonable that a whirlwind could scoop up a pond, frogs and all, +and cast down the frogs somewhere else: but, then, more reasonable that +a whirlwind could scoop up a pond, tadpoles and all--because tadpoles +are more numerous in their season than are the frogs in theirs: but the +tadpole-season is earlier in the spring, or in a time that is more +tempestuous. Thinking in terms of causation--as if there were real +causes--our notion is that, if X is likely to cause Y, but is more +likely to cause Z, but does not cause Z, X is not the cause of Y. Upon +this quasi-sorites, we base our acceptance that the little frogs that +have fallen to this earth are not products of whirlwinds: that they came +from externality, or from Genesistrine. + +I think of Genesistrine in terms of biologic mechanics: not that +somewhere there are persons who collect bugs in or about the last of +January and frogs in July and August, and bombard this earth, any more +than do persons go through northern regions, catching and collecting +birds, every autumn, then casting them southward. + +But atavistic, or vestigial, geotropism in Genesistrine--or a million +larvae start crawling, and a million little frogs start hopping--knowing +no more what it's all about than we do when we crawl to work in the +morning and hop away at night. + +I should say, myself, that Genesistrine is a region in the +Super-Sargasso Sea, and that parts of the Super-Sargasso Sea have +rhythms of susceptibility to this earth's attraction. + + + + +8 + + +I accept that, when there are storms, the damnedest of excluded, +excommunicated things--things that are leprous to the faithful--are +brought down--from the Super-Sargasso Sea--or from what for convenience +we call the Super-Sargasso Sea--which by no means has been taken into +full acceptance yet. + +That things are brought down by storms, just as, from the depths of the +sea things are brought up by storms. To be sure it is orthodoxy that +storms have little, if any, effect below the waves of the ocean--but--of +course--only to have an opinion is to be ignorant of, or to disregard a +contradiction, or something else that modifies an opinion out of +distinguishability. + +_Symons' Meteorological Magazine_, 47-180: + +That, along the coast of New Zealand, in regions not subject to +submarine volcanic action, deep-sea fishes are often brought up by +storms. + +Iron and stones that fall from the sky; and atmospheric disturbances: + +"There is absolutely no connection between the two phenomena." +(_Symons._) + +The orthodox belief is that objects moving at planetary velocity would, +upon entering this earth's atmosphere, be virtually unaffected by +hurricanes; might as well think of a bullet swerved by someone fanning +himself. The only trouble with the orthodox reasoning is the usual +trouble--its phantom-dominant--its basing upon a myth--data we've had, +and more we'll have, of things in the sky having no independent +velocity. + +There are so many storms and so many meteors and meteorites that it +would be extraordinary if there were no concurrences. Nevertheless so +many of these concurrences are listed by Prof. Baden-Powell (_Rept. +Brit. Assoc._, 1850-54) that one--notices. + +See _Rept. Brit. Assoc._, 1860--other instances. + +The famous fall of stones at Siena, Italy, 1794--"in a violent storm." + +See _Greg's Catalogues_--many instances. One that stands out is--"bright +ball of fire and light in a hurricane in England, Sept. 2, 1786." The +remarkable datum here is that this phenomenon was visible forty minutes. +That's about 800 times the duration that the orthodox give to meteors +and meteorites. + +See the _Annual Register_--many instances. + +In _Nature_, Oct. 25, 1877, and the London _Times_, Oct. 15, 1877, +something that fell in a gale of Oct. 14, 1877, is described as a "huge +ball of green fire." This phenomenon is described by another +correspondent, in _Nature_, 17-10, and an account of it by another +correspondent was forwarded to _Nature_ by W.F. Denning. + +There are so many instances that some of us will revolt against the +insistence of the faithful that it is only coincidence, and accept that +there is connection of the kind called causal. If it is too difficult to +think of stones and metallic masses swerved from their courses by +storms, if they move at high velocity, we think of low velocity, or of +things having no velocity at all, hovering a few miles above this earth, +dislodged by storms, and falling luminously. + +But the resistance is so great here, and "coincidence" so insisted upon +that we'd better have some more instances: + +Aerolite in a storm at St. Leonards-on-sea, England, Sept. 17, 1885--no +trace of it found (_Annual Register_, 1885); meteorite in a gale, March +1, 1886, described in the _Monthly Weather Review_, March, 1886; +meteorite in a thunderstorm, off coast of Greece, Nov. 19, 1899 +(_Nature_, 61-111); fall of a meteorite in a storm, July 7, 1883, near +Lachine, Quebec (_Monthly Weather Review_, July, 1883); same phenomenon +noted in _Nature_, 28-319; meteorite in a whirlwind, Sweden, Sept. 24, +1883 (_Nature_, 29-15). + +_London Roy. Soc. Proc._, 6-276: + +A triangular cloud that appeared in a storm, Dec. 17, 1852; a red +nucleus, about half the apparent diameter of the moon, and a long tail; +visible 13 minutes; explosion of the nucleus. + +Nevertheless, in _Science Gossip_, n.s., 6-65, it is said that, though +meteorites have fallen in storms, no connection is supposed to exist +between the two phenomena, except by the ignorant peasantry. + +But some of us peasants have gone through the _Report of the British +Association_, 1852. Upon page 239, Dr. Buist, who had never heard of the +Super-Sargasso Sea, says that, though it is difficult to trace +connection between the phenomena, three aerolites had fallen in five +months, in India, during thunderstorms, in 1851 (may have been 1852). +For accounts by witnesses, see page 229 of the _Report_. + +Or--we are on our way to account for "thunderstones." + +It seems to me that, very strikingly here, is borne out the general +acceptance that ours is only an intermediate existence, in which there +is nothing fundamental, or nothing final to take as a positive standard +to judge by. + +Peasants believed in meteorites. + +Scientists excluded meteorites. + +Peasants believe in "thunderstones." + +Scientists exclude "thunderstones." + +It is useless to argue that peasants are out in the fields, and that +scientists are shut up in laboratories and lecture rooms. We cannot take +for a real base that, as to phenomena with which they are more +familiar, peasants are more likely to be right than are scientists: a +host of biologic and meteorologic fallacies of peasants rises against +us. + +I should say that our "existence" is like a bridge--except that that +comparison is in static terms--but like the Brooklyn Bridge, upon which +multitudes of bugs are seeking a fundamental--coming to a girder that +seems firm and final--but the girder is built upon supports. A support +then seems final. But it is built upon underlying structures. Nothing +final can be found in all the bridge, because the bridge itself is not a +final thing in itself, but is a relationship between Manhattan and +Brooklyn. If our "existence" is a relationship between the Positive +Absolute and the Negative Absolute, the quest for finality in it is +hopeless: everything in it must be relative, if the "whole" is not a +whole, but is, itself, a relation. + +In the attitude of Acceptance, our pseudo-base is: + +Cells of an embryo are in the reptilian era of the embryo; + +Some cells feel stimuli to take on new appearances. + +If it be of the design of the whole that the next era be mammalian, +those cells that turn mammalian will be sustained against resistance, by +inertia, of all the rest, and will be relatively right, though not +finally right, because they, too, in time will have to give way to +characters of other eras of higher development. + +If we are upon the verge of a new era, in which Exclusionism must be +overthrown, it will avail thee not to call us base-born and frowsy +peasants. + +In our crude, bucolic way, we now offer an outrage upon common sense +that we think will some day be an unquestioned commonplace: + +That manufactured objects of stone and iron have fallen from the sky: + +That they have been brought down from a state of suspension, in a region +of inertness to this earth's attraction, by atmospheric disturbances. + +The "thunderstone" is usually "a beautifully polished, wedge-shaped +piece of greenstone," says a writer in the _Cornhill Magazine_, 50-517. +It isn't: it's likely to be of almost any kind of stone, but we call +attention to the skill with which some of them have been made. Of +course this writer says it's all superstition. Otherwise he'd be one of +us crude and simple sons of the soil. + +Conventional damnation is that stone implements, already on the +ground--"on the ground in the first place"--are found near where +lightning was seen to strike: that are supposed by astonished rustics, +or by intelligence of a low order, to have fallen in or with lightning. + +Throughout this book, we class a great deal of science with bad fiction. +When is fiction bad, cheap, low? If coincidence is overworked. That's +one way of deciding. But with single writers coincidence seldom is +overworked: we find the excess in the subject at large. Such a writer as +the one of the _Cornhill Magazine_ tells us vaguely of beliefs of +peasants: there is no massing of instance after instance after instance. +Here ours will be the method of mass-formation. + +Conceivably lightning may strike the ground near where there was a +wedge-shaped object in the first place: again and again and again: +lightning striking ground near wedge-shaped object in China; lightning +striking ground near wedge-shaped object in Scotland; lightning striking +ground near wedge-shaped object in Central Africa: coincidence in +France; coincidence in Java; coincidence in South America-- + +We grant a great deal but note a tendency to restlessness. Nevertheless +this is the psycho-tropism of science to all "thunderstones" said to +have fallen luminously. + +As to greenstone, it is in the island of Jamaica, where the notion is +general that axes of a hard greenstone fall from the sky--"during the +rains." (_Jour. Inst. Jamaica_, 2-4.) Some other time we shall inquire +into this localization of objects of a specific material. "They are of a +stone nowhere else to be found in Jamaica." (_Notes and Queries_, +2-8-24.) + +In my own tendency to exclude, or in the attitude of one peasant or +savage who thinks he is not to be classed with other peasants or +savages, I am not very much impressed with what natives think. It would +be hard to tell why. If the word of a Lord Kelvin carries no more +weight, upon scientific subjects, than the word of a Sitting Bull, +unless it be in agreement with conventional opinion--I think it must be +because savages have bad table manners. However, my snobbishness, in +this respect, loosens up somewhat before very widespread belief by +savages and peasants. And the notion of "thunderstones" is as wide as +geography itself. + +The natives of Burma, China, Japan, according to Blinkenberg (_Thunder +Weapons_, p. 100)--not, of course, that Blinkenberg accepts one word of +it--think that carved stone objects have fallen from the sky, because +they think they have seen such objects fall from the sky. Such objects +are called "thunderbolts" in these countries. They are called +"thunderstones" in Moravia, Holland, Belgium, France, Cambodia, Sumatra, +and Siberia. They're called "storm stones" in Lausitz; "sky arrows" in +Slavonia; "thunder axes" in England and Scotland; "lightning stones" in +Spain and Portugal; "sky axes" in Greece; "lightning flashes" in Brazil; +"thunder teeth" in Amboina. + +The belief is as widespread as is belief in ghosts and witches, which +only the superstitious deny today. + +As to beliefs by North American Indians, Tyler gives a list of +references (_Primitive Culture_, 2-237). As to South American +Indians--"Certain stone hatchets are said to have fallen from the +heavens." (_Jour. Amer. Folk Lore_, 17-203.) + +If you, too, revolt against coincidence after coincidence after +coincidence, but find our interpretation of "thunderstones" just a +little too strong or rich for digestion, we recommend the explanation of +one, Tallius, written in 1649: + +"The naturalists say they are generated in the sky by fulgurous +exhalation conglobed in a cloud by the circumfused humor." + +Of course the paper in the _Cornhill Magazine_ was written with no +intention of trying really to investigate this subject, but to deride +the notion that worked-stone objects have ever fallen from the sky. A +writer in the _Amer. Jour. Sci._, 1-21-325, read this paper and thinks +it remarkable "that any man of ordinary reasoning powers should write a +paper to prove that thunderbolts do not exist." + +I confess that we're a little flattered by that. + +Over and over: + +"It is scarcely necessary to suggest to the intelligent reader that +thunderstones are a myth." + +We contend that there is a misuse of a word here: we admit that only we +are intelligent upon this subject, if by intelligence is meant the +inquiry of inequilibrium, and that all other intellection is only +mechanical reflex--of course that intelligence, too, is mechanical, but +less orderly and confined: less obviously mechanical--that as an +acceptance of ours becomes firmer and firmer-established, we pass from +the state of intelligence to reflexes in ruts. An odd thing is that +intelligence is usually supposed to be creditable. It may be in the +sense that it is mental activity trying to find out, but it is +confession of ignorance. The bees, the theologians, the dogmatic +scientists are the intellectual aristocrats. The rest of us are +plebeians, not yet graduated to Nirvana, or to the instinctive and suave +as differentiated from the intelligent and crude. + +Blinkenberg gives many instances of the superstition of "thunderstones" +which flourishes only where mentality is in a lamentable state--or +universally. In Malacca, Sumatra, and Java, natives say that stone axes +have often been found under trees that have been struck by lightning. +Blinkenberg does not dispute this, but says it is coincidence: that the +axes were of course upon the ground in the first place: that the natives +jumped to the conclusion that these carved stones had fallen in or with +lightning. In Central Africa, it is said that often have wedge-shaped, +highly polished objects of stone, described as "axes," been found +sticking in trees that have been struck by lightning--or by what seemed +to be lightning. The natives, rather like the unscientific persons of +Memphis, Tenn., when they saw snakes after a storm, jumped to the +conclusion that the "axes" had not always been sticking in the trees. +Livingstone (_Last Journal_, pages 83, 89, 442, 448) says that he had +never heard of stone implements used by natives of Africa. A writer in +the _Report of the Smithsonian Institution_, 1877-308, says that there +are a few. + +That they are said, by the natives, to have fallen in thunderstorms. + +As to luminosity, it is my lamentable acceptance that bodies falling +through this earth's atmosphere, if not warmed even, often fall with a +brilliant light, looking like flashes of lightning. This matter seems +important: we'll take it up later, with data. In Prussia, two stone +axes were found in the trunks of trees, one under the bark. +(Blinkenberg, _Thunder Weapons_, p. 100.) + +The finders jumped to the conclusion that the axes had fallen there. + +Another stone ax--or wedge-shaped object of worked stone--said to have +been found in a tree that had been struck by something that looked like +lightning. (_Thunder Weapons_, p. 71.) + +The finder jumped to the conclusion. + +Story told by Blinkenberg, of a woman, who lived near Kulsbjaergene, +Sweden, who found a flint near an old willow--"near her house." I +emphasize "near her house" because that means familiar ground. The +willow had been split by something. + +She jumped. + +Cow killed by lightning, or by what looked like lightning (Isle of Sark, +near Guernsey). The peasant who owned the cow dug up the ground at the +spot and found a small greenstone "ax." Blinkenberg says that he jumped +to the conclusion that it was this object that had fallen luminously, +killing the cow. + +_Reliquary_, 1867-208: + +A flint ax found by a farmer, after a severe storm--described as a +"fearful storm"--by a signal staff, which had been split by something. I +should say that nearness to a signal staff may be considered familiar +ground. + +Whether he jumped, or arrived at the conclusion by a more leisurely +process, the farmer thought that the flint object had fallen in the +storm. + +In this instance we have a lamentable scientist with us. It's impossible +to have positive difference between orthodoxy and heresy: somewhere +there must be a merging into each other, or an overlapping. +Nevertheless, upon such a subject as this, it does seem a little +shocking. In most works upon meteorites, the peculiar, sulphurous odor +of things that fall from the sky is mentioned. Sir John Evans (_Stone +Implements_, p. 57) says--with extraordinary reasoning powers, if he +could never have thought such a thing with ordinary reasoning +powers--that this flint object "proved to have been the bolt, by its +peculiar smell when broken." + +If it did so prove to be, that settles the whole subject. If we prove +that only one object of worked stone has fallen from the sky, all piling +up of further reports is unnecessary. However, we have already taken the +stand that nothing settles anything; that the disputes of ancient Greece +are no nearer solution now than they were several thousand years +ago--all because, in a positive sense, there is nothing to prove or +solve or settle. Our object is to be more nearly real than our +opponents. Wideness is an aspect of the Universal. We go on widely. +According to us the fat man is nearer godliness than is the thin man. +Eat, drink, and approximate to the Positive Absolute. Beware of +negativeness, by which we mean indigestion. + +The vast majority of "thunderstones" are described as "axes," but +Meunier (_La Nature_, 1892-2-381) tells of one that was in his +possession; said to have fallen at Ghardia, Algeria, contrasting +"profoundment" (pear-shaped) with the angular outlines of ordinary +meteorites. The conventional explanation that it had been formed as a +drop of molten matter from a larger body seems reasonable to me; but +with less agreeableness I note its fall in a thunderstorm, the datum +that turns the orthodox meteorologist pale with rage, or induces a +slight elevation of his eyebrows, if you mention it to him. + +Meunier tells of another "thunderstone" said to have fallen in North +Africa. Meunier, too, is a little lamentable here: he quotes a soldier +of experience that such objects fall most frequently in the deserts of +Africa. + +Rather miscellaneous now: + +"Thunderstone" said to have fallen in London, April, 1876: weight about +8 pounds: no particulars as to shape (Timb's _Year Book_, 1877-246). + +"Thunderstone" said to have fallen at Cardiff, Sept. 26, 1916 (London +_Times_, Sept. 28, 1916). According to _Nature_, 98-95, it was +coincidence; only a lightning flash had been seen. + +Stone that fell in a storm, near St. Albans, England: accepted by the +Museum of St. Albans; said, at the British Museum, not to be of "true +meteoritic material." (_Nature_, 80-34.) + +London _Times_, April 26, 1876: + +That, April 20, 1876, near Wolverhampton, fell a mass of meteoritic iron +during a heavy fall of rain. An account of this phenomenon in _Nature_, +14-272, by H.S. Maskelyne, who accepts it as authentic. Also, see +_Nature_, 13-531. + +For three other instances, see the _Scientific American_, 47-194; 52-83; +68-325. + +As to wedge-shape larger than could very well be called an "ax": + +_Nature_, 30-300: + +That, May 27, 1884, at Tysnas, Norway, a meteorite had fallen: that the +turf was torn up at the spot where the object had been supposed to have +fallen; that two days later "a very peculiar stone" was found near by. +The description is--"in shape and size very like the fourth part of a +large Stilton cheese." + +It is our acceptance that many objects and different substances have +been brought down by atmospheric disturbance from what--only as a matter +of convenience now, and until we have more data--we call the +Super-Sargasso Sea; however, our chief interest is in objects that have +been shaped by means similar to human handicraft. + +Description of the "thunderstones" of Burma (_Proc. Asiatic Soc. of +Bengal_, 1869-183): said to be of a kind of stone unlike any other found +in Burma; called "thunderbolts" by the natives. I think there's a good +deal of meaning in such expressions as "unlike any other found in +Burma"--but that if they had said anything more definite, there would +have been unpleasant consequences to writers in the 19th century. + +More about the "thunderstones" of Burma, in the _Proc. Soc. Antiq. of +London_, 2-3-97. One of them, described as an "adze," was exhibited by +Captain Duff, who wrote that there was no stone like it in its +neighborhood. + +Of course it may not be very convincing to say that because a stone is +unlike neighboring stones it had foreign origin--also we fear it is a +kind of plagiarism: we got it from the geologists, who demonstrate by +this reasoning the foreign origin of erratics. We fear we're a little +gross and scientific at times. + +But it's my acceptance that a great deal of scientific literature must +be read between the lines. It's not everyone who has the lamentableness +of a Sir John Evans. Just as a great deal of Voltaire's meaning was +inter-linear, we suspect that a Captain Duff merely hints rather than +to risk having a Prof. Lawrence Smith fly at him and call him "a +half-insane man." Whatever Captain Duff's meaning may have been, and +whether he smiled like a Voltaire when he wrote it, Captain Duff writes +of "the extremely soft nature of the stone, rendering it equally useless +as an offensive or defensive weapon." + +Story, by a correspondent, in _Nature_, 34-53, of a Malay, of +"considerable social standing"--and one thing about our data is that, +damned though they be, they do so often bring us into awful good +company--who knew of a tree that had been struck, about a month before, +by something in a thunderstorm. He searched among the roots of this tree +and found a "thunderstone." Not said whether he jumped or leaped to the +conclusion that it had fallen: process likely to be more leisurely in +tropical countries. Also I'm afraid his way of reasoning was not very +original: just so were fragments of the Bath-furnace meteorite, accepted +by orthodoxy, discovered. + +We shall now have an unusual experience. We shall read of some reports +of extraordinary circumstances that were investigated by a man of +science--not of course that they were really investigated by him, but +that his phenomena occupied a position approximating higher to real +investigation than to utter neglect. Over and over we read of +extraordinary occurrences--no discussion; not even a comment afterward +findable; mere mention occasionally--burial and damnation. + +The extraordinary and how quickly it is hidden away. + +Burial and damnation, or the obscurity of the conspicuous. + +We did read of a man who, in the matter of snails, did travel some +distance to assure himself of something that he had suspected in +advance; and we remember Prof. Hitchcock, who had only to smite Amherst +with the wand of his botanical knowledge, and lo! two fungi sprang up +before night; and we did read of Dr. Gray and his thousands of fishes +from one pailful of water--but these instances stand out; more +frequently there was no "investigation." We now have a good many +reported occurrences that were "investigated." Of things said to have +fallen from the sky, we make, in the usual scientific way, two +divisions: miscellaneous objects and substances, and symmetric objects +attributable to beings like human beings, sub-dividing into--wedges, +spheres, and disks. + +_Jour. Roy. Met. Soc._, 14-207: + +That, July 2, 1866, a correspondent to a London newspaper wrote that +something had fallen from the sky, during a thunderstorm of June 30, +1866, at Netting Hill. Mr. G.T. Symons, of _Symons' Meteorological +Magazine_, investigated, about as fairly, and with about as unprejudiced +a mind, as anything ever has been investigated. + +He says that the object was nothing but a lump of coal: that next door +to the home of the correspondent coal had been unloaded the day before. +With the uncanny wisdom of the stranger upon unfamiliar ground that we +have noted before, Mr. Symons saw that the coal reported to have fallen +from the sky, and the coal unloaded more prosaically the day before, +were identical. Persons in the neighborhood, unable to make this simple +identification, had bought from the correspondent pieces of the object +reported to have fallen from the sky. As to credulity, I know of no +limits for it--but when it comes to paying out money for credulity--oh, +no standards to judge by, of course--just the same-- + +The trouble with efficiency is that it will merge away into excess. With +what seems to me to be super-abundance of convincingness, Mr. Symons +then lugs another character into his little comedy: + +That it was all a hoax by a chemist's pupil, who had filled a capsule +with an explosive, and "during the storm had thrown the burning mass +into the gutter, so making an artificial thunderbolt." + +Or even Shakespeare, with all his inartistry, did not lug in King Lear +to make Hamlet complete. + +Whether I'm lugging in something that has no special meaning, myself, or +not, I find that this storm of June 30, 1866, was peculiar. It is +described in the London _Times_, July 2, 1866: that "during the storm, +the sky in many places remained partially clear while hail and rain were +falling." That may have more meaning when we take up the possible +extra-mundane origin of some hailstones, especially if they fall from a +cloudless sky. Mere suggestion, not worth much, that there may have been +falls of extra-mundane substances, in London, June 30, 1866. + +Clinkers, said to have fallen, during a storm, at Kilburn, July 5, 1877: + +According to the _Kilburn Times_, July 7, 1877, quoted by Mr. Symons, a +street had been "literally strewn," during the storm, with a mass of +clinkers, estimated at about two bushels: sizes from that of a walnut to +that of a man's hand--"pieces of the clinkers can be seen at the +_Kilburn Times_ office." + +If these clinkers, or cinders, were refuse from one of the +super-mercantile constructions from which coke and coal and ashes +occasionally fall to this earth, or, rather, to the Super-Sargasso Sea, +from which dislodgment by tempests occurs, it is intermediatistic to +accept that they must merge away somewhere with local phenomena of the +scene of precipitation. If a red-hot stove should drop from a cloud into +Broadway, someone would find that at about the time of the occurrence, a +moving van had passed, and that the moving men had tired of the stove, +or something--that it had not been really red-hot, but had been rouged +instead of blacked, by some absent-minded housekeeper. Compared with +some of the scientific explanations that we have encountered, there's +considerable restraint, I think, in that one. + +Mr. Symons learned that in the same street--he emphasizes that it was a +short street--there was a fire-engine station. I had such an impression +of him hustling and bustling around at Notting Hill, searching cellars +until he found one with newly arrived coal in it; ringing door bells, +exciting a whole neighborhood, calling up to second-story windows, +stopping people in the streets, hotter and hotter on the trail of a +wretched imposter of a chemist's pupil. After his efficiency at Notting +Hill, we'd expect to hear that he went to the station, and--something +like this: + +"It is said that clinkers fell, in your street, at about ten minutes +past four o'clock, afternoon of July fifth. Will you look over your +records and tell me where your engine was at about ten minutes past +four, July fifth?" + +Mr. Symons says: + +"I think that most probably they had been raked out of the steam +fire-engine." + +June 20, 1880, it was reported that a "thunderstone" had struck the +house at 180 Oakley Street, Chelsea, falling down the chimney, into the +kitchen grate. + +Mr. Symons investigated. + +He describes the "thunderstone" as an "agglomeration of brick, soot, +unburned coal, and cinder." + +He says that, in his opinion, lightning had flashed down the chimney, +and had fused some of the brick of it. + +He does think it remarkable that the lightning did not then scatter the +contents of the grate, which were disturbed only as if a heavy body had +fallen. If we admit that climbing up the chimney to find out is too +rigorous a requirement for a man who may have been large, dignified and +subject to expansions, the only unreasonableness we find in what he +says--as judged by our more modern outlook, is: + +"I suppose that no one would suggest that bricks are manufactured in the +atmosphere." + +Sounds a little unreasonable to us, because it is so of the positivistic +spirit of former times, when it was not so obvious that the highest +incredibility and laughability must merge away with the "proper"--as the +_Sci. Am. Sup._ would say. The preposterous is always interpretable in +terms of the "proper," with which it must be continuous--or--clay-like +masses such as have fallen from the sky--tremendous heat generated by +their velocity--they bake--bricks. + +We begin to suspect that Mr. Symons exhausted himself at Notting Hill. +It's a warning to efficiency-fanatics. + +Then the instance of three lumps of earthy matter, found upon a +well-frequented path, after a thunderstorm, at Reading, July 3, 1883. +There are so many records of the fall of earthy matter from the sky that +it would seem almost uncanny to find resistance here, were we not so +accustomed to the uncompromising stands of orthodoxy--which, in our +metaphysics, represent good, as attempts, but evil in their +insufficiency. If I thought it necessary, I'd list one hundred and fifty +instances of earthy matter said to have fallen from the sky. It is his +antagonism to atmospheric disturbance associated with the fall of things +from the sky that blinds and hypnotizes a Mr. Symons here. This especial +Mr. Symons rejects the Reading substance because it was not "of true +meteoritic material." It's uncanny--or it's not uncanny at all, but +universal--if you don't take something for a standard of opinion, you +can't have any opinion at all: but, if you do take a standard, in some +of its applications it must be preposterous. The carbonaceous +meteorites, which are unquestioned--though avoided, as we have seen--by +orthodoxy, are more glaringly of untrue meteoritic material than was +this substance of Reading. Mr. Symons says that these three lumps were +upon the ground "in the first place." + +Whether these data are worth preserving or not, I think that the appeal +that this especial Mr. Symons makes is worthy of a place in the museum +we're writing. He argues against belief in all external origins "for our +credit as Englishmen." He is a patriot, but I think that these +foreigners had a small chance "in the first place" for hospitality from +him. + +Then comes a "small lump of iron (two inches in diameter)" said to have +fallen, during a thunderstorm, at Brixton, Aug. 17, 1887. Mr. Symons +says: "At present I cannot trace it." + +He was at his best at Notting Hill: there's been a marked falling off in +his later manner: + +In the London _Times_, Feb. 1, 1888, it is said that a roundish object +of iron had been found, "after a violent thunderstorm," in a garden at +Brixton, Aug. 17, 1887. It was analyzed by a chemist, who could not +identify it as true meteoritic material. Whether a product of +workmanship like human workmanship or not, this object is described as +an oblate spheroid, about two inches across its major diameter. The +chemist's name and address are given: Mr. J. James Morgan: Ebbw Vale. + +Garden--familiar ground--I suppose that in Mr. Symons' opinion this +symmetric object had been upon the ground "in the first place," though +he neglects to say this. But we do note that he described this object as +a "lump," which does not suggest the spheroidal or symmetric. It is our +notion that the word "lump" was, because of its meaning of +amorphousness, used purposely to have the next datum stand alone, +remote, without similars. If Mr. Symons had said that there had been a +report of another round object that had fallen from the sky, his readers +would be attracted by an agreement. He distracts his readers by +describing in terms of the unprecedented-- + +"Iron cannon ball." + +It was found in a manure heap, in Sussex, after a thunderstorm. + +However, Mr. Symons argues pretty reasonably, it seems to me, that, +given a cannon ball in a manure heap, in the first place, lightning +might be attracted by it, and, if seen to strike there, the untutored +mind, or mentality below the average, would leap or jump, or proceed +with less celerity, to the conclusion that the iron object had fallen. + +Except that--if every farmer isn't upon very familiar ground--or if +every farmer doesn't know his own manure heap as well as Mr. Symons knew +his writing desk-- + +Then comes the instance of a man, his wife, and his three daughters, at +Casterton, Westmoreland, who were looking out at their lawn, during a +thunderstorm, when they "considered," as Mr. Symons expresses it, that +they saw a stone fall from the sky, kill a sheep, and bury itself in the +ground. + +They dug. + +They found a stone ball. + +Symons: + +Coincidence. It had been there in the first place. + +This object was exhibited at a meeting of the Royal Meteorological +Society by Mr. C. Carus-Wilson. It is described in the _Journal's_ list +of exhibits as a "sandstone" ball. It is described as "sandstone" by Mr. +Symons. + +Now a round piece of sandstone may be almost anywhere in the ground--in +the first place--but, by our more or less discreditable habit of prying +and snooping, we find that this object was rather more complex and of +material less commonplace. In snooping through _Knowledge_, Oct. 9, +1885, we read that this "thunderstone" was in the possession of Mr. C. +Carus-Wilson, who tells the story of the witness and his family--the +sheep killed, the burial of something in the earth, the digging, and the +finding. Mr. C. Carus-Wilson describes the object as a ball of hard, +ferruginous quartzite, about the size of a cocoanut, weight about twelve +pounds. Whether we're feeling around for significance or not, there is a +suggestion not only of symmetry but of structure in this object: it had +an external shell, separated from a loose nucleus. Mr. Carus-Wilson +attributes this cleavage to unequal cooling of the mass. + +My own notion is that there is very little deliberate misrepresentation +in the writings of scientific men: that they are quite as guiltless in +intent as are other hypnotic subjects. Such a victim of induced belief +reads of a stone ball said to have fallen from the sky. Mechanically in +his mind arise impressions of globular lumps, or nodules, of sandstone, +which are common almost everywhere. He assimilates the reported fall +with his impressions of objects in the ground, in the first place. To an +intermediatist, the phenomena of intellection are only phenomena of +universal process localized in human minds. The process called +"explanation" is only a local aspect of universal assimilation. It looks +like materialism: but the intermediatist holds that interpretation of +the immaterial, as it is called, in terms of the material, as it is +called, is no more rational than interpretation of the "material" in +terms of the "immaterial": that there is in quasi-existence neither the +material nor the immaterial, but approximations one way or the other. +But so hypnotic quasi-reasons: that globular lumps of sandstone are +common. Whether he jumps or leaps, or whether only the frowsy and +base-born are so athletic, his is the impression, by assimilation, that +this especial object is a ball of sandstone. Or human mentality: its +inhabitants are conveniences. It may be that Mr. Symons' paper was +written before this object was exhibited to the members of the Society, +and with the charity with which, for the sake of diversity, we +intersperse our malices, we are willing to accept that he "investigated" +something that he had never seen. But whoever listed this object was +uncareful: it is listed as "sandstone." + +We're making excuses for them. + +Really--as it were--you know, we're not quite so damned as we were. + +One does not apologize for the gods and at the same time feel quite +utterly prostrate before them. + +If this were a real existence, and all of us real persons, with real +standards to judge by, I'm afraid we'd have to be a little severe with +some of these Mr. Symonses. As it is, of course, seriousness seems out +of place. + +We note an amusing little touch in the indefinite allusion to "a man," +who with his un-named family, had "considered" that he had seen a stone +fall. The "man" was the Rev. W. Carus-Wilson, who was well-known in his +day. + +The next instance was reported by W.B. Tripp, F.R.M.S.--that, during a +thunderstorm, a farmer had seen the ground in front of him plowed up by +something that was luminous. + +Dug. + +Bronze ax. + +My own notion is that an expedition to the North Pole could not be so +urgent as that representative scientists should have gone to that farmer +and there spent a summer studying this one reported occurrence. As it +is--un-named farmer--somewhere--no date. The thing must stay damned. + +Another specimen for our museum is a comment in _Nature_ upon these +objects: that they are "of an amusing character, thus clearly showing +that they were of terrestrial, and not a celestial, character." Just why +celestiality, or that of it which, too, is only of Intermediateness +should not be quite as amusing as terrestriality is beyond our reasoning +powers, which we have agreed are not ordinary. Of course there is +nothing amusing about wedges and spheres at all--or Archimedes and +Euclid are humorists. It is that they were described derisively. If +you'd like a little specimen of the standardization of orthodox +opinion-- + +_Amer. Met. Jour._, 4-589: + +"They are of an amusing character, thus clearly showing that they were +of a terrestrial and not a celestial character." + +I'm sure--not positively, of course--that we've tried to be as easygoing +and lenient with Mr. Symons as his obviously scientific performance +would permit. Of course it may be that sub-consciously we were +prejudiced against him, instinctively classing him with St. Augustine, +Darwin, St. Jerome, and Lyell. As to the "thunderstones," I think that +he investigated them mostly "for the credit of Englishmen," or in the +spirit of the Royal Krakatoa Committee, or about as the commission from +the French Academy investigated meteorites. According to a writer in +_Knowledge_, 5-418, the Krakatoa Committee attempted not in the least to +prove what had caused the atmospheric effects of 1883, but to +prove--that Krakatoa did it. + +Altogether I should think that the following quotation should be +enlightening to anyone who still thinks that these occurrences were +investigated not to support an opinion formed in advance: + +In opening his paper, Mr. Symons says that he undertook his +investigation as to the existence of "thunderstones," or "thunderbolts" +as he calls them--"feeling certain that there was a weak point +somewhere, inasmuch as 'thunderbolts' have no existence." + +We have another instance of the reported fall of a "cannon ball." It +occurred prior to Mr. Symons' investigations, but is not mentioned by +him. It was investigated, however. In the _Proc. Roy. Soc. Edin._, +3-147, is the report of a "thunderstone," "supposed to have fallen in +Hampshire, Sept., 1852." It was an iron cannon ball, or it was a "large +nodule of iron pyrites or bisulphuret of iron." No one had seen it fall. +It had been noticed, upon a garden path, for the first time, after a +thunderstorm. It was only a "supposed" thing, because--"It had not the +character of any known meteorite." + +In the London _Times_, Sept. 16, 1852, appears a letter from Mr. George +E. Bailey, a chemist of Andover, Hants. He says that, in a very heavy +thunderstorm, of the first week of September, 1852, this iron object, +had fallen in the garden of Mr. Robert Dowling, of Andover; that it had +fallen upon a path "within six yards of the house." It had been picked +up "immediately" after the storm by Mrs. Dowling. It was about the size +of a cricket ball: weight four pounds. No one had seen it fall. In the +_Times_, Sept. 15, 1852, there is an account of this thunderstorm, which +was of unusual violence. + +There are some other data relative to the ball of quartz of +Westmoreland. They're poor things. There's so little to them that they +look like ghosts of the damned. However, ghosts, when multiplied, take +on what is called substantiality--if the solidest thing conceivable, in +quasi-existence, is only concentrated phantomosity. It is not only that +there have been other reports of quartz that has fallen from the sky; +there is another agreement. The round quartz object of Westmoreland, if +broken open and separated from its loose nucleus, would be a round, +hollow, quartz object. My pseudo-position is that two reports of similar +extraordinary occurrences, one from England and one from Canada--are +interesting. + +_Proc. Canadian Institute_, 3-7-8: + +That, at the meeting of the Institute, of Dec. 1, 1888, one of the +members, Mr. J.A. Livingstone, exhibited a globular quartz body which he +asserted had fallen from the sky. It had been split open. It was hollow. + +But the other members of the Institute decided that the object was +spurious, because it was not of "true meteoritic material." + +No date; no place mentioned; we note the suggestion that it was only a +geode, which had been upon the ground in the first place. Its +crystalline lining was geode-like. + +Quartz is upon the "index prohibitory" of Science. A monk who would read +Darwin would sin no more than would a scientist who would admit that, +except by the "up and down" process, quartz has ever fallen from the +sky--but Continuity: it is not excommunicated if part of or incorporated +in a baptized meteorite--St. Catherine's of Mexico, I think. It's as +epicurean a distinction as any ever made by theologians. Fassig lists a +quartz pebble, found in a hailstone (_Bibliography_, part 2-355). "Up +and down," of course. Another object of quartzite was reported to have +fallen, in the autumn of 1880, at Schroon Lake, N.Y.--said in the +_Scientific American_, 43-272 to be a fraud--it was not--the usual. +About the first of May, 1899, the newspapers published a story of a +"snow-white" meteorite that had fallen, at Vincennes, Indiana. The +Editor of the _Monthly Weather Review_ (issue of April, 1899) requested +the local observer, at Vincennes, to investigate. The Editor says that +the thing was only a fragment of a quartz boulder. He says that anyone +with at least a public school education should know better than to write +that quartz has ever fallen from the sky. + +_Notes and Queries_, 2-8-92: + +That, in the Leyden Museum of Antiquities, there is a disk of quartz: 6 +centimeters by 5 millimeters by about 5 centimeters; said to have fallen +upon a plantation in the Dutch West Indies, after a meteoric explosion. + +Bricks. + +I think this is a vice we're writing. I recommend it to those who have +hankered for a new sin. At first some of our data were of so frightful +or ridiculous mien as to be hated, or eyebrowed, was only to be seen. +Then some pity crept in? I think that we can now embrace bricks. + +The baked-clay-idea was all right in its place, but it rather lacks +distinction, I think. With our minds upon the concrete boats that have +been building terrestrially lately, and thinking of wrecks that may +occur to some of them, and of a new material for the deep-sea fishes to +disregard-- + +Object that fell at Richland, South Carolina--yellow to gray--said to +look like a piece of brick. (_Amer. Jour. Sci._, 2-34-298.) + +Pieces of "furnace-made brick" said to have fallen--in a hailstorm--at +Padua, August, 1834. (_Edin. New Phil. Jour._, 19-87.) The writer +offered an explanation that started another convention: that the +fragments of brick had been knocked from buildings by the hailstones. +But there is here a concomitant that will be disagreeable to anyone who +may have been inclined to smile at the now digestible--enough notion +that furnace-made bricks have fallen from the sky. It is that in some of +the hailstones--two per cent of them--that were found with the pieces of +brick, was a light grayish powder. + +_Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society_, 337-365: + +Padre Sechi explains that a stone said to have fallen, in a +thunderstorm, at Supino, Italy, September, 1875, had been knocked from a +roof. + +_Nature_, 33-153: + +That it had been reported that a good-sized stone, of form clearly +artificial, had fallen at Naples, November, 1885. The stone was +described by two professors of Naples, who had accepted it as +inexplicable but veritable. They were visited by Dr. H. Johnstone-Lavis, +the correspondent to _Nature_, whose investigations had convinced him +that the object was a "shoemaker's lapstone." + +Now to us of the initiated, or to us of the wider outlook, there is +nothing incredible in the thought of shoemakers in other worlds--but I +suspect that this characterization is tactical. + +This object of worked stone, or this shoemaker's lapstone, was made of +Vesuvian lava, Dr. Johnstone-Lavis thinks: most probably of lava of the +flow of 1631, from the La Scala quarries. We condemn "most probably" as +bad positivism. As to the "men of position," who had accepted that this +thing had fallen from the sky--"I have now obliged them to admit their +mistake," says Dr. Johnstone-Lavis--or it's always the stranger in +Naples who knows La Scala lava better than the natives know it. + +Explanation: + +That the thing had been knocked from, or thrown from, a roof. + +As to attempt to trace the occurrence to any special roof--nothing said +upon that subject. Or that Dr. Johnstone-Lavis called a carved stone a +"lapstone," quite as Mr. Symons called a spherical object a "cannon +ball": bent upon a discrediting incongruity: + +Shoemaking and celestiality. + +It is so easy to say that axes, or wedge-shaped stones found on the +ground, were there in the first place, and that it is only coincidence +that lightning should strike near one--but the credibility of +coincidences decreases as the square root of their volume, I think. Our +massed instances speak too much of coincidences of coincidences. But the +axes, or wedge-shaped objects that have been found in trees, are more +difficult for orthodoxy. For instance, Arago accepts that such finds +have occurred, but he argues that, if wedge-shaped stones have been +found in tree trunks, so have toads been found in tree trunks--did the +toads fall there? + +Not at all bad for a hypnotic. + +Of course, in our acceptance, the Irish are the Chosen People. It's +because they are characteristically best in accord with the underlying +essence of quasi-existence. M. Arago answers a question by asking +another question. That's the only way a question can be answered in our +Hibernian kind of an existence. + +Dr. Bodding argued with the natives of the Santal Parganas, India, who +said that cut and shaped stones had fallen from the sky, some of them +lodging in tree trunks. Dr. Bodding, with orthodox notions of velocity +of falling bodies, having missed, I suppose, some of the notes I have +upon large hailstones, which, for size, have fallen with astonishingly +low velocity, argued that anything falling from the sky would be +"smashed to atoms." He accepts that objects of worked stone have been +found in tree trunks, but he explains: + +That the Santals often steal trees, but do not chop them down in the +usual way, because that would be to make too much noise: they insert +stone wedges, and hammer them instead: then, if they should be caught, +wedges would not be the evidence against them that axes would be. + +Or that a scientific man can't be desperate and reasonable too. + +Or that a pickpocket, for instance, is safe, though caught with his hand +in one's pocket, if he's gloved, say: because no court in the land would +regard a gloved hand in the same way in which a bare hand would be +regarded. + +That there's nothing but intermediateness to the rational and the +preposterous: that this status of our own ratiocinations is perceptible +wherein they are upon the unfamiliar. + +Dr. Bodding collected 50 of these shaped stones, said to have fallen +from the sky, in the course of many years. He says that the Santals are +a highly developed race, and for ages have not used stone +implements--except in this one nefarious convenience to him. + +All explanations are localizations. They fade away before the universal. +It is difficult to express that black rains in England do not originate +in the smoke of factories--less difficult to express that black rains of +South Africa do not. We utter little stress upon the absurdity of Dr. +Bedding's explanation, because, if anything's absurd everything's +absurd, or, rather, has in it some degree or aspect of absurdity, and +we've never had experience with any state except something somewhere +between ultimate absurdity and final reasonableness. Our acceptance is +that Dr. Bedding's elaborate explanation does not apply to cut-stone +objects found in tree trunks in other lands: we accept that for the +general, a local explanation is inadequate. + +As to "thunderstones" not said to have fallen luminously, and not said +to have been found sticking in trees, we are told by faithful hypnotics +that astonished rustics come upon prehistoric axes that have been washed +into sight by rains, and jump to the conclusion that the things have +fallen from the sky. But simple rustics come upon many prehistoric +things: scrapers, pottery, knives, hammers. We have no record of +rusticity coming upon old pottery after a rain, reporting the fall of a +bowl from the sky. + +Just now, my own acceptance is that wedge-shaped stone objects, formed +by means similar to human workmanship, have often fallen from the sky. +Maybe there are messages upon them. My acceptance is that they have been +called "axes" to discredit them: or the more familiar a term, the higher +the incongruity with vague concepts of the vast, remote, tremendous, +unknown. + +In _Notes and Queries_, 2-8-92, a writer says that he had a +"thunderstone," which he had brought from Jamaica. The description is of +a wedge-shaped object; not of an ax: + +"It shows no mark of having been attached to a handle." + +Of ten "thunderstones," figured upon different pages in Blinkenberg's +book, nine show no sign of ever having been attached to a handle: one is +perforated. + +But in a report by Dr. C. Leemans, Director of the Leyden Museum of +Antiquities, objects, said by the Japanese to have fallen from the sky, +are alluded to throughout as "wedges." In the _Archaeologic Journal_, +11-118, in a paper upon the "thunderstones" of Java, the objects are +called "wedges" and not "axes." + +Our notion is that rustics and savages call wedge-shaped objects that +fall from the sky, "axes": that scientific men, when it suits their +purposes, can resist temptations to prolixity and pedantry, and adopt +the simple: that they can be intelligible when derisive. + +All of which lands us in a confusion, worse, I think, than we were in +before we so satisfactorily emerged from the distresses of--butter and +blood and ink and paper and punk and silk. Now it's cannon balls and +axes and disks--if a "lapstone" be a disk--it's a flat stone, at any +rate. + +A great many scientists are good impressionists: they snub the +impertinences of details. Had he been of a coarse, grubbing nature, I +think Dr. Bodding could never have so simply and beautifully explained +the occurrence of stone wedges in tree trunks. But to a realist, the +story would be something like this: + +A man who needed a tree, in a land of jungles, where, for some unknown +reason, everyone's very selfish with his trees, conceives that hammering +stone wedges makes less noise than does the chopping of wood: he and his +descendants, in a course of many years, cut down trees with wedges, and +escape penalty, because it never occurs to a prosecutor that the head of +an ax is a wedge. + +The story is like every other attempted positivism--beautiful and +complete, until we see what it excludes or disregards; whereupon it +becomes the ugly and incomplete--but not absolutely, because there is +probably something of what is called foundation for it. Perhaps a +mentally incomplete Santal did once do something of the kind. Story told +to Dr. Bodding: in the usual scientific way, he makes a dogma of an +aberration. + +Or we did have to utter a little stress upon this matter, after all. +They're so hairy and attractive, these scientists of the 19th century. +We feel the zeal of a Sitting Bull when we think of their scalps. We +shall have to have an expression of our own upon this confusing subject. +We have expressions: we don't call them explanations: we've discarded +explanations with beliefs. Though everyone who scalps is, in the oneness +of allness, himself likely to be scalped, there is such a discourtesy to +an enemy as the wearing of wigs. + +Cannon balls and wedges, and what may they mean? + +Bombardments of this earth-- + +Attempts to communicate-- + +Or visitors to this earth, long ago--explorers from the moon--taking +back with them, as curiosities, perhaps, implements of this earth's +prehistoric inhabitants--a wreck--a cargo of such things held for ages +in suspension in the Super-Sargasso Sea--falling, or shaken, down +occasionally by storms-- + +But, by preponderance of description, we cannot accept that +"thunderstones" ever were attached to handles, or are prehistoric axes-- + +As to attempts to communicate with this earth by means of wedge-shaped +objects especially adapted to the penetration of vast, gelatinous areas +spread around this earth-- + +In the _Proc. Roy. Irish Acad._, 9-337, there is an account of a stone +wedge that fell from the sky, near Cashel, Tipperary, Aug. 2, 1865. The +phenomenon is not questioned, but the orthodox preference is to call it, +not ax-like, nor wedge-shaped, but "pyramidal." For data of other +pyramidal stones said to have fallen from the sky, see _Rept. Brit. +Assoc._, 1861-34. One fell at Segowolee, India, March 6, 1853. Of the +object that fell at Cashel, Dr. Haughton says in the _Proceedings_: "A +singular feature is observable in this stone, that I have never seen in +any other:--the rounded edges of the pyramid are sharply marked by lines +on the black crust, as perfect as if made by a ruler." Dr. Haughton's +idea is that the marks may have been made by "some peculiar tension in +the cooling." It must have been very peculiar, if in all aerolites not +wedge-shaped, no such phenomenon had ever been observed. It merges away +with one or two instances known, after Dr. Haughton's time, of seeming +stratification in meteorites. Stratification in meteorites, however, is +denied by the faithful. + +I begin to suspect something else. + +A whopper is coming. + +Later it will be as reasonable, by familiarity, as anything else ever +said. + +If someone should study the stone of Cashel, as Champollion studied the +Rosetta stone, he might--or, rather, would inevitably--find meaning in +those lines, and translate them into English-- + +Nevertheless I begin to suspect something else: something more subtle +and esoteric than graven characters upon stones that have fallen from +the sky, in attempts to communicate. The notion that other worlds are +attempting to communicate with this world is widespread: my own notion +is that it is not attempt at all--that it was achievement centuries ago. + +I should like to send out a report that a "thunderstone" had fallen, +say, somewhere in New Hampshire-- + +And keep track of every person who came to examine that stone--trace +down his affiliations--keep track of him-- + +Then send out a report that a "thunderstone" had fallen at Stockholm, +say-- + +Would one of the persons who had gone to New Hampshire, be met again in +Stockholm? But--what if he had no anthropological, lapidarian, or +meteorological affiliations--but did belong to a secret society-- + +It is only a dawning credulity. + +Of the three forms of symmetric objects that have, or haven't, fallen +from the sky, it seems to me that the disk is the most striking. So +far, in this respect, we have been at our worst--possibly that's pretty +bad--but "lapstones" are likely to be of considerable variety of form, +and something that is said to have fallen at sometime somewhere in the +Dutch West Indies is profoundly of the unchosen. + +Now we shall have something that is high up in the castes of the +accursed: + +_Comptes Rendus_, 1887-182: + +That, upon June 20, 1887, in a "violent storm"--two months before the +reported fall of the symmetric iron object of Brixton--a small stone had +fallen from the sky at Tarbes, France: 13 millimeters in diameter; 5 +millimeters thick; weight 2 grammes. Reported to the French Academy by +M. Sudre, professor of the Normal School, Tarbes. + +This time the old convenience "there in the first place" is too greatly +resisted--the stone was covered with ice. + +This object had been cut and shaped by means similar to human hands and +human mentality. It was a disk of worked stone--"tres regulier." "Il a +ete assurement travaille." + +There's not a word as to any known whirlwind anywhere: nothing of other +objects or debris that fell at or near this date, in France. The thing +had fallen alone. But as mechanically as any part of a machine responds +to its stimulus, the explanation appears in _Comptes Rendus_ that this +stone had been raised by a whirlwind and then flung down. + +It may be that in the whole nineteenth century no event more important +than this occurred. In _La Nature_, 1887, and in _L'Annee Scientifique_, +1887, this occurrence is noted. It is mentioned in one of the summer +numbers of _Nature_, 1887. Fassig lists a paper upon it in the _Annuaire +de Soc. Met._, 1887. + +Not a word of discussion. + +Not a subsequent mention can I find. + +Our own expression: + +What matters it how we, the French Academy, or the Salvation Army may +explain? + +A disk of worked stone fell from the sky, at Tarbes, France, June 20, +1887. + + + + +9 + + +My own pseudo-conclusion: + +That we've been damned by giants sound asleep, or by great scientific +principles and abstractions that cannot realize themselves: that little +harlots have visited their caprices upon us; that clowns, with buckets +of water from which they pretend to cast thousands of good-sized fishes +have anathematized us for laughing disrespectfully, because, as with all +clowns, underlying buffoonery is the desire to be taken seriously; that +pale ignorances, presiding over microscopes by which they cannot +distinguish flesh from nostoc or fishes' spawn or frogs' spawn, have +visited upon us their wan solemnities. We've been damned by corpses and +skeletons and mummies, which twitch and totter with pseudo-life derived +from conveniences. + +Or there is only hypnosis. The accursed are those who admit they're the +accursed. + +If we be more nearly real we are reasons arraigned before a jury of +dream-phantasms. + +Of all meteorites in museums, very few were seen to fall. It is +considered sufficient grounds for admission if specimens can't be +accounted for in any way other than that they fell from the sky--as if +in the haze of uncertainty that surrounds all things, or that is the +essence of everything, or in the merging away of everything into +something else, there could be anything that could be accounted for in +only one way. The scientist and the theologian reason that if something +can be accounted for in only one way, it is accounted for in that +way--or logic would be logical, if the conditions that it imposes, but, +of course, does not insist upon, could anywhere be found in +quasi-existence. In our acceptance, logic, science, art, religion are, +in our "existence," premonitions of a coming awakening, like dawning +awarenesses of surroundings in the mind of a dreamer. + +Any old chunk of metal that measures up to the standard of "true +meteoritic material" is admitted by the museums. It may seem incredible +that modern curators still have this delusion, but we suspect that the +date on one's morning newspaper hasn't much to do with one's modernity +all day long. In reading Fletcher's catalogue, for instance, we learn +that some of the best-known meteorites were "found in draining a +field"--"found in making a road"--"turned up by the plow" occurs a dozen +times. Someone fishing in Lake Okeechobee, brought up an object in his +fishing net. No meteorite had ever been seen to fall near it. The U.S. +National Museum accepts it. + +If we have accepted only one of the data of "untrue meteoritic +material"--one instance of "carbonaceous" matter--if it be too difficult +to utter the word "coal"--we see that in this inclusion-exclusion, as in +every other means of forming an opinion, false inclusion and false +exclusion have been practiced by curators of museums. + +There is something of ultra-pathos--of cosmic sadness--in this universal +search for a standard, and in belief that one has been revealed by +either inspiration or analysis, then the dogged clinging to a poor sham +of a thing long after its insufficiency has been shown--or renewed hope +and search for the special that can be true, or for something local that +could also be universal. It's as if "true meteoritic material" were a +"rock of ages" to some scientific men. They cling. But clingers cannot +hold out welcoming arms. + +The only seemingly conclusive utterance, or seemingly substantial thing +to cling to, is a product of dishonesty, ignorance, or fatigue. All +sciences go back and back, until they're worn out with the process, or +until mechanical reaction occurs: then they move forward--as it were. +Then they become dogmatic, and take for bases, positions that were only +points of exhaustion. So chemistry divided and sub-divided down to +atoms; then, in the essential insecurity of all quasi-constructions, it +built up a system, which, to anyone so obsessed by his own hypnoses that +he is exempt to the chemist's hypnoses, is perceptibly enough an +intellectual anaemia built upon infinitesimal debilities. + +In _Science_, n.s., 31-298, E.D. Hovey, of the American Museum of +Natural History, asserts or confesses that often have objects of +material such as fossiliferous limestone and slag been sent to him He +says that these things have been accompanied by assurances that they +have been seen to fall on lawns, on roads, in front of houses. + +They are all excluded. They are not of true meteoritic material. They +were on the ground in the first place. It is only by coincidence that +lightning has struck, or that a real meteorite, which was unfindable, +has struck near objects of slag and limestone. + +Mr. Hovey says that the list might be extended indefinitely. That's a +tantalizing suggestion of some very interesting stuff-- + +He says: + +"But it is not worth while." + +I'd like to know what strange, damned, excommunicated things have been +sent to museums by persons who have felt convinced that they had seen +what they may have seen, strongly enough to risk ridicule, to make up +bundles, go to express offices, and write letters. I accept that over +the door of every museum, into which such things enter, is written: + +"Abandon Hope." + +If a Mr. Symons mentions one instance of coal, or of slag or cinders, +said to have fallen from the sky, we are not--except by association with +the "carbonaceous" meteorites--strong in our impression that coal +sometimes falls to this earth from coal-burning super-constructions up +somewhere-- + +In _Comptes Rendus_, 91-197, M. Daubree tells the same story. Our +acceptance, then, is that other curators could tell this same story. +Then the phantomosity of our impression substantiates proportionately to +its multiplicity. M. Daubree says that often have strange damned things +been sent to the French museums, accompanied by assurances that they had +been seen to fall from the sky. Especially to our interest, he mentions +coal and slag. + +Excluded. + +Buried un-named and undated in Science's potter's field. + +I do not say that the data of the damned should have the same rights as +the data of the saved. That would be justice. That would be of the +Positive Absolute, and, though the ideal of, a violation of, the very +essence of quasi-existence, wherein only to have the appearance of being +is to express a preponderance of force one way or another--or +inequilibrium, or inconsistency, or injustice. + +Our acceptance is that the passing away of exclusionism is a phenomenon +of the twentieth century: that gods of the twentieth century will +sustain our notions be they ever so unwashed and frowsy. But, in our own +expressions, we are limited, by the oneness of quasiness, to the very +same methods by which orthodoxy established and maintains its now sleek, +suave preposterousnesses. At any rate, though we are inspired by an +especial subtle essence--or imponderable, I think--that pervades the +twentieth century, we have not the superstition that we are offering +anything as a positive fact. Rather often we have not the delusion that +we're any less superstitious and credulous than any logician, savage, +curator, or rustic. + +An orthodox demonstration, in terms of which we shall have some +heresies, is that if things found in coal could have got there only by +falling there--they fell there. + +So, in the _Manchester Lit. and Phil. Soc. Mems._, 2-9-306, it is argued +that certain roundish stones that have been found in coal are "fossil +aerolites": that they had fallen from the sky, ages ago, when the coal +was soft, because the coal had closed around them, showing no sign of +entrance. + +_Proc. Soc. of Antiq. of Scotland_, 1-1-121: + +That, in a lump of coal, from a mine in Scotland, an iron instrument had +been found-- + +"The interest attaching to this singular relic arises from the fact of +its having been found in the heart of a piece of coal, seven feet under +the surface." + +If we accept that this object of iron was of workmanship beyond the +means and skill of the primitive men who may have lived in Scotland when +coal was forming there-- + +"The instrument was considered to be modern." + +That our expression has more of realness, or higher approximation to +realness, than has the attempt to explain that is made in the +_Proceedings_: + +That in modern times someone may have bored for coal, and that his drill +may have broken off in the coal it had penetrated. + +Why he should have abandoned such easily accessible coal, I don't know. +The important point is that there was no sign of boring: that this +instrument was in a lump of coal that had closed around it so that its +presence was not suspected, until the lump of coal was broken. + +No mention can I find of this damned thing in any other publication. Of +course there is an alternative here: the thing may not have fallen from +the sky: if in coal-forming times, in Scotland, there were, indigenous +to this earth, no men capable of making such an iron instrument, it may +have been left behind by visitors from other worlds. + +In an extraordinary approximation to fairness and justice, which is +permitted to us, because we are quite as desirous to make acceptable +that nothing can be proved as we are to sustain our own expressions, we +note: + +That in _Notes and Queries_, 11-1-408, there is an account of an ancient +copper seal, about the size of a penny, found in chalk, at a depth of +from five to six feet, near Bredenstone, England. The design upon it is +said to be of a monk kneeling before a virgin and child: a legend upon +the margin is said to be: "St. Jordanis Monachi Spaldingie." + +I don't know about that. It looks very desirable--undesirable to us. + +There's a wretch of an ultra-frowsy thing in the _Scientific American_, +7-298, which we condemn ourselves, if somewhere, because of the oneness +of allness, the damned must also be the damning. It's a newspaper story: +that about the first of June, 1851, a powerful blast, near Dorchester, +Mass., cast out from a bed of solid rock a bell-shaped vessel of an +unknown metal: floral designs inlaid with silver; "art of some cunning +workman." The opinion of the Editor of the _Scientific American_ is that +the thing had been made by Tubal Cain, who was the first inhabitant of +Dorchester. Though I fear that this is a little arbitrary, I am not +disposed to fly rabidly at every scientific opinion. + +_Nature_, 35-36: + +A block of metal found in coal, in Austria, 1885. It is now in the +Salsburg museum. + +This time we have another expression. Usually our intermediatist attack +upon provincial positivism is: Science, in its attempted positivism +takes something such as "true meteoritic material" as a standard of +judgment; but carbonaceous matter, except for its relative infrequency, +is just as veritable a standard of judgment; carbonaceous matter merges +away into such a variety of organic substances, that all standards are +reduced to indistinguishability: if, then, there is no real standard +against us, there is no real resistance to our own acceptances. Now our +intermediatism is: Science takes "true meteoritic material" as a +standard of admission; but now we have an instance that quite as truly +makes "true meteoritic material" a standard of exclusion; or, then, a +thing that denies itself is no real resistance to our own +acceptances--this depending upon whether we have a datum of something of +"true meteoritic material" that orthodoxy can never accept fell from the +sky. + +We're a little involved here. Our own acceptance is upon a carved, +geometric thing that, if found in a very old deposit, antedates human +life, except, perhaps, very primitive human life, as an indigenous +product of this earth: but we're quite as much interested in the dilemma +it made for the faithful. + +It is of "true meteoritic material." _L'Astronomie_, 1887-114, it is +said that, though so geometric, its phenomena so characteristic of +meteorites exclude the idea that it was the work of man. + +As to the deposit--Tertiary coal. + +Composition--iron, carbon, and a small quantity of nickel. + +It has the pitted surface that is supposed by the faithful to be +characteristic of meteorites. + +For a full account of this subject, see _Comptes Rendus_, 103-702. The +scientists who examined it could reach no agreement. They bifurcated: +then a compromise was suggested; but the compromise is a product of +disregard: + +That it was of true meteoritic material, and had not been shaped by man; + +That it was not of true meteoritic material, but telluric iron that had +been shaped by man: + +That it was true meteoritic material that had fallen from the sky, but +had been shaped by man, after its fall. + +The data, one or more of which must be disregarded by each of these +three explanations, are: "true meteoritic material" and surface markings +of meteorites; geometric form; presence in an ancient deposit; material +as hard as steel; absence upon this earth, in Tertiary times, of men who +could work in material as hard as steel. It is said that, though of +"true meteoritic material," this object is virtually a steel object. + +St. Augustine, with his orthodoxy, was never in--well, very much +worse--difficulties than are the faithful here. By due disregard of a +datum or so, our own acceptance that it was a steel object that had +fallen from the sky to this earth, in Tertiary times, is not forced upon +one. We offer ours as the only synthetic expression. For instance, in +_Science Gossip_, 1887-58, it is described as a meteorite: in this +account there is nothing alarming to the pious, because, though +everything else is told, its geometric form is not mentioned. + +It's a cube. There is a deep incision all around it. Of its faces, two +that are opposite are rounded. + +Though I accept that our own expression can only rather approximate to +Truth, by the wideness of its inclusions, and because it seems, of four +attempts, to represent the only complete synthesis, and can be nullified +or greatly modified by data that we, too, have somewhere disregarded, +the only means of nullification that I can think of would be +demonstration that this object is a mass of iron pyrites, which +sometimes forms geometrically. But the analysis mentions not a trace of +sulphur. Of course our weakness, or impositiveness, lies in that, by +anyone to whom it would be agreeable to find sulphur in this thing, +sulphur would be found in it--by our own intermediatism there is some +sulphur in everything, or sulphur is only a localization or emphasis of +something that, unemphasized, is in all things. + +So there have, or haven't, been found upon this earth things that fell +from the sky, or that were left behind by extra-mundane visitors to this +earth-- + +A yarn in the London _Times_, June 22, 1844: that some workmen, +quarrying rock, close to the Tweed, about a quarter of a mile below +Rutherford Mills, discovered a gold thread embedded in the stone at a +depth of 8 feet: that a piece of the gold thread had been sent to the +office of the _Kelso Chronicle_. + +Pretty little thing; not at all frowsy; rather damnable. + +London _Times_, Dec. 24, 1851: + +That Hiram De Witt, of Springfield, Mass., returning from California, +had brought with him a piece of auriferous quartz about the size of a +man's fist. It was accidentally dropped--split open--nail in it. There +was a cut-iron nail, size of a six-penny nail, slightly corroded. "It +was entirely straight and had a perfect head." + +Or--California--ages ago, when auriferous quartz was +forming--super-carpenter, million of miles or so up in the air--drops a +nail. + +To one not an intermediatist, it would seem incredible that this datum, +not only of the damned, but of the lowest of the damned, or of the +journalistic caste of the accursed, could merge away with something else +damned only by disregard, and backed by what is called "highest +scientific authority"-- + +Communication by Sir David Brewster (_Rept. Brit. Assoc._, 1845-51): + +That a nail had been found in a block of stone from Kingoodie Quarry, +North Britain. The block in which the nail was found was nine inches +thick, but as to what part of the quarry it had come from, there is no +evidence--except that it could not have been from the surface. The +quarry had been worked about twenty years. It consisted of alternate +layers of hard stone and a substance called "till." The point of the +nail, quite eaten with rust, projected into some "till," upon the +surface of the block of stone. The rest of the nail lay upon the surface +of the stone to within an inch of the head--that inch of it was embedded +in the stone. + +Although its caste is high, this is a thing profoundly of the +damned--sort of a Brahmin as regarded by a Baptist. Its case was stated +fairly; Brewster related all circumstances available to him--but there +was no discussion at the meeting of the British Association: no +explanation was offered-- + +Nevertheless the thing can be nullified-- + +But the nullification that we find is as much against orthodoxy in one +respect as it is against our own expression that inclusion in quartz or +sandstone indicates antiquity--or there would have to be a revision of +prevailing dogmas upon quartz and sandstone and age indicated by them, +if the opposing data should be accepted. Of course it may be contended +by both the orthodox and us heretics that the opposition is only a yarn +from a newspaper. By an odd combination, we find our two lost souls that +have tried to emerge, chucked back to perdition by one blow: + +_Pop. Sci. News_, 1884-41: + +That, according to the _Carson Appeal_, there had been found in a mine, +quartz crystals that could have had only 15 years in which to form: +that, where a mill had been built, sandstone had been found, when the +mill was torn down, that had hardened in 12 years: that in this +sandstone was a piece of wood "with a nail in it." + +_Annals of Scientific Discovery_, 1853-71: + +That, at the meeting of the British Association, 1853, Sir David +Brewster had announced that he had to bring before the meeting an object +"of so incredible a nature that nothing short of the strongest evidence +was necessary to render the statement at all probable." + +A crystal lens had been found in the treasure-house at Nineveh. + +In many of the temples and treasure houses of old civilizations upon +this earth have been preserved things that have fallen from the sky--or +meteorites. + +Again we have a Brahmin. This thing is buried alive in the heart of +propriety: it is in the British Museum. + +Carpenter, in _The Microscope and Its Revelations_, gives two drawings +of it. Carpenter argues that it is impossible to accept that optical +lenses had ever been made by the ancients. Never occurred to +him--someone a million miles or so up in the air--looking through his +telescope--lens drops out. + +This does not appeal to Carpenter: he says that this object must have +been an ornament. + +According to Brewster, it was not an ornament, but "a true optical +lens." + +In that case, in ruins of an old civilization upon this earth, has been +found an accursed thing that was, acceptably, not a product of any old +civilization indigenous to this earth. + + + + +10 + + +Early explorers have Florida mixed up with Newfoundland. But the +confusion is worse than that still earlier. It arises from simplicity. +Very early explorers think that all land westward is one land, India: +awareness of other lands as well as India comes as a slow process. I do +not now think of things arriving upon this earth from some especial +other world. That was my notion when I started to collect our data. Or, +as is a commonplace of observation, all intellection begins with the +illusion of homogeneity. It's one of Spencer's data: we see +homogeneousness in all things distant, or with which we have small +acquaintance. Advance from the relatively homogeneous to the relatively +heterogeneous is Spencerian Philosophy--like everything else, so-called: +not that it was really Spencer's discovery, but was taken from von Baer, +who, in turn, was continuous with preceding evolutionary speculation. +Our own expression is that all things are acting to advance to the +homogeneous, or are trying to localize Homogeneousness. Homogeneousness +is an aspect of the Universal, wherein it is a state that does not merge +away into something else. We regard homogeneousness as an aspect of +positiveness, but it is our acceptance that infinite frustrations of +attempts to positivize manifest themselves in infinite heterogeneity: so +that though things try to localize homogeneousness they end up in +heterogeneity so great that it amounts to infinite dispersion or +indistinguishability. + +So all concepts are little attempted positivenesses, but soon have to +give in to compromise, modification, nullification, merging away into +indistinguishability--unless, here and there, in the world's history, +there may have been a super-dogmatist, who, for only an infinitesimal of +time, has been able to hold out against heterogeneity or modification or +doubt or "listening to reason," or loss of identity--in which +case--instant translation to heaven or the Positive Absolute. + +Odd thing about Spencer is that he never recognized that "homogeneity," +"integration," and "definiteness" are all words for the same state, or +the state that we call "positiveness." What we call his mistake is in +that he regarded "homogeneousness" as negative. + +I began with a notion of some one other world, from which objects and +substances have fallen to this earth; which had, or which, to less +degree, has a tutelary interest in this earth; which is now attempting +to communicate with this earth--modifying, because of data which will +pile up later, into acceptance that some other world is not attempting +but has been, for centuries, in communication with a sect, perhaps, or a +secret society, or certain esoteric ones of this earth's inhabitants. + +I lose a great deal of hypnotic power in not being able to concentrate +attention upon some one other world. + +As I have admitted before I'm intelligent, as contrasted with the +orthodox. I haven't the aristocratic disregard of a New York curator or +an Eskimo medicine-man. + +I have to dissipate myself in acceptance of a host of other worlds: size +of the moon, some of them: one of them, at least--tremendous thing: +we'll take that up later. Vast, amorphous aerial regions, to which such +definite words as "worlds" and "planets" seem inapplicable. And +artificial constructions that I have called "super-constructions": one +of them about the size of Brooklyn, I should say, offhand. And one or +more of them wheel-shaped things a goodly number of square miles in +area. + +I think that earlier in this book, before we liberalized into embracing +everything that comes along, your indignation, or indigestion would have +expressed in the notion that, if this were so, astronomers would have +seen these other worlds and regions and vast geometric constructions. +You'd have had that notion: you'd have stopped there. + +But the attempt to stop is saying "enough" to the insatiable. In cosmic +punctuation there are no periods: illusion of periods is incomplete view +of colons and semi-colons. + +We can't stop with the notion that if there were such phenomena, +astronomers would have seen them. Because of our experience with +suppression and disregard, we suspect, before we go into the subject at +all, that astronomers have seen them; that navigators and meteorologists +have seen them; that individual scientists and other trained observers +have seen them many times-- + +That it is the System that has excluded data of them. + +As to the Law of Gravitation, and astronomers' formulas, remember that +these formulas worked out in the time of Laplace as well as they do now. +But there are hundreds of planetary bodies now known that were then not +known. So a few hundred worlds more of ours won't make any difference. +Laplace knew of about only thirty bodies in this solar system: about six +hundred are recognized now-- + +What are the discoveries of geology and biology to a theologian? + +His formulas still work out as well as they ever did. + +If the Law of Gravitation could be stated as a real utterance, it might +be a real resistance to us. But we are told only that gravitation is +gravitation. Of course to an intermediatist, nothing can be defined +except in terms of itself--but even the orthodox, in what seems to me to +be the innate premonitions of realness, not founded upon experience, +agree that to define a thing in terms of itself is not real definition. +It is said that by gravitation is meant the attraction of all things +proportionately to mass and inversely as the square of the distance. +Mass would mean inter-attraction holding together final particles, if +there were final particles. Then, until final particles be discovered, +only one term of this expression survives, or mass is attraction. But +distance is only extent of mass, unless one holds out for absolute +vacuum among planets, a position against which we could bring a host of +data. But there is no possible means of expressing that gravitation is +anything other than attraction. So there is nothing to resist us but +such a phantom as--that gravitation is the gravitation of all +gravitations proportionately to gravitation and inversely as the square +of gravitation. In a quasi-existence, nothing more sensible than this +can be said upon any so-called subject--perhaps there are higher +approximations to ultimate sensibleness. + +Nevertheless we seem to have a feeling that with the System against us +we have a kind of resistance here. We'd have felt so formerly, at any +rate: I think the Dr. Grays and Prof. Hitchcocks have modified our +trustfulness toward indistinguishability. As to the perfection of this +System that quasi-opposes us and the infallibility of its +mathematics--as if there could be real mathematics in a mode of seeming +where twice two are not four--we've been told over and over of their +vindication in the discovery of Neptune. + +I'm afraid that the course we're taking will turn out like every other +development. We began humbly, admitting that we're of the damned-- + +But our eyebrows-- + +Just a faint flicker in them, or in one of them, every time we hear of +the "triumphal discovery of Neptune"--this "monumental achievement of +theoretical astronomy," as the text-books call it. + +The whole trouble is that we've looked it up. + +The text-books omit this: + +That, instead of the orbit of Neptune agreeing with the calculations of +Adams and Leverrier, it was so different--that Leverrier said that it +was not the planet of his calculations. + +Later it was thought best to say no more upon that subject. + +The text-books omit this: + +That, in 1846, everyone who knew a sine from a cosine was out sining and +cosining for a planet beyond Uranus. + +Two of them guessed right. + +To some minds, even after Leverrier's own rejection of Neptune, the word +"guessed" may be objectionable--but, according to Prof. Peirce, of +Harvard, the calculations of Adams and Leverrier would have applied +quite as well to positions many degrees from the position of Neptune. + +Or for Prof. Peirce's demonstration that the discovery of Neptune was +only a "happy accident," see _Proc. Amer. Acad. Sciences_, 1-65. + +For references, see Lowell's _Evolution of Worlds_. + +Or comets: another nebulous resistance to our own notions. As to +eclipses, I have notes upon several of them that did not occur upon +scheduled time, though with differences only of seconds--and one +delightful lost soul, deep-buried, but buried in the ultra-respectable +records of the Royal Astronomical Society, upon an eclipse that did not +occur at all. That delightful, ultra-sponsored thing of perdition is too +good and malicious to be dismissed with passing notice: we'll have him +later. + +Throughout the history of astronomy, every comet that has come back upon +predicted time--not that, essentially, there was anything more abstruse +about it than is a prediction that you can make of a postman's +periodicities tomorrow--was advertised for all it was worth. It's the +way reputations are worked up for fortune-tellers by the faithful. The +comets that didn't come back--omitted or explained. Or Encke's comet. It +came back slower and slower. But the astronomers explained. Be almost +absolutely sure of that: they explained. They had it all worked out and +formulated and "proved" why that comet was coming back slower and +slower--and there the damn thing began coming faster and faster. + +Halley's comet. + +Astronomy--"the perfect science, as we astronomers like to call it." +(Jacoby.) + +It's my own notion that if, in a real existence, an astronomer could not +tell one longitude from another, he'd be sent back to this purgatory of +ours until he could meet that simple requirement. + +Halley was sent to the Cape of Good Hope to determine its longitude. He +got it degrees wrong. He gave to Africa's noble Roman promontory a +retrousse twist that would take the pride out of any Kaffir. + +We hear everlastingly of Halley's comet. It came back--maybe. But, +unless we look the matter up in contemporaneous records, we hear nothing +of--the Leonids, for instance. By the same methods as those by which +Halley's comet was predicted, the Leonids were predicted. November, +1898--no Leonids. It was explained. They had been perturbed. They would +appear in November, 1899. November, 1899--November, 1900--no Leonids. + +My notion of astronomic accuracy: + +Who could not be a prize marksman, if only his hits be recorded? + +As to Halley's comet, of 1910--everybody now swears he saw it. He has to +perjure himself: otherwise he'd be accused of having no interest in +great, inspiring things that he's never given any attention to. + +Regard this: + +That there never is a moment when there is not some comet in the sky. +Virtually there is no year in which several new comets are not +discovered, so plentiful are they. Luminous fleas on a vast black +dog--in popular impressions, there is no realization of the extent to +which this solar system is flea-bitten. + +If a comet have not the orbit that astronomers have +predicted--perturbed. If--like Halley's comet--it be late--even a year +late--perturbed. When a train is an hour late, we have small opinion of +the predictions of timetables. When a comet's a year late, all we ask +is--that it be explained. We hear of the inflation and arrogance of +astronomers. My own acceptance is not that they are imposing upon us: +that they are requiting us. For many of us priests no longer function to +give us seeming rapport with Perfection, Infallibility--the Positive +Absolute. Astronomers have stepped forward to fill a vacancy--with +quasi-phantomosity--but, in our acceptance, with a higher approximation +to substantiality than had the attenuations that preceded them. I should +say, myself, that all that we call progress is not so much response to +"urge" as it is response to a hiatus--or if you want something to grow +somewhere, dig out everything else in its area. So I have to accept that +the positive assurances of astronomers are necessary to us, or the +blunderings, evasions and disguises of astronomers would never be +tolerated: that, given such latitude as they are permitted to take, they +could not be very disastrously mistaken. Suppose the comet called +Halley's had not appeared-- + +Early in 1910, a far more important comet than the anaemic luminosity +said to be Halley's, appeared. It was so brilliant that it was visible +in daylight. The astronomers would have been saved anyway. If this other +comet did not have the predicted orbit--perturbation. If you're going to +Coney Island, and predict there'll be a special kind of a pebble on the +beach, I don't see how you can disgrace yourself, if some other pebble +will do just as well--because the feeble thing said to have been seen in +1910 was no more in accord with the sensational descriptions given out +by astronomers in advance than is a pale pebble with a brick-red +boulder. + +I predict that next Wednesday, a large Chinaman, in evening clothes, +will cross Broadway, at 42nd Street, at 9 P.M. He doesn't, but a +tubercular Jap in a sailor's uniform does cross Broadway, at 35th +Street, Friday, at noon. Well, a Jap is a perturbed Chinaman, and +clothes are clothes. + +I remember the terrifying predictions made by the honest and credulous +astronomers, who must have been themselves hypnotized, or they could not +have hypnotized the rest of us, in 1909. Wills were made. Human life +might be swept from this planet. In quasi-existence, which is +essentially Hibernian, that would be no reason why wills should not be +made. The less excitable of us did expect at least some pretty good +fireworks. + +I have to admit that it is said that, in New York, a light was seen in +the sky. + +It was about as terrifying as the scratch of a match on the seat of some +breeches half a mile away. + +It was not on time. + +Though I have heard that a faint nebulosity, which I did not see, +myself, though I looked when I was told to look, was seen in the sky, it +appeared several days after the time predicted. + +A hypnotized host of imbeciles of us: told to look up at the sky: we +did--like a lot of pointers hypnotized by a partridge. + +The effect: + +Almost everybody now swears that he saw Halley's comet, and that it was +a glorious spectacle. + +An interesting circumstance here is that seemingly we are trying to +discredit astronomers because astronomers oppose us--that's not my +impression. We shall be in the Brahmin caste of the hell of the +Baptists. Almost all our data, in some regiments of this procession, are +observations by astronomers, few of them mere amateur astronomers. It is +the System that opposes us. It is the System that is suppressing +astronomers. I think we pity them in their captivity. Ours is not +malice--in a positive sense. It's chivalry--somewhat. Unhappy +astronomers looking out from high towers in which they are +imprisoned--we appear upon the horizon. + +But, as I have said, our data do not relate to some especial other +world. I mean very much what a savage upon an ocean island might +vaguely think of in his speculations--not upon some other land, but +complexes of continents and their phenomena: cities, factories in +cities, means of communication-- + +Now all the other savages would know of a few vessels sailing in their +regular routes, passing this island in regularized periodicities. The +tendency in these minds would be expression of the universal tendency +toward positivism--or Completeness--or conviction that these few +regularized vessels constituted all. Now I think of some especial savage +who suspects otherwise--because he's very backward and unimaginative and +insensible to the beautiful ideals of the others: not piously occupied, +like the others, in bowing before impressive-looking sticks of wood; +dishonestly taking time for his speculations, while the others are +patriotically witch-finding. So the other higher and nobler savages know +about the few regularized vessels: know when to expect them; have their +periodicities all worked out; just about when vessels will pass, or +eclipse each other--explaining that all vagaries were due to atmospheric +conditions. + +They'd come out strong in explaining. + +You can't read a book upon savages without noting what resolute +explainers they are. + +They'd say that all this mechanism was founded upon the mutual +attraction of the vessels--deduced from the fall of a monkey from a palm +tree--or, if not that, that devils were pushing the vessels--something +of the kind. + +Storms. + +Debris, not from these vessels, cast up by the waves. + +Disregarded. + +How can one think of something and something else, too? + +I'm in the state of mind of a savage who might find upon a shore, washed +up by the same storm, buoyant parts of a piano and a paddle that was +carved by cruder hands than his own: something light and summery from +India, and a fur overcoat from Russia--or all science, though +approximating wider and wider, is attempt to conceive of India in terms +of an ocean island, and of Russia in terms of India so interpreted. +Though I am trying to think of Russia and India in world-wide terms, I +cannot think that that, or the universalizing of the local, is cosmic +purpose. The higher idealist is the positivist who tries to localize +the universal, and is in accord with cosmic purpose: the super-dogmatist +of a local savage who can hold out, without a flurry of doubt, that a +piano washed up on a beach is the trunk of a palm tree that a shark has +bitten, leaving his teeth in it. So we fear for the soul of Dr. Gray, +because he did not devote his whole life to that one stand that, whether +possible or inconceivable, thousands of fishes had been cast from one +bucket. + +So, unfortunately for myself, if salvation be desirable, I look out +widely but amorphously, indefinitely and heterogeneously. If I say I +conceive of another world that is now in secret communication with +certain esoteric inhabitants of this earth, I say I conceive of still +other worlds that are trying to establish communication with all the +inhabitants of this earth. I fit my notions to the data I find. That is +supposed to be the right and logical and scientific thing to do; but it +is no way to approximate to form, system, organization. Then I think I +conceive of other worlds and vast structures that pass us by, within a +few miles, without the slightest desire to communicate, quite as tramp +vessels pass many islands without particularizing one from another. Then +I think I have data of a vast construction that has often come to this +earth, dipped into an ocean, submerged there a while, then going +away--Why? I'm not absolutely sure. How would an Eskimo explain a +vessel, sending ashore for coal, which is plentiful upon some Arctic +beaches, though of unknown use to the natives, then sailing away, with +no interest in the natives? + +A great difficulty in trying to understand vast constructions that show +no interest in us: + +The notion that we must be interesting. + +I accept that, though we're usually avoided, probably for moral reasons, +sometimes this earth has been visited by explorers. I think that the +notion that there have been extra-mundane visitors to China, within what +we call the historic period, will be only ordinarily absurd, when we +come to that datum. + +I accept that some of the other worlds are of conditions very similar to +our own. I think of others that are very different--so that visitors +from them could not live here--without artificial adaptations. + +How some of them could breathe our attenuated air, if they came from a +gelatinous atmosphere-- + +Masks. + +The masks that have been found in ancient deposits. + +Most of them are of stone, and are said to have been ceremonial regalia +of savages-- + +But the mask that was found in Sullivan County, Missouri, in 1879 +(_American Antiquarian_, 3-336). + +It is made of iron and silver. + + + + +11 + + +One of the damnedest in our whole saturnalia of the accursed-- + +Because it is hopeless to try to shake off an excommunication only by +saying that we're damned by blacker things than ourselves; and that the +damned are those who admit they're of the damned. Inertia and hypnosis +are too strong for us. We say that: then we go right on admitting we're +of the damned. It is only by being more nearly real that we can sweep +away the quasi-things that oppose us. Of course, as a whole, we have +considerable amorphousness, but we are thinking now of "individual" +acceptances. Wideness is an aspect of Universalness or Realness. If our +syntheses disregard fewer data than do opposing syntheses--which are +often not syntheses at all, but mere consideration of some one +circumstance--less widely synthetic things fade away before us. Harmony +is an aspect of the Universal, by which we mean Realness. If we +approximate more highly to harmony among the parts of an expression and +to all available circumstances of an occurrence, the self-contradictors +turn hazy. Solidity is an aspect of realness. We pile them up, and we +pile them up, or they pass and pass and pass: things that bulk large as +they march by, supporting and solidifying one another-- + +And still, and for regiments to come, hypnosis and inertia rule us-- + +One of the damnedest of our data: + +In the _Scientific American_, Sept. 10, 1910, Charles F. Holder writes: + +"Many years ago, a strange stone resembling a meteorite, fell into the +Valley of the Yaqui, Mexico, and the sensational story went from one end +to the other of the country that a stone bearing human inscriptions had +descended to the earth." + +The bewildering observation here is Mr. Holder's assertion that this +stone did fall. It seems to me that he must mean that it fell by +dislodgment from a mountainside into a valley--but we shall see that it +was such a marked stone that very unlikely would it have been unknown to +dwellers in a valley, if it had been reposing upon a mountainside above +them. It may have been carelessness: intent may have been to say that a +sensational story of a strange stone said to have fallen, etc. + +This stone was reported by Major Frederick Burnham, of the British Army. +Later Major Burnham revisited it, and Mr. Holder accompanied him, their +purpose to decipher the inscriptions upon it, if possible. + +"This stone was a brown, igneous rock, its longest axis about eight +feet, and on the eastern face, which had an angle of about forty-five +degrees, was the deep-cut inscription." + +Mr. Holder says that he recognized familiar Mayan symbols in the +inscription. His method was the usual method by which anything can be +"identified" as anything else: that is to pick out whatever is agreeable +and disregard the rest. He says that he has demonstrated that most of +the symbols are Mayan. One of our intermediatist pseudo-principles is +that any way of demonstrating anything is just as good a way of +demonstrating anything else. By Mr. Holder's method we could demonstrate +that we're Mayan--if that should be a source of pride to us. One of the +characters upon this stone is a circle within a circle--similar +character found by Mr. Holder is a Mayan manuscript. There are two 6's. +6's can be found in Mayan manuscripts. A double scroll. There are dots +and there are dashes. Well, then, we, in turn, disregard the circle +within a circle and the double scroll and emphasize that 6's occur in +this book, and that dots are plentiful, and would be more plentiful if +it were customary to use the small "i" for the first personal +pronoun--that when it comes to dashes--that's demonstrated: we're Mayan. + +I suppose the tendency is to feel that we're sneering at some valuable +archaeologic work, and that Mr. Holder did make a veritable +identification. + +He writes: + +"I submitted the photographs to the Field Museum and the Smithsonian and +one or two others, and, to my surprise, the reply was that they could +make nothing out of it." + +Our indefinite acceptance, by preponderance of three or four groups of +museum-experts against one person, is that a stone bearing inscriptions +unassimilable with any known language upon this earth, is said to have +fallen from the sky. Another poor wretch of an outcast belonging here is +noted in the _Scientific American_, 48-261: that, of an object, or a +meteorite, that fell Feb. 16, 1883, near Brescia, Italy, a false report +was circulated that one of the fragments bore the impress of a hand. +That's all that is findable by me upon this mere gasp of a thing. +Intermediatistically, my acceptance is that, though in the course of +human history, there have been some notable approximations, there never +has been a real liar: that he could not survive in intermediateness, +where everything merges away or has its pseudo-base in something +else--would be instantly translated to the Negative Absolute. So my +acceptance is that, though curtly dismissed, there was something to base +upon in this report; that there were unusual markings upon this object. +Of course that is not to jump to the conclusion that they were cuneiform +characters that looked like finger-prints. + +Altogether, I think that in some of our past expressions, we must have +been very efficient, if the experience of Mr. Symons be typical, so +indefinite are we becoming here. Just here we are interested in many +things that have been found, especially in the United States, which +speak of a civilization, or of many civilizations not indigenous to +this earth. One trouble is in trying to decide whether they fell here +from the sky, or were left behind by visitors from other worlds. We have +a notion that there have been disasters aloft, and that coins have +dropped here: that inhabitants of this earth found them or saw them +fall, and then made coins imitatively: it may be that coins were +showered here by something of a tutelary nature that undertook to +advance us from the stage of barter to the use of a medium. If coins +should be identified as Roman coins, we've had so much experience with +"identifications" that we know a phantom when we see one--but, even so, +how could Roman coins have got to North America--far in the interior of +North America--or buried under the accumulation of centuries of +soil--unless they did drop from--wherever the first Romans came from? +Ignatius Donnelly, in _Atlantis_, gives a list of objects that have been +found in mounds that are supposed to antedate all European influence in +America: lathe-made articles, such as traders--from somewhere--would +supply to savages--marks of the lathe said to be unmistakable. Said to +be: of course we can't accept that anything is unmistakable. In the +_Rept. Smithson. Inst._, 1881-619, there is an account, by Charles C. +Jones, of two silver crosses that were found in Georgia. They are +skillfully made, highly ornamented crosses, but are not conventional +crucifixes: all arms of equal length. Mr. Jones is a good +positivist--that De Sota had halted at the "precise" spot where these +crosses were found. But the spirit of negativeness that lurks in all +things said to be "precise" shows itself in that upon one of these +crosses is an inscription that has no meaning in Spanish or any other +known, terrestrial language: + +"IYNKICIDU," according to Mr. Jones. He thinks that this is a name, and +that there is an aboriginal ring to it, though I should say, myself, +that he was thinking of the far-distant Incas: that the Spanish donor +cut on the cross the name of an Indian to whom it was presented. But we +look at the inscription ourselves and see that the letters said to be +"C" and "D" are turned the wrong way, and that the letter said to be "K" +is not only turned the wrong way, but is upside down. + +It is difficult to accept that the remarkable, the very extensive, +copper mines in the region of Lake Superior were ever the works of +American aborigines. Despite the astonishing extent of these mines, +nothing has ever been found to indicate that the region was ever +inhabited by permanent dwellers-- "... not a vestige of a dwelling, a +skeleton, or a bone has been found." The Indians have no traditions +relating to the mines. (_Amer. Antiquarian_, 25-258.) I think that we've +had visitors: that they have come here for copper, for instance. As to +other relics of them--but we now come upon frequency of a merger that +has not so often appeared before: + +Fraudulency. + +Hair called real hair--then there are wigs. Teeth called real +teeth--then there are false teeth. Official money--counterfeit money. +It's the bane of psychic research. If there be psychic phenomena, there +must be fraudulent psychic phenomena. So desperate is the situation here +that Carrington argues that, even if Palladino be caught cheating, that +is not to say that all her phenomena are fraudulent. My own version is: +that nothing indicates anything, in a positive sense, because, in a +positive sense, there is nothing to be indicated. Everything that is +called true must merge away indistinguishably into something called +false. Both are expressions of the same underlying quasiness, and are +continuous. Fraudulent antiquarian relics are very common, but they are +not more common than are fraudulent paintings. + +W.S. Forest, _Historical Sketches of Norfolk, Virginia_: + +That, in September, 1833, when some workmen, near Norfolk, were boring +for water, a coin was drawn up from a depth of about 30 feet. It was +about the size of an English shilling, but oval--an oval disk, if not a +coin. The figures upon it were distinct, and represented "a warrior or +hunter and other characters, apparently of Roman origin." + +The means of exclusion would probably be--men digging a hole--no one +else looking: one of them drops a coin into the hole--as to where he got +a strange coin, remarkable in shape even--that's disregarded. Up comes +the coin--expressions of astonishment from the evil one who had dropped +it. + +However, the antiquarians have missed this coin. I can find no other +mention of it. + +Another coin. Also a little study in the genesis of a prophet. + +In the _American Antiquarian_, 16-313, is copied a story by a +correspondent to the _Detroit News_, of a copper coin about the size of +a two-cent piece, said to have been found in a Michigan mound. The +Editor says merely that he does not endorse the find. Upon this slender +basis, he buds out, in the next number of the _Antiquarian_: + +"The coin turns out, as we predicted, to be a fraud." + +You can imagine the scorn of Elijah, or any of the old more nearly real +prophets. + +Or all things are tried by the only kind of jurisprudence we have in +quasi-existence: + +Presumed to be innocent until convicted--but they're guilty. + +The Editor's reasoning is as phantom-like as my own, or St. Paul's, or +Darwin's. The coin is condemned because it came from the same region +from which, a few years before, had come pottery that had been called +fraudulent. The pottery had been condemned because it was condemnable. + +_Scientific American_, June 17, 1882: + +That a farmer, in Cass Co., Ill., had picked up, on his farm, a bronze +coin, which was sent to Prof. F.F. Hilder, of St. Louis, who identified +it as a coin of Antiochus IV. Inscription said to be in ancient Greek +characters: translated as "King Antiochus Epiphanes (Illustrious) the +Victorius." Sounds quite definite and convincing--but we have some more +translations coming. + +In the _American Pioneer_, 2-169, are shown two faces of a copper coin, +with characters very much like those upon the Grave Creek stone--which, +with translations, we'll take up soon. This coin is said to have been +found in Connecticut, in 1843. + +_Records of the Past_, 12-182: + +That, early in 1913, a coin, said to be a Roman coin, was reported as +discovered in an Illinois mound. It was sent to Dr. Emerson, of the Art +Institute, of Chicago. His opinion was that the coin is "of the rare +mintage of Domitius Domitianus, Emperor in Egypt." As to its discovery +in an Illinois mound, Dr. Emerson disclaims responsibility. But what +strikes me here is that a joker should not have been satisfied with an +ordinary Roman coin. Where did he get a rare coin, and why was it not +missed from some collection? I have looked over numismatic journals +enough to accept that the whereabouts of every rare coin in anyone's +possession is known to coin-collectors. Seems to me nothing left but to +call this another "identification." + +_Proc. Amer. Phil. Soc._, 12-224: + +That, in July, 1871, a letter was received from Mr. Jacob W. Moffit, of +Chillicothe, Ill., enclosing a photograph of a coin, which he said had +been brought up, by him, while boring, from a depth of 120 feet. + +Of course, by conventional scientific standards, such depth has some +extraordinary meaning. Palaeontologists, geologists, and archaeologists +consider themselves reasonable in arguing ancient origin of the +far-buried. We only accept: depth is a pseudo-standard with us; one +earthquake could bury a coin of recent mintage 120 feet below the +surface. + +According to a writer in the _Proceedings_, the coin is uniform in +thickness, and had never been hammered out by savages--"there are other +tokens of the machine shop." + +But, according to Prof. Leslie, it is an astrologic amulet. "There are +upon it the signs of Pisces and Leo." + +Or, with due disregard, you can find signs of your great-grand-mother, +or of the Crusades, or of the Mayans, upon anything that ever came from +Chillicothe or from a five and ten cent store. Anything that looks like +a cat and a goldfish looks like Leo and Pisces: but, by due suppressions +and distortions there's nothing that can't be made to look like a cat +and a goldfish. I fear me we're turning a little irritable here. To be +damned by slumbering giants and interesting little harlots and clowns +who rank high in their profession is at least supportable to our vanity; +but, we find that the anthropologists are of the slums of the divine, or +of an archaic kindergarten of intellectuality, and it is very +unflattering to find a mess of moldy infants sitting in judgment upon +us. + +Prof. Leslie then finds, as arbitrarily as one might find that some +joker put the Brooklyn Bridge where it is, that "the piece was placed +there as a practical joke, though not by its present owner; and is a +modern fabrication, perhaps of the sixteenth century, possibly +Hispano-American or French-American origin." + +It's sheer, brutal attempt to assimilate a thing that may or may not +have fallen from the sky, with phenomena admitted by the anthropologic +system: or with the early French or Spanish explorers of Illinois. +Though it is ridiculous in a positive sense to give reasons, it is more +acceptable to attempt reasons more nearly real than opposing reasons. Of +course, in his favor, we note that Prof. Leslie qualifies his notions. +But his disregards are that there is nothing either French or Spanish +about this coin. A legend upon it is said to be "somewhere between +Arabic and Phoenician, without being either." Prof. Winchell (_Sparks +from a Geologist's Hammer_, p. 170) says of the crude designs upon this +coin, which was in his possession--scrawls of an animal and of a +warrior, or of a cat and a goldfish, whichever be convenient--that they +had been neither stamped nor engraved, but "looked as if etched with an +acid." That is a method unknown in numismatics of this earth. As to the +crudity of design upon this coin, and something else--that, though the +"warrior" may be, by due disregards, either a cat or a goldfish, we have +to note that his headdress is typical of the American Indian--could be +explained, of course, but for fear that we might be instantly translated +to the Positive Absolute, which may not be absolutely desirable, we +prefer to have some flaws or negativeness in our own expressions. + +Data of more than the thrice-accursed: + +Tablets of stone, with the ten commandments engraved upon them, in +Hebrew, said to have been found in mounds in the United States: + +Masonic emblems said to have been found in mounds in the United States. + +We're upon the borderline of our acceptances, and we're amorphous in the +uncertainties and mergings of our outline. Conventionally, or, with no +real reason for so doing, we exclude these things, and then, as grossly +and arbitrarily and irrationally--though our attempt is always to +approximate away from these negative states--as ever a Kepler, Newton, +or Darwin made his selections, without which he could not have seemed +to be, at all, because every one of them is now seen to be an illusion, +we accept that other lettered things have been found in mounds in the +United States. Of course we do what we can to make the selection seem +not gross and arbitrary and irrational. Then, if we accept that +inscribed things of ancient origin have been found in the United States; +that cannot be attributed to any race indigenous to the western +hemisphere; that are not in any language ever heard of in the eastern +hemisphere--there's nothing to it but to turn non-Euclidian and try to +conceive of a third "hemisphere," or to accept that there has been +intercourse between the western hemisphere and some other world. + +But there is a peculiarity to these inscribed objects. They remind me of +the records left, by Sir John Franklin, in the Arctic; but, also, of +attempts made by relief expeditions to communicate with the Franklin +expedition. The lost explorers cached their records--or concealed them +conspicuously in mounds. The relief expeditions sent up balloons, from +which messages were dropped broadcast. Our data are of things that have +been cached, and of things that seem to have been dropped-- + +Or a Lost Expedition from--Somewhere. + +Explorers from somewhere, and their inability to return--then, a long, +sentimental, persistent attempt, in the spirit of our own Arctic +relief-expeditions--at least to establish communication-- + +What if it may have succeeded? + +We think of India--the millions of natives who are ruled by a small band +of esoterics--only because they receive support and direction +from--somewhere else--or from England. + +In 1838, Mr. A.B. Tomlinson, owner of the great mound at Grave Creek, +West Virginia, excavated the mound. He said that, in the presence of +witnesses, he had found a small, flat, oval stone--or disk--upon which +were engraved alphabetic characters. + +Col. Whittelsey, an expert in these matters, says that the stone is now +"universally regarded by archaeologists as a fraud": that, in his +opinion, Mr. Tomlinson had been imposed upon. + +Avebury, _Prehistoric Times_, p. 271: + +"I mention it because it has been the subject of much discussion, but +it is now generally admitted to be a fraud. It is inscribed with Hebrew +characters, but the forger has copied the modern instead of the ancient +form of the letters." + +As I have said, we're as irritable here, under the oppressions of the +anthropologists as ever were slaves in the south toward superiorities +from "poor white trash." When we finally reverse our relative positions +we shall give lowest place to the anthropologists. A Dr. Gray does at +least look at a fish before he conceives of a miraculous origin for it. +We shall have to submerge Lord Avebury far below him--if we accept that +the stone from Grave Creek is generally regarded as a fraud by eminent +authorities who did not know it from some other object--or, in general, +that so decided an opinion must be the product of either deliberate +disregard or ignorance or fatigue. The stone belongs to a class of +phenomena that is repulsive to the System. It will not assimilate with +the System. Let such an object be heard of by such a systematist as +Avebury, and the mere mention of it is as nearly certainly the stimulus +to a conventional reaction as is a charged body to an electroscope or a +glass of beer to a prohibitionist. It is of the ideals of Science to +know one object from another before expressing an opinion upon a thing, +but that is not the spirit of universal mechanics: + +A thing. It is attractive or repulsive. Its conventional reaction +follows. + +Because it is not the stone from Grave Creek that is in Hebrew +characters, either ancient or modern: it is a stone from Newark, Ohio, +of which the story is told that a forger made this mistake of using +modern instead of ancient Hebrew characters. We shall see that the +inscription upon the Grave Creek stone is not in Hebrew. + +Or all things are presumed to be innocent, but are supposed to be +guilty--unless they assimilate. + +Col. Whittelsey (_Western Reserve Historical Tracts, No. 33_) says that +the Grave Creek stone was considered a fraud by Wilson, Squires, and +Davis. Then he comes to the Congress of Archaeologists at Nancy, France, +1875. It is hard for Col. Whittelsey to admit that, at this meeting, +which sounds important, the stone was endorsed. He reminds us of Mr. +Symons, and "the man" who "considered" that he saw something. Col. +Whittelsey's somewhat tortuous expression is that the finder of the +stone "so imposed his views" upon the congress that it pronounced the +stone genuine. + +Also the stone was examined by Schoolcraft. He gave his opinion for +genuineness. + +Or there's only one process, and "see-saw" is one of its aspects. Three +or four fat experts on the side against us. We find four or five plump +ones on our side. Or all that we call logic and reasoning ends up as +sheer preponderance of avoirdupois. + +Then several philologists came out in favor of genuineness. Some of them +translated the inscription. Of course, as we have said, it is our +method--or the method of orthodoxy--way in which all conclusions are +reached--to have some awfully eminent, or preponderantly plump, +authorities with us whenever we can--in this case, however, we feel just +a little apprehensive in being caught in such excellently obese, but +somewhat negativized, company: + +Translation by M. Jombard: + +"Thy orders are laws: thou shinest in impetuous elan and rapid chamois." + +M. Maurice Schwab: + +"The chief of Emigration who reached these places (or this island) has +fixed these characters forever." + +M. Oppert: + +"The grave of one who was assassinated here. May God, to revenge him, +strike his murderer, cutting off the hand of his existence." + +I like the first one best. I have such a vivid impression from it of +someone polishing up brass or something, and in an awful hurry. Of +course the third is more dramatic--still they're all very good. They are +perturbations of one another, I suppose. + +In Tract 44, Col. Whittelsey returns to the subject. He gives the +conclusion of Major De Helward, at the Congress of Luxembourg, 1877: + +"If Prof. Read and myself are right in the conclusion that the figures +are neither of the Runic, Phoenician, Canaanite, Hebrew, Lybian, +Celtic, or any other alphabet-language, its importance has been greatly +over-rated." + +Obvious to a child; obvious to any mentality not helplessly subjected to +a system: + +That just therein lies the importance of this object. + +It is said that an ideal of science is to find out the new--but, unless +a thing be of the old, it is "unimportant." + +"It is not worth while." (Hovey.) + +Then the inscribed ax, or wedge, which, according to Dr. John C. Evans, +in a communication to the American Ethnological Society, was plowed up, +near Pemberton, N.J., 1859. The characters upon this ax, or wedge, are +strikingly similar to the characters on the Grave Creek stone. Also, +with a little disregard here and a little more there, they look like +tracks in the snow by someone who's been out celebrating, or like your +handwriting, or mine, when we think there's a certain distinction in +illegibility. Method of disregard: anything's anything. + +Dr. Abbott describes this object in the _Report of the Smithsonian +Institution_, 1875-260. + +He says he has no faith in it. + +All progress is from the outrageous to the commonplace. Or +quasi-existence proceeds from rape to the crooning of lullabies. It's +been interesting to me to go over various long-established periodicals +and note controversies between attempting positivists and then +intermediatistic issues. Bold, bad intruders of theories; ruffians with +dishonorable intentions--the alarms of Science; her attempts to preserve +that which is dearer than life itself--submission--then a fidelity like +Mrs. Micawber's. So many of these ruffians, or wandering comedians that +were hated, or scorned, pitied, embraced, conventionalized. There's not +a notion in this book that has a more frightful, or ridiculous, mien +than had the notion of human footprints in rocks, when that now +respectabilized ruffian, or clown, was first heard from. It seems +bewildering to one whose interests are not scientific that such rows +should be raised over such trifles: but the feeling of a systematist +toward such an intruder is just about what anyone's would be if a tramp +from the street should come in, sit at one's dinner table, and say he +belonged there. We know what hypnosis can do: let him insist with all +his might that he does belong there, and one begins to suspect that he +may be right; that he may have higher perceptions of what's right. The +prohibitionists had this worked out very skillfully. + +So the row that was raised over the stone from Grave Creek--but time and +cumulativeness, and the very factor we make so much of--or the power of +massed data. There were other reports of inscribed stones, and then, +half a century later, some mounds--or caches, as we call them--were +opened by the Rev. Mr. Gass, near the city of Davenport. (_American +Antiquarian_, 15-73.) Several stone tablets were found. Upon one of +them, the letters "TFTOWNS" may easily be made out. In this instance we +hear nothing of fraudulency--time, cumulativeness, the power of massed +data. The attempt to assimilate this datum is: + +That the tablet was probably of Mormon origin. + +Why? + +Because, at Mendon, Ill., was found a brass plate, upon which were +similar characters. + +Why that? + +Because that was found "near a house once occupied by a Mormon." + +In a real existence, a real meteorologist, suspecting that cinders had +come from a fire engine--would have asked a fireman. + +Tablets of Davenport--there's not a record findable that it ever +occurred to any antiquarian--to ask a Mormon. + +Other tablets were found. Upon one of them are two "F's" and two "8's." +Also a large tablet, twelve inches by eight to ten inches "with Roman +numerals and Arabic." It is said that the figure "8" occurs three times, +and the figure or letter "O" seven times. "With these familiar +characters are others that resemble ancient alphabets, either +Phoenecian or Hebrew." + +It may be that the discovery of Australia, for instance, will turn out +to be less important than the discovery and the meaning of these +tablets-- + +But where will you read of them in anything subsequently published; what +antiquarian has ever since tried to understand them, and their presence, +and indications of antiquity, in a land that we're told was inhabited +only by unlettered savages? + +These things that are exhumed only to be buried in some other way. + +Another tablet was found, at Davenport, by Mr. Charles Harrison, +president of the American Antiquarian Society. "... 8 and other +hieroglyphics are upon this tablet." This time, also, fraud is not +mentioned. My own notion is that it is very unsportsmanlike ever to +mention fraud. Accept anything. Then explain it your way. Anything that +assimilates with one explanation, must have assimilable relations, to +some degree, with all other explanations, if all explanations are +somewhere continuous. Mormons are lugged in again, but the attempt is +faint and helpless--"because general circumstances make it difficult to +explain the presence of these tablets." + +Altogether our phantom resistance is mere attribution to the Mormons, +without the slightest attempt to find base for the attribution. We think +of messages that were showered upon this earth, and of messages that +were cached in mounds upon this earth. The similarity to the Franklin +situation is striking. Conceivably centuries from now, objects dropped +from relief-expedition-balloons may be found in the Arctic, and +conceivably there are still undiscovered caches left by Franklin, in the +hope that relief expeditions would find them. It would be as incongruous +to attribute these things to the Eskimos as to attribute tablets and +lettered stones to the aborigines of America. Some time I shall take up +an expression that the queer-shaped mounds upon this earth were built by +explorers from Somewhere, unable to get back, designed to attract +attention from some other world, and that a vast sword-shaped mound has +been discovered upon the moon--Just now we think of lettered things and +their two possible significances. + +A bizarre little lost soul, rescued from one of the morgues of the +_American Journal of Science_: + +An account, sent by a correspondent, to Prof. Silliman, of something +that was found in a block of marble, taken November, 1829, from a +quarry, near Philadelphia (_Am. J. Sci._, 1-19-361). The block was cut +into slabs. By this process, it is said, was exposed an indentation in +the stone, about one and a half inches by five-eighths of an inch. A +geometric indentation: in it were two definite-looking raised letters, +like "I U": only difference is that the corners of the "U" are not +rounded, but are right angles. We are told that this block of stone came +from a depth of seventy or eighty feet--or that, if acceptable, this +lettering was done long, long ago. To some persons, not sated with the +commonness of the incredible that has to be accepted, it may seem +grotesque to think that an indentation in sand could have tons of other +sand piled upon it and hardening into stone, without being pressed +out--but the famous Nicaraguan footprints were found in a quarry under +eleven strata of solid rock. There was no discussion of this datum. We +only take it out for an airing. + +As to lettered stones that may once upon a time have been showered upon +Europe, if we cannot accept that the stones were inscribed by indigenous +inhabitants of Europe, many have been found in caves--whence they were +carried as curiosities by prehistoric men, or as ornaments, I suppose. +About the size and shape of the Grave Creek stone, or disk: "flat and +oval and about two inches wide." (Sollas.) Characters painted upon them: +found first by M. Piette, in the cave of Mas d'Azil, Ariege. According +to Sollas, they are marked in various directions with red and black +lines. "But on not a few of them, more complex characters occur, which +in a few instances simulate some of the capital letters of the Roman +alphabet." In one instance the letters "F E I" accompanied by no other +markings to modify them, are as plain as they could be. According to +Sollas (_Ancient Hunters_, p. 95) M. Cartailhac has confirmed the +observations of Piette, and M. Boule has found additional examples. +"They offer one of the darkest problems of prehistoric times." (Sollas.) + +As to caches in general, I should say that they are made with two +purposes: to proclaim and to conceal; or that caches documents are +hidden, or covered over, in conspicuous structures; at least, so are +designed the cairns in the Arctic. + +_Trans. N.Y. Acad. of Sciences_, 11-27: + +That Mr. J.H. Hooper, Bradley Co., Tenn., having come upon a curious +stone, in some woods upon his farm, investigated. He dug. He unearthed a +long wall. Upon this wall were inscribed many alphabetic characters. +"872 characters have been examined, many of them duplicates, and a few +imitations of animal forms, the moon, and other objects. Accidental +imitations of oriental alphabets are numerous." + +The part that seems significant: + +That these letters had been hidden under a layer of cement. + +And still, in our own heterogeneity, or unwillingness, or inability, to +concentrate upon single concepts, we shall--or we sha'n't--accept that, +though there may have been a Lost Colony or Lost Expedition from +Somewhere, upon this earth, and extra-mundane visitors who could never +get back, there have been other extra-mundane visitors, who have gone +away again--altogether quite in analogy with the Franklin Expedition and +Peary's flittings in the Arctic-- + +And a wreck that occurred to one group of them-- + +And the loot that was lost overboard-- + +The Chinese seals of Ireland. + +Not the things with the big, wistful eyes that lie on ice, and that are +taught to balance objects on their noses--but inscribed stamps, with +which to make impressions. + +_Proc. Roy. Irish Acad._, 1-381: + +A paper was read by Mr. J. Huband Smith, descriptive of about a dozen +Chinese seals that had been found in Ireland. They are all alike: each a +cube with an animal seated upon it. "It is said that the inscriptions +upon them are of a very ancient class of Chinese characters." + +The three points that have made a leper and an outcast of this +datum--but only in the sense of disregard, because nowhere that I know +of is it questioned: + +Agreement among archaeologists that there were no relations, in the +remote past, between China and Ireland: + +That no other objects, from ancient China--virtually, I suppose--have +ever been found in Ireland: + +The great distances at which these seals have been found apart. + +After Mr. Smith's investigations--if he did investigate, or do more than +record--many more Chinese seals were found in Ireland, and, with one +exception, only in Ireland. In 1852, about 60 had been found. Of all +archaeologic finds in Ireland, "none is enveloped in greater mystery." +(_Chambers' Journal_, 16-364.) According to the writer in _Chambers' +Journal_, one of these seals was found in a curiosity shop in London. +When questioned, the shopkeeper said that it had come from Ireland. + +In this instance, if you don't take instinctively to our expression, +there is no orthodox explanation for your preference. It is the +astonishing scattering of them, over field and forest, that has hushed +the explainers. In the _Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy_, 10-171, +Dr. Frazer says that they "appear to have been sown broadcast over the +country in some strange way that I cannot offer solution of." + +The struggle for expression of a notion that did not belong to Dr. +Frazer's era: + +"The invariable story of their find is what we might expect if they had +been accidentally dropped...." + +Three were found in Tipperary; six in Cork; three in Down; four in +Waterford; all the rest--one or two to a county. + +But one of these Chinese seals was found in the bed of the River Boyne, +near Clonard, Meath, when workmen were raising gravel. + +That one, at least, had been dropped there. + + + + +12 + + +Astronomy. + +And a watchman looking at half a dozen lanterns, where a street's been +torn up. + +There are gas lights and kerosene lamps and electric lights in the +neighborhood: matches flaring, fires in stoves, bonfires, house afire +somewhere; lights of automobiles, illuminated signs-- + +The watchman and his one little system. + +Ethics. + +And some young ladies and the dear old professor of a very "select" +seminary. + +Drugs and divorce and rape: venereal diseases, drunkenness, murder-- + +Excluded. + +The prim and the precise, or the exact, the homogeneous, the single, the +puritanic, the mathematic, the pure, the perfect. We can have illusion +of this state--but only by disregarding its infinite denials. It's a +drop of milk afloat in acid that's eating it. The positive swamped by +the negative. So it is in intermediateness, where only to "be" positive +is to generate corresponding and, perhaps, equal negativeness. In our +acceptance, it is, in quasi-existence, premonitory, or pre-natal, or +pre-awakening consciousness of a real existence. + +But this consciousness of realness is the greatest resistance to efforts +to realize or to become real--because it is feeling that realness has +been attained. Our antagonism is not to Science, but to the attitude of +the sciences that they have finally realized; or to belief, instead of +acceptance; to the insufficiency, which, as we have seen over and over, +amounts to paltriness and puerility of scientific dogmas and standards. +Or, if several persons start out to Chicago, and get to Buffalo, and one +be under the delusion that Buffalo is Chicago, that one will be a +resistance to the progress of the others. + +So astronomy and its seemingly exact, little system-- + +But data we shall have of round worlds and spindle-shaped worlds, and +worlds shaped like a wheel; worlds like titanic pruning hooks; worlds +linked together by streaming filaments; solitary worlds, and worlds in +hordes: tremendous worlds and tiny worlds: some of them made of material +like the material of this earth; and worlds that are geometric +super-constructions made of iron and steel-- + +Or not only fall from the sky of ashes and cinders and coke and charcoal +and oily substances that suggest fuel--but the masses of iron that have +fallen upon this earth. + +Wrecks and flotsam and fragments of vast iron constructions-- + +Or steel. Sooner or later we shall have to take up an expression that +fragments of steel have fallen from the sky. If fragments not of iron, +but of steel have fallen upon this earth-- + +But what would a deep-sea fish learn even if a steel plate of a wrecked +vessel above him should drop and bump him on the nose? + +Our submergence in a sea of conventionality of almost impenetrable +density. + +Sometimes I'm a savage who has found something on the beach of his +island. Sometimes I'm a deep-sea fish with a sore nose. + +The greatest of mysteries: + +Why don't they ever come here, or send here, openly? + +Of course there's nothing to that mystery if we don't take so seriously +the notion--that we must be interesting. It's probably for moral reasons +that they stay away--but even so, there must be some degraded ones among +them. + +Or physical reasons: + +When we can specially take up that subject, one of our leading ideas, or +credulities, will be that near approach by another world to this world +would be catastrophic: that navigable worlds would avoid proximity; that +others that have survived have organized into protective remotenesses, +or orbits which approximate to regularity, though by no means to the +degree of popular supposition. + +But the persistence of the notion that we must be interesting. Bugs and +germs and things like that: they're interesting to us: some of them are +too interesting. + +Dangers of near approach--nevertheless our own ships that dare not +venture close to a rocky shore can send rowboats ashore-- + +Why not diplomatic relations established between the United States and +Cyclorea--which, in our advanced astronomy, is the name of a remarkable +wheel-shaped world or super-construction? Why not missionaries sent here +openly to convert us from our barbarous prohibitions and other taboos, +and to prepare the way for a good trade in ultra-bibles and +super-whiskeys; fortunes made in selling us cast-off super-fineries, +which we'd take to like an African chief to someone's old silk hat from +New York or London? + +The answer that occurs to me is so simple that it seems immediately +acceptable, if we accept that the obvious is the solution of all +problems, or if most of our perplexities consist in laboriously and +painfully conceiving of the unanswerable, and then looking for +answers--using such words as "obvious" and "solution" conventionally-- + +Or: + +Would we, if we could, educate and sophisticate pigs, geese, cattle? + +Would it be wise to establish diplomatic relation with the hen that now +functions, satisfied with mere sense of achievement by way of +compensation? + +I think we're property. + +I should say we belong to something: + +That once upon a time, this earth was No-man's Land, that other worlds +explored and colonized here, and fought among themselves for possession, +but that now it's owned by something: + +That something owns this earth--all others warned off. + +Nothing in our own times--perhaps--because I am thinking of certain +notes I have--has ever appeared upon this earth, from somewhere else, so +openly as Columbus landed upon San Salvador, or as Hudson sailed up his +river. But as to surreptitious visits to this earth, in recent times, or +as to emissaries, perhaps, from other worlds, or voyagers who have shown +every indication of intent to evade and avoid, we shall have data as +convincing as our data of oil or coal-burning aerial super-constructions. + +But, in this vast subject, I shall have to do considerable neglecting or +disregarding, myself. I don't see how I can, in this book, take up at +all the subject of possible use of humanity to some other mode of +existence, or the flattering notion that we can possibly be worth +something. + +Pigs, geese, and cattle. + +First find out that they are owned. + +Then find out the whyness of it. + +I suspect that, after all, we're useful--that among contesting +claimants, adjustment has occurred, or that something now has a legal +right to us, by force, or by having paid out analogues of beads for us +to former, more primitive, owners of us--all others warned off--that all +this has been known, perhaps for ages, to certain ones upon this earth, +a cult or order, members of which function like bellwethers to the rest +of us, or as superior slaves or overseers, directing us in accordance +with instructions received--from Somewhere else--in our mysterious +usefulness. + +But I accept that, in the past, before proprietorship was established, +inhabitants of a host of other worlds have--dropped here, hopped here, +wafted, sailed, flown, motored--walked here, for all I know--been pulled +here, been pushed; have come singly, have come in enormous numbers; have +visited occasionally, have visited periodically for hunting, trading, +replenishing harems, mining: have been unable to stay here, have +established colonies here, have been lost here; far-advanced peoples, or +things, and primitive peoples or whatever they were: white ones, black +ones, yellow ones-- + +I have a very convincing datum that the ancient Britons were blue ones. + +Of course we are told by conventional anthropologists that they only +painted themselves blue, but in our own advanced anthropology, they were +veritable blue ones-- + +_Annals of Philosophy_, 14-51: + +Note of a blue child born in England. + +That's atavism. + +Giants and fairies. We accept them, of course. Or, if we pride ourselves +upon being awfully far-advanced, I don't know how to sustain our conceit +except by very largely going far back. Science of today--the +superstition of tomorrow. Science of tomorrow--the superstition of +today. + +Notice of a stone ax, 17 inches long: 9 inches across broad end. (_Proc. +Soc. of Ants. of Scotland_, 1-9-184.) + +_Amer. Antiquarian_, 18-60: + +Copper ax from an Ohio mound: 22 inches long; weight 38 pounds. + +_Amer. Anthropologist_, n.s., 8-229: + +Stone ax found at Birchwood, Wisconsin--exhibited in the collection of +the Missouri Historical Society--found with "the pointed end embedded in +the soil"--for all I know, may have dropped there--28 inches long, 14 +wide, 11 thick--weight 300 pounds. + +Or the footprints, in sandstone, near Carson, Nevada--each print 18 to +20 inches long. (_Amer. Jour. Sci._, 3-26-139.) + +These footprints are very clear and well-defined: reproduction of them +in the _Journal_--but they assimilate with the System, like sour apples +to other systems: so Prof. Marsh, a loyal and unscrupulous systematist, +argues: + +"The size of these footprints and specially the width between the right +and left series, are strong evidence that they were not made by men, as +has been so generally supposed." + +So these excluders. Stranglers of Minerva. Desperadoes of disregard. +Above all, or below all, the anthropologists. I'm inspired with a new +insult--someone offends me: I wish to express almost absolute contempt +for him--he's a systematistic anthropologist. Simply to read something +of this kind is not so impressive as to see for one's self: if anyone +will take the trouble to look up these footprints, as pictured in the +_Journal_, he will either agree with Prof. Marsh or feel that to deny +them is to indicate a mind as profoundly enslaved by a system as was +ever the humble intellect of a medieval monk. The reasoning of this +representative phantom of the chosen, or of the spectral appearances who +sit in judgment, or condemnation, upon us of the more nearly real: + +That there never were giants upon this earth, because gigantic +footprints are more gigantic than prints made by men who are not giants. + +We think of giants as occasional visitors to this earth. Of +course--Stonehenge, for instance. It may be that, as time goes on, we +shall have to admit that there are remains of many tremendous +habitations of giants upon this earth, and that their appearances here +were more than casual--but their bones--or the absence of their bones-- + +Except--that, no matter how cheerful and unsuspicious my disposition may +be, when I go to the American Museum of Natural History, dark cynicisms +arise the moment I come to the fossils--or old bones that have been +found upon this earth--gigantic things--that have been reconstructed +into terrifying but "proper" dinosaurs--but my uncheerfulness-- + +The dodo did it. + +On one of the floors below the fossils, they have a reconstructed dodo. +It's frankly a fiction: it's labeled as such--but it's been +reconstructed so cleverly and so convincingly-- + +Fairies. + +"Fairy crosses." + +_Harper's Weekly_, 50-715: + +That, near the point where the Blue Ridge and the Allegheny Mountains +unite, north of Patrick County, Virginia, many little stone crosses have +been found. + +A race of tiny beings. + +They crucified cockroaches. + +Exquisite beings--but the cruelty of the exquisite. In their diminutive +way they were human beings. They crucified. + +The "fairy crosses," we are told in _Harper's Weekly_, range in weight +from one-quarter of an ounce to an ounce: but it is said, in the +_Scientific American_, 79-395, that some of them are no larger than the +head of a pin. + +They have been found in two other states, but all in Virginia are +strictly localized on and along Bull Mountain. + +We are reminded of the Chinese seals in Ireland. + +I suppose they fell there. + +Some are Roman crosses, some St. Andrew's, some Maltese. This time we +are spared contact with the anthropologists and have geologists instead, +but I am afraid that the relief to our finer, or more nearly real, +sensibilities will not be very great. The geologists were called upon to +explain the "fairy crosses." Their response was the usual scientific +tropism--"Geologists say that they are crystals." The writer in +_Harper's Weekly_ points out that this "hold up," or this anaesthetic, if +theoretic science be little but attempt to assuage pangs of the +unexplained, fails to account for the localized distributions of these +objects--which make me think of both aggregation and separation at the +bottom of the sea, if from a wrecked ship, similar objects should fall +in large numbers but at different times. + +But some are Roman crosses, some St. Andrew's, some Maltese. + +Conceivably there might be a mineral that would have a diversity of +geometric forms, at the same time restricted to some expression of the +cross, because snowflakes, for instance, have diversity but restriction +to the hexagon, but the guilty geologists, cold-blooded as astronomers +and chemists and all the other deep-sea fishes--though less profoundly +of the pseudo-saved than the wretched anthropologists--disregarded the +very datum--that it was wise to disregard: + +That the "fairy crosses" are not all made of the same material. + +It's the same old disregard, or it's the same old psycho-tropism, or +process of assimilation. Crystals are geometric forms. Crystals are +included in the System. So then "fairy crosses" are crystals. But that +different minerals should, in a few different regions, be inspired to +turn into different forms of the cross--is the kind of resistance that +we call less nearly real than our own acceptances. + +We now come to some "cursed" little things that are of the "lost," but +for the "salvation" of which scientific missionaries have done their +damnedest. + +"Pigmy flints." + +They can't very well be denied. + +They're lost and well known. + +"Pigmy flints" are tiny, prehistoric implements. Some of them are a +quarter of an inch in size. England, India, France, South +Africa--they've been found in many parts of the world--whether showered +there or not. They belong high up in the froth of the accursed: they are +not denied, and they have not been disregarded; there is an abundant +literature upon this subject. One attempt to rationalize them, or +assimilate them, or take them into the scientific fold, has been the +notion that they were toys of prehistoric children. It sounds +reasonable. But, of course, by the reasonable we mean that for which the +equally reasonable, but opposing, has not been found out--except that we +modify that by saying that, though nothing's finally reasonable, some +phenomena have higher approximations to Reasonableness than have others. +Against the notion of toys, the higher approximation is that where +"pygmy flints" are found, all flints are pygmies--at least so in India, +where, when larger implements have been found in the same place, there +are separations by strata. (Wilson.) + +The datum that, just at present, leads me to accept that these flints +were made by beings about the size of pickles, is a point brought out by +Prof. Wilson (_Rept. National Museum_, 1892-455): + +Not only that the flints are tiny but that the chipping upon them is +"minute." + +Struggle for expression, in the mind of a 19th-century-ite, of an idea +that did not belong to his era: + +In _Science Gossip_, 1896-36, R.A. Galty says: + +"So fine is the chipping that to see the workmanship a magnifying glass +is necessary." + +I think that would be absolutely convincing, if there were +anything--absolutely anything--either that tiny beings, from pickle to +cucumber-stature, made these things, or that ordinary savages made them +under magnifying glasses. + +The idea that we are now going to develop, or perpetrate, is rather +intensely of the accursed, or the advanced. It's a lost soul, I +admit--or boast--but it fits in. Or, as conventional as ever, our own +method is the scientific method of assimilating. It assimilates, if we +think of the inhabitants of Elvera-- + +By the way, I forgot to tell the name of the giant's world: + +Monstrator. + +Spindle-shaped world--about 100,000 miles along its major axis--more +details to be published later. + +But our coming inspiration fits in, if we think of the inhabitants of +Elvera as having only visited here: having, in hordes as dense as clouds +of bats, come here, upon hunting excursions--for mice, I should say: for +bees, very likely--or most likely of all, or inevitably, to convert the +heathen here--horrified with anyone who would gorge himself with more +than a bean at a time; fearful for the souls of beings who would guzzle +more than a dewdrop at a time--hordes of tiny missionaries, determined +that right should prevail, determining right by their own minutenesses. + +They must have been missionaries. + +Only to be is motion to convert or assimilate something else. + +The idea now is that tiny creatures coming here from their own little +world, which may be Eros, though I call it Elvera, would flit from the +exquisite to the enormous--gulp of a fair-sized terrestrial animal--half +a dozen of them gone and soon digested. One falls into a brook--torn +away in a mighty torrent-- + +Or never anything but conventional, we adopt from Darwin: + +"The geological records are incomplete." + +Their flints would survive, but, as to their fragile bodies--one might +as well search for prehistoric frost-traceries. A little +whirlwind--Elverean carried away a hundred yards--body never found by +his companions. They'd mourn for the departed. Conventional emotion to +have: they'd mourn. There'd have to be a funeral: there's no getting +away from funerals. So I adopt an explanation that I take from the +anthropologists: burial in effigy. Perhaps the Elvereans would not come +to this earth again until many years later--another distressing +occurrence--one little mausoleum for all burials in effigy. + +London _Times_, July 20, 1836: + +That, early in July, 1836, some boys were searching for rabbits' burrows +in the rocky formation, near Edinburgh, known as Arthur's Seat. In the +side of a cliff, they came upon some thin sheets of slate, which they +pulled out. + +Little cave. + +Seventeen tiny coffins. + +Three or four inches long. + +In the coffins were miniature wooden figures. They were dressed +differently both in style and material. There were two tiers of eight +coffins each, and a third tier begun, with one coffin. + +The extraordinary datum, which has especially made mystery here: + +That the coffins had been deposited singly, in the little cave, and at +intervals of many years. In the first tier, the coffins were quite +decayed, and the wrappings had moldered away. In the second tier, the +effects of age had not advanced so far. And the top coffin was quite +recent-looking. + +In the _Proceedings of the Society of Antiquarians of Scotland_, +3-12-460, there is a full account of this find. Three of the coffins and +three of the figures are pictured. + +So Elvera with its downy forests and its microscopic oyster shells--and +if the Elvereans be not very far-advanced, they take baths--with sponges +the size of pin heads-- + +Or that catastrophes have occurred: that fragments of Elvera have fallen +to this earth: + +In _Popular Science_, 20-83, Francis Bingham, writing of the corals and +sponges and shells and crinoids that Dr. Hahn had asserted that he had +found in meteorites, says, judging by the photographs of them, that +their "notable peculiarity" is their "extreme smallness." The corals, +for instance, are about one-twentieth the size of terrestrial corals. +"They represent a veritable pygmy animal world," says Bingham. + +The inhabitants of Monstrator and Elvera were primitives, I think, at +the time of their occasional visits to this earth--though, of course, in +a quasi-existence, anything that we semi-phantoms call evidence of +anything may be just as good evidence of anything else. Logicians and +detectives and jurymen and suspicious wives and members of the Royal +Astronomic Society recognize this indeterminateness, but have the +delusion that in the method of agreement there is final, or real +evidence. The method is good enough for an "existence" that is only +semi-real, but also it is the method of reasoning by which witches were +burned, and by which ghosts have been feared. I'd not like to be so +unadvanced as to deny witches and ghosts, but I do think that there +never have been witches and ghosts like those of popular supposition. +But stories of them have been supported by astonishing fabrications of +details and of different accounts in agreement. + +So, if a giant left impressions of his bare feet in the ground, that is +not to say that he was a primitive--bulk of culture out taking the +Kneipp cure. So, if Stonehenge is a large, but only roughly geometric +construction, the inattention to details by its builders--signifies +anything you please--ambitious dwarfs or giants--if giants, that they +were little more than cave men, or that they were post-impressionist +architects from a very far-advanced civilization. + +If there are other worlds, there are tutelary worlds--or that Kepler, +for instance, could not have been absolutely wrong: that his notion of +an angel assigned to push along and guide each planet may not be very +acceptable, but that, abstractedly, or in the notion of a tutelary +relation, we may find acceptance. + +Only to be is to be tutelary. + +Our general expression: + +That "everything" in Intermediateness is not a thing, but is an endeavor +to become something--by breaking away from its continuity, or merging +away, with all other phenomena--is an attempt to break away from the +very essence of a relative existence and become absolute--if it have not +surrendered to, or become part of, some higher attempt: + +That to this process there are two aspects: + +Attraction, or the spirit of everything to assimilate all other +things--if it have not given in and subordinated to--or have not been +assimilated by--some higher attempted system, unity, organization, +entity, harmony, equilibrium-- + +And repulsion, or the attempt of everything to exclude or disregard the +unassimilable. + +Universality of the process: + +Anything conceivable: + +A tree. It is doing all it can to assimilate substances of the soil and +substances of the air, and sunshine, too, into tree-substance: obversely +it is rejecting or excluding or disregarding that which it cannot +assimilate. + +Cow grazing, pig rooting, tiger stalking: planets trying, or acting, to +capture comets; rag pickers and the Christian religion, and a cat down +headfirst in a garbage can; nations fighting for more territory, +sciences correlating the data they can, trust magnates organizing, +chorus girl out for a little late supper--all of them stopped somewhere +by the unassimilable. Chorus girl and the broiled lobster. If she eats +not shell and all she represents universal failure to positivize. Also, +if she does she represents universal failure to positivize: her ensuing +disorders will translate her to the Negative Absolute. + +Or Science and some of our cursed hard-shelled data. + +One speaks of the tutelarian as if it were something distinct in itself. +So one speaks of a tree, a saint, a barrel of pork, the Rocky Mountains. +One speaks of missionaries, as if they were positively different, or had +identity of their own, or were a species by themselves. To the +Intermediatist, everything that seems to have identity is only attempted +identity, and every species is continuous with all other species, or +that which is called the specific is only emphasis upon some aspect of +the general. If there are cats, they're only emphasis upon universal +felinity. There is nothing that does not partake of that of which the +missionary, or the tutelary, is the special. Every conversation is a +conflict of missionaries, each trying to convert the other, to +assimilate, or to make the other similar to himself. If no progress be +made, mutual repulsion will follow. + +If other worlds have ever in the past had relations with this earth, +they were attempted positivizations: to extend themselves, by colonies, +upon this earth; to convert, or assimilate, indigenous inhabitants of +this earth. + +Or parent-worlds and their colonies here-- + +Super-Romanimus-- + +Or where the first Romans came from. + +It's as good as the Romulus and Remus story. + +Super-Israelimus-- + +Or that, despite modern reasoning upon this subject, there was once +something that was super-parental or tutelary to early orientals. + +Azuria, which was tutelary to the early Britons: + +Azuria, whence came the blue Britons, whose descendants gradually +diluting, like blueing in a wash-tub, where a faucet's turned on, have +been most emphasized of sub-tutelarians, or assimilators ever since. + +Worlds that were once tutelarian worlds--before this earth became +sole property of one of them--their attempts to convert or +assimilate--but then the state that comes to all things in their +missionary-frustrations--unacceptance by all stomachs of some things; +rejection by all societies of some units; glaciers that sort over and +cast out stones-- + +Repulsion. Wrath of the baffled missionary. There is no other wrath. All +repulsion is reaction to the unassimilable. + +So then the wrath of Azuria-- + +Because surrounding peoples of this earth would not assimilate with her +own colonists in the part of the earth that we now call England. + +I don't know that there has ever been more nearly just, reasonable, or +logical wrath, in this earth's history--if there is no other wrath. + +The wrath of Azuria, because the other peoples of this earth would not +turn blue to suit her. + +History is a department of human delusion that interests us. We are able +to give a little advancement to history. In the vitrified forts of a few +parts of Europe, we find data that the Humes and Gibbons have +disregarded. + +The vitrified forts surrounding England, but not in England. + +The vitrified forts of Scotland, Ireland, Brittany, and Bohemia. + +Or that, once upon a time, with electric blasts, Azuria tried to swipe +this earth clear of the peoples who resisted her. + +The vast blue bulk of Azuria appeared in the sky. Clouds turned green. +The sun was formless and purple in the vibrations of wrath that were +emanating from Azuria. The whitish, or yellowish, or brownish peoples of +Scotland, Ireland, Brittany, and Bohemia fled to hilltops and built +forts. In a real existence, hilltops, or easiest accessibility to an +aerial enemy, would be the last choice in refuges. But here, in +quasi-existence, if we're accustomed to run to hilltops, in times of +danger, we run to them just the same, even with danger closest to +hilltops. Very common in quasi-existence: attempt to escape by running +closer to the pursuing. + +They built forts, or already had forts, on hilltops. + +Something poured electricity upon them. + +The stones of these forts exist to this day, vitrified, or melted and +turned to glass. + +The archaeologists have jumped from one conclusion to another, like the +"rapid chamois" we read of a while ago, to account for vitrified forts, +always restricted by the commandment that unless their conclusions +conformed to such tenets as Exclusionism, of the System, they would be +excommunicated. So archaeologists, in their medieval dread of +excommunication, have tried to explain vitrified forts in terms of +terrestrial experience. We find in their insufficiencies the same old +assimilating of all that could be assimilated, and disregard for the +unassimilable, conventionalizing into the explanation that vitrified +forts were made by prehistoric peoples who built vast fires--often +remote from wood-supply--to melt externally, and to cement together, the +stones of their constructions. But negativeness always: so within itself +a science can never be homogeneous or unified or harmonious. So Miss +Russel, in the _Journal of the B.A.A._, has pointed out that it is +seldom that single stones, to say nothing of long walls, of large houses +that are burned to the ground, are vitrified. + +If we pay a little attention to this subject, ourselves, before starting +to write upon it, which is one of the ways of being more nearly real +than oppositions so far encountered by us, we find: + +That the stones of these forts are vitrified in no reference to +cementing them: that they are cemented here and there, in streaks, as if +special blasts had struck, or played, upon them. + +Then one thinks of lightning? + +Once upon a time something melted, in streaks, the stones of forts on +the tops of hills in Scotland, Ireland, Brittany, and Bohemia. + +Lightning selects the isolated and conspicuous. + +But some of the vitrified forts are not upon tops of hills: some are +very inconspicuous: their walls too are vitrified in streaks. + +Something once had effect, similar to lightning, upon forts, mostly on +hills, in Scotland, Ireland, Brittany, and Bohemia. + +But upon hills, all over the rest of the world, are remains of forts +that are not vitrified. + +There is only one crime, in the local sense, and that is not to turn +blue, if the gods are blue: but, in the universal sense, the one crime +is not to turn the gods themselves green, if you're green. + + + + +13 + + +One of the most extraordinary of phenomena, or alleged phenomena, of +psychic research, or alleged research--if in quasi-existence there never +has been real research, but only approximations to research that merge +away, or that are continuous with, prejudice and convenience-- + +"Stone-throwing." + +It's attributed to poltergeists. They're mischievous spirits. + +Poltergeists do not assimilate with our own present quasi-system, which +is an attempt to correlate denied or disregarded data as phenomena of +extra-telluric forces, expressed in physical terms. Therefore I regard +poltergeists as evil or false or discordant or absurd--names that we +give to various degrees or aspects of the unassimilable, or that which +resists attempts to organize, harmonize, systematize, or, in short, to +positivize--names that we give to our recognitions of the negative +state. I don't care to deny poltergeists, because I suspect that later, +when we're more enlightened, or when we widen the range of our +credulities, or take on more of that increase of ignorance that is +called knowledge, poltergeists may become assimilable. Then they'll be +as reasonable as trees. By reasonableness I mean that which assimilates +with a dominant force, or system, or a major body of thought--which is, +itself, of course, hypnosis and delusion--developing, however, in our +acceptance, to higher and higher approximations to realness. The +poltergeists are now evil or absurd to me, proportionately to their +present unassimilableness, compounded, however, with the factor of their +possible future assimilableness. + +We lug in the poltergeists, because some of our own data, or alleged +data, merge away indistinguishably with data, or alleged data, of them: + +Instances of stones that have been thrown, or that have fallen, upon a +small area, from an unseen and undetectable source. + +London _Times_, April 27, 1872: + +"From 4 o'clock, Thursday afternoon, until half past eleven, Thursday +night, the houses, 56 and 58 Reverdy Road, Bermondsey, were assailed +with stones and other missiles coming from an unseen quarter. Two +children were injured, every window broken, and several articles of +furniture were destroyed. Although there was a strong body of policemen +scattered in the neighborhood, they could not trace the direction whence +the stones were thrown." + +"Other missiles" make a complication here. But if the expression means +tin cans and old shoes, and if we accept that the direction could not be +traced because it never occurred to anyone to look upward--why, we've +lost a good deal of our provincialism by this time. + +London _Times_, Sept. 16, 1841: + +That, in the home of Mrs. Charton, at Sutton Courthouse, Sutton Lane, +Chiswick, windows had been broken "by some unseen agent." Every attempt +to detect the perpetrator failed. The mansion was detached and +surrounded by high walls. No other building was near it. + +The police were called. Two constables, assisted by members of the +household, guarded the house, but the windows continued to be broken +"both in front and behind the house." + +Or the floating islands that are often stationary in the Super-Sargasso +Sea; and atmospheric disturbances that sometimes affect them, and bring +things down within small areas, upon this earth, from temporarily +stationary sources. + +Super-Sargasso Sea and the beaches of its floating islands from which I +think, or at least accept, pebbles have fallen: + +Wolverhampton, England, June, 1860--violent storm--fall of so many +little black pebbles that they were cleared away by shoveling (_La Sci. +Pour Tous_, 5-264); great number of small black stones that fell at +Birmingham, England, August, 1858--violent storm--said to be similar to +some basalt a few leagues from Birmingham (_Rept. Brit. Assoc._, +1864-37); pebbles described as "common water-worn pebbles" that fell at +Palestine, Texas, July 6, 1888--"of a formation not found near +Palestine" (W.H. Perry, Sergeant, Signal Corps, _Monthly Weather +Review_, July, 1888); round, smooth pebbles at Kandahor, 1834 (_Am. J. +Sci._, 1-26-161); "a number of stones of peculiar formation and shapes, +unknown in this neighborhood, fell in a tornado at Hillsboro, Ill., May +18, 1883." (_Monthly Weather Review_, May, 1883.) + +Pebbles from aerial beaches and terrestrial pebbles as products of +whirlwinds, so merge in these instances that, though it's interesting to +hear of things of peculiar shape that have fallen from the sky, it seems +best to pay little attention here, and to find phenomena of the +Super-Sargasso Sea remote from the merger: + +To this requirement we have three adaptations: + +Pebbles that fell where no whirlwind to which to attribute them could be +learned of: + +Pebbles which fell in hail so large that incredibly could that hail have +been formed in this earth's atmosphere: + +Pebbles which fell and were, long afterward, followed by more pebbles, +as if from some aerial, stationary source, in the same place. In +September, 1898, there was a story in a New York newspaper, of +lightning--or an appearance of luminosity?--in Jamaica--something had +struck a tree: near the tree were found some small pebbles. It was said +that the pebbles had fallen from the sky, with the lightning. But the +insult to orthodoxy was that they were not angular fragments such as +might have been broken from a stony meteorite: that they were +"water-worn pebbles." + +In the geographical vagueness of a mainland, the explanation "up from +one place and down in another" is always good, and is never overworked, +until the instances are massed as they are in this book: but, upon this +occasion, in the relatively small area of Jamaica, there was no +whirlwind findable--however "there in the first place" bobs up. + +_Monthly Weather Review_, August, 1898-363: + +That the government meteorologist had investigated: had reported that a +tree had been struck by lightning, and that small water-worn pebbles had +been found near the tree: but that similar pebbles could be found all +over Jamaica. + +_Monthly Weather Review_, September, 1915-446: + +Prof. Fassig gives an account of a fall of hail that occurred in +Maryland, June 22, 1915: hailstones the size of baseballs "not at all +uncommon." + +"An interesting, but unconfirmed, account stated that small pebbles were +found at the center of some of the larger hail gathered at Annapolis. +The young man who related the story offered to produce the pebbles, but +has not done so." + +A footnote: + +"Since writing this, the author states that he has received some of the +pebbles." + +When a young man "produces" pebbles, that's as convincing as anything +else I've ever heard of, though no more convincing than, if having told +of ham sandwiches falling from the sky, he should "produce" ham +sandwiches. If this "reluctance" be admitted by us, we correlate it with +a datum reported by a Weather Bureau observer, signifying that, whether +the pebbles had been somewhere aloft a long time or not, some of the +hailstones that fell with them, had been. The datum is that some of +these hailstones were composed of from twenty to twenty-five layers +alternately of clear ice and snow-ice. In orthodox terms I argue that a +fair-sized hailstone falls from the clouds with velocity sufficient to +warm it so that it would not take on even one layer of ice. To put on +twenty layers of ice, I conceive of something that had not fallen at +all, but had rolled somewhere, at a leisurely rate, for a long time. + +We now have a commonplace datum that is familiar in two respects: + +Little, symmetric objects of metal that fell at Orenburg, Russia, +September, 1824 (_Phil. Mag._, 4-8-463). + +A second fall of these objects, at Orenburg, Russia, Jan. 25, 1825 +(_Quar. Jour. Roy. Inst._, 1828-1-447). + +I now think of the disk of Tarbes, but when first I came upon these data +I was impressed only with recurrence, because the objects of Orenburg +were described as crystals of pyrites, or sulphate of iron. I had no +notion of metallic objects that might have been shaped or molded by +means other than crystallization, until I came to Arago's account of +these occurrences (_OEuvres_, 11-644). Here the analysis gives 70 per +cent. red oxide of iron, and sulphur and loss by ignition 5 per cent. It +seems to me acceptable that iron with considerably less than 5 per cent. +sulphur in it is not iron pyrites--then little, rusty iron objects, +shaped by some other means, have fallen, four months apart, at the same +place. M. Arago expresses astonishment at this phenomenon of recurrence +so familiar to us. + +Altogether, I find opening before us, vistas of heresies to which I, for +one, must shut my eyes. I have always been in sympathy with the +dogmatists and exclusionists: that is plain in our opening lines: that +to seem to be is falsely and arbitrarily and dogmatically to exclude. It +is only that exclusionists who are good in the nineteenth century are +evil in the twentieth century. Constantly we feel a merging away into +infinitude; but that this book shall approximate to form, or that our +data shall approximate to organization, or that we shall approximate to +intelligibility, we have to call ourselves back constantly from +wandering off into infinitude. The thing that we do, however, is to make +our own outline, or the difference between what we include and what we +exclude, vague. + +The crux here, and the limit beyond which we may not go--very much--is: + +Acceptance that there is a region that we call the Super-Sargasso +Sea--not yet fully accepted, but a provisional position that has +received a great deal of support-- + +But is it a part of this earth, and does it revolve with and over this +earth-- + +Or does it flatly overlie this earth, not revolving with and over this +earth-- + +That this earth does not revolve, and is not round, or roundish, at all, +but is continuous with the rest of its system, so that, if one could +break away from the traditions of the geographers, one might walk and +walk, and come to Mars, and then find Mars continuous with Jupiter? + +I suppose some day such queries will sound absurd--the thing will be so +obvious-- + +Because it is very difficult for me to conceive of little metallic +objects hanging precisely over a small town in Russia, for four months, +if revolving, unattached, with a revolving earth-- + +It may be that something aimed at that town, and then later took another +shot. + +These are speculations that seem to me to be evil relatively to these +early years in the twentieth century-- + +Just now, I accept that this earth is--not round, of course: that is +very old-fashioned--but roundish, or, at least, that it has what is +called form of its own, and does revolve upon its axis, and in an orbit +around the sun. I only accept these old traditional notions-- + +And that above it are regions of suspension that revolve with it: from +which objects fall, by disturbances of various kinds, and then, later, +fall again, in the same place: + +_Monthly Weather Review_, May, 1884-134: + +Report from the Signal Service observer, at Bismarck, Dakota: + +That, at 9 o'clock, in the evening of May 22, 1884, sharp sounds were +heard throughout the city, caused by a fall of flinty stones striking +against windows. + +Fifteen hours later another fall of flinty stones occurred at Bismarck. + +There is no report of stones having fallen anywhere else. + +This is a thing of the ultra-damned. All Editors of scientific +publications read the _Monthly Weather Review_ and frequently copy from +it. The noise made by the stones of Bismarck, rattling against those +windows, may be in a language that aviators will some day interpret: +but it was a noise entirely surrounded by silences. Of this ultra-damned +thing, there is no mention, findable by me, in any other publication. + +The size of some hailstones has worried many meteorologists--but not +text-book meteorologists. I know of no more serene occupation than that +of writing text-books--though writing for the _War Cry_, of the +Salvation Army, may be equally unadventurous. In the drowsy tranquillity +of a text-book, we easily and unintelligently read of dust particles +around which icy rain forms, hailstones, in their fall, then increasing +by accretion--but in the meteorological journals, we read often of +air-spaces nucleating hailstones-- + +But it's the size of the things. Dip a marble in icy water. Dip and dip +and dip it. If you're a resolute dipper, you will, after a while, have +an object the size of a baseball--but I think a thing could fall from +the moon in that length of time. Also the strata of them. The Maryland +hailstones are unusual, but a dozen strata have often been counted. +Ferrel gives an instance of thirteen strata. Such considerations led +Prof. Schwedoff to argue that some hailstones are not, and cannot, be +generated in this earth's atmosphere--that they come from somewhere +else. Now, in a relative existence, nothing can of itself be either +attractive or repulsive: its effects are functions of its associations +or implications. Many of our data have been taken from very conservative +scientific sources: it was not until their discordant implications, or +irreconcilabilities with the System, were perceived, that +excommunication was pronounced against them. + +Prof. Schwedoff's paper was read before the British Association (_Rept. +of 1882_, p. 453). + +The implication, and the repulsiveness of the implication to the snug +and tight little exclusionists of 1882--though we hold out that they +were functioning well and ably relatively to 1882-- + +That there is water--oceans or lakes and ponds, or rivers of it--that +there is water away from, and yet not far-remote from, this earth's +atmosphere and gravitation-- + +The pain of it: + +That the snug little system of 1882 would be ousted from its +reposefulness-- + +A whole new science to learn: + +The Science of Super-Geography-- + +And Science is a turtle that says that its own shell encloses all +things. + +So the members of the British Association. To some of them Prof. +Schwedoff's ideas were like slaps on the back of an environment-denying +turtle: to some of them his heresy was like an offering of meat, raw and +dripping, to milk-fed lambs. Some of them bleated like lambs, and some +of them turled like turtles. We used to crucify, but now we ridicule: +or, in the loss of vigor of all progress, the spike has etherealized +into the laugh. + +Sir William Thomson ridiculed the heresy, with the phantomosities of his +era: + +That all bodies, such as hailstones, if away from this earth's +atmosphere, would have to move at planetary velocity--which would be +positively reasonable if the pronouncements of St. Isaac were anything +but articles of faith--that a hailstone falling through this earth's +atmosphere, with planetary velocity, would perform 13,000 times as much +work as would raise an equal weight of water one degree centigrade, and +therefore never fall as a hailstone at all; be more than +melted--super-volatalized-- + +These turls and these bleats of pedantry--though we insist that, +relatively to 1882, these turls and bleats should be regarded as +respectfully as we regard rag dolls that keep infants occupied and +noiseless--it is the survival of rag dolls into maturity that we object +to--so these pious and naive ones who believed that 13,000 times +something could have--that is, in quasi-existence--an exact and +calculable resultant, whereas there is--in quasi-existence--nothing that +can, except by delusion and convenience, be called a unit, in the first +place--whose devotions to St. Isaac required blind belief in formulas of +falling bodies-- + +Against data that were piling up, in their own time, of slow-falling +meteorites; "milk warm" ones admitted even by Farrington and Merrill; at +least one icy meteorite nowhere denied by the present orthodoxy, a datum +as accessible to Thomson, in 1882, as it is now to us, because it was an +occurrence of 1860. Beans and needles and tacks and a magnet. Needles +and tacks adhere to and systematize relatively to a magnet, but, if some +beans, too, be caught up, they are irreconcilables to this system and +drop right out of it. A member of the Salvation Army may hear over and +over data that seem so memorable to an evolutionist. It seems remarkable +that they do not influence him--one finds that he cannot remember them. +It is incredible that Sir William Thomson had never heard of +slow-falling, cold meteorites. It is simply that he had no power to +remember such irreconcilabilities. + +And then Mr. Symons again. Mr. Symons was a man who probably did more +for the science of meteorology than did any other man of his time: +therefore he probably did more to hold back the science of meteorology +than did any other man of his time. In _Nature_, 41-135, Mr. Symons says +that Prof. Schwedoff's ideas are "very droll." + +I think that even more amusing is our own acceptance that, not very far +above this earth's surface, is a region that will be the subject of a +whole new science--super-geography--with which we shall immortalize +ourselves in the resentments of the schoolboys of the future-- + +Pebbles and fragments of meteors and things from Mars and Jupiter and +Azuria: wedges, delayed messages, cannon balls, bricks, nails, coal and +coke and charcoal and offensive old cargoes--things that coat in ice in +some regions and things that get into areas so warm that they +putrefy--or that there are all the climates of geography in +super-geography. I shall have to accept that, floating in the sky of +this earth, there often are fields of ice as extensive as those on the +Arctic Ocean--volumes of water in which are many fishes and +frogs--tracts of land covered with caterpillars-- + +Aviators of the future. They fly up and up. Then they get out and walk. +The fishing's good: the bait's right there. They find messages from +other worlds--and within three weeks there's a big trade worked up in +forged messages. Sometime I shall write a guide book to the +Super-Sargasso Sea, for aviators, but just at present there wouldn't be +much call for it. + +We now have more of our expression upon hail as a concomitant, or more +data of things that have fallen from the sky, with hail. + +In general, the expression is: + +These things may have been raised from some other part of the earth's +surface, in whirlwinds, or may not have fallen, and may have been upon +the ground, in the first place--but were the hailstones found with them, +raised from some other part of the earth's surface, or were the +hailstones upon the ground, in the first place? + +As I said before, this expression is meaningless as to a few instances; +it is reasonable to think of some coincidence between the fall of hail +and the fall of other things: but, inasmuch as there have been a good +many instances,--we begin to suspect that this is not so much a book +we're writing as a sanitarium for overworked coincidences. If not +conceivably could very large hailstones and lumps of ice form in this +earth's atmosphere, and so then had to come from external regions, then +other things in or accompanying very large hailstones and lumps of ice +came from external regions--which worries us a little: we may be +instantly translated to the Positive Absolute. + +_Cosmos_, 13-120, quotes a Virginia newspaper, that fishes said to have +been catfishes, a foot long, some of them, had fallen, in 1853, at +Norfolk, Virginia, with hail. + +Vegetable debris, not only nuclear, but frozen upon the surfaces of +large hailstones, at Toulouse, France, July 28, 1874. (_La Science Pour +Tous_, 1874-270.) + +Description of a storm, at Pontiac, Canada, July 11, 1864, in which it +is said that it was not hailstones that fell, but "pieces of ice, from +half an inch to over two inches in diameter" (_Canadian Naturalist_, +2-1-308): + +"But the most extraordinary thing is that a respectable farmer, of +undoubted veracity, says he picked up a piece of hail, or ice, in the +center of which was a small green frog." + +Storm at Dubuque, Iowa, June 16, 1882, in which fell hailstones and +pieces of ice (_Monthly Weather Review_, June, 1882): + +"The foreman of the Novelty Iron Works, of this city, states that in two +large hailstones melted by him were found small living frogs." But the +pieces of ice that fell upon this occasion had a peculiarity that +indicates--though by as bizarre an indication as any we've had yet--that +they had been for a long time motionless or floating somewhere. We'll +take that up soon. + +_Living Age_, 52-186: + +That, June 30, 1841, fishes, one of which was ten inches long, fell at +Boston; that, eight days later, fishes and ice fell at Derby. + +In Timb's _Year Book_, 1842-275, it is said that, at Derby, the fishes +had fallen in enormous numbers; from half an inch to two inches long, +and some considerably larger. In the _Athenaeum_, 1841-542, copied from +the Sheffield _Patriot_, it is said that one of the fishes weighed three +ounces. In several accounts, it is said that, with the fishes, fell many +small frogs and "pieces of half-melted ice." We are told that the frogs +and the fishes had been raised from some other part of the earth's +surface, in a whirlwind; no whirlwind specified; nothing said as to what +part of the earth's surface comes ice, in the month of July--interests +us that the ice is described as "half-melted." In the London _Times_, +July 15, 1841, it is said that the fishes were sticklebacks; that they +had fallen with ice and small frogs, many of which had survived the +fall. We note that, at Dunfermline, three months later (Oct. 7, 1841) +fell many fishes, several inches in length, in a thunderstorm. (London +_Times_, Oct. 12, 1841.) + +Hailstones, we don't care so much about. The matter of stratification +seems significant, but we think more of the fall of lumps of ice from +the sky, as possible data of the Super-Sargasso Sea: + +Lumps of ice, a foot in circumference, Derbyshire, England, May 12, 1811 +(_Annual Register_, 1811-54); cuboidal mass, six inches in diameter, +that fell at Birmingham, 26 days later (Thomson, _Intro. to +Meteorology_, p. 179); size of pumpkins, Bangalore, India, May 22, 1851 +(_Rept. Brit. Assoc._, 1855-35); masses of ice of a pound and a half +each, New Hampshire, Aug. 13, 1851 (Lummis, _Meteorology_, p. 129); +masses of ice, size of a man's head, in the Delphos tornado (Ferrel, +_Popular Treatise_, p. 428); large as a man's hand, killing thousands of +sheep, Texas, May 3, 1877 (_Monthly Weather Review_, May, 1877); "pieces +of ice so large that they could not be grasped in one hand," in a +tornado, in Colorado, June 24, 1877 (_Monthly Weather Review_, June, +1877); lumps of ice four and a half inches long, Richmond, England, Aug. +2, 1879 (_Symons' Met. Mag._, 14-100); mass of ice, 21 inches in +circumference that fell with hail, Iowa, June, 1881 (_Monthly Weather +Review_, June, 1881); "pieces of ice" eight inches long, and an inch and +a half thick, Davenport, Iowa, Aug. 30, 1882 (_Monthly Weather Review_, +Aug., 1882); lump of ice size of a brick; weight two pounds, Chicago, +July 12, 1883 (_Monthly Weather Review_, July, 1883); lumps of ice that +weighed one pound and a half each, India, May (?), 1888 (_Nature_, +37-42); lump of ice weighing four pounds, Texas, Dec. 6, 1893 (_Sc. +Am._, 68-58); lumps of ice one pound in weight, Nov. 14, 1901, in a +tornado, Victoria (_Meteorology of Australia_, p. 34). + +Of course it is our acceptance that these masses not only accompanied +tornadoes, but were brought down to this earth by tornadoes. + +Flammarion, _The Atmosphere_, p. 34: + +Block of ice, weighing four and a half pounds that fell at Cazorta, +Spain, June 15, 1829; block of ice, weighing eleven pounds, at Cette, +France, October, 1844; mass of ice three feet long, three feet wide, and +more than two feet thick, that fell, in a storm, in Hungary, May 8, +1802. + +_Scientific American_, 47-119: + +That, according to the _Salina Journal_, a mass of ice weighing about 80 +pounds had fallen from the sky, near Salina, Kansas, August, 1882. We +are told that Mr. W.J. Hagler, the North Santa Fe merchant became +possessor of it, and packed it in sawdust in his store. + +London _Times_, April 7, 1860: + +That, upon the 16th of March, 1860, in a snowstorm, in Upper Wasdale, +blocks of ice, so large that at a distance they looked like a flock of +sheep, had fallen. + +_Rept. Brit. Assoc._, 1851-32: + +That a mass of ice about a cubic yard in size had fallen at Candeish, +India, 1828. + +Against these data, though, so far as I know, so many of them have never +been assembled together before, there is a silence upon the part of +scientific men that is unusual. Our Super-Sargasso Sea may not be an +unavoidable conclusion, but arrival upon this earth of ice from external +regions does seem to be--except that there must be, be it ever so faint, +a merger. It is in the notion that these masses of ice are only +congealed hailstones. We have data against this notion, as applied to +all our instances, but the explanation has been offered, and, it seems +to me, may apply in some instances. In the _Bull. Soc. Astro. de +France_, 20-245, it is said of blocks of ice the size of decanters that +had fallen at Tunis that they were only masses of congealed hailstones. + +London _Times_, Aug. 4, 1857. + +That a block of ice, described as "pure" ice, weighing 25 pounds, had +been found in the meadow of Mr. Warner, of Cricklewood. There had been a +storm the day before. As in some of our other instances, no one had seen +this object fall from the sky. It was found after the storm: that's all +that can be said about it. + +Letter from Capt. Blakiston, communicated by Gen. Sabine, to the Royal +Society (_London Roy. Soc. Proc._, 10-468): + +That, Jan. 14, 1860, in a thunderstorm, pieces of ice had fallen upon +Capt. Blakiston's vessel--that it was not hail. "It was not hail, but +irregular-shaped pieces of solid ice of different dimensions, up to the +size of half a brick." + +According to the _Advertiser-Scotsman_, quoted by the Edinburgh _New +Philosophical Magazine_, 47-371, an irregular-shaped mass of ice fell at +Ord, Scotland, August, 1849, after "an extraordinary peal of thunder." + +It is said that this was homogeneous ice, except in a small part, which +looked like congealed hailstones. + +The mass was about 20 feet in circumference. + +The story, as told in the London _Times_, Aug. 14, 1849, is that, upon +the evening of the 13th of August, 1849, after a loud peal of thunder, a +mass of ice said to have been 20 feet in circumference, had fallen upon +the estate of Mr. Moffat, of Balvullich, Ross-shire. It is said that +this object fell alone, or without hailstones. + +Altogether, though it is not so strong for the Super-Sargasso Sea, I +think this is one of our best expressions upon external origins. That +large blocks of ice could form in the moisture of this earth's +atmosphere is about as likely as that blocks of stone could form in a +dust whirl. Of course, if ice or water comes to this earth from external +sources, we think of at least minute organisms in it, and on, with our +data, to frogs, fishes; on to anything that's thinkable, coming from +external sources. It's of great importance to us to accept that large +lumps of ice have fallen from the sky, but what we desire most--perhaps +because of our interest in its archaeologic and palaeontologic +treasures--is now to be through with tentativeness and probation, and +to take the Super-Sargasso Sea into full acceptance in our more advanced +fold of the chosen of this twentieth century. + +In the _Report of the British Association_, 1855-37, it is said that, at +Poorhundur, India, Dec. 11, 1854, flat pieces of ice, many of them +weighing several pounds--each, I suppose--had fallen from the sky. They +are described as "large ice-flakes." + +Vast fields of ice in the Super-Arctic regions, or strata, of the +Super-Sargasso Sea. When they break up, their fragments are flake-like. +In our acceptance, there are aerial ice-fields that are remote from this +earth; that break up, fragments grinding against one another, rolling in +vapor and water, of different constituency in different regions, forming +slowly as stratified hailstones--but that there are ice-fields near this +earth, that break up into just such flat pieces of ice as cover any pond +or river when ice of a pond or river is broken, and are sometimes soon +precipitated to the earth, in this familiar flat formation. + +_Symons' Met. Mag._, 43-154: + +A correspondent writes that, at Braemar, July 2, 1908, when the sky was +clear overhead, and the sun shining, flat pieces of ice fell--from +somewhere. The sun was shining, but something was going on somewhere: +thunder was heard. + +Until I saw the reproduction of a photograph in the _Scientific +American_, Feb. 21, 1914, I had supposed that these ice-fields must be, +say, at least ten or twenty miles away from this earth, and invisible, +to terrestrial observers, except as the blurs that have so often been +reported by astronomers and meteorologists. The photograph published by +the _Scientific American_ is of an aggregation supposed to be clouds, +presumably not very high, so clearly detailed are they. The writer says +that they looked to him like "a field of broken ice." Beneath is a +picture of a conventional field of ice, floating ordinarily in water. +The resemblance between the two pictures is striking--nevertheless, it +seems to me incredible that the first of the photographs could be of an +aerial ice-field, or that gravitation could cease to act at only a mile +or so from this earth's surface-- + +Unless: + +The exceptional: the flux and vagary of all things. + +Or that normally this earth's gravitation extends, say, ten or fifteen +miles outward--but that gravitation must be rhythmic. + +Of course, in the pseudo-formulas of astronomers, gravitation as a fixed +quantity is essential. Accept that gravitation is a variable force, and +astronomers deflate, with a perceptible hissing sound, into the +punctured condition of economists, biologists, meteorologists, and all +the others of the humbler divinities, who can admittedly offer only +insecure approximations. + +We refer all who would not like to hear the hiss of escaping arrogance, +to Herbert Spencer's chapters upon the rhythm of all phenomena. + +If everything else--light from the stars, heat from the sun, the winds +and the tides; forms and colors and sizes of animals; demands and +supplies and prices; political opinions and chemic reactions and +religious doctrines and magnetic intensities and the ticking of clocks; +and arrival and departure of the seasons--if everything else is +variable, we accept that the notion of gravitation as fixed and +formulable is only another attempted positivism, doomed, like all other +illusions of realness in quasi-existence. So it is intermediatism to +accept that, though gravitation may approximate higher to invariability +than do the winds, for instance, it must be somewhere between the +Absolutes of Stability and Instability. Here then we are not much +impressed with the opposition of physicists and astronomers, fearing, a +little mournfully, that their language is of expiring sibilations. + +So then the fields of ice in the sky, and that, though usually so far +away as to be mere blurs, at times they come close enough to be seen in +detail. For description of what I call a "blur," see _Pop. Sci. News_, +February, 1884--sky, in general, unusually clear, but, near the sun, "a +white, slightly curdled haze, which was dazzlingly bright." + +We accept that sometimes fields of ice pass between the sun and the +earth: that many strata of ice, or very thick fields of ice, or +superimposed fields would obscure the sun--that there have been +occasions when the sun was eclipsed by fields of ice: + +Flammarion, _The Atmosphere_, p. 394: + +That a profound darkness came upon the city of Brussels, June 18, 1839: + +There fell flat pieces of ice, an inch long. + +Intense darkness at Aitkin, Minn., April 2, 1889: sand and "solid chunks +of ice" reported to have fallen (_Science_, April 19, 1889). + +In _Symons' Meteorological Magazine_, 32-172, are outlined rough-edged +but smooth-surfaced pieces of ice that fell at Manassas, Virginia, Aug. +10, 1897. They look as much like the roughly broken fragments of a +smooth sheet of ice--as ever have roughly broken fragments of a smooth +sheet of ice looked. About two inches across, and one inch thick. In +_Cosmos_, 3-116, it is said that, at Rouen, July 5, 1853, fell +irregular-shaped pieces of ice, about the size of a hand, described as +looking as if all had been broken from one enormous block of ice. That, +I think, was an aerial iceberg. In the awful density, or almost absolute +stupidity of the 19th century, it never occurred to anybody to look for +traces of polar bears or of seals upon these fragments. + +Of course, seeing what we want to see, having been able to gather these +data only because they are in agreement with notions formed in advance, +we are not so respectful to our own notions as to a similar impression +forced upon an observer who had no theory or acceptance to support. In +general, our prejudices see and our prejudices investigate, but this +should not be taken as an absolute. + +_Monthly Weather Review_, July, 1894: + +That, from the Weather Bureau, of Portland, Oregon, a tornado, of June +3, 1894, was reported. + +Fragments of ice fell from the sky. + +They averaged three to four inches square, and about an inch thick. In +length and breadth they had the smooth surfaces required by our +acceptance: and, according to the writer in the _Review_, "gave the +impression of a vast field of ice suspended in the atmosphere, and +suddenly broken into fragments about the size of the palm of the hand." + +This datum, profoundly of what we used to call the "damned," or before +we could no longer accept judgment, or cut and dried condemnation by +infants, turtles, and lambs, was copied--but without comment--in the +_Scientific American_, 71-371. + +Our theology is something like this: + +Of course we ought to be damned--but we revolt against adjudication by +infants, turtles, and lambs. + +We now come to some remarkable data in a rather difficult department of +super-geography. Vast fields of aerial ice. There's a lesson to me in +the treachery of the imaginable. Most of our opposition is in the +clearness with which the conventional, but impossible, becomes the +imaginable, and then the resistant to modifications. After it had become +the conventional with me, I conceived clearly of vast sheets of ice, a +few miles above this earth--then the shining of the sun, and the ice +partly melting--that note upon the ice that fell at Derby--water +trickling and forming icicles upon the lower surface of the ice sheet. I +seemed to look up and so clearly visualized those icicles hanging like +stalactites from a flat-roofed cave, in white calcite. Or I looked up at +the under side of an aerial ice-lump, and seemed to see a papillation +similar to that observed by a calf at times. But then--but then--if +icicles should form upon the under side of a sheet of aerial ice, that +would be by the falling of water toward this earth; an icicle is of +course an expression of gravitation--and, if water melting from ice +should fall toward this earth, why not the ice itself fall before an +icicle could have time to form? Of course, in quasi-existence, where +everything is a paradox, one might argue that the water falls, but the +ice does not, because the ice is heavier--that is, in masses. That +notion, I think, belongs in a more advanced course than we are taking at +present. + +Our expression upon icicles: + +A vast field of aerial ice--it is inert to this earth's gravitation--but +by universal flux and variation, part of it sags closer to this earth, +and is susceptible to gravitation--by cohesion with the main mass, this +part does not fall, but water melting from it does fall, and forms +icicles--then, by various disturbances, this part sometimes falls in +fragments that are protrusive with icicles. + +Of the ice that fell, some of it enclosing living frogs, at Dubuque, +Iowa, June 16, 1882, it is said (_Monthly Weather Review_, June, 1882) +that there were pieces from one to seventeen inches in circumference, +the largest weighing one pound and three-quarters--that upon some of +them were icicles half an inch in length. We emphasize that these +objects were not hailstones. + +The only merger is that of knobby hailstones, or of large hailstones +with protuberances wrought by crystallization: but that is no merger +with terrestrial phenomena, and such formations are unaccountable to +orthodoxy; or it is incredible that hail could so crystallize--not +forming by accretion--in the fall of a few seconds. For an account of +such hailstones, see _Nature_, 61-594. Note the size--"some of them the +size of turkeys' eggs." + +It is our expression that sometimes the icicles themselves have fallen, +as if by concussion, or as if something had swept against the under side +of an aerial ice floe, detaching its papillations. + +_Monthly Weather Review_, June, 1889: + +That, at Oswego, N.Y., June 11, 1889, according to the Turin (N.Y.) +_Leader_, there fell, in a thunderstorm, pieces of ice that "resembled +the fragments of icicles." + +_Monthly Weather Review_, 29-506: + +That on Florence Island, St. Lawrence River, Aug. 8, 1901, with ordinary +hail, fell pieces of ice "formed like icicles, the size and shape of +lead pencils that had been cut into sections about three-eighths of an +inch in length." + +So our data of the Super-Sargasso Sea, and its Arctic region: and, for +weeks at a time, an ice field may hang motionless over a part of this +earth's surface--the sun has some effect upon it, but not much until +late in the afternoon, I should say--part of it has sagged, but is held +up by cohesion with the main mass--whereupon we have such an occurrence +as would have been a little uncanny to us once upon a time--or fall of +water from a cloudless sky, day after day, in one small part of this +earth's surface, late in the afternoon, when the sun's rays had had time +for their effects: + +_Monthly Weather Review_, October, 1886: + +That, according to the Charlotte _Chronicle_, Oct. 21, 1886, for three +weeks there had been a fall of water from the sky, in Charlotte, N.C., +localized in one particular spot, every afternoon, about three o'clock; +that, whether the sky was cloudy or cloudless, the water or rain fell +upon a small patch of land between two trees and nowhere else. + +This is the newspaper account, and, as such, it seems in the depths of +the unchosen, either by me or any other expression of the Salvation +Army. The account by the Signal Service observer, at Charlotte, +published in the _Review_, follows: + +"An unusual phenomenon was witnessed on the 21st: having been informed +that, for some weeks prior to date, rain had been falling daily, after 3 +P.M., on a particular spot, near two trees, corner of 9th and D streets, +I visited the place, and saw precipitation in the form of rain drops at +4:47 and 4:55 P.M., while the sun was shining brightly. On the 22nd, I +again visited the place, and from 4:05 to 4:25 P.M., a light shower of +rain fell from a cloudless sky.... Sometimes the precipitation falls +over an area of half an acre, but always appears to center at these two +trees, and when lightest occurs there only." + + + + +14 + + +We see conventionally. It is not only that we think and act and speak +and dress alike, because of our surrender to social attempt at Entity, +in which we are only super-cellular. We see what it is "proper" that we +should see. It is orthodox enough to say that a horse is not a horse, to +an infant--any more than is an orange an orange to the unsophisticated. +It's interesting to walk along a street sometimes and look at things and +wonder what they'd look like, if we hadn't been taught to see horses and +trees and houses as horses and trees and houses. I think that to +super-sight they are local stresses merging indistinguishably into one +another, in an all-inclusive nexus. + +I think that it would be credible enough to say that many times have +Monstrator and Elvera and Azuria crossed telescopic fields of vision, +and were not even seen--because it wouldn't be proper to see them; it +wouldn't be respectable, and it wouldn't be respectful: it would be +insulting to old bones to see them: it would bring on evil influences +from the relics of St. Isaac to see them. + +But our data: + +Of vast worlds that are orbitless, or that are navigable, or that are +adrift in inter-planetary tides and currents: the data that we shall +have of their approach, in modern times, within five or six miles of +this earth-- + +But then their visits, or approaches, to other planets, or to other of +the few regularized bodies that have surrendered to the attempted Entity +of this solar system as a whole-- + +The question that we can't very well evade: + +Have these other worlds, or super-constructions, ever been seen by +astronomers? + +I think there would not be much approximation to realness in taking +refuge in the notion of astronomers who stare and squint and see only +that which it is respectable and respectful to see. It is all very well +to say that astronomers are hypnotics, and that an astronomer looking at +the moon is hypnotized by the moon, but our acceptance is that the +bodies of this present expression often visit the moon, or cross it, or +are held in temporary suspension near it--then some of them must often +have been within the diameter of an astronomer's hypnosis. + +Our general expression: + +That, upon the oceans of this earth, there are regularized vessels, but +also that there are tramp vessels: + +That, upon the super-ocean, there are regularized planets, but also that +there are tramp worlds: + +That astronomers are like mercantile purists who would deny commercial +vagabondage. + +Our acceptance is that vast celestial vagabonds have been excluded by +astronomers, primarily because their irresponsibilities are an affront +to the pure and the precise, or to attempted positivism; and secondarily +because they have not been seen so very often. The planets steadily +reflect the light of the sun: upon this uniformity a system that we call +Primary Astronomy has been built up; but now the subject-matter of +Advanced Astronomy is data of celestial phenomena that are sometimes +light and sometimes dark, varying like some of the satellites of +Jupiter, but with a wider range. However, light or dark, they have been +seen and reported so often that the only important reason for their +exclusion is--that they don't fit in. + +With dark bodies that are probably external to our own solar system, I +have, in the provincialism that no one can escape, not much concern. +Dark bodies afloat in outer space would have been damned a few years +ago, but now they're sanctioned by Prof. Barnard--and, if he says +they're all right, you may think of them without the fear of doing +something wrong or ridiculous--the close kinship we note so often +between the evil and the absurd--I suppose by the ridiculous I mean the +froth of evil. The dark companion of Algol, for instance. Though that's +a clear case of celestial miscegenation, the purists, or positivists, +admit that's so. In the _Proceedings of the National Academy of +Science_, 1915-394, Prof. Barnard writes of an object--he calls it an +"object"--in Cephus. His idea is that there are dark, opaque bodies +outside this solar system. But in the _Astrophysical Journal_, 1916-1, +he modifies into regarding them as "dark nebulae." That's not so +interesting. + +We accept that Venus, for instance, has often been visited by other +worlds, or by super-constructions, from which come ciders and coke and +coal; that sometimes these things have reflected light and have been +seen from this earth--by professional astronomers. It will be noted that +throughout this chapter our data are accursed Brahmins--as, by hypnosis +and inertia, we keep on and keep on saying, just as a good many of the +scientists of the 19th century kept on and kept on admitting the power +of the system that preceded them--or Continuity would be smashed. +There's a big chance here for us to be instantaneously translated to the +Positive Absolute--oh, well-- + +What I emphasize here is that our damned data are observations by +astronomers of the highest standing, excommunicated by astronomers of +similar standing--but backed up by the dominant spirit of their era--to +which all minds had to equilibrate or be negligible, unheard, submerged. +It would seem sometimes, in this book, as if our revolts were against +the dogmatisms and pontifications of single scientists of eminence. This +is only a convenience, because it seems necessary to personify. If we +look over _Philosophical Transactions_, or the publications of the Royal +Astronomical Society, for instance, we see that Herschel, for instance, +was as powerless as any boy stargazer, to enforce acceptance of any +observation of his that did not harmonize with the system that was +growing up as independently of him and all other astronomers, as a phase +in the development of an embryo compels all cells to take on appearances +concordantly with the design and the predetermined progress and schedule +of the whole. + +Visitors to Venus: + +Evans, _Ways of the Planets_, p. 140: + +That, in 1645, a body large enough to look like a satellite was seen +near Venus. Four times in the first half of the 18th century, a similar +observation was reported. The last report occurred in 1767. + +A large body has been seen--seven times, according to _Science Gossip_, +1886-178--near Venus. At least one astronomer, Houzeau, accepted these +observations and named the--world, planet, super-construction--"Neith." +His views are mentioned "in passing, but without endorsement," in the +_Trans. N.Y. Acad._, 5-249. + +Houzeau or someone writing for the magazine-section of a Sunday +newspaper--outer darkness for both alike. A new satellite in this solar +system might be a little disturbing--though the formulas of Laplace, +which were considered final in his day, have survived the admittance of +five or six hundred bodies not included in those formulas--a satellite +to Venus might be a little disturbing, but would be explained--but a +large body approaching a planet--staying awhile--going away--coming back +some other time--anchoring, as it were-- + +Azuria is pretty bad, but Azuria is no worse than Neith. + +_Astrophysical Journal_, 1-127: + +A light-reflecting body, or a bright spot near Mars: seen Nov. 25, 1894, +by Prof. Pickering and others, at the Lowell Observatory, above an +unilluminated part of Mars--self-luminous, it would seem--thought to +have been a cloud--but estimated to have been about twenty miles away +from the planet. + +Luminous spot seen moving across the disk of Mercury, in 1799, by +Harding and Schroeter. (_Monthly Notices of the R.A.S._, 38-338.) + +In the first Bulletin issued by the Lowell Observatory, in 1903, Prof. +Lowell describes a body that was seen on the terminator of Mars, May +20, 1903. On May 27, it was "suspected." If still there, it had moved, +we are told, about 300 miles--"probably a dust cloud." + +Very conspicuous and brilliant spots seen on the disk of Mars, October +and November, 1911. (_Popular Astronomy_, Vol. 19, No. 10.) + +So one of them accepted six or seven observations that were in +agreement, except that they could not be regularized, upon a +world--planet--satellite--and he gave it a name. He named it "Neith." + +Monstrator and Elvera and Azuria and Super-Romanimus-- + +Or heresy and orthodoxy and the oneness of all quasiness, and our ways +and means and methods are the very same. Or, if we name things that may +not be, we are not of lonely guilt in the nomenclature of absences-- + +But now Leverrier and "Vulcan." + +Leverrier again. + +Or to demonstrate the collapsibility of a froth, stick a pin in the +largest bubble of it. Astronomy and inflation: and by inflation we mean +expansion of the attenuated. Or that the science of Astronomy is a +phantom-film distended with myth-stuff--but always our acceptance that +it approximates higher to substantiality than did the system that +preceded it. + +So Leverrier and the "planet Vulcan." + +And we repeat, and it will do us small good to repeat. If you be of the +masses that the astronomers have hypnotized--being themselves +hypnotized, or they could not hypnotize others--or that the hypnotist's +control is not the masterful power that it is popularly supposed to be, +but only transference of state from one hypnotic to another-- + +If you be of the masses that the astronomers have hypnotized, you will +not be able even to remember. Ten pages from here, and Leverrier and the +"planet Vulcan" will have fallen from your mind, like beans from a +magnet, or like data of cold meteorites from the mind of a Thomson. + +Leverrier and the "planet Vulcan." + +And much the good it will do us to repeat. + +But at least temporarily we shall have an impression of a historic +fiasco, such as, in our acceptance, could occur only in a +quasi-existence. + +In 1859, Dr. Lescarbault, an amateur astronomer, of Orgeres, France, +announced that, upon March 26, of that year, he had seen a body of +planetary size cross the sun. We are in a subject that is now as unholy +to the present system as ever were its own subjects to the system that +preceded it, or as ever were slanders against miracles to the preceding +system. Nevertheless few text-books go so far as quite to disregard this +tragedy. The method of the systematists is slightingly to give a few +instances of the unholy, and dispose of the few. If it were desirable to +them to deny that there are mountains upon this earth, they would record +a few observations upon some slight eminences near Orange, N.J., but say +that commuters, though estimable persons in several ways, are likely to +have their observations mixed. The text-books casually mention a few of +the "supposed" observations upon "Vulcan," and then pass on. + +Dr. Lescarbault wrote to Leverrier, who hastened to Orgeres-- + +Because this announcement assimilated with his own calculations upon a +planet between Mercury and the sun-- + +Because this solar system itself has never attained positiveness in the +aspect of Regularity: there are to Mercury, as there are to Neptune, +phenomena irreconcilable with the formulas, or motions that betray +influence by something else. + +We are told that Leverrier "satisfied himself as to the substantial +accuracy of the reported observation." The story of this investigation +is told in _Monthly Notices_, 20-98. It seems too bad to threaten the +naive little thing with our rude sophistications, but it is amusingly of +the ingenuousness of the age from which present dogmas have survived. +Lescarbault wrote to Leverrier. Leverrier hastened to Orgeres. But he +was careful not to tell Lescarbault who he was. Went right in and +"subjected Dr. Lescarbault to a very severe cross-examination"--just the +way you or I may feel at liberty to go into anybody's home and be severe +with people--"pressing him hard step by step"--just as anyone might go +into someone else's house and press him hard, though unknown to the +hard-pressed one. Not until he was satisfied, did Leverrier reveal his +identity. I suppose Dr. Lescarbault expressed astonishment. I think +there's something utopian about this: it's so unlike the +stand-offishness of New York life. + +Leverrier gave the name "Vulcan" to the object that Dr. Lescarbault had +reported. + +By the same means by which he is, even to this day, supposed--by the +faithful--to have discovered Neptune, he had already announced the +probable existence of an Intra-Mercurial body, or group of bodies. He +had five observations besides Lescarbault's upon something that had been +seen to cross the sun. In accordance with the mathematical hypnoses of +his era, he studied these six transits. Out of them he computed elements +giving "Vulcan" a period of about 20 days, or a formula for heliocentric +longitude at any time. + +But he placed the time of best observation away up in 1877. + +But even so, or considering that he still had probably a good many years +to live, it may strike one that he was a little rash--that is if one has +not gone very deep into the study of hypnoses--that, having "discovered" +Neptune by a method which, in our acceptance, had no more to recommend +it than had once equally well-thought-of methods of witch-finding, he +should not have taken such chances: that if he was right as to Neptune, +but should be wrong as to "Vulcan," his average would be away below that +of most fortune-tellers, who could scarcely hope to do business upon a +fifty per cent. basis--all that the reasoning of a tyro in hypnoses. + +The date: + +March 22, 1877. + +The scientific world was up on its hind legs nosing the sky. The thing +had been done so authoritatively. Never a pope had said a thing with +more of the seeming of finality. If six observations correlated, what +more could be asked? The Editor of _Nature_, a week before the predicted +event, though cautious, said that it is difficult to explain how six +observers, unknown to one another, could have data that could be +formulated, if they were not related phenomena. + +In a way, at this point occurs the crisis of our whole book. + +Formulas are against us. + +But can astronomic formulas, backed up by observations in agreement, +taken many years apart, calculated by a Leverrier, be as meaningless, in +a positive sense, as all other quasi-things that we have encountered so +far? + +The preparations they made, before March 22, 1877. In England, the +Astronomer Royal made it the expectation of his life: notified observers +at Madras, Melbourne, Sydney, and New Zealand, and arranged with +observers in Chili and the United States. M. Struve had prepared for +observations in Siberia and Japan-- + +March 22, 1877-- + +Not absolutely, hypocritically, I think it's pathetic, myself. If anyone +should doubt the sincerity of Leverrier, in this matter, we note, +whether it has meaning or not, that a few months later he died. + +I think we'll take up Monstrator, though there's so much to this subject +that we'll have to come back. + +According to the _Annual Register_, 9-120, upon the 9th of August, 1762, +M. de Rostan, of Basle, France, was taking altitudes of the sun, at +Lausanne. He saw a vast, spindle-shaped body, about three of the sun's +digits in breadth and nine in length, advancing slowly across the disk +of the sun, or "at no more than half the velocity with which the +ordinary solar spots move." It did not disappear until the 7th of +September, when it reached the sun's limb. Because of the spindle-like +form, I incline to think of a super-Zeppelin, but another observation, +which seems to indicate that it was a world, is that, though it was +opaque, and "eclipsed the sun," it had around it a kind of +nebulosity--or atmosphere? A penumbra would ordinarily be a datum of a +sun spot, but there are observations that indicate that this object was +at a considerable distance from the sun: + +It is recorded that another observer, at Paris, watching the sun, at +this time, had not seen this object: + +But that M. Croste, at Sole, about forty-five German leagues northward +from Lausanne, had seen it, describing the same spindle-form, but +disagreeing a little as to breadth. Then comes the important point: that +he and M. de Rostan did not see it upon the same part of the sun. This, +then, is parallax, and, compounded with invisibility at Paris, is great +parallax--or that, in the course of a month, in the summer of 1762, a +large, opaque, spindle-shaped body traversed the disk of the sun, but at +a great distance from the sun. The writer in the _Register_ says: "In a +word, we know of nothing to have recourse to, in the heavens, by which +to explain this phenomenon." I suppose he was not a hopeless addict to +explaining. Extraordinary--we fear he must have been a man of loose +habits in some other respects. + +As to us-- + +Monstrator. + +In the _Monthly Notices of the R.A.S._, February, 1877, Leverrier, who +never lost faith, up to the last day, gives the six observations upon an +unknown body of planetary size, that he had formulated: + +Fritsche, Oct. 10, 1802; Stark, Oct. 9, 1819; De Cuppis, Oct. 30, 1839; +Sidebotham, Nov. 12, 1849; Lescarbault, March 26, 1859; Lummis, March +20, 1862. + +If we weren't so accustomed to Science in its essential aspect of +Disregard, we'd be mystified and impressed, like the Editor of _Nature_, +with the formulation of these data: agreement of so many instances would +seem incredible as a coincidence: but our acceptance is that, with just +enough disregard, astronomers and fortune-tellers can formulate +anything--or we'd engage, ourselves, to formulate periodicities in the +crowds in Broadway--say that every Wednesday morning, a tall man, with +one leg and a black eye, carrying a rubber plant, passes the Singer +Building, at quarter past ten o'clock. Of course it couldn't really be +done, unless such a man did have such periodicity, but if some Wednesday +mornings it should be a small child lugging a barrel, or a fat negress +with a week's wash, by ordinary disregard that would be prediction good +enough for the kind of quasi-existence we're in. + +So whether we accuse, or whether we think that the word "accuse" +over-dignifies an attitude toward a quasi-astronomer, or mere figment in +a super-dream, our acceptance is that Leverrier never did formulate +observations-- + +That he picked out observations that could be formulated-- + +That of this type are all formulas-- + +That, if Leverrier had not been himself helplessly hypnotized, or if he +had had in him more than a tincture of realness, never could he have +been beguiled by such a quasi-process: but that he was hypnotized, and +so extended, or transferred, his condition to others, that upon March +22, 1877, he had this earth bristling with telescopes, with the rigid +and almost inanimate forms of astronomers behind them-- + +And not a blessed thing of any unusuality was seen upon that day or +succeeding days. + +But that the science of Astronomy suffered the slightest in prestige? + +It couldn't. The spirit of 1877 was behind it. If, in an embryo, some +cells should not live up to the phenomena of their era, the others will +sustain the scheduled appearances. Not until an embryo enters the +mammalian stage are cells of the reptilian stage false cells. + +It is our acceptance that there were many equally authentic reports upon +large planetary bodies that had been seen near the sun; that, of many, +Leverrier picked out six; not then deciding that all the other +observations related to still other large, planetary bodies, but +arbitrarily, or hypnotically, disregarding--or heroically +disregarding--every one of them--that to formulate at all he had to +exclude falsely. The denouement killed him, I think. I'm not at all +inclined to place him with the Grays and Hitchcocks and Symonses. I'm +not, because, though it was rather unsportsmanlike to put the date so +far ahead, he did give a date, and he did stick to it with such a high +approximation-- + +I think Leverrier was translated to the Positive Absolute. + +The disregarded: + +Observation, of July 26, 1819, by Gruthinson--but that was of two bodies +that crossed the sun together-- + +_Nature_, 14-469: + +That, according to the astronomer, J.R. Hind, Benjamin Scott, City +Chamberlain of London, and Mr. Wray, had, in 1847, seen a body similar +to "Vulcan" cross the sun. + +Similar observation by Hind and Lowe, March 12, 1849 (_L'Annee +Scientifique_, 1876-9). + +_Nature_, 14-505: + +Body of apparent size of Mercury, seen, Jan. 29, 1860, by F.A.R. Russell +and four other observers, crossing the sun. + +De Vico's observation of July 12, 1837 (_Observatory_, 2-424). + +_L'Annee Scientifique_, 1865-16: + +That another amateur astronomer, M. Coumbray, of Constantinople, had +written to Leverrier, that, upon the 8th of March, 1865, he had seen a +black point, sharply outlined, traverse the disk of the sun. It detached +itself from a group of sun spots near the limb of the sun, and took 48 +minutes to reach the other limb. Figuring upon the diagram sent by M. +Coumbray, a central passage would have taken a little more than an hour. +This observation was disregarded by Leverrier, because his formula +required about four times that velocity. The point here is that these +other observations are as authentic as those that Leverrier included; +that, then, upon data as good as the data of "Vulcan," there must be +other "Vulcans"--the heroic and defiant disregard, then, of trying to +formulate one, omitting the others, which, by orthodox doctrine, must +have influenced it greatly, if all were in the relatively narrow space +between Mercury and the sun. + +Observation upon another such body, of April 4, 1876, by M. Weber, of +Berlin. As to this observation, Leverrier was informed by Wolf, in +August, 1876 (_L'Annee Scientifique_, 1876-7). It made no difference, so +far as can be known, to this notable positivist. + +Two other observations noted by Hind and Denning--London _Times_, Nov. +3, 1871, and March 26, 1873. + +_Monthly Notices of the R.A.S._, 20-100: + +Standacher, February, 1762; Lichtenberg, Nov. 19, 1762; Hoffman, May, +1764; Dangos, Jan. 18, 1798; Stark, Feb. 12, 1820. An observation by +Schmidt, Oct. 11, 1847, is said to be doubtful: but, upon page 192, it +is said that this doubt had arisen because of a mistaken translation, +and two other observations by Schmidt are given: Oct. 14, 1849, and Feb. +18, 1850--also an observation by Lofft, Jan. 6, 1818. Observation by +Steinheibel, at Vienna, April 27, 1820 (_Monthly Notices_, 1862). + +Haase had collected reports of twenty observations like Lescarbault's. +The list was published in 1872, by Wolf. Also there are other instances +like Gruthinsen's: + +_Amer. Jour. Sci._, 2-28-446: + +Report by Pastorff that he had seen twice in 1836, and once in 1837, two +round spots of unequal size moving across the sun, changing position +relatively to each other, and taking a different course, if not orbit, +each time: that, in 1834, he had seen similar bodies pass six times +across the disk of the sun, looking very much like Mercury in his +transits. + +March 22, 1876-- + +But to point out Leverrier's poverty-stricken average--or discovering +planets upon a fifty per cent. basis--would be to point out the low +percentage of realness in the quasi-myth-stuff of which the whole system +is composed. We do not accuse the text-books of omitting this fiasco, +but we do note that theirs is the conventional adaptation here of all +beguilers who are in difficulties-- + +The diverting of attention. + +It wouldn't be possible in a real existence, with real mentality, to +deal with, but I suppose it's good enough for the quasi-intellects that +stupefy themselves with text-books. The trick here is to gloss over +Leverrier's mistake, and blame Lescarbault--he was only an amateur--had +delusions. The reader's attention is led against Lescarbault by a report +from M. Lias, director of the Brazilian Coast Survey, who, at the time +of Lescarbault's "supposed" observation had been watching the sun in +Brazil, and, instead of seeing even ordinary sun spots, had noted that +the region of the "supposed transit" was of "uniform intensity." + +But the meaninglessness of all utterances in quasi-existence-- + +"Uniform intensity" turns our way as much as against us--or some day +some brain will conceive a way of beating Newton's third law--if every +reaction, or resistance, is, or can be, interpretable as stimulus +instead of resistance--if this could be done in mechanics, there's a way +open here for someone to own the world--specifically in this matter, +"uniform intensity" means that Lescarbault saw no ordinary sun spot, +just as much as it means that no spot at all was seen upon the sun. +Continuing the interpretation of a resistance as an assistance, which +can always be done with mental forces--making us wonder what +applications could be made with steam and electric forces--we point out +that invisibility in Brazil means parallax quite as truly as it means +absence, and, inasmuch as "Vulcan" was supposed to be distant from the +sun, we interpret denial as corroboration--method of course of every +scientist, politician, theologian, high-school debater. + +So the text-books, with no especial cleverness, because no especial +cleverness is needed, lead the reader into contempt for the amateur of +Orgeres, and forgetfulness of Leverrier--and some other subject is taken +up. + +But our own acceptance: + +That these data are as good as ever they were; + +That, if someone of eminence should predict an earthquake, and if there +should be no earthquake at the predicted time, that would discredit the +prophet, but data of past earthquakes would remain as good as ever they +had been. It is easy enough to smile at the illusion of a single +amateur-- + +The mass-formation: + +Fritsche, Stark, De Cuppis, Sidebotham, Lescarbault, Lummis, Gruthinson, +De Vico, Scott, Wray, Russell, Hind, Lowe, Coumbray, Weber, Standacher, +Lichtenberg, Dangos, Hoffman, Schmidt, Lofft, Steinheibel, Pastorff-- + +These are only the observations conventionally listed relatively to an +Intra-Mercurial planet. They are formidable enough to prevent our being +diverted, as if it were all the dream of a lonely amateur--but they're a +mere advance-guard. From now on other data of large celestial bodies, +some dark and some reflecting light, will pass and pass and keep on +passing-- + +So that some of us will remember a thing or two, after the procession's +over--possibly. + +Taking up only one of the listed observations-- + +Or our impression that the discrediting of Leverrier has nothing to do +with the acceptability of these data: + +In the London _Times_, Jan. 10, 1860, is Benjamin Scott's account of his +observation: + +That, in the summer of 1847, he had seen a body that had seemed to be +the size of Venus, crossing the sun. He says that, hardly believing the +evidence of his sense of sight, he had looked for someone, whose hopes +or ambitions would not make him so subject to illusion. He had told his +little son, aged five years, to look through the telescope. The child +had exclaimed that he had seen "a little balloon" crossing the sun. +Scott says that he had not had sufficient self-reliance to make public +announcement of his remarkable observation at the time, but that, in the +evening of the same day, he had told Dr. Dick, F.R.A.S., who had cited +other instances. In the _Times_, Jan. 12, 1860, is published a letter +from Richard Abbott, F.R.A.S.: that he remembered Mr. Scott's letter to +him upon this observation, at the time of the occurrence. + +I suppose that, at the beginning of this chapter, one had the notion +that, by hard scratching through musty old records we might rake up +vague, more than doubtful data, distortable into what's called evidence +of unrecognized worlds or constructions of planetary size-- + +But the high authenticity and the support and the modernity of these of +the accursed that we are now considering-- + +And our acceptance that ours is a quasi-existence, in which above all +other things, hopes, ambitions, emotions, motivations, stands Attempt to +Positivize: that we are here considering an attempt to systematize that +is sheer fanaticism in its disregard of the unsystematizable--that it +represented the highest good in the 19th century--that it is mono-mania, +but heroic mono-mania that was quasi-divine in the 19th century-- + +But that this isn't the 19th century. + +As a doubly sponsored Brahmin--in the regard of Baptists--the objects of +July 29, 1878, stand out and proclaim themselves so that nothing but +disregard of the intensity of mono-mania can account for their reception +by the system: + +Or the total eclipse of July 29, 1878, and the reports by Prof. Watson, +from Rawlins, Wyoming, and by Prof. Swift, from Denver, Colorado: that +they had seen two shining objects at a considerable distance from the +sun. + +It's quite in accord with our general expression: not that there is an +Intra-Mercurial planet, but that there are different bodies, many vast +things; near this earth sometimes, near the sun sometimes; orbitless +worlds, which, because of scarcely any data of collisions, we think of +as under navigable control--or dirigible super-constructions. + +Prof. Watson and Prof. Swift published their observations. + +Then the disregard that we cannot think of in terms of ordinary, sane +exclusions. + +The text-book systematists begin by telling us that the trouble with +these observations is that they disagree widely: there is considerable +respectfulness, especially for Prof. Swift, but we are told that by +coincidence these two astronomers, hundreds of miles apart, were +illuded: their observations were so different-- + +Prof. Swift (_Nature_, Sept. 19, 1878): + +That his own observation was "in close approximation to that given by +Prof. Watson." + +In the _Observatory_, 2-161, Swift says that his observations and +Watson's were "confirmatory of each other." + +The faithful try again: + +That Watson and Swift mistook stars for other bodies. + +In the _Observatory_, 2-193, Prof. Watson says that he had previously +committed to memory all stars near the sun, down to the seventh +magnitude-- + +And he's damned anyway. + +How such exclusions work out is shown by Lockyer (_Nature_, Aug. 20, +1878). He says: "There is little doubt that an Intra-Mercurial planet +has been discovered by Prof. Watson." + +That was before excommunication was pronounced. + +He says: + +"If it will fit one of Leverrier's orbits"-- + +It didn't fit. + +In _Nature_, 21-301, Prof. Swift says: + +"I have never made a more valid observation, nor one more free from +doubt." + +He's damned anyway. + +We shall have some data that will not live up to most rigorous +requirements, but, if anyone would like to read how carefully and +minutely these two sets of observations were made, see Prof. Swift's +detailed description in the _Am. Jour. Sci._, 116-313; and the +technicalities of Prof. Watson's observations in _Monthly Notices_, +38-525. + +Our own acceptance upon dirigible worlds, which is assuredly enough, +more nearly real than attempted concepts of large planets relatively +near this earth, moving in orbits, but visible only occasionally; which +more nearly approximates to reasonableness than does wholesale slaughter +of Swift and Watson and Fritsche and Stark and De Cuppis--but our own +acceptance is so painful to so many minds that, in another of the +charitable moments that we have now and then for the sake of contrast, +we offer relief: + +The things seen high in the sky by Swift and Watson-- + +Well, only two months before--the horse and the barn-- + +We go on with more observations by astronomers, recognizing that it is +the very thing that has given them life, sustained them, held them +together, that has crushed all but the quasi-gleam of independent life +out of them. Were they not systematized, they could not be at all, +except sporadically and without sustenance. They are systematized: they +must not vary from the conditions of the system: they must not break +away for themselves. + +The two great commandments: + +Thou shalt not break Continuity; + +Thou shalt try. + +We go on with these disregarded data, some of which, many of which, are +of the highest degree of acceptability. It is the System that pulls back +its variations, as this earth is pulling back the Matterhorn. It is the +System that nourishes and rewards, and also freezes out life with the +chill of disregard. We do note that, before excommunication is +pronounced, orthodox journals do liberally enough record unassimilable +observations. + +All things merge away into everything else. + +That is Continuity. + +So the System merges away and evades us when we try to focus against it. + +We have complained a great deal. At least we are not so dull as to have +the delusion that we know just exactly what it is that we are +complaining about. We speak seemingly definitely enough of "the System," +but we're building upon observations by members of that very system. Or +what we are doing--gathering up the loose heresies of the orthodox. Of +course "the System" fringes and ravels away, having no real outline. A +Swift will antagonize "the System," and a Lockyer will call him back; +but, then, a Lockyer will vary with a "meteoric hypothesis," and a Swift +will, in turn, represent "the System." This state is to us typical of +all intermediatist phenomena; or that not conceivably is anything +really anything, if its parts are likely to be their own opposites at +any time. We speak of astronomers--as if there were real +astronomers--but who have lost their identity in a System--as if it were +a real System--but behind that System is plainly a rapport, or loss of +identity in the Spirit of an Era. + +Bodies that have looked like dark bodies, and lights that may have been +sunlight reflected from inter-planetary--objects, masses, +constructions-- + +Lights that have been seen upon--or near?--the moon: + +In _Philosophical Transactions_, 82-27, is Herschel's report upon many +luminous points, which he saw upon--or near?--the moon, during an +eclipse. Why they should be luminous, whereas the moon itself was dark, +would get us into a lot of trouble--except that later we shall, or we +sha'n't, accept that many times have luminous objects been seen close to +this earth--at night. + +But numerousness is a new factor, or new disturbance, to our +explorations-- + +A new aspect of inter-planetary inhabitancy or occupancy-- + +Worlds in hordes--or beings--winged beings perhaps--wouldn't astonish me +if we should end up by discovering angels--or beings in +machines--argosies of celestial voyagers-- + +In 1783 and 1787, Herschel reported more lights on or near the moon, +which he supposed were volcanic. + +The word of a Herschel has had no more weight, in divergences from the +orthodox, than has had the word of a Lescarbault. These observations are +of the disregarded. + +Bright spots seen on the moon, November, 1821 (_Proc. London Roy. Soc._, +2-167). + +For four other instances, see Loomis (_Treatise on Astronomy_, p. 174). + +A moving light is reported in _Phil. Trans._, 84-429. To the writer, it +looked like a star passing over the moon--"which, on the next moment's +consideration I knew to be impossible." "It was a fixed, steady light +upon the dark part of the moon." I suppose "fixed" applies to luster. + +In the _Report of the Brit. Assoc._, 1847-18, there is an observation by +Rankin, upon luminous points seen on the shaded part of the moon, +during an eclipse. They seemed to this observer like reflections of +stars. That's not very reasonable: however, we have, in the _Annual +Register_, 1821-687, a light not referable to a star--because it moved +with the moon: was seen three nights in succession; reported by Capt. +Kater. See _Quart. Jour. Roy. Inst._, 12-133. + +_Phil. Trans._, 112-237: + +Report from the Cape Town Observatory: a whitish spot on the dark part +of the moon's limb. Three smaller lights were seen. + +The call of positiveness, in its aspects of singleness, or homogeneity, +or oneness, or completeness. In data now coming, I feel it myself. A +Leverrier studies more than twenty observations. The inclination is +irresistible to think that they all relate to one phenomenon. It is an +expression of cosmic inclination. Most of the observations are so +irreconcilable with any acceptance other than of orbitless, dirigible +worlds that he shuts his eyes to more than two-thirds of them; he picks +out six that can give him the illusion of completeness, or of all +relating to one planet. + +Or let it be that we have data of many dark bodies--still do we incline +almost irresistibly to think of one of them as the dark-body-in-chief. +Dark bodies, floating, or navigating, in inter-planetary space--and I +conceive of one that's the Prince of Dark Bodies: + +Melanicus. + +Vast dark thing with the wings of a super-bat, or jet-black +super-construction; most likely one of the spores of the Evil One. + +The extraordinary year, 1883: + +London _Times_, Dec. 17, 1883: + +Extract from a letter by Hicks Pashaw: that, in Egypt, Sept. 24, 1883, +he had seen, through glasses, "an immense black spot upon the lower part +of the sun." + +Sun spot, maybe. + +One night an astronomer was looking up at the sky, when something +obscured a star, for three and a half seconds. A meteor had been seen +nearby, but its train had been only momentarily visible. Dr. Wolf was +the astronomer (_Nature_, 86-528). + +The next datum is one of the most sensational we have, except that there +is very little to it. A dark object that was seen by Prof. Heis, for +eleven degrees of arc, moving slowly across the Milky Way. (Greg's +Catalogue, _Rept. Brit. Assoc._, 1867-426.) + +One of our quasi-reasons for accepting that orbitless worlds are +dirigible is the almost complete absence of data of collisions: of +course, though in defiance of gravitation, they may, without direction +like human direction, adjust to one another in the way of vortex rings +of smoke--a very human-like way, that is. But in _Knowledge_, February, +1894, are two photographs of Brooks' comet that are shown as evidence of +its seeming collision with a dark object, October, 1893. Our own wording +is that it "struck against something": Prof. Barnard's is that it had +"entered some dense medium, which shattered it." For all I know it had +knocked against merely a field of ice. + +Melanicus. + +That upon the wings of a super-bat, he broods over this earth and over +other worlds, perhaps deriving something from them: hovers on wings, or +wing-like appendages, or planes that are hundreds of miles from tip to +tip--a super-evil thing that is exploiting us. By Evil I mean that which +makes us useful. + +He obscures a star. He shoves a comet. I think he's a vast, black, +brooding vampire. + +_Science_, July 31, 1896: + +That, according to a newspaper account, Mr. W.R. Brooks, director of the +Smith Observatory, had seen a dark round object pass rather slowly +across the moon, in a horizontal direction. In Mr. Brooks' opinion it +was a dark meteor. In _Science_, Sept. 14, 1896, a correspondent writes +that, in his opinion, it may have been a bird. We shall have no trouble +with the meteor and bird mergers, if we have observations of long +duration and estimates of size up to hundreds of miles. As to the body +that was seen by Brooks, there is a note from the Dutch astronomer, +Muller, in the _Scientific American_, 75-251, that, upon April 4, 1892, +he had seen a similar phenomenon. In _Science Gossip_, n.s., 3-135, are +more details of the Brooks object--apparent diameter about one-thirtieth +of the moon's--moon's disk crossed in three or four seconds. The writer, +in _Science Gossip_, says that, on June 27, 1896, at one o'clock in the +morning, he was looking at the moon with a 2-inch achromatic, power 44, +when a long black object sailed past, from west to east, the transit +occupying 3 or 4 seconds. He believed this object to be a bird--there +was, however, no fluttering motion observable in it. + +In the _Astronomische Nachrichten_, No. 3477, Dr. Brendel, of +Griefswald, Pomerania, writes that Postmaster Ziegler and other +observers had seen a body about 6 feet in diameter crossing the sun's +disk. The duration here indicates something far from the earth, and also +far from the sun. This thing was seen a quarter of an hour before it +reached the sun. Time in crossing the sun was about an hour. After +leaving the sun it was visible an hour. + +I think he's a vast, black vampire that sometimes broods over this earth +and other bodies. + +Communication from Dr. F.B. Harris (_Popular Astronomy_, 20-398): + +That, upon the evening of Jan. 27, 1912, Dr. Harris saw, upon the moon, +"an intensely black object." He estimated it to be 250 miles long and 50 +miles wide. "The object resembled a crow poised, as near as anything." +Clouds then cut off observation. + +Dr. Harris writes: + +"I cannot but think that a very interesting and curious phenomenon +happened." + + + + +15 + + +Short chapter coming now, and it's the worst of them all. I think it's +speculative. It's a lapse from our usual pseudo-standards. I think it +must mean that the preceding chapter was very efficiently done, and that +now by the rhythm of all quasi-things--which can't be real things, if +they're rhythms, because a rhythm is an appearance that turns into its +own opposite and then back again--but now, to pay up, we're what we +weren't. Short chapter, and I think we'll fill in with several points in +Intermediatism. + +A puzzle: + +If it is our acceptance that, out of the Negative Absolute, the Positive +Absolute is generating itself, recruiting, or maintaining, itself, via a +third state, or our own quasi-state, it would seem that we're trying to +conceive of Universalness manufacturing more Universalness from +Nothingness. Take that up yourself, if you're willing to run the risk of +disappearing with such velocity that you'll leave an incandescent train +behind, and risk being infinitely happy forever, whereas you probably +don't want to be happy--I'll sidestep that myself, and try to be +intelligible by regarding the Positive Absolute from the aspect of +Realness instead of Universalness, recalling that by both Realness and +Universalness we mean the same state, or that which does not merge away +into something else, because there is nothing else. So the idea is that +out of Unrealness, instead of Nothingness, Realness, instead of +Universalness, is, via our own quasi-state, manufacturing more Realness. +Just so, but in relative terms, of course, all imaginings that +materialize into machines or statues, buildings, dollars, paintings or +books in paper and ink are graduations from unrealness to realness--in +relative terms. It would seem then that Intermediateness is a relation +between the Positive Absolute and the Negative Absolute. But the +absolute cannot be the related--of course a confession that we can't +really think of it at all, if here we think of a limit to the unlimited. +Doing the best we can, and encouraged by the reflection that we can't do +worse than has been done by metaphysicians in the past, we accept that +the absolute can't be the related. So then that our quasi-state is not a +real relation, if nothing in it is real. On the other hand, it is not an +unreal relation, if nothing in it is unreal. It seems thinkable that the +Positive Absolute can, by means of Intermediateness, have a +quasi-relation, or be only quasi-related, or be the unrelated, in final +terms, or, at least, not be the related, in final terms. + +As to free will and Intermediatism--same answer as to everything else. +By free will we mean Independence--or that which does not merge away +into something else--so, in Intermediateness, neither free-will nor +slave-will--but a different approximation for every so-called person +toward one or the other of the extremes. The hackneyed way of expressing +this seems to me to be the acceptable way, if in Intermediateness, +there is only the paradoxical: that we're free to do what we have to do. + +I am not convinced that we make a fetish of the preposterous. I think +our feeling is that in first gropings there's no knowing what will +afterward be the acceptable. I think that if an early biologist heard of +birds that grow on trees, he should record that he had heard of birds +that grow on trees: then let sorting over of data occur afterward. The +one thing that we try to tone down but that is to a great degree +unavoidable is having our data all mixed up like Long Island and Florida +in the minds of early American explorers. My own notion is that this +whole book is very much like a map of North America in which the Hudson +River is set down as a passage leading to Siberia. We think of +Monstrator and Melanicus and of a world that is now in communication +with this earth: if so, secretly, with certain esoteric ones upon this +earth. Whether that world's Monstrator and Monstrator's Melanicus--must +be the subject of later inquiry. It would be a gross thing to do: solve +up everything now and leave nothing to our disciples. + +I have been very much struck with phenomena of "cup marks." + +They look to me like symbols of communication. + +But they do not look to me like means of communication between some of +the inhabitants of this earth and other inhabitants of this earth. + +My own impression is that some external force has marked, with symbols, +rocks of this earth, from far away. + +I do not think that cup marks are inscribed communications among +different inhabitants of this earth, because it seems too unacceptable +that inhabitants of China, Scotland, and America should all have +conceived of the same system. + +Cup marks are strings of cup-like impressions in rocks. Sometimes there +are rings around them, and sometimes they have only semi-circles. Great +Britain, America, France, Algeria, Circassia, Palestine: they're +virtually everywhere--except in the far north, I think. In China, cliffs +are dotted with them. Upon a cliff near Lake Como, there is a maze of +these markings. In Italy and Spain and India they occur in enormous +numbers. + +Given that a force, say, like electric force, could, from a distance, +mark such a substance as rocks, as, from a distance of hundreds of +miles, selenium can be marked by telephotographers--but I am of two +minds-- + +The Lost Explorers from Somewhere, and an attempt, from Somewhere, to +communicate with them: so a frenzy of showering of messages toward this +earth, in the hope that some of them would mark rocks near the lost +explorers-- + +Or that somewhere upon this earth, there is an especial rocky surface, +or receptor, or polar construction, or a steep, conical hill, upon which +for ages have been received messages from some other world; but that at +times messages go astray and mark substances perhaps thousands of miles +from the receptor: + +That perhaps forces behind the history of this earth have left upon the +rocks of Palestine and England and India and China records that may some +day be deciphered, of their misdirected instructions to certain esoteric +ones--Order of the Freemasons--the Jesuits-- + +I emphasize the row-formation of cup marks: + +Prof. Douglas (_Saturday Review_, Nov. 24, 1883): + +"Whatever may have been their motive, the cup-markers showed a decided +liking for arranging their sculpturings in regularly spaced rows." + +That cup marks are an archaic form of inscription was first suggested by +Canon Greenwell many years ago. But more specifically adumbratory to our +own expression are the observations of Rivett-Carnac (_Jour. Roy. +Asiatic Soc._, 1903-515): + +That the Braille system of raised dots is an inverted arrangement of cup +marks: also that there are strong resemblances to the Morse code. But no +tame and systematized archaeologist can do more than casually point out +resemblances, and merely suggest that strings of cup marks look like +messages, because--China, Switzerland, Algeria, America--if messages +they be, there seems to be no escape from attributing one origin to +them--then, if messages they be, I accept one external origin, to which +the whole surface of this earth was accessible, for them. + +Something else that we emphasize: + +That rows of cup marks have often been likened to footprints. + +But, in this similitude, their unilinear arrangement must be +disregarded--of course often they're mixed up in every way, but +arrangement in single lines is very common. It is odd that they should +so often be likened to footprints: I suppose there are exceptional +cases, but unless it's something that hops on one foot, or a cat going +along a narrow fence-top, I don't think of anything that makes +footprints one directly ahead of another--Cop, in a station house, +walking a chalk line, perhaps. + +Upon the Witch's Stone, near Ratho, Scotland, there are twenty-four +cups, varying in size from one and a half to three inches in diameter, +arranged in approximately straight lines. Locally it is explained that +these are tracks of dogs' feet (_Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scotland_, 2-4-79). +Similar marks are scattered bewilderingly all around the Witch's +Stone--like a frenzy of telegraphing, or like messages repeating and +repeating, trying to localize differently. + +In Inverness-shire, cup marks are called "fairies' footmarks." At +Valna's church, Norway, and St. Peter's, Ambleteuse, there are such +marks, said to be horses' hoofprints. The rocks of Clare, Ireland, are +marked with prints supposed to have been made by a mythical cow +(_Folklore_, 21-184). + +We now have such a ghost of a thing that I'd not like to be interpreted +as offering it as a datum: it simply illustrates what I mean by the +notion of symbols, like cups, or like footprints, which, if like those +of horses or cows, are the reverse of, or the negatives of, cups--of +symbols that are regularly received somewhere upon this earth--steep, +conical hill, somewhere, I think--but that have often alighted in wrong +places--considerably to the mystification of persons waking up some +morning to find them upon formerly blank spaces. + +An ancient record--still worse, an ancient Chinese record--of a +courtyard of a palace--dwellers of the palace waking up one morning, +finding the courtyard marked with tracks like the footprints of an +ox--supposed that the devil did it. (_Notes and Queries_, 9-6-225.) + + + + +16. + + +Angels. + +Hordes upon hordes of them. + +Beings massed like the clouds of souls, or the commingling whiffs of +spirituality, or the exhalations of souls that Dore pictured so often. + +It may be that the Milky Way is a composition of stiff, frozen, +finally-static, absolute angels. We shall have data of little Milky +Ways, moving swiftly; or data of hosts of angels, not absolute, or still +dynamic. I suspect, myself, that the fixed stars are really fixed, and +that the minute motions said to have been detected in them are +illusions. I think that the fixed stars are absolutes. Their twinkling +is only the interpretation by an intermediatist state of them. I think +that soon after Leverrier died, a new fixed star was discovered--that, +if Dr. Gray had stuck to his story of the thousands of fishes from one +pail of water, had written upon it, lectured upon it, taken to street +corners, to convince the world that, whether conceivable or not, his +explanation was the only true explanation: had thought of nothing but +this last thing at night and first thing in the morning--his +obituary--another "nova" reported in _Monthly Notices_. + +I think that Milky Ways, of an inferior, or dynamic, order, have often +been seen by astronomers. Of course it may be that the phenomena that we +shall now consider are not angels at all. We are simply feeling around, +trying to find out what we can accept. Some of our data indicate hosts +of rotund and complacent tourists in inter-planetary space--but then +data of long, lean, hungry ones. I think that there are, out in +inter-planetary space, Super Tamerlanes at the head of hosts of +celestial ravagers--which have come here and pounced upon civilizations +of the past, cleaning them up all but their bones, or temples and +monuments--for which later historians have invented exclusionist +histories. But if something now has a legal right to us, and can +enforce its proprietorship, they've been warned off. It's the way of all +exploitation. I should say that we're now under cultivation: that we're +conscious of it, but have the impertinence to attribute it all to our +own nobler and higher instincts. + +Against these notions is the same sense of finality that opposes all +advance. It's why we rate acceptance as a better adaptation than belief. +Opposing us is the strong belief that, as to inter-planetary phenomena, +virtually everything has been found out. Sense of finality and illusion +of homogeneity. But that what is called advancing knowledge is violation +of the sense of blankness. + +A drop of water. Once upon a time water was considered so homogeneous +that it was thought of as an element. The microscope--and not only that +the supposititiously elementary was seen to be of infinite diversity, +but that in its protoplasmic life there were new orders of beings. + +Or the year 1491--and a European looking westward over the ocean--his +feeling that that suave western droop was unbreakable; that gods of +regularity would not permit that smooth horizon to be disturbed by +coasts or spotted with islands. The unpleasantness of even contemplating +such a state--wide, smooth west, so clean against the sky--spotted with +islands--geographic leprosy. + +But coasts and islands and Indians and bison, in the seemingly vacant +west: lakes, mountains, rivers-- + +One looks up at the sky: the relative homogeneity of the +relatively unexplored: one thinks of only a few kinds of phenomena. +But the acceptance is forced upon me that there are modes and modes +and modes of inter-planetary existence: things as different from +planets and comets and meteors as Indians are from bison and prairie +dogs: a super-geography--or celestiography--of vast stagnant regions, +but also of Super-Niagaras and Ultra-Mississippis: and a +super-sociology--voyagers and tourists and ravagers: the hunted and the +hunting: the super-mercantile, the super-piratic, the super-evangelical. + +Sense of homogeneity, or our positivist illusion of the unknown--and the +fate of all positivism. + +Astronomy and the academic. + +Ethics and the abstract. + +The universal attempt to formulate or to regularize--an attempt that can +be made only by disregarding or denying. + +Or all things disregard or deny that which will eventually invade and +destroy them-- + +Until comes the day when some one thing shall say, and enforce upon +Infinitude: + +"Thus far shalt thou go: here is absolute demarcation." + +The final utterance: + +"There is only I." + +In the _Monthly Notices of the R.A.S._, 11-48, there is a letter from +the Rev. W. Read: + +That, upon the 4th of September, 1851, at 9:30 A.M., he had seen a host +of self-luminous bodies, passing the field of his telescope, some slowly +and some rapidly. They appeared to occupy a zone several degrees in +breadth. The direction of most of them was due east to west, but some +moved from north to south. The numbers were tremendous. They were +observed for six hours. + +Editor's note: + +"May not these appearances be attributed to an abnormal state of the +optic nerves of the observer?" + +In _Monthly Notices_, 12-38, Mr. Read answers that he had been a +diligent observer, with instruments of a superior order, for about 28 +years--"but I have never witnessed such an appearance before." As to +illusion he says that two other members of his family had seen the +objects. + +The Editor withdraws his suggestion. + +We know what to expect. Almost absolutely--in an existence that is +essentially Hibernian--we can predict the past--that is, look over +something of this kind, written in 1851, and know what to expect from +the Exclusionists later. If Mr. Read saw a migration of dissatisfied +angels, numbering millions, they must merge away, at least subjectively, +with commonplace terrestrial phenomena--of course disregarding Mr. +Read's probable familiarity, of 28 years' duration, with the +commonplaces of terrestrial phenomena. + +_Monthly Notices_, 12-183: + +Letter from Rev. W.R. Dawes: + +That he had seen similar objects--and in the month of September--that +they were nothing but seeds floating in the air. + +In the _Report of the British Association_, 1852-235, there is a +communication from Mr. Read to Prof. Baden-Powell: + +That the objects that had been seen by him and by Mr. Dawes were not +similar. He denies that he had seen seeds floating in the air. There had +been little wind, and that had come from the sea, where seeds would not +be likely to have origin. The objects that he had seen were round and +sharply defined, and with none of the feathery appearance of +thistledown. He then quotes from a letter from C.B. Chalmers, F.R.A.S., +who had seen a similar stream, a procession, or migration, except that +some of the bodies were more elongated--or lean and hungry--than +globular. + +He might have argued for sixty-five years. He'd have impressed +nobody--of importance. The super-motif, or dominant, of his era, was +Exclusionism, and the notion of seeds in the air assimilates--with due +disregards--with that dominant. + +Or pageantries here upon our earth, and things looking down upon us--and +the Crusades were only dust clouds, and glints of the sun on shining +armor were only particles of mica in dust clouds. I think it was a +Crusade that Read saw--but that it was right, relatively to the year +1851, to say that it was only seeds in the wind, whether the wind blew +from the sea or not. I think of things that were luminous with religious +zeal, mixed up, like everything else in Intermediateness, with black +marauders and from gray to brown beings of little personal ambitions. +There may have been a Richard Coeur de Lion, on his way to right +wrongs in Jupiter. It was right, relatively to 1851, to say that he was +a seed of a cabbage. + +Prof. Coffin, U.S.N. (_Jour. Frank. Inst._, 88-151): + +That, during the eclipse of August, 1869, he had noted the passage, +across his telescope, of several bright flakes resembling thistleblows, +floating in the sunlight. But the telescope was so focused that, if +these things were distinct, they must have been so far away from this +earth that the difficulties of orthodoxy remain as great, one way or +another, no matter what we think they were-- + +They were "well-defined," says Prof. Coffin. + +Henry Waldner (_Nature_, 5-304): + +That, April 27, 1863, he had seen great numbers of small, shining bodies +passing from west to east. He had notified Dr. Wolf, of the Observatory +of Zurich, who "had convinced himself of this strange phenomenon." Dr. +Wolf had told him that similar bodies had been seen by Sig. Capocci, of +the Capodimonte Observatory, at Naples, May 11, 1845. + +The shapes were of great diversity--or different aspects of similar +shapes? + +Appendages were seen upon some of them. + +We are told that some were star-shaped, with transparent appendages. + +I think, myself, it was a Mohammed and his Hegira. May have been only +his harem. Astonishing sensation: afloat in space with ten million wives +around one. Anyway, it would seem that we have considerable advantage +here, inasmuch as seeds are not in season in April--but the pulling back +to earth, the bedraggling by those sincere but dull ones of some time +ago. We have the same stupidity--necessary, functioning stupidity--of +attribution of something that was so rare that an astronomer notes only +one instance between 1845 and 1863, to an every-day occurrence-- + +Or Mr. Waldner's assimilative opinion that he had seen only ice +crystals. + +Whether they were not very exclusive veils of a super-harem, or planes +of a very light material, we have an impression of star-shaped things +with transparent appendages that have been seen in the sky. + +Hosts of small bodies--black, this time--that were seen by the +astronomers Herrick, Buys-Ballot, and De Cuppis (_L'Annee Scientifique_, +1860-25); vast numbers of bodies that were seen by M. Lamey, to cross +the moon (_L'Annee Scientifique_, 1874-62); another instance of dark +ones; prodigious number of dark, spherical bodies reported by Messier, +June 17, 1777 (Arago, _OEuvres_, 9-38); considerable number of +luminous bodies which appeared to move out from the sun, in diverse +directions; seen at Havana, during eclipse of the sun, May 15, 1836, by +Prof. Auber (Poey); M. Poey cites a similar instance, of Aug. 3, 1886; +M. Lotard's opinion that they were birds (_L'Astronomie_, 1886-391); +large number of small bodies crossing disk of the sun, some swiftly, +some slowly; most of them globular, but some seemingly triangular, and +some of more complicated structure; seen by M. Trouvelet, who, whether +seeds, insects, birds, or other commonplace things, had never seen +anything resembling these forms (_L'Annee Scientifique_, 1885-8); report +from the Rio de Janeiro Observatory, of vast numbers of bodies crossing +the sun, some of them luminous and some of them dark, from some time in +December, 1875, until Jan. 22, 1876 (_La Nature_, 1876-384). + +Of course, at a distance, any form is likely to look round or roundish: +but we point out that we have notes upon the seeming of more complex +forms. In _L'Astronomie_, 1886-70, is recorded M. Briguiere's +observation, at Marseilles, April 15 and April 25, 1883, upon the +crossing of the sun by bodies that were irregular in form. Some of them +moved as if in alignment. + +Letter from Sir Robert Inglis to Col. Sabine (_Rept. Brit. Assoc._, +1849-17): + +That, at 3 P.M., Aug. 8, 1849, at Gais, Switzerland, Inglis had seen +thousands and thousands of brilliant white objects, like snowflakes in a +cloudless sky. Though this display lasted about twenty-five minutes, not +one of these seeming snowflakes was seen to fall. Inglis says that his +servant "fancied" that he had seen something like wings on +these--whatever they were. Upon page 18, of the _Report_, Sir John +Herschel says that, in 1845 or 1846, his attention had been attracted by +objects of considerable size, in the air, seemingly not far away. He had +looked at them through a telescope. He says that they were masses of +hay, not less than a yard or two in diameter. Still there are some +circumstances that interest me. He says that, though no less than a +whirlwind could have sustained these masses, the air about him was calm. +"No doubt wind prevailed at the spot, but there was no roaring noise." +None of these masses fell within his observation or knowledge. To walk a +few fields away and find out more would seem not much to expect from a +man of science, but it is one of our superstitions, that such a seeming +trifle is just what--by the Spirit of an Era, we'll call it--one is not +permitted to do. If those things were not masses of hay, and if Herschel +had walked a little and found out, and had reported that he had seen +strange objects in the air--that report, in 1846, would have been as +misplaced as the appearance of a tail upon an embryo still in its +gastrula era. I have noticed this inhibition in my own case many times. +Looking back--why didn't I do this or that little thing that would have +cost so little and have meant so much? Didn't belong to that era of my +own development. + +_Nature_, 22-64: + +That, at Kattenau, Germany, about half an hour before sunrise, March 22, +1880, "an enormous number of luminous bodies rose from the horizon, and +passed in a horizontal direction from east to west." They are described +as having appeared in a zone or belt. "They shone with a remarkably +brilliant light." + +So they've thrown lassos over our data to bring them back to earth. But +they're lassos that cannot tighten. We can't pull out of them: we may +step out of them, or lift them off. Some of us used to have an +impression of Science sitting in calm, just judgment: some of us now +feel that a good many of our data have been lynched. If a Crusade, +perhaps from Mars to Jupiter, occur in the autumn--"seeds." If a Crusade +or outpouring of celestial vandals is seen from this earth in the +spring--"ice crystals." If we have record of a race of aerial beings, +perhaps with no substantial habitat, seen by someone in +India--"locusts." + +This will be disregarded: + +If locusts fly high, they freeze and fall in thousands. + +_Nature_, 47-581: + +Locusts that were seen in the mountains of India, at a height of 12,750 +feet--"in swarms and dying by thousands." + +But no matter whether they fly high or fly low, no one ever wonders +what's in the air when locusts are passing overhead, because of the +falling of stragglers. I have especially looked this matter up--no +mystery when locusts are flying overhead--constant falling of +stragglers. + +_Monthly Notices_, 30-135: + +"An unusual phenomenon noticed by Lieut. Herschel, Oct. 17 and 18, 1870, +while observing the sun, at Bangalore, India." + +Lieut. Herschel had noticed dark shadows crossing the sun--but away from +the sun there were luminous, moving images. For two days bodies passed +in a continuous stream, varying in size and velocity. + +The Lieutenant tries to explain, as we shall see, but he says: + +"As it was, the continuous flight, for two whole days, in such numbers, +in the upper regions of the air, of beasts that left no stragglers, is a +wonder of natural history, if not of astronomy." + +He tried different focusing--he saw wings--perhaps he saw planes. He +says that he saw upon the objects either wings or phantom-like +appendages. + +Then he saw something that was so bizarre that, in the fullness of his +nineteenth-centuriness, he writes: + +"There was no longer doubt: they were locusts or flies of some sort." + +One of them had paused. + +It had hovered. + +Then it had whisked off. + +The Editor says that at that time "countless locusts had descended upon +certain parts of India." + +We now have an instance that is extraordinary in several +respects--super-voyagers or super-ravagers; angels, ragamuffins, +crusaders, emigrants, aeronauts, or aerial elephants, or bison or +dinosaurs--except that I think the thing had planes or wings--one of +them has been photographed. It may be that in the history of photography +no more extraordinary picture than this has ever been taken. + +_L'Astronomie_, 1885-347: + +That, at the Observatory of Zacatecas, Mexico, Aug. 12, 1883, about +2,500 meters above sea level, were seen a large number of small luminous +bodies, entering upon the disk of the sun. M. Bonilla telegraphed to the +Observatories of the City of Mexico and of Puebla. Word came back that +the bodies were not visible there. Because of this parallax, M. Bonilla +placed the bodies "relatively near the earth." But when we find out what +he called "relatively near the earth"--birds or bugs or hosts of a +Super-Tamerlane or army of a celestial Richard Coeur de Lion--our +heresies rejoice anyway. His estimate is "less distance than the moon." + +One of them was photographed. See _L'Astronomie_, 1885-349. The +photograph shows a long body surrounded by indefinite structures, or by +the haze of wings or planes in motion. + +_L'Astronomie_, 1887-66; + +Signer Ricco, of the Observatory of Palermo, writes that, Nov. 30, 1880, +at 8:30 o'clock in the morning, he was watching the sun, when he saw, +slowly traversing its disk, bodies in two long, parallel lines, and a +shorter, parallel line. The bodies looked winged to him. But so large +were they that he had to think of large birds. He thought of cranes. + +He consulted ornithologists, and learned that the configuration of +parallel lines agrees with the flight-formation of cranes. This was in +1880: anybody now living in New York City, for instance, would tell him +that also it is a familiar formation of aeroplanes. But, because of data +of focus and subtended angles, these beings or objects must have been +high. + +Sig. Ricco argues that condors have been known to fly three or four +miles high, and that heights reached by other birds have been estimated +at two or three miles. He says that cranes have been known to fly so +high that they have been lost to view. + +Our own acceptance, in conventional terms, is that there is not a bird +of this earth that would not freeze to death at a height of more than +four miles: that if condors fly three or four miles high, they are birds +that are especially adapted to such altitudes. + +Sig. Ricco's estimate is that these objects or beings or cranes must +have been at least five and a half miles high. + + + + +17 + + +The vast dark thing that looked like a poised crow of unholy dimensions. +Assuming that I shall ever have any readers, let him, or both of them, +if I shall ever have such popularity as that, note how dim that bold +black datum is at the distance of only two chapters. + +The question: + +Was it a thing or the shadow of a thing? + +Acceptance either way calls not for mere revision but revolution in the +science of astronomy. But the dimness of the datum of only two chapters +ago. The carved stone disk of Tarbes, and the rain that fell every +afternoon for twenty--if I haven't forgotten, myself, whether it was +twenty-three or twenty-five days!--upon one small area. We are all +Thomsons, with brains that have smooth and slippery, though corrugated, +surfaces--or that all intellection is associative--or that we remember +that which correlates with a dominant--and a few chapters go by, and +there's scarcely an impression that hasn't slid off our smooth and +slippery brains, of Leverrier and the "planet Vulcan." There are two +ways by which irreconcilables can be remembered--if they can be +correlated in a system more nearly real than the system that rejects +them--and by repetition and repetition and repetition. + +Vast black thing like a crow poised over the moon. + +The datum is so important to us, because it enforces, in another field, +our acceptance that dark bodies of planetary size traverse this solar +system. + +Our position: + +That the things have been seen: + +Also that their shadows have been seen. + +Vast black thing poised like a crow over the moon. So far it is a single +instance. By a single instance, we mean the negligible. + +In _Popular Science_, 34-158, Serviss tells of a shadow that Schroeter +saw, in 1788, in the lunar Alps. First he saw a light. But then, when +this region was illuminated, he saw a round shadow where the light had +been. + +Our own expression: + +That he saw a luminous object near the moon: that that part of the moon +became illuminated, and the object was lost to view; but that then its +shadow underneath was seen. + +Serviss explains, of course. Otherwise he'd not be Prof. Serviss. It's a +little contest in relative approximations to realness. Prof. Serviss +thinks that what Schroeter saw was the "round" shadow of a mountain--in +the region that had become lighted. He assumes that Schroeter never +looked again to see whether the shadow could be attributed to a +mountain. That's the crux: conceivably a mountain could cast a +round--and that means detached--shadow, in the lighted part of the moon. +Prof. Serviss could, of course, explain why he disregards the light in +the first place--maybe it had always been there "in the first place." If +he couldn't explain, he'd still be an amateur. + +We have another datum. I think it is more extraordinary than-- + +Vast thing, black and poised, like a crow, over the moon. + +But only because it's more circumstantial, and because it has +corroboration, do I think it more extraordinary than-- + +Vast poised thing, black as a crow, over the moon. + +Mr. H.C. Russell, who was usually as orthodox as anybody, I suppose--at +least, he wrote "F.R.A.S." after his name--tells in the _Observatory_, +2-374, one of the wickedest, or most preposterous, stories that we have +so far exhumed: + +That he and another astronomer, G.D. Hirst, were in the Blue fountains, +near Sydney, N.S.W., and Mr. Hirst was looking at the moon-- + +He saw on the moon what Russell calls "one of those remarkable facts, +which being seen should be recorded, although no explanation can at +present be offered." + +That may be so. It is very rarely done. Our own expression upon +evolution by successive dominants and their correlates is against it. On +the other hand, we express that every era records a few observations out +of harmony with it, but adumbratory or preparatory to the spirit of +eras still to come. It's very rarely done. Lashed by the phantom-scourge +of a now passing era, the world of astronomers is in a state of +terrorism, though of a highly attenuated, modernized, devitalized kind. +Let an astronomer see something that is not of the conventional, +celestial sights, or something that it is "improper" to see--his very +dignity is in danger. Some one of the corralled and scourged may stick a +smile into his back. He'll be thought of unkindly. + +With a hardihood that is unusual in his world of ethereal +sensitivenesses, Russell says, of Hirst's observation: + +"He found a large part of it covered with a dark shade, quite as dark as +the shadow of the earth during an eclipse of the moon." + +But the climax of hardihood or impropriety or wickedness, +preposterousness or enlightenment: + +"One could hardly resist the conviction that it was a shadow, yet it +could not be the shadow of any known body." + +Richard Proctor was a man of some liberality. After a while we shall +have a letter, which once upon a time we'd have called delirious--don't +know that we could read such a thing now, for the first time, without +incredulous laughter--which Mr. Proctor permitted to be published in +_Knowledge_. But a dark, unknown world that could cast a shadow upon a +large part of the moon, perhaps extending far beyond the limb of the +moon; a shadow as deep as the shadow of this earth-- + +Too much for Mr. Proctor's politeness. + +I haven't read what he said, but it seems to have been a little coarse. +Russell says that Proctor "freely used" his name in the _Echo_, of March +14, 1879, ridiculing this observation which had been made by Russell as +well as Hirst. If it hadn't been Proctor, it would have been someone +else--but one notes that the attack came out in a newspaper. There is no +discussion of this remarkable subject, no mention in any other +astronomic journal. The disregard was almost complete--but we do note +that the columns of the _Observatory_ were open to Russell to answer +Proctor. + +In the answer, I note considerable intermediateness. Far back in 1879, +it would have been a beautiful positivism, if Russell had said-- + +"There was a shadow on the moon. Absolutely it was cast by an unknown +body." + +According to our religion, if he had then given all his time to the +maintaining of this one stand, of course breaking all friendships, all +ties with his fellow astronomers, his apotheosis would have occurred, +greatly assisted by means well known to quasi-existence when its +compromises and evasions, and phenomena that are partly this and partly +that, are flouted by the definite and uncompromising. It would be +impossible in a real existence, but Mr. Russell, of quasi-existence, +says that he did resist the conviction; that he had said that one could +"hardly resist"; and most of his resentment is against Mr. Proctor's +thinking that he had not resisted. It seems too bad--if apotheosis be +desirable. + +The point in Intermediatism here is: + +Not that to adapt to the conditions of quasi-existence is to have what +is called success in quasi-existence, but is to lose one's soul-- + +But is to lose "one's" chance of attaining soul, self, or entity. + +One indignation quoted from Proctor interests us: + +"What happens on the moon may at any time happen to this earth." + +Or: + +That is just the teaching of this department of Advanced Astronomy: + +That Russell and Hirst saw the sun eclipsed relatively to the moon by a +vast dark body: + +That many times have eclipses occurred relatively to this earth, by +vast, dark bodies: + +That there have been many eclipses that have not been recognized as +eclipses by scientific kindergartens. + +There is a merger, of course. We'll take a look at it first--that, after +all, it may have been a shadow that Hirst and Russell saw, but the only +significance is that the sun was eclipsed relatively to the moon by a +cosmic haze of some kind, or a swarm of meteors close together, or a +gaseous discharge left behind by a comet. My own acceptance is that +vagueness of shadow is a function of vagueness of intervention; that a +shadow as dense as the shadow of this earth is cast by a body denser +than hazes and swarms. The information seems definite enough in this +respect--"quite as dark as the shadow of this earth during the eclipse +of the moon." + +Though we may not always be as patient toward them as we should be, it +is our acceptance that the astronomic primitives have done a great deal +of good work: for instance, in the allaying of fears upon this earth. +Sometimes it may seem as if all science were to us very much like what a +red flag is to bulls and anti-socialists. It's not that: it's more like +what unsquare meals are to bulls and anti-socialists--not the +scientific, but the insufficient. Our acceptance is that Evil is the +negative state, by which we mean the state of maladjustment, discord, +ugliness, disorganization, inconsistency, injustice, and so on--as +determined in Intermediateness, not by real standards, but only by +higher approximations to adjustment, harmony, beauty, organization, +consistency, justice, and so on. Evil is outlived virtue, or incipient +virtue that has not yet established itself, or any other phenomenon that +is not in seeming adjustment, harmony, consistency with a dominant. The +astronomers have functioned bravely in the past. They've been good for +business: the big interests think kindly, if at all, of them. It's bad +for trade to have an intense darkness come upon an unaware community and +frighten people out of their purchasing values. But if an obscuration be +foretold, and if it then occur--may seem a little uncanny--only a +shadow--and no one who was about to buy a pair of shoes runs home +panic-stricken and saves the money. + +Upon general principles we accept that astronomers have +quasi-systematized data of eclipses--or have included some and +disregarded others. + +They have done well. + +They have functioned. + +But now they're negatives, or they're out of harmony-- + +If we are in harmony with a new dominant, or the spirit of a new era, in +which Exclusionism must be overthrown; if we have data of many +obscurations that have occurred, not only upon the moon, but upon our +own earth, as convincing of vast intervening bodies, usually invisible, +as is any regularized, predicted eclipse. + +One looks up at the sky. + +It seems incredible that, say, at the distance of the moon, there could +be, but be invisible, a solid body, say, the size of the moon. + +One looks up at the moon, at a time when only a crescent of it is +visible. The tendency is to build up the rest of it in one's mind; but +the unillumined part looks as vacant as the rest of the sky, and it's of +the same blueness as the rest of the sky. There's a vast area of solid +substance before one's eyes. It's indistinguishable from the sky. + +In some of our little lessons upon the beauties of modesty and humility, +we have picked out basic arrogances--tail of a peacock, horns of a stag, +dollars of a capitalist--eclipses of astronomers. Though I have no +desire for the job, I'd engage to list hundreds of instances in which +the report upon an expected eclipse has been "sky overcast" or "weather +unfavorable." In our Super-Hibernia, the unfavorable has been construed +as the favorable. Some time ago, when we were lost, because we had not +recognized our own dominant, when we were still of the unchosen and +likely to be more malicious than we now are--because we have noted a +steady tolerance creeping into our attitude--if astronomers are not to +blame, but are only correlates to a dominant--we advertised a predicted +eclipse that did not occur at all. Now, without any especial feeling, +except that of recognition of the fate of all attempted absolutism, we +give the instance, noting that, though such an evil thing to orthodoxy, +it was orthodoxy that recorded the non-event. + +_Monthly Notices of the R.A.S._, 8-132: + +"Remarkable appearances during the total eclipse of the moon on March +19, 1848": + +In an extract from a letter from Mr. Forster, of Bruges, it is said +that, according to the writer's observations at the time of the +predicted total eclipse, the moon shone with about three times the +intensity of the mean illumination of an eclipsed lunar disk: that the +British Consul, at Ghent, who did not know of the predicted eclipse, had +written enquiring as to the "blood-red" color of the moon. + +This is not very satisfactory to what used to be our malices. But +there follows another letter, from another astronomer, Walkey, who +had made observations at Clyst St. Lawrence: that, instead of an +eclipse, the moon became--as is printed in italics--"most beautifully +illuminated" ... "rather tinged with a deep red"... "the moon being +as perfect with light as if there had been no eclipse whatever." + +I note that Chambers, in his work upon eclipses, gives Forster's letter +in full--and not a mention of Walkey's letter. + +There is no attempt in _Monthly Notices_ to explain upon the notion of +greater distance of the moon, and the earth's shadow falling short, +which would make as much trouble for astronomers, if that were not +foreseen, as no eclipse at all. Also there is no refuge in saying that +virtually never, even in total eclipses, is the moon totally dark--"as +perfect with light as if there had been no eclipse whatever." It is said +that at the time there had been an aurora borealis, which might have +caused the luminosity, without a datum that such an effect, by an +aurora, had ever been observed upon the moon. + +But single instances--so an observation by Scott, in the Antarctic. The +force of this datum lies in my own acceptance, based upon especially +looking up this point, that an eclipse nine-tenths of totality has great +effect, even though the sky be clouded. + +Scott (_Voyage of the Discovery_, vol. ii, p. 215): + +"There may have been an eclipse of the sun, Sept. 21, 1903, as the +almanac said, but we should, none of us, have liked to swear to the +fact." + +This eclipse had been set down at nine-tenths of totality. The sky was +overcast at the time. + +So it is not only that many eclipses unrecognized by astronomers as +eclipses have occurred, but that intermediatism, or impositivism, breaks +into their own seemingly regularized eclipses. + +Our data of unregularized eclipses, as profound as those that are +conventionally--or officially?--recognized, that have occurred +relatively to this earth: + +In _Notes and Queries_ there are several allusions to intense darknesses +that have occurred upon this earth, quite as eclipses occur, but that +are not referable to any known eclipsing body. Of course there is no +suggestion here that these darknesses may have been eclipses. My own +acceptance is that if in the nineteenth century anyone had uttered such +a thought as that, he'd have felt the blight of a Dominant; that +Materialistic Science was a jealous god, excluding, as works of the +devil, all utterances against the seemingly uniform, regular, periodic; +that to defy him would have brought on--withering by ridicule--shrinking +away by publishers--contempt of friends and family--justifiable grounds +for divorce--that one who would so defy would feel what unbelievers in +relics of saints felt in an earlier age; what befell virgins who forgot +to keep fires burning, in a still earlier age--but that, if he'd almost +absolutely hold out, just the same--new fixed star reported in _Monthly +Notices_. Altogether, the point in Positivism here is that by Dominants +and their correlates, quasi-existence strives for the positive state, +aggregating, around a nucleus, or dominant, systematized members of a +religion, a science, a society--but that "individuals" who do not +surrender and submerge may of themselves highly approximate to +positiveness--the fixed, the real, the absolute. + +In _Notes and Queries_, 2-4-139, there is an account of a darkness in +Holland, in the midst of a bright day, so intense and terrifying that +many panic-stricken persons lost their lives stumbling into the canals. + +_Gentleman's Magazine_, 33-414: + +A darkness that came upon London, Aug. 19, 1763, "greater than at the +great eclipse of 1748." + +However, our preference is not to go so far back for data. For a list of +historic "dark days," see Humboldt, _Cosmos_, 1-120. + +_Monthly Weather Review_, March, 1886-79: + +That, according to the _La Crosse Daily Republican_, of March 20, 1886, +darkness suddenly settled upon the city of Oshkosh, Wis., at 3 P.M., +March 19. In five minutes the darkness equaled that of midnight. + +Consternation. + +I think that some of us are likely to overdo our own superiority and the +absurd fears of the Middle Ages-- + +Oshkosh. + +People in the streets rushing in all directions--horses running +away--women and children running into cellars--little modern touch after +all: gas meters instead of images and relics of saints. + +This darkness, which lasted from eight to ten minutes, occurred in a day +that had been "light but cloudy." It passed from west to east, and +brightness followed: then came reports from towns to the west of +Oshkosh: that the same phenomenon had already occurred there. A "wave of +total darkness" had passed from west to east. + +Other instances are recorded in the _Monthly Weather Review_, but, as to +all of them, we have a sense of being pretty well-eclipsed, ourselves, +by the conventional explanation that the obscuring body was only a very +dense mass of clouds. But some of the instances are interesting--intense +darkness at Memphis, Tenn., for about fifteen minutes, at 10 A.M., Dec. +2, 1904--"We are told that in some quarters a panic prevailed, and that +some were shouting and praying and imagining that the end of the world +had come." (_M.W.R._, 32-522.) At Louisville, Ky., March 7, 1911, at +about 8 A.M.: duration about half an hour; had been raining moderately, +and then hail had fallen. "The intense blackness and general ominous +appearance of the storm spread terror throughout the city." (_M.W.R._, +39-345.) + +However, this merger between possible eclipses by unknown dark bodies +and commonplace terrestrial phenomena is formidable. + +As to darknesses that have fallen upon vast areas, conventionality +is--smoke from forest fires. In the _U.S. Forest Service Bulletin_, No. +117, F.G. Plummer gives a list of eighteen darknesses that have occurred +in the United States and Canada. He is one of the primitives, but I +should say that his dogmatism is shaken by vibrations from the new +Dominant. His difficulty, which he acknowledges, but which he would have +disregarded had he written a decade or so earlier, is the profundity of +some of these obscurations. He says that mere smokiness cannot account +for such "awe-inspiring dark days." So he conceives of eddies in the +air, concentrating the smoke from forest fires. Then, in the +inconsistency or discord of all quasi-intellection that is striving for +consistency or harmony, he tells of the vastness of some of these +darknesses. Of course Mr. Plummer did not really think upon this +subject, but one does feel that he might have approximated higher to +real thinking than by speaking of concentration and then listing data of +enormous area, or the opposite of circumstances of concentration--because, +of his nineteen instances, nine are set down as covering all New England. +In quasi-existence, everything generates or is part of its own opposite. +Every attempt at peace prepares the way for war; all attempts at justice +result in injustice in some other respect: so Mr. Plummer's attempt to +bring order into his data, with the explanation of darkness caused by +smoke from forest fires, results in such confusion that he ends up by +saying that these daytime darknesses have occurred "often with little +or no turbidity of the air near the earth's surface"--or with no evidence +at all of smoke--except that there is almost always a forest fire +somewhere. + +However, of the eighteen instances, the only one that I'd bother to +contest is the profound darkness in Canada and northern parts of the +United States, Nov. 19, 1819--which we have already considered. + +Its concomitants: + +Lights in the sky; + +Fall of a black substance; + +Shocks like those of an earthquake. + +In this instance, the only available forest fire was one to the south of +the Ohio River. For all I know, soot from a very great fire south of the +Ohio might fall in Montreal, Canada, and conceivably, by some freak of +reflection, light from it might be seen in Montreal, but the earthquake +is not assimilable with a forest fire. On the other hand, it will soon +be our expression that profound darkness, fall of matter from the sky, +lights in the sky, and earthquakes are phenomena of the near approach of +other worlds to this world. It is such comprehensiveness, as contrasted +with inclusion of a few factors and disregard for the rest, that we call +higher approximation to realness--or universalness. + +A darkness, of April 17, 1904, at Wimbledon, England (_Symons' Met. +Mag._, 39-69). It came from a smokeless region: no rain, no thunder; +lasted 10 minutes; too dark to go "even out in the open." + +As to darknesses in Great Britain, one thinks of fogs--but in _Nature_, +25-289, there are some observations by Major J. Herschel, upon an +obscuration in London, Jan. 22, 1882, at 10:30 A.M., so great that he +could hear persons upon the opposite side of the street, but could not +see them--"It was obvious that there was no fog to speak of." + +_Annual Register_, 1857-132: + +An account by Charles A. Murray, British Envoy to Persia, of a darkness +of May 20, 1857, that came upon Bagdad--"a darkness more intense than +ordinary midnight, when neither stars nor moon are visible...." "After a +short time the black darkness was succeeded by a red, lurid gloom, such +as I never saw in any part of the world." + +"Panic seized the whole city." + +"A dense volume of red sand fell." + +This matter of sand falling seems to suggest conventional explanation +enough, or that a simoon, heavily charged with terrestrial sand, had +obscured the sun, but Mr. Murray, who says that he had had experience +with simoons, gives his opinion that "it cannot have been a simoon." + +It is our comprehensiveness now, or this matter of concomitants of +darknesses that we are going to capitalize. It is all very complicated +and tremendous, and our own treatment can be but impressionistic, but a +few of the rudiments of Advanced Seismology we shall now take up--or the +four principal phenomena of another world's close approach to this +world. + +If a large substantial mass, or super-construction, should enter +this earth's atmosphere, it is our acceptance that it would +sometimes--depending upon velocity--appear luminous or look like a +cloud, or like a cloud with a luminous nucleus. Later we shall have an +expression upon luminosity--different from the luminosity of +incandescence--that comes upon objects falling from the sky, or entering +this earth's atmosphere. Now our expression is that worlds have often +come close to this earth, and that smaller objects--size of a haystack +or size of several dozen skyscrapers lumped, have often hurtled through +this earth's atmosphere, and have been mistaken for clouds, because they +were enveloped in clouds-- + +Or that around something coming from the intense cold of inter-planetary +space--that is of some regions: our own suspicion is that other regions +are tropical--the moisture of this earth's atmosphere would condense +into a cloud-like appearance around it. In _Nature_, 20-121, there is an +account by Mr. S.W. Clifton, Collector of Customs, at Freemantle, +Western Australia, sent to the Melbourne Observatory--a clear +day--appearance of a small black cloud, moving not very +swiftly--bursting into a ball of fire, of the apparent size of the +moon-- + +Or that something with the velocity of an ordinary meteorite could not +collect vapor around it, but that slower-moving objects--speed of a +railway train, say--may. + +The clouds of tornadoes have so often been described as if they were +solid objects that I now accept that sometimes they are: that some +so-called tornadoes are objects hurtling through this earth's +atmosphere, not only generating disturbances by their suctions, but +crushing, with their bulk, all things in their way, rising and falling +and finally disappearing, demonstrating that gravitation is not the +power that the primitives think it is, if an object moving at relatively +low velocity be not pulled to this earth, or being so momentarily +affected, bounds away. + +In Finley's _Reports on the Character of 600 Tornadoes_ very suggestive +bits of description occur: + +"Cloud bounded along the earth like a ball"-- + +Or that it was no meteorological phenomenon, but something very much +like a huge solid ball that was bounding along, crushing and carrying +with it everything within its field-- + +"Cloud bounded along, coming to the earth every eight hundred or one +thousand yards." + +Here's an interesting bit that I got somewhere else. I offer it as a +datum in super-biology, which, however, is a branch of advanced science +that I'll not take up, restricting to things indefinitely called +"objects"-- + +"The tornado came wriggling, jumping, whirling like a great green snake, +darting out a score of glistening fangs." + +Though it's interesting, I think that's sensational, myself. It may be +that vast green snakes sometimes rush past this earth, taking a swift +bite wherever they can, but, as I say, that's a super-biologic +phenomenon. Finley gives dozens of instances of tornado clouds that seem +to me more like solid things swathed in clouds, than clouds. He notes +that, in the tornado at Americus, Georgia, July 18, 1881, "a strange +sulphurous vapor was emitted from the cloud." In many instances, +objects, or meteoritic stones, that have come from this earth's +externality, have had a sulphurous odor. Why a wind effect should be +sulphurous is not clear. That a vast object from external regions +should be sulphurous is in line with many data. This phenomenon is +described in the _Monthly Weather Review_, July, 1881, as "a strange +sulphurous vapor ... burning and sickening all who approached close +enough to breathe it." + +The conventional explanation of tornadoes as wind-effects--which we do +not deny in some instances--is so strong in the United States that it is +better to look elsewhere for an account of an object that has hurtled +through this earth's atmosphere, rising and falling and defying this +earth's gravitation. + +_Nature_, 7-112: + +That, according to a correspondent to the _Birmingham Morning News_, the +people living near King's Sutton, Banbury, saw, about one o'clock, Dec. +7, 1872, something like a haycock hurtling through the air. Like a +meteor it was accompanied by fire and a dense smoke and made a noise +like that of a railway train. "It was sometimes high in the air and +sometimes near the ground." The effect was tornado-like: trees and walls +were knocked down. It's a late day now to try to verify this story, but +a list is given of persons whose property was injured. We are told that +this thing then disappeared "all at once." + +These are the smaller objects, which may be derailed railway trains or +big green snakes, for all I know--but our expression upon approach to +this earth by vast dark bodies-- + +That likely they'd be made luminous: would envelop in clouds, perhaps, +or would have their own clouds-- + +But that they'd quake, and that they'd affect this earth with quakes-- + +And that then would occur a fall of matter from such a world, or rise of +matter from this earth to a nearby world, or both fall and rise, or +exchange of matter--process known to Advanced Seismology as +celestio-metathesis-- + +Except that--if matter from some other world--and it would be like +someone to get it into his head that we absolutely deny gravitation, +just because we cannot accept orthodox dogmas--except that, if matter +from another world, filling the sky of this earth, generally, as to a +hemisphere, or locally, should be attracted to this earth, it would +seem thinkable that the whole thing should drop here, and not merely its +surface-materials. + +Objects upon a ship's bottom. From time to time they drop to the bottom +of the ocean. The ship does not. + +Or, like our acceptance upon dripping from aerial ice-fields, we think +of only a part of a nearby world succumbing, except in being caught in +suspension, to this earth's gravitation, and surface-materials falling +from that part-- + +Explain or express or accept, and what does it matter? Our attitude is: + +Here are the data. + +See for yourself. + +What does it matter what my notions may be? + +Here are the data. + +But think for yourself, or think for myself, all mixed up we must be. A +long time must go by before we can know Florida from Long Island. So +we've had data of fishes that have fallen from our now established and +respectabilized Super-Sargasso Sea--which we've almost forgotten, it's +now so respectable--but we shall have data of fishes that have fallen +during earthquakes. These we accept were dragged down from ponds or +other worlds that have been quaked, when only a few miles away, by this +earth, some other world also quaking this earth. + +In a way, or in its principle, our subject is orthodox enough. Only +grant proximity of other worlds--which, however, will not be a matter of +granting, but will be a matter of data--and one conventionally conceives +of their surfaces quaked--even of a whole lake full of fishes being +quaked and dragged down from one of them. The lake full of fishes may +cause a little pain to some minds, but the fall of sand and stones is +pleasantly enough thought of. More scientific persons, or more faithful +hypnotics than we, have taken up this subject, unpainfully, relatively +to the moon. For instance, Perrey has gone over 15,000 records of +earthquakes, and he has correlated many with proximities of the moon, or +has attributed many to the pull of the moon when nearest this earth. +Also there is a paper upon this subject in the _Proc. Roy. Soc. of +Cornwall_, 1845. Or, theoretically, when at its closest to this earth, +the moon quakes the face of this earth, and is itself quaked--but does +not itself fall to this earth. As to showers of matter that may have +come from the moon at such times--one can go over old records and find +what one pleases. + +That is what we now shall do. + +Our expressions are for acceptance only. + +Our data: + +We take them from four classes of phenomena that have preceded or +accompanied earthquakes: + +Unusual clouds, darkness profound, luminous appearances in the sky, and +falls of substances and objects whether commonly called meteoritic or +not. + +Not one of these occurrences fits in with principles of primitive, or +primary, seismology, and every one of them is a datum of a quaked body +passing close to this earth or suspended over it. To the primitives +there is not a reason in the world why a convulsion of this earth's +surface should be accompanied by unusual sights in the sky, by darkness, +or by the fall of substances or objects from the sky. As to phenomena +like these, or storms, preceding earthquakes, the irreconcilability is +still greater. + +It was before 1860 that Perrey made his great compilation. We take most +of our data from lists compiled long ago. Only the safe and unpainful +have been published in recent years--at least in ambitious, voluminous +form. The restraining hand of the "System"--as we call it, whether it +has any real existence or not--is tight upon the sciences of today. The +uncanniest aspect of our quasi-existence that I know of is that +everything that seems to have one identity has also as high a seeming of +everything else. In this oneness of allness, or continuity, the +protecting hand strangles; the parental stifles; love is inseparable +from phenomena of hate. There is only Continuity--that is in +quasi-existence. _Nature_, at least in its correspondents' columns, +still evades this protective strangulation, and the _Monthly Weather +Review_ is still a rich field of unfaithful observation: but, in looking +over other long-established periodicals, I have noted their glimmers of +quasi-individuality fade gradually, after about 1860, and the surrender +of their attempted identities to a higher attempted organization. Some +of them, expressing Intermediateness-wide endeavor to localize the +universal, or to localize self, soul, identity, entity--or positiveness +or realness--held out until as far as 1880; traces findable up to +1890--and then, expressing the universal process--except that here and +there in the world's history there may have been successful +approximations to positiveness by "individuals"--who only then became +individuals and attained to selves or souls of their own--surrendered, +submitted, became parts of a higher organization's attempt to +individualize or systematize into a complete thing, or to localize the +universal or the attributes of the universal. After the death of Richard +Proctor, whose occasional illiberalities I'd not like to emphasize too +much, all succeeding volumes of _Knowledge_ have yielded scarcely an +unconventionality. Note the great number of times that the _American +Journal of Science_ and the _Report of the British Association_ are +quoted: note that, after, say, 1885, they're scarcely mentioned in these +inspired but illicit pages--as by hypnosis and inertia, we keep on +saying. + +About 1880. + +Throttle and disregard. + +But the coercion could not be positive, and many of the excommunicated +continued to creep in; or, even to this day, some of the strangled are +faintly breathing. + +Some of our data have been hard to find. We could tell stories of great +labor and fruitless quests that would, though perhaps imperceptibly, +stir the sympathy of a Mr. Symons. But, in this matter of concurrence of +earthquakes with aerial phenomena, which are as unassociable with +earthquakes, if internally caused, as falls of sand on convulsed small +boys full of sour apples, the abundance of so-called evidence is so +great that we can only sketchily go over the data, beginning with Robert +Mallet's Catalogue (_Rept. Brit. Assoc._, 1852), omitting some +extraordinary instances, because they occurred before the eighteenth +century: + +Earthquake "preceded" by a violent tempest, England, Jan. 8, +1704--"preceded" by a brilliant meteor, Switzerland, Nov. 4, +1704--"luminous cloud, moving at high velocity, disappearing behind the +horizon," Florence, Dec. 9, 1731--"thick mists in the air, through which +a dim light was seen: several weeks before the shock, globes of light +had been seen in the air," Swabia, May 22, 1732--rain of earth, +Carpentras, France, Oct. 18, 1737--a black cloud, London, March 19, +1750--violent storm and a strange star of octagonal shape, Slavange, +Norway, April 15, 1752--balls of fire from a streak in the sky, +Augermannland, 1752--numerous meteorites, Lisbon, Oct. 15, +1755--"terrible tempests" over and over--"falls of hail" and "brilliant +meteors," instance after instance--"an immense globe," Switzerland, Nov. +2, 1761--oblong, sulphurous cloud, Germany, April, 1767--extraordinary +mass of vapor, Boulogne, April, 1780--heavens obscured by a dark mist, +Grenada, Aug. 7, 1804--"strange, howling noises in the air, and large +spots obscuring the sun," Palermo, Italy, April 16, 1817--"luminous +meteor moving in the same direction as the shock," Naples, Nov. 22, +1821--fire ball appearing in the sky: apparent size of the moon, +Thuringerwald, Nov. 29, 1831. + +And, unless you be polarized by the New Dominant, which is calling for +recognition of multiplicities of external things, as a Dominant, dawning +new over Europe in 1492, called for recognition of terrestrial +externality to Europe--unless you have this contact with the new, you +have no affinity for these data--beans that drop from a +magnet--irreconcilables that glide from the mind of a Thomson-- + +Or my own acceptance that we do not really think at all; that we +correlate around super-magnets that I call Dominants--a Spiritual +Dominant in one age, and responsively to it up spring monasteries, and +the stake and the cross are its symbols: a Materialist Dominant, and up +spring laboratories, and microscopes and telescopes and crucibles are +its ikons--that we're nothing but iron filings relatively to a +succession of magnets that displace preceding magnets. + +With no soul of your own, and with no soul of my own--except that some +day some of us may no longer be Intermediatisms, but may hold out +against the cosmos that once upon a time thousands of fishes were cast +from one pail of water--we have psycho-valency for these data, if we're +obedient slaves to the New Dominant, and repulsion to them, if we're +mere correlates to the Old Dominant. I'm a soulless and selfless +correlate to the New Dominant, myself: I see what I have to see. The +only inducement I can hold out, in my attempt to rake up disciples, is +that some day the New will be fashionable: the new correlates will sneer +at the old correlates. After all, there is some inducement to that--and +I'm not altogether sure it's desirable to end up as a fixed star. + +As a correlate to the New Dominant, I am very much impressed with some +of these data--the luminous object that moved in the same direction as +an earthquake--it seems very acceptable that a quake followed this thing +as it passed near this earth's surface. The streak that was seen in the +sky--or only a streak that was visible of another world--and objects, or +meteorites, that were shaken down from it. The quake at Carpentras, +France: and that, above Carpentras, was a smaller world, more violently +quaked, so that earth was shaken down from it. + +But I like best the super-wolves that were seen to cross the sun during +the earthquake at Palermo. + +They howled. + +Or the loves of the worlds. The call they feel for one another. They try +to move closer and howl when they get there. + +The howls of the planets. + +I have discovered a new unintelligibility. + +In the _Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal_--have to go away back to +1841--days of less efficient strangulation--Sir David Milne lists +phenomena of quakes in Great Britain. I pick out a few that indicate to +me that other worlds were near this earth's surface: + +Violent storm before a shock of 1703--ball of fire "preceding," 1750--a +large ball of fire seen upon day following a quake, 1755--"uncommon +phenomenon in the air: a large luminous body, bent like a crescent, +which stretched itself over the heavens, 1816--vast ball of fire, +1750--black rains and black snows, 1755--numerous instances of upward +projection--or upward attraction?--during quakes--preceded by a cloud, +very black and lowering," 1795--fall of black powder, preceding a quake, +by six hours, 1837. + +Some of these instances seem to me to be very striking--a smaller world: +it is greatly racked by the attraction of this earth--black substance is +torn down from it--not until six hours later, after an approach still +closer, does this earth suffer perturbation. As to the extraordinary +spectacle of a thing, world, super-construction, that was seen in the +sky, in 1816, I have not yet been able to find out more. I think that +here our acceptance is relatively sound: that this occurrence was +tremendously of more importance than such occurrence as, say, transits +of Venus, upon which hundreds of papers have been written--that not +another mention have I found, though I have not looked so especially as +I shall look for more data--that all but undetailed record of this +occurrence was suppressed. + +Altogether we have considerable agreement here between data of vast +masses that do not fall to this earth, but from which substances fall, +and data of fields of ice from which ice may not fall, but from which +water may drip. I'm beginning to modify: that, at a distance from this +earth, gravitation has more effect than we have supposed, though less +effect than the dogmatists suppose and "prove." I'm coming out stronger +for the acceptance of a Neutral Zone--that this earth, like other +magnets, has a neutral zone, in which is the Super-Sargasso Sea, and in +which other worlds may be buoyed up, though projecting parts may be +subject to this earth's attraction-- + +But my preference: + +Here are the data. + +I now have one of the most interesting of the new correlates. I think I +should have brought it in before, but, whether out of place here, +because not accompanied by earthquake, or not, we'll have it. I offer it +as an instance of an eclipse, by a vast, dark body, that has been seen +and reported by an astronomer. The astronomer is M. Lias: the phenomenon +was seen by him, at Pernambuco, April 11, 1860. + +_Comptes Rendus_, 50-1197: + +It was about noon--sky cloudless--suddenly the light of the sun was +diminished. The darkness increased, and, to illustrate its intensity, we +are told that the planet Venus shone brilliant. But Venus was of low +visibility at this time. The observation that burns incense to the New +Dominant is: + +That around the sun appeared a corona. + +There are many other instances that indicate proximity of other world's +during earthquakes. I note a few--quake and an object in the sky, called +"a large, luminous meteor" (_Quar. Jour. Roy. Inst._, 5-132); luminous +body in the sky, earthquake, and fall of sand, Italy, Feb. 12 and 13, +1870 (_La Science Pour Tous_, 15-159); many reports upon luminous object +in the sky and earthquake, Connecticut, Feb. 27, 1883 (_Monthly Weather +Review_, February, 1883); luminous object, or meteor, in the sky, fall +of stones from the sky, and earthquake, Italy, Jan. 20, 1891 +(_L'Astronomie_, 1891-154); earthquake and prodigious number of luminous +bodies, or globes, in the air, Boulogne, France, June 7, 1779 (Sestier, +"_La Foudre_," 1-169); earthquake at Manila, 1863, and "curious luminous +appearance in the sky" (Ponton, _Earthquakes_, p. 124). + +The most notable appearance of fishes during an earthquake is that of +Riobamba. Humboldt sketched one of them, and it's an uncanny-looking +thing. Thousands of them appeared upon the ground during this tremendous +earthquake. Humboldt says that they were cast up from subterranean +sources. I think not myself, and have data for thinking not, but there'd +be such a row arguing back and forth that it's simpler to consider a +clearer instance of the fall of living fishes from the sky, during an +earthquake. I can't quite accept, myself, whether a large lake, and all +the fishes in it, was torn down from some other world, or a lake in the +Super-Sargasso Sea, distracted between two pulling worlds, was dragged +down to this earth-- + +Here are the data: + +_La Science Pour Tous_, 6-191: + +Feb. 16, 1861. An earthquake at Singapore. Then came an extraordinary +downpour of rain--or as much water as any good-sized lake would consist +of. For three days this rain or this fall of water came down in +torrents. In pools on the ground, formed by this deluge, great numbers +of fishes were found. The writer says that he had, himself, seen nothing +but water fall from the sky. Whether I'm emphasizing what a deluge it +was or not, he says that so terrific had been the downpour that he had +not been able to see three steps away from him. The natives said that +the fishes had fallen from the sky. Three days later the pools dried up +and many dead fishes were found, but, in the first place--though that's +an expression for which we have an instinctive dislike--the fishes had +been active and uninjured. Then follows material for another of our +little studies in the phenomena of disregard. A psycho-tropism here is +mechanically to take pen in hand and mechanically write that fishes +found on the ground after a heavy rainfall came from overflowing +streams. The writer of the account says that some of the fishes had +been found in his courtyard, which was surrounded by high walls--paying +no attention to this, a correspondent (_La Science Pour Tous_, 6-317) +explains that in the heavy rain a body of water had probably overflowed, +carrying fishes with it. We are told by the first writer that these +fishes of Singapore were of a species that was very abundant near +Singapore. So I think, myself, that a whole lakeful of them had been +shaken down from the Super-Sargasso Sea, under the circumstances we have +thought of. However, if appearance of strange fishes after an earthquake +be more pleasing in the sight, or to the nostrils, of the New Dominant, +we faithfully and piously supply that incense--An account of the +occurrence at Singapore was read by M. de Castelnau, before the French +Academy. M. de Castelnau recalled that, upon a former occasion, he had +submitted to the Academy the circumstance that fishes of a new species +had appeared at the Cape of Good Hope, after an earthquake. + +It seems proper, and it will give luster to the new orthodoxy, now to +have an instance in which, not merely quake and fall of rocks or +meteorites, or quake and either eclipse or luminous appearances in the +sky have occurred, but in which are combined all the phenomena, one or +more of which, when accompanying earthquake, indicate, in our +acceptance, the proximity of another world. This time a longer duration +is indicated than in other instances. + +In the _Canadian Institute Proceedings_, 2-7-198, there is an account, +by the Deputy Commissioner at Dhurmsalla, of the extraordinary +Dhurmsalla meteorite--coated with ice. But the combination of events +related by him is still more extraordinary: + +That within a few months of the fall of this meteorite there had been a +fall of live fishes at Benares, a shower of red substance at +Furruckabad, a dark spot observed on the disk of the sun, an earthquake, +"an unnatural darkness of some duration," and a luminous appearance in +the sky that looked like an aurora borealis-- + +But there's more to this climax: + +We are introduced to a new order of phenomena: + +Visitors. + +The Deputy Commissioner writes that, in the evening, after the fall of +the Dhurmsalla meteorite, or mass of stone covered with ice, he saw +lights. Some of them were not very high. They appeared and went out and +reappeared. I have read many accounts of the Dhurmsalla meteorite--July +28, 1860--but never in any other of them a mention of this new +correlate--something as out of place in the nineteenth century as would +have been an aeroplane--the invention of which would not, in our +acceptance, have been permitted, in the nineteenth century, though +adumbrations to it were permitted. This writer says that the lights +moved like fire balloons, but: + +"I am sure that they were neither fire balloons, lanterns, nor bonfires, +or any other thing of that sort, but bona fide lights in the heavens." + +It's a subject for which we shall have to have a separate +expression--trespassers upon territory to which something else has a +legal right--perhaps someone lost a rock, and he and his friends came +down looking for it, in the evening--or secret agents, or emissaries, +who had an appointment with certain esoteric ones near Dhurmsalla--things +or beings coming down to explore, and unable to stay down long-- + +In a way, another strange occurrence during an earthquake is suggested. +The ancient Chinese tradition--the marks like hoof marks in the ground. +We have thought--with a low degree of acceptance--of another world that +may be in secret communication with certain esoteric ones of this +earth's inhabitants--and of messages in symbols like hoof marks that are +sent to some receptor, or special hill, upon this earth--and of messages +that at times miscarry. + +This other world comes close to this world--there are quakes--but +advantage of proximity is taken to send a message--the message, designed +for a receptor in India, perhaps, or in Central Europe, miscarries all +the way to England--marks like the marks of the Chinese tradition are +found upon a beach, in Cornwall, after an earthquake-- + +_Phil. Trans._, 50-500: + +After the quake of July 15, 1757, upon the sands of Penzance, Cornwall, +in an area of more than 100 square yards, were found marks like hoof +prints, except that they were not crescentic. We feel a similarity, but +note an arbitrary disregard of our own, this time. It seems to us that +marks described as "little cones surrounded by basins of equal diameter" +would be like hoof prints, if hoofs printed complete circles. Other +disregards are that there were black specks on the tops of cones, as if +something, perhaps gaseous, had issued from them; that from one of these +formations came a gush of water as thick as a man's wrist. Of course the +opening of springs is common in earthquakes--but we suspect, myself, +that the Negative Absolute is compelling us to put in this datum and its +disorders. + +There's another matter in which the Negative Absolute seems to work +against us. Though to super-chemistry, we have introduced the principle +of celestio-metathesis, we have no good data of exchange of substances +during proximities. The data are all of falls and not of upward +translations. Of course upward impulses are common during earthquakes, +but I haven't a datum upon a tree or a fish or a brick or a man that +ever did go up and stay up and that never did come down again. Our +classic of the horse and barn occurred in what was called a whirlwind. + +It is said that, in an earthquake in Calabria, paving stones shot up far +in the air. + +The writer doesn't specifically say that they came down again, but +something seems to tell me they did. + +The corpses of Riobamba. + +Humboldt reported that, in the quake of Riobamba, "bodies were torn +upward from graves"; that "the vertical motion was so strong that bodies +were tossed several hundred feet in the air." + +I explain. + +I explain that, if in the center of greatest violence of an earthquake, +anything ever has gone up, and has kept on going up, the thoughts of the +nearest observers were very likely upon other subjects. + +The quay of Lisbon. + +We are told that it went down. + +A vast throng of persons ran to the quay for refuge. The city of Lisbon +was in profound darkness. The quay and all the people on it disappeared. +If it and they went down--not a single corpse, not a shred of clothing, +not a plank of the quay, nor so much as a splinter of it ever floated to +the surface. + + + + +18 + + +The New Dominant. + +I mean "primarily" all that opposes Exclusionism-- + +That Development or Progress or Evolution is Attempt to Positivize, and +is a mechanism by which a positive existence is recruited--that what we +call existence is a womb of infinitude, and is itself only +incubatory--that eventually all attempts are broken down by the falsely +excluded. Subjectively, the breaking down is aided by our own sense of +false and narrow limitations. So the classic and academic artists +wrought positivist paintings, and expressed the only ideal that I am +conscious of, though we so often hear of "ideals" instead of different +manifestations, artistically, scientifically, theologically, +politically, of the One Ideal. They sought to satisfy, in its artistic +aspect, cosmic craving for unity or completeness, sometimes called +harmony, called beauty in some aspects. By disregard they sought +completeness. But the light-effects that they disregarded, and their +narrow confinement to standardized subjects brought on the revolt of the +Impressionists. So the Puritans tried to systematize, and they +disregarded physical needs, or vices, or relaxations: they were invaded +and overthrown when their narrowness became obvious and intolerable. All +things strive for positiveness, for themselves, or for quasi-systems of +which they are parts. Formality and the mathematic, the regular and the +uniform are aspects of the positive state--but the Positive is the +Universal--so all attempted positiveness that seems to satisfy in the +aspects of formality and regularity, sooner or later disqualifies in the +aspect of wideness or universalness. So there is revolt against the +science of today, because the formulated utterances that were regarded +as final truths in a past generation, are now seen to be +insufficiencies. Every pronouncement that has opposed our own +acceptances has been found to be a composition like any academic +painting: something that is arbitrarily cut off from relations with +environment, or framed off from interfering and disturbing data, or +outlined with disregards. Our own attempt has been to take in the +included, but also to take in the excluded into wider expressions. We +accept, however, that for every one of our expressions there are +irreconcilables somewhere--that final utterance would include all +things. However, of such is the gossip of angels. The final is +unutterable in quasi-existence, where to think is to include but also to +exclude, or be not final. If we admit that for every opinion we have +expressed, there must somewhere be an irreconcilable, we are +Intermediatists and not positivists; not even higher positivists. Of +course it may be that some day we shall systematize and dogmatize and +refuse to think of anything that we may be accused of disregarding, and +believe instead of merely accepting: then, if we could have a wider +system, which would acknowledge no irreconcilables we'd be higher +positivists. So long as we only accept, we are not higher positivists, +but our feeling is that the New Dominant, even though we have thought of +it only as another enslavement, will be the nucleus for higher +positivism--and that it will be the means of elevating into infinitude a +new batch of fixed stars--until, as a recruiting instrument, it, too, +will play out, and will give way to some new medium for generating +absoluteness. It is our acceptance that all astronomers of today have +lost their souls, or, rather, all chance of attaining Entity, but that +Copernicus and Kepler and Galileo and Newton, and, conceivably, +Leverrier are now fixed stars. Some day I shall attempt to identify +them. In all this, I think we're quite a Moses. We point out the +Promised Land, but, unless we be cured of our Intermediatism, will never +be reported in _Monthly Notices_, ourself. + +In our acceptance, Dominants, in their succession, displace preceding +Dominants not only because they are more nearly positive, but because +the old Dominants, as recruiting mediums, play out. Our expression is +that the New Dominant, of Wider Inclusions, is now manifesting +throughout the world, and that the old Exclusionism is everywhere +breaking down. In physics Exclusionism is breaking down by its own +researches in radium, for instance, and in its speculations upon +electrons, or its merging away into metaphysics, and by the desertion +that has been going on for many years, by such men as Gurney, Crookes, +Wallace, Flammarion, Lodge, to formerly disregarded phenomena--no longer +called "spiritualism" but now "psychic research." Biology is in chaos: +conventional Darwinites mixed up with mutationists and orthogenesists +and followers of Wisemann, who take from Darwinism one of its +pseudo-bases, and nevertheless try to reconcile their heresies with +orthodoxy. The painters are metaphysicians and psychologists. The +breaking down of Exclusionism in China and Japan and in the United +States has astonished History. The science of astronomy is going +downward so that, though Pickering, for instance, did speculate upon a +Trans-Neptunian planet, and Lowell did try to have accepted heretical +ideas as to marks on Mars, attention is now minutely focused upon such +technicalities as variations in shades of Jupiter's fourth satellite. I +think that, in general acceptance, over-refinement indicates decadence. + +I think that the stronghold of Inclusionism is in aeronautics. I think +that the stronghold of the Old Dominant, when it was new, was in the +invention of the telescope. Or that coincidentally with the breakdown of +Exclusionism appears the means of finding out--whether there are vast +aerial fields of ice and floating lakes full of frogs and fishes or +not--where carved stones and black substances and great quantities of +vegetable matter and flesh, which may be dragons' flesh, come +from--whether there are inter-planetary trade routes and vast areas +devastated by Super-Tamerlanes--whether sometimes there are visitors to +this earth--who might be pursued and captured and questioned. + + + + +19 + + +I have industriously sought data for an expression upon birds, but the +prospecting has not been very quasi-satisfactory. I think I rather +emphasize our industriousness, because a charge likely to be brought +against the attitude of Acceptance is that one who only accepts must be +one of languid interest and little application of energy. It doesn't +seem to work out: we are very industrious. I suggest to some of our +disciples that they look into the matter of messages upon pigeons, of +course attributed to earthly owners, but said to be undecipherable. I'd +do it, ourselves, only that would be selfish. That's more of the +Intermediatism that will keep us out of the firmament: Positivism is +absolute egoism. But look back in the time of Andree's Polar Expedition. +Pigeons that would have no publicity ordinarily, were often reported at +that time. + +In the _Zoologist_, 3-18-21, is recorded an instance of a bird (puffin) +that had fallen to the ground with a fractured head. Interesting, but +mere speculation--but what solid object, high in the air, had that bird +struck against? + +Tremendous red rain in France, Oct. 16 and 17, 1846; great storm at the +time, and red rain supposed to have been colored by matter swept up from +this earth's surface, and then precipitated (_Comptes Rendus_, 23-832). +But in _Comptes Rendus_, 24-625, the description of this red rain +differs from one's impression of red, sandy or muddy water. It is said +that this rain was so vividly red and so blood-like that many persons in +France were terrified. Two analyses are given (_Comptes Rendus_, +24-812). One chemist notes a great quantity of corpuscles--whether +blood-like corpuscles or not--in the matter. The other chemist sets down +organic matter at 35 per cent. It may be that an inter-planetary dragon +had been slain somewhere, or that this red fluid, in which were many +corpuscles, came from something not altogether pleasant to contemplate, +about the size of the Catskill Mountains, perhaps--but the present +datum is that with this substance, larks, quail, ducks, and water hens, +some of them alive, fell at Lyons and Grenoble and other places. + +I have notes upon other birds that have fallen from the sky, but +unaccompanied by the red rain that makes the fall of birds in France +peculiar, and very peculiar, if it be accepted that the red substance +was extra-mundane. The other notes are upon birds that have fallen from +the sky, in the midst of storms, or of exhausted, but living, birds, +falling not far from a storm-area. But now we shall have an instance for +which I can find no parallel: fall of dead birds, from a clear sky, +far-distant from any storm to which they could be attributed--so remote +from any discoverable storm that-- + +My own notion is that, in the summer of 1896, something, or some beings, +came as near to this earth as they could, upon a hunting expedition; +that, in the summer of 1896, an expedition of super-scientists passed +over this earth, and let down a dragnet--and what would it catch, +sweeping through the air, supposing it to have reached not quite to this +earth? + +In the _Monthly Weather Review_, May, 1917, W.L. McAtee quotes from the +Baton Rouge correspondence to the _Philadelphia Times_: + +That, in the summer of 1896, into the streets of Baton Rouge, La., and +from a "clear sky," fell hundreds of dead birds. There were wild ducks +and cat birds, woodpeckers, and "many birds of strange plumage," some of +them resembling canaries. + +Usually one does not have to look very far from any place to learn of a +storm. But the best that could be done in this instance was to say: + +"There had been a storm on the coast of Florida." + +And, unless he have psycho-chemic repulsion for the explanation, the +reader feels only momentary astonishment that dead birds from a storm in +Florida should fall from an unstormy sky in Louisiana, and with his +intellect greased like the plumage of a wild duck, the datum then drops +off. + +Our greasy, shiny brains. That they may be of some use after all: that +other modes of existence place a high value upon them as lubricants; +that we're hunted for them; a hunting expedition to this earth--the +newspapers report a tornado. + +If from a clear sky, or a sky in which there were no driven clouds, or +other evidences of still-continuing wind-power--or, if from a storm in +Florida, it could be accepted that hundreds of birds had fallen far +away, in Louisiana, I conceive, conventionally, of heavier objects +having fallen in Alabama, say, and of the fall of still heavier objects +still nearer the origin in Florida. + +The sources of information of the Weather Bureau are widespread. + +It has no records of such falls. + +So a dragnet that was let down from above somewhere-- + +Or something that I learned from the more scientific of the +investigators of psychic phenomena: + +The reader begins their works with prejudice against telepathy +and everything else of psychic phenomena. The writers deny +spirit-communication, and say that the seeming data are data of "only +telepathy." Astonishing instances of seeming clairvoyance--"only +telepathy." After a while the reader finds himself agreeing that it's +only telepathy--which, at first, had been intolerable to him. + +So maybe, in 1896, a super-dragnet did not sweep through this earth's +atmosphere, gathering up all the birds within its field, the meshes then +suddenly breaking-- + +Or that the birds of Baton Rouge were only from the Super-Sargasso Sea-- + +Upon which we shall have another expression. We thought we'd settled +that, and we thought we'd establish that, but nothing's ever settled, +and nothing's ever established, in a real sense, if, in a real sense, +there is nothing in quasiness. + +I suppose there had been a storm somewhere, the storm in Florida, +perhaps, and many birds had been swept upward into the Super-Sargasso +Sea. It has frigid regions and it has tropical regions--that birds of +diverse species had been swept upward, into an icy region, where, +huddling together for warmth, they had died. Then, later, they had been +dislodged--meteor coming along--boat--bicycle--dragon--don't know what +did come along--something dislodged them. + +So leaves of trees, carried up there in whirlwinds, staying there years, +ages, perhaps only a few months, but then falling to this earth at an +unseasonable time for dead leaves--fishes carried up there, some of them +dying and drying, some of them living in volumes of water that are in +abundance up there, or that fall sometimes in the deluges that we call +"cloudbursts." + +The astronomers won't think kindly of us, and we haven't done anything +to endear ourselves to the meteorologists--but we're weak and mawkish +Intermediatists--several times we've tried to get the aeronauts with +us--extraordinary things up there: things that curators of museums would +give up all hope of ever being fixed stars, to obtain: things left over +from whirlwinds of the time of the Pharaohs, perhaps: or that Elijah did +go up in the sky in something like a chariot, and may not be Vega, after +all, and that there may be a wheel or so left of whatever he went up in. +We basely suggest that it would bring a high price--but sell soon, +because after a while there'd be thousands of them hawked around-- + +We weakly drop a hint to the aeronauts. + +In the _Scientific American_, 33-197, there is an account of some hay +that fell from the sky. From the circumstances we incline to accept that +this hay went up, in a whirlwind, from this earth, in the first place, +reached the Super-Sargasso Sea, and remained there a long time before +falling. An interesting point in this expression is the usual +attribution to a local and coinciding whirlwind, and identification of +it--and then data that make that local whirlwind unacceptable-- + +That, upon July 27, 1875, small masses of damp hay had fallen at +Monkstown, Ireland. In the _Dublin Daily Express_, Dr. J.W. Moore had +explained: he had found a nearby whirlwind, to the south of Monkstown, +that coincided. But, according to the _Scientific American_, a similar +fall had occurred near Wrexham, England, two days before. + +In November, 1918, I made some studies upon light objects thrown into +the air. Armistice-day. I suppose I should have been more emotionally +occupied, but I made notes upon torn-up papers thrown high in the air +from windows of office buildings. Scraps of paper did stay together for +a while. Several minutes, sometimes. + +_Cosmos_, 3-4-574: + +That, upon the 10th of April, 1869, at Autriche (Indre-et-Loire) a +great number of oak leaves--enormous segregation of them--fell from the +sky. Very calm day. So little wind that the leaves fell almost +vertically. Fall lasted about ten minutes. + +Flammarion, in _The Atmosphere_, p. 412, tells this story. + +He has to find a storm. + +He does find a squall--but it had occurred upon April 3rd. + +Flammarion's two incredibilities are--that leaves could remain a week in +the air: that they could stay together a week in the air. + +Think of some of your own observations upon papers thrown from an +aeroplane. + +Our one incredibility: + +That these leaves had been whirled up six months before, when they were +common on the ground, and had been sustained, of course not in the air, +but in a region gravitationally inert; and had been precipitated by the +disturbances of April rains. + +I have no records of leaves that have so fallen from the sky in October +or November, the season when one might expect dead leaves to be raised +from one place and precipitated somewhere else. I emphasize that this +occurred in April. + +_La Nature_, 1889-2-94: + +That, upon April 19, 1889, dried leaves, of different species, oak, elm, +etc., fell from the sky. This day, too, was a calm day. The fall was +tremendous. The leaves were seen to fall fifteen minutes, but, judging +from the quantity on the ground, it is the writer's opinion that they +had already been falling half an hour. I think that the geyser of +corpses that sprang from Riobamba toward the sky must have been an +interesting sight. If I were a painter, I'd like that subject. But this +cataract of dried leaves, too, is a study in the rhythms of the dead. In +this datum, the point most agreeable to us is the very point that the +writer in _La Nature_ emphasizes. Windlessness. He says that the surface +of the Loire was "absolutely smooth." The river was strewn with leaves +as far as he could see. + +_L'Astronomie_, 1894-194: + +That, upon the 7th of April, 1894, dried leaves fell at Clairvaux and +Outre-Aube, France. The fall is described as prodigious. Half an hour. +Then, upon the 11th, a fall of dried leaves occurred at Pontcarre. + +It is in this recurrence that we found some of our opposition to the +conventional explanation. The Editor (Flammarion) explains. He says that +the leaves had been caught up in a cyclone which had expended its force; +that the heavier leaves had fallen first. We think that that was all +right for 1894, and that it was quite good enough for 1894. But, in +these more exacting days, we want to know how wind-power insufficient to +hold some leaves in the air could sustain others four days. + +The factors in this expression are unseasonableness, not for dried +leaves, but for prodigious numbers of dried leaves; direct fall, +windlessness, month of April, and localization in France. The factor of +localization is interesting. Not a note have I upon fall of leaves from +the sky, except these notes. Were the conventional explanation, or "old +correlate" acceptable, it would seem that similar occurrences in other +regions should be as frequent as in France. The indication is that there +may be quasi-permanent undulations in the Super-Sargasso Sea, or a +pronounced inclination toward France-- + +Inspiration: + +That there may be a nearby world complementary to this world, where +autumn occurs at the time that is springtime here. + +Let some disciple have that. + +But there may be a dip toward France, so that leaves that are borne high +there, are more likely to be held in suspension than highflying leaves +elsewhere. Some other time I shall take up Super-geography, and be +guilty of charts. I think, now, that the Super-Sargasso Sea is an +oblique belt, with changing ramifications, over Great Britain, France, +Italy, and on to India. Relatively to the United States I am not very +clear, but think especially of the Southern States. + +The preponderance of our data indicates frigid regions aloft. +Nevertheless such phenomena as putrefaction have occurred often enough +to make super-tropical regions, also, acceptable. We shall have one more +datum upon the Super-Sargasso Sea. It seems to me that, by this time, +our requirements of support and reinforcement and agreement have been +quite as rigorous for acceptance as ever for belief: at least for full +acceptance. By virtue of mere acceptance, we may, in some later book, +deny the Super-Sargasso Sea, and find that our data relate to some other +complementary world instead--or the moon--and have abundant data for +accepting that the moon is not more than twenty or thirty miles away. +However, the Super-Sargasso Sea functions very well as a nucleus around +which to gather data that oppose Exclusionism. That is our main motive: +to oppose Exclusionism. + +Or our agreement with cosmic processes. The climax of our general +expression upon the Super-Sargasso Sea. Coincidentally appears something +else that may overthrow it later. + +_Notes and Queries_, 8-12-228: + +That in the province of Macerata, Italy (summer of 1897?) an immense +number of small, blood-colored clouds covered the sky. About an hour +later a storm broke, and myriad seeds fell to the ground. It is said +that they were identified as products of a tree found only in Central +Africa and the Antilles. + +If--in terms of conventional reasoning--these seeds had been high in the +air, they had been in a cold region. But it is our acceptance that these +seeds had, for a considerable time, been in a warm region, and for a +time longer than is attributable to suspension by wind-power: + +"It is said that a great number of the seeds were in the first stage of +germination." + + + + +20 + + +The New Dominant. + +Inclusionism. + +In it we have a pseudo-standard. + +We have a datum, and we give it an interpretation, in accordance with +our pseudo-standard. At present we have not the delusions of Absolutism +that may have translated some of the positivists of the nineteenth +century to heaven. We are Intermediatists--but feel a lurking suspicion +that we may some day solidify and dogmatize and illiberalize into higher +positivists. At present we do not ask whether something be reasonable or +preposterous, because we recognize that by reasonableness and +preposterousness are meant agreement and disagreement with a +standard--which must be a delusion--though not absolutely, of +course--and must some day be displaced by a more advanced +quasi-delusion. Scientists in the past have taken the positivist +attitude--is this or that reasonable or unreasonable? Analyze them and +we find that they meant relatively to a standard, such as Newtonism, +Daltonism, Darwinism, or Lyellism. But they have written and spoken and +thought as if they could mean real reasonableness and real +unreasonableness. + +So our pseudo-standard is Inclusionism, and, if a datum be a correlate +to a more widely inclusive outlook as to this earth and its externality +and relations with externality, its harmony with Inclusionism admits it. +Such was the process, and such was the requirement for admission in the +days of the Old Dominant: our difference is in underlying +Intermediatism, or consciousness that though we're more nearly real, we +and our standards are only quasi-- + +Or that all things--in our intermediate state--are phantoms in a +super-mind in a dreaming state--but striving to awaken to realness. + +Though in some respects our own Intermediatism is unsatisfactory, our +underlying feeling is-- + +That in a dreaming mind awakening is accelerated--if phantoms in that +mind know that they're only phantoms in a dream. Of course, they too are +quasi, or--but in a relative sense--they have an essence of what is +called realness. They are derived from experience or from +senes-relations, even though grotesque distortions. It seems acceptable +that a table that is seen when one is awake is more nearly real than a +dreamed table, which, with fifteen or twenty legs, chases one. + +So now, in the twentieth century, with a change of terms, and a change +in underlying consciousness, our attitude toward the New Dominant is the +attitude of the scientists of the nineteenth century to the Old +Dominant. We do not insist that our data and interpretations shall be +as shocking, grotesque, evil, ridiculous, childish, insincere, +laughable, ignorant to nineteenth-centuryites as were their data and +interpretations to the medieval-minded. We ask only whether data and +interpretations correlate. If they do, they are acceptable, perhaps only +for a short time, or as nuclei, or scaffolding, or preliminary sketches, +or as gropings and tentativenesses. Later, of course, when we cool off +and harden and radiate into space most of our present mobility, which +expresses in modesty and plasticity, we shall acknowledge no +scaffoldings, gropings or tentativenesses, but think we utter absolute +facts. A point in Intermediatism here is opposed to most current +speculations upon Development. Usually one thinks of the spiritual as +higher than the material, but, in our acceptance, quasi-existence is a +means by which the absolutely immaterial materializes absolutely, and, +being intermediate, is a state in which nothing is finally either +immaterial or material, all objects, substances, thoughts, occupying +some grade of approximation one way or the other. Final solidification +of the ethereal is, to us, the goal of cosmic ambition. Positivism is +Puritanism. Heat is Evil. Final Good is Absolute Frigidity. An Arctic +winter is very beautiful, but I think that an interest in monkeys +chattering in palm trees accounts for our own Intermediatism. + +Visitors. + +Our confusion here, out of which we are attempting to make quasi-order, +is as great as it has been throughout this book, because we have not the +positivist's delusion of homogeneity. A positivist would gather all data +that seem to relate to one kind of visitors and coldly disregard all +other data. I think of as many different kinds of visitors to this earth +as there are visitors to New York, to a jail, to a church--some persons +go to church to pick pockets, for instance. + +My own acceptance is that either a world or a vast +super-construction--or a world, if red substances and fishes fell from +it--hovered over India in the summer of 1860. Something then fell from +somewhere, July 17, 1860, at Dhurmsalla. Whatever "it" was, "it" is so +persistently alluded to as "a meteorite" that I look back and see that I +adopted this convention myself. But in the London _Times_, Dec. 26, +1860, Syed Abdoolah, Professor of Hindustani, University College, +London, writes that he had sent to a friend in Dhurmsalla, for an +account of the stones that had fallen at that place. The answer: + +"... divers forms and sizes, many of which bore great resemblance to +ordinary cannon balls just discharged from engines of war." + +It's an addition to our data of spherical objects that have arrived upon +this earth. Note that they are spherical stone objects. + +And, in the evening of this same day that something--took a shot at +Dhurmsalla--or sent objects upon which there may be decipherable +markings--lights were seen in the air-- + +I think, myself, of a number of things, beings, whatever they were, +trying to get down, but resisted, like balloonists, at a certain +altitude, trying to get farther up, but resisted. + +Not in the least except to good positivists, or the homogeneous-minded, +does this speculation interfere with the concept of some other world +that is in successful communication with certain esoteric ones upon this +earth, by a code of symbols that print in rock, like symbols of +telephotographers in selenium. + +I think that sometimes, in favorable circumstances, emissaries have come +to this earth--secret meetings-- + +Of course it sounds-- + +But: + +Secret meetings--emissaries--esoteric ones in Europe, before the war +broke out-- + +And those who suggested that such phenomena could be. + +However, as to most of our data, I think of super-things that have +passed close to this earth with no more interest in this earth than have +passengers upon a steamship in the bottom of the sea--or passengers may +have a keen interest, but circumstances of schedules and commercial +requirements forbid investigation of the bottom of the sea. + +Then, on the other hand, we may have data of super-scientific attempts +to investigate phenomena of this earth from above--perhaps by beings +from so far away that they had never even heard that something, +somewhere, asserts a legal right to this earth. + +Altogether, we're good intermediatists, but we can't be very good +hypnotists. + +Still another source of the merging away of our data: + +That, upon general principles of Continuity, if super-vessels, or +super-vehicles, have traversed this earth's atmosphere, there must be +mergers between them and terrestrial phenomena: observations upon them +must merge away into observations upon clouds and balloons and meteors. +We shall begin with data that we cannot distinguish ourselves and work +our way out of mergers into extremes. + +In the _Observatory_, 35-168, it is said that, according to a newspaper, +March 6, 1912, residents of Warmley, England, were greatly excited by +something that was supposed to be "a splendidly illuminated aeroplane, +passing over the village." "The machine was apparently traveling at a +tremendous rate, and came from the direction of Bath, and went on toward +Gloucester." The Editor says that it was a large, triple-headed +fireball. "Tremendous indeed!" he says. "But we are prepared for +anything nowadays." + +That is satisfactory. We'd not like to creep up stealthily and then jump +out of a corner with our data. This Editor, at least, is prepared to +read-- + +_Nature_, Oct. 27, 1898: + +A correspondent writes that, in the County Wicklow, Ireland, at about 6 +o'clock in the evening, he had seen, in the sky, an object that looked +like the moon in its three-quarter aspect. We note the shape which +approximates to triangularity, and we note that in color it is said to +have been golden yellow. It moved slowly, and in about five minutes +disappeared behind a mountain. + +The Editor gives his opinion that the object may have been an escaped +balloon. + +In _Nature_, Aug. 11, 1898, there is a story, taken from the July number +of the _Canadian Weather Review_, by the meteorologist, F.F. Payne: that +he had seen, in the Canadian sky, a large, pear-shaped object, sailing +rapidly. At first he supposed that the object was a balloon, "its +outline being sharply defined." "But, as no cage was seen, it was +concluded that it must be a mass of cloud." In about six minutes this +object became less definite--whether because of increasing distance or +not--"the mass became less dense, and finally it disappeared." As to +cyclonic formation--"no whirling motion could be seen." + +_Nature_, 58-294: + +That, upon July 8, 1898, a correspondent had seen, at Kiel, an object in +the sky, colored red by the sun, which had set. It was about as broad as +a rainbow, and about twelve degrees high. "It remained in its original +brightness about five minutes, and then faded rapidly, and then remained +almost stationary again, finally disappearing about eight minutes after +I first saw it." + +In an intermediate existence, we quasi-persons have nothing to judge by +because everything is its own opposite. If a hundred dollars a week be a +standard of luxurious living to some persons, it is poverty to others. +We have instances of three objects that were seen in the sky in a space +of three months, and this concurrence seems to me to be something to +judge by. Science has been built upon concurrence: so have been most of +the fallacies and fanaticisms. I feel the positivism of a Leverrier, or +instinctively take to the notion that all three of these observations +relate to the same object. However, I don't formulate them and predict +the next transit. Here's another chance for me to become a fixed +star--but as usual--oh, well-- + +A point in Intermediatism: + +That the Intermediatist is likely to be a flaccid compromiser. + +Our own attitude: + +Ours is a partly positive and partly negative state, or a state in which +nothing is finally positive or finally negative-- + +But, if positivism attract you, go ahead and try: you will be in harmony +with cosmic endeavor--but Continuity will resist you. Only to have +appearance in quasiness is to be proportionately positive, but beyond a +degree of attempted positivism, Continuity will rise to pull you back. +Success, as it is called--though there is only success-failure in +Intermediateness--will, in Intermediateness, be yours proportionately as +you are in adjustment with its own state, or some positivism mixed with +compromise and retreat. To be very positive is to be a Napoleon +Bonaparte, against whom the rest of civilization will sooner or later +combine. For interesting data, see newspaper accounts of fate of one +Dowie, of Chicago. + +Intermediatism, then, is recognition that our state is only a +quasi-state: it is no bar to one who desires to be positive: it is +recognition that he cannot be positive and remain in a state that is +positive-negative. Or that a great positivist--isolated--with no system +to support him--will be crucified, or will starve to death, or will be +put in jail and beaten to death--that these are the birth-pangs of +translation to the Positive Absolute. + +So, though positive-negative, myself, I feel the attraction of the +positive pole of our intermediate state, and attempt to correlate these +three data: to see them homogeneously; to think that they relate to one +object. + +In the aeronautic journals and in the London _Times_ there is no mention +of escaped balloons, in the summer or fall of 1898. In the _New York +Times_ there is no mention of ballooning in Canada or the United States, +in the summer of 1898. + +London _Times_, Sept. 29, 1885: + +A clipping from the _Royal Gazette_, of Bermuda, of Sept. 8, 1885, sent +to the _Times_ by General Lefroy: + +That, upon Aug. 27, 1885, at about 8:30 A.M., there was observed by Mrs. +Adelina D. Bassett, "a strange object in the clouds, coming from the +north." She called the attention of Mrs. L. Lowell to it, and they were +both somewhat alarmed. However, they continued to watch the object +steadily for some time. It drew nearer. It was of triangular shape, and +seemed to be about the size of a pilot-boat mainsail, with chains +attached to the bottom of it. While crossing the land it had appeared to +descend, but, as it went out to sea, it ascended, and continued to +ascend, until it was lost to sight high in the clouds. + +Or with such power to ascend, I don't think much myself of the notion +that it was an escaped balloon, partly deflated. Nevertheless, General +Lefroy, correlating with Exclusionism, attempts to give a terrestrial +interpretation to this occurrence. He argues that the thing may have +been a balloon that had escaped from France or England--or the only +aerial thing of terrestrial origin that, even to this date of about +thirty-five years later, has been thought to have crossed the Atlantic +Ocean. He accounts for the triangular form by deflation--"a shapeless +bag, barely able to float." My own acceptance is that great deflation +does not accord with observations upon its power to ascend. + +In the _Times_, Oct. 1, 1885, Charles Harding, of the R.M.S., argues +that if it had been a balloon from Europe, surely it would have been +seen and reported by many vessels. Whether he was as good a Briton as +the General or not, he shows awareness of the United States--or that the +thing may have been a partly collapsed balloon that had escaped from the +United States. + +General Lefroy wrote to _Nature_ about it (_Nature_, 33-99), +saying--whatever his sensitivenesses may have been--that the columns of +the _Times_ were "hardly suitable" for such a discussion. If, in the +past, there had been more persons like General Lefroy, we'd have better +than the mere fragments of data that in most cases are too broken up +very well to piece together. He took the trouble to write to a friend of +his, W.H. Gosling, of Bermuda--who also was an extraordinary person. He +went to the trouble of interviewing Mrs. Bassett and Mrs. Lowell. Their +description to him was somewhat different: + +An object from which nets were suspended-- + +Deflated balloon, with its network hanging from it-- + +A super-dragnet? + +That something was trawling overhead? + +The birds of Baton Rouge. + +Mr. Gosling wrote that the item of chains, or suggestion of a basket +that had been attached, had originated with Mr. Bassett, who had not +seen the object. Mr. Gosling mentioned a balloon that had escaped from +Paris in July. He tells of a balloon that fell in Chicago, September 17, +or three weeks later than the Bermuda object. + +It's one incredibility against another, with disregards and convictions +governed by whichever of the two Dominants looms stronger in each +reader's mind. That he can't think for himself any more than I can is +understood. + +My own correlates: + +I think that we're fished for. It may be that we're highly esteemed by +super-epicures somewhere. It makes me more cheerful when I think that we +may be of some use after all. I think that dragnets have often come down +and have been mistaken for whirlwinds and waterspouts. Some accounts of +seeming structure in whirlwinds and waterspouts are astonishing. And I +have data that, in this book, I can't take up at all--mysterious +disappearances. I think we're fished for. But this is a little +expression on the side: relates to trespassers; has nothing to do with +the subject that I shall take up at some other time--or our use to some +other mode of seeming that has a legal right to us. + +_Nature_, 33-137: + +"Our Paris correspondent writes that in relation to the balloon which is +said to have been seen over Bermuda, in September, no ascent took place +in France which can account for it." + +Last of August: not September. In the London _Times_ there is no mention +of balloon ascents in Great Britain, in the summer of 1885, but mention +of two ascents in France. Both balloons had escaped. In _L'Aeronaute_, +August, 1885, it is said that these balloons had been sent up from fetes +of the fourteenth of July--44 days before the observation at Bermuda. +The aeronauts were Gower and Eloy. Gower's balloon was found floating on +the ocean, but Eloy's balloon was not found. Upon the 17th of July it +was reported by a sea captain: still in the air; still inflated. + +But this balloon of Eloy's was a small exhibition balloon, made for +short ascents from fetes and fair grounds. In _La Nature_, 1885-2-131, +it is said that it was a very small balloon, incapable of remaining long +in the air. + +As to contemporaneous ballooning in the United States, I find only one +account: an ascent in Connecticut, July 29, 1885. Upon leaving this +balloon, the aeronauts had pulled the "rip cord," "turning it inside +out." (_New York Times_, Aug. 10, 1885.) + +To the Intermediatist, the accusation of "anthropomorphism" is +meaningless. There is nothing in anything that is unique or positively +different. We'd be materialists were it not quite as rational to express +the material in terms of the immaterial as to express the immaterial in +terms of the material. Oneness of allness in quasiness. I will engage to +write the formula of any novel in psycho-chemic terms, or draw its +graph in psycho-mechanic terms: or write, in romantic terms, the +circumstances and sequences of any chemic or electric or magnetic +reaction: or express any historic event in algebraic terms--or see Boole +and Jevons for economic situations expressed algebraically. + +I think of the Dominants as I think of persons--not meaning that they +are real persons--not meaning that we are real persons-- + +Or the Old Dominant and its jealousy, and its suppression of all things +and thoughts that endangered its supremacy. In reading discussions of +papers, by scientific societies, I have often noted how, when they +approached forbidden--or irreconcilable--subjects, the discussions were +thrown into confusion and ramification. It's as if scientific +discussions have often been led astray--as if purposefully--as if by +something directive, hovering over them. Of course I mean only the +Spirit of all Development. Just so, in any embryo, cells that would tend +to vary from the appearances of their era are compelled to correlate. + +In _Nature_, 90-169, Charles Tilden Smith writes that, at Chisbury, +Wiltshire, England, April 8, 1912, he saw something in the sky-- + +"--unlike anything that I had ever seen before." + +"Although I have studied the skies for many years, I have never seen +anything like it." + +He saw two stationary dark patches upon clouds. + +The extraordinary part: + +They were stationary upon clouds that were rapidly moving. + +They were fan-shaped--or triangular--and varied in size, but kept the +same position upon different clouds as cloud after cloud came along. For +more than half an hour Mr. Smith watched these dark patches-- + +His impression as to the one that appeared first: + +That it was "really a heavy shadow cast upon a thin veil of clouds by +some unseen object away in the west, which was intercepting the sun's +rays." + +Upon page 244, of this volume of _Nature_, is a letter from another +correspondent, to the effect that similar shadows are cast by mountains +upon clouds, and that no doubt Mr. Smith was right in attributing the +appearance to "some unseen object, which was intercepting the sun's +rays." But the Old Dominant that was a jealous Dominant, and the wrath +of the Old Dominant against such an irreconcilability as large, opaque +objects in the sky, casting down shadows upon clouds. Still the +Dominants are suave very often, or are not absolute gods, and the way +attention was led away from this subject is an interesting study in +quasi-divine bamboozlement. Upon page 268, Charles J.P. Cave, the +meteorologist, writes that, upon April 5 and 8, at Ditcham Park, +Petersfield, he had observed a similar appearance, while watching some +pilot balloons--but he describes something not in the least like a +shadow on clouds, but a stationary cloud--the inference seems to be that +the shadows at Chisbury may have been shadows of pilot balloons. Upon +page 322, another correspondent writes upon shadows cast by mountains; +upon page 348 someone else carries on the divergence by discussing this +third letter: then someone takes up the third letter mathematically; and +then there is a correction of error in this mathematic demonstration--I +think it looks very much like what I think it looks like. + +But the mystery here: + +That the dark patches at Chisbury could not have been cast by stationary +pilot balloons that were to the west, or that were between clouds and +the setting sun. If, to the west of Chisbury, a stationary object were +high in the air, intercepting the sun's rays, the shadow of the +stationary object would not have been stationary, but would have moved +higher and higher with the setting of the sun. + +I have to think of something that is in accord with no other data +whatsoever: + +A luminous body--not the sun--in the sky--but, because of some unknown +principle or atmospheric condition, its light extended down only about +to the clouds; that from it were suspended two triangular objects, like +the object that was seen in Bermuda; that it was this light that fell +short of the earth that these objects intercepted; that the objects were +drawn up and lowered from something overhead, so that, in its light, +their shadows changed size. + +If my grope seem to have no grasp in it, and, if a stationary balloon +will, in half an hour, not cast a stationary shadow from the setting +sun, we have to think of two triangular objects that accurately +maintained positions in a line between sun and clouds, and at the same +time approached and receded from clouds. Whatever it may have been, it's +enough to make the devout make the sign of the crucible, or whatever the +devotees of the Old Dominant do in the presence of a new correlate. + +Vast, black thing poised like a crow over the moon. + +It is our acceptance that these two shadows of Chisbury looked, from the +moon, like vast things, black as crows, poised over the earth. It is our +acceptance that two triangular luminosities and then two triangular +patches, like vast black things, poised like crows over the moon, and, +like the triangularities at Chisbury, have been seen upon, or over, the +moon: + +_Scientific American_, 46-49: + +Two triangular, luminous appearances reported by several observers in +Lebanon, Conn., evening of July 3, 1882, on the moon's upper limb. They +disappeared, and two dark triangular appearances that looked like +notches were seen three minutes later upon the lower limb. They +approached each other, met and instantly disappeared. + +The merger here is notches that have at times been seen upon the moon's +limb: thought to be cross sections of craters (_Monthly Notices, +R.A.S._, 37-432). But these appearances of July 3, 1882, were vast upon +the moon--"seemed to be cutting off or obliterating nearly a quarter of +its surface." + +Something else that may have looked like a vast black crow poised over +this earth from the moon: + +_Monthly Weather Review_, 41-599: + +Description of a shadow in the sky, of some unseen body, April 8, 1913, +Fort Worth, Texas--supposed to have been cast by an unseen cloud--this +patch of shade moved with the declining sun. + +_Rept. Brit. Assoc._, 1854-410: + +Account by two observers of a faint but distinctly triangular object, +visible for six nights in the sky. It was observed from two stations +that were not far apart. But the parallax was considerable. Whatever it +was, it was, acceptably, relatively close to this earth. + +I should say that relatively to phenomena of light we are in confusion +as great as some of the discords that orthodoxy is in relatively to +light. Broadly and intermediatistically, our position is: + +That light is not really and necessarily light--any more than is +anything else really and necessarily anything--but an interpretation of +a mode of force, as I suppose we have to call it, as light. At sea +level, the earth's atmosphere interprets sunlight as red or orange or +yellow. High up on mountains the sun is blue. Very high up on mountains +the zenith is black. Or it is orthodoxy to say that in inter-planetary +space, where there is no air, there is no light. So then the sun and +comets are black, but this earth's atmosphere, or, rather, dust +particles in it, interpret radiations from these black objects as light. + +We look up at the moon. + +The jet-black moon is so silvery white. + +I have about fifty notes indicating that the moon has atmosphere: +nevertheless most astronomers hold out that the moon has no atmosphere. +They have to: the theory of eclipses would not work out otherwise. So, +arguing in conventional terms, the moon is black. Rather +astonishing--explorers upon the moon--stumbling and groping in intense +darkness--with telescopes powerful enough, we could see them stumbling +and groping in brilliant light. + +Or, just because of familiarity, it is not now obvious to us how the +preposterousnesses of the old system must have seemed to the correlates +of the system preceding it. + +Ye jet-black silvery moon. + +Altogether, then, it may be conceivable that there are phenomena of +force that are interpretable as light as far down as the clouds, but not +in denser strata of air, or just the opposite of familiar +interpretations. + +I now have some notes upon an occurrence that suggests a force not +interpreted by air as light, but interpreted, or reflected by the ground +as light. I think of something that, for a week, was suspended over +London: of an emanation that was not interpreted as light until it +reached the ground. + +_Lancet_, June 1, 1867: + +That every night for a week, a light had appeared in Woburn Square, +London, upon the grass of a small park, enclosed by railings. Crowds +gathering--police called out "for the special service of maintaining +order and making the populace move on." The Editor of the _Lancet_ went +to the Square. He says that he saw nothing but a patch of light falling +upon an arbor at the northeast corner of the enclosure. Seems to me that +that was interesting enough. + +In this Editor we have a companion for Mr. Symons and Dr. Gray. He +suggests that the light came from a street lamp--does not say that he +could trace it to any such origin himself--but recommends that the +police investigate neighboring street lamps. + +I'd not say that such a commonplace as light from a street lamp would +not attract and excite and deceive great crowds for a week--but I do +accept that any cop who was called upon for extra work would have needed +nobody's suggestion to settle that point the very first thing. + +Or that something in the sky hung suspended over a London Square for a +week. + + + + +21 + + +_Knowledge_, Dec. 28, 1883: + +"Seeing so many meteorological phenomena in your excellent paper, +_Knowledge_, I am tempted to ask for an explanation of the following, +which I saw when on board the British India Company's steamer _Patna_, +while on a voyage up the Persian Gulf. In May, 1880, on a dark night, +about 11:30 P.M., there suddenly appeared on each side of the ship an +enormous luminous wheel, whirling around, the spokes of which seemed to +brush the ship along. The spokes would be 200 or 300 yards long, and +resembled the birch rods of the dames' schools. Each wheel contained +about sixteen spokes, and, although the wheels must have been some 500 +or 600 yards in diameter, the spokes could be distinctly seen all the +way round. The phosphorescent gleam seemed to glide along flat on the +surface of the sea, no light being visible in the air above the water. +The appearance of the spokes could be almost exactly represented by +standing in a boat and flashing a bull's eye lantern horizontally along +the surface of the water, round and round. I may mention that the +phenomenon was also seen by Captain Avern, of the _Patna_, and Mr. +Manning, third officer. + +"Lee Fore Brace. + +"P.S.--The wheels advanced along with the ship for about twenty +minutes.--L.F.B." + +_Knowledge_, Jan. 11, 1884: + +Letter from "A. Mc. D.": + +That "Lee Fore Brace," "who sees 'so many meteorological phenomena in +your excellent paper,' should have signed himself 'The Modern Ezekiel,' +for his vision of wheels is quite as wonderful as the prophet's." The +writer then takes up the measurements that were given, and calculates a +velocity at the circumference of a wheel, of about 166 yards per second, +apparently considering that especially incredible. He then says: "From +the nom de plume he assumes, it might be inferred that your +correspondent is in the habit of 'sailing close to the wind.'" He asks +permission to suggest an explanation of his own. It is that before 11:30 +P.M. there had been numerous accidents to the "main brace," and that it +had required splicing so often that almost any ray of light would have +taken on a rotary motion. + +In _Knowledge_, Jan. 25, 1884, Mr. "Brace" answers and signs himself +"J.W. Robertson": + +"I don't suppose A. Mc. D. means any harm, but I do think it's rather +unjust to say a man is drunk because he sees something out of the +common. If there's one thing I pride myself upon, it's being able to say +that never in my life have I indulged in anything stronger than water." +From this curiosity of pride, he goes on to say that he had not intended +to be exact, but to give his impressions of dimensions and velocity. He +ends amiably: "However, 'no offense taken, where I suppose none is +meant.'" + +To this letter Mr. Proctor adds a note, apologizing for the publication +of "A. Mc. D's." letter, which had come about by a misunderstood +instruction. Then Mr. Proctor wrote disagreeable letters, himself, +about other persons--what else would you expect in a quasi-existence? + +The obvious explanation of this phenomenon is that, under the surface of +the sea, in the Persian Gulf, was a vast luminous wheel: that it was the +light from its submerged spokes that Mr. Robertson saw, shining upward. +It seems clear that this light did shine upward from origin below the +surface of the sea. But at first it is not so clear how vast luminous +wheels, each the size of a village, ever got under the surface of the +Persian Gulf: also there may be some misunderstanding as to what they +were doing there. + +A deep-sea fish, and its adaptation to a dense medium-- + +That, at least in some regions aloft, there is a medium dense even to +gelatinousness-- + +A deep-sea fish, brought to the surface of the ocean: in a relatively +attenuated medium, it disintegrates-- + +Super-constructions adapted to a dense medium in inter-planetary +space--sometimes, by stresses of various kinds, they are driven into +this earth's thin atmosphere-- + +Later we shall have data to support just this: that things entering this +earth's atmosphere disintegrate and shine with a light that is not the +light of incandescence: shine brilliantly, even if cold-- + +Vast wheel-like super-constructions--they enter this earth's atmosphere, +and, threatened with disintegration, plunge for relief into an ocean, or +into a denser medium. + +Of course the requirements now facing us are: + +Not only data of vast wheel-like super-constructions that have relieved +their distresses in the ocean, but data of enormous wheels that have +been seen in the air, or entering the ocean, or rising from the ocean +and continuing their voyages. + +Very largely we shall concern ourselves with enormous fiery objects that +have either plunged into the ocean or risen from the ocean. Our +acceptance is that, though disruption may intensify into incandescence, +apart from disruption and its probable fieriness, things that enter this +earth's atmosphere have a cold light which would not, like light from +molten matter, be instantly quenched by water. Also it seems acceptable +that a revolving wheel would, from a distance, look like a globe; that a +revolving wheel, seen relatively close by, looks like a wheel in few +aspects. The mergers of ball-lightning and meteorites are not +resistances to us: our data are of enormous bodies. + +So we shall interpret--and what does it matter? + +Our attitude throughout this book: + +That here are extraordinary data--that they never would be exhumed, and +never would be massed together, unless-- + +Here are the data: + +Our first datum is of something that was once seen to enter an ocean. +It's from the puritanic publication, _Science_, which has yielded us +little material, or which, like most puritans, does not go upon a spree +very often. Whatever the thing could have been, my impression is of +tremendousness, or of bulk many times that of all meteorites in all +museums combined: also of relative slowness, or of long warning of +approach. The story, in _Science_, 5-242, is from an account sent to the +Hydrographic Office, at Washington, from the branch office, at San +Francisco: + +That, at midnight, Feb. 24, 1885, Lat. 37 deg. N., and Long. 170 deg. E., or +somewhere between Yokohama and Victoria, the captain of the bark +_Innerwich_ was aroused by his mate, who had seen something unusual in +the sky. This must have taken appreciable time. The captain went on deck +and saw the sky turning fiery red. "All at once, a large mass of fire +appeared over the vessel, completely blinding the spectators." The fiery +mass fell into the sea. Its size may be judged by the volume of water +cast up by it, said to have rushed toward the vessel with a noise that +was "deafening." The bark was struck flat aback, and "a roaring, white +sea passed ahead." "The master, an old, experienced mariner, declared +that the awfulness of the sight was beyond description." + +In _Nature_, 37-187, and _L'Astronomie_; 1887-76, we are told that an +object, described as "a large ball of fire," was seen to rise from the +sea, near Cape Race. We are told that it rose to a height of fifty feet, +and then advanced close to the ship, then moving away, remaining visible +about five minutes. The supposition in _Nature_ is that it was "ball +lightning," but Flammarion, _Thunder and Lightning_, p. 68, says that it +was enormous. Details in the American _Meteorological Journal_, +6-443--Nov. 12, 1887--British steamer _Siberian_--that the object had +moved "against the wind" before retreating--that Captain Moore said that +at about the same place he had seen such appearances before. + +_Report of the British Association_, 1861-30: + +That, upon June 18, 1845, according to the _Malta Times_, from the brig +_Victoria_, about 900 miles east of Adalia, Asia Minor (36 deg. 40' 56", N. +Lat.: 13 deg. 44' 36" E. Long.), three luminous bodies were seen to issue +from the sea, at about half a mile from the vessel. They were visible +about ten minutes. + +The story was never investigated, but other accounts that seem +acceptably to be other observations upon this same sensational spectacle +came in, as if of their own accord, and were published by Prof. +Baden-Powell. One is a letter from a correspondent at Mt. Lebanon. He +describes only two luminous bodies. Apparently they were five times the +size of the moon: each had appendages, or they were connected by parts +that are described as "sail-like or streamer-like," looking like "large +flags blown out by a gentle breeze." The important point here is not +only suggestion of structure, but duration. The duration of meteors is a +few seconds: duration of fifteen seconds is remarkable, but I think +there are records up to half a minute. This object, if it were all one +object, was visible at Mt. Lebanon about one hour. An interesting +circumstance is that the appendages did not look like trains of meteors, +which shine by their own light, but "seemed to shine by light from the +main bodies." + +About 900 miles west of the position of the _Victoria_ is the town of +Adalia, Asia Minor. At about the time of the observation reported by the +captain of the _Victoria_, the Rev. F. Hawlett, F.R.A.S., was in Adalia. +He, too, saw this spectacle, and sent an account to Prof. Baden-Powell. +In his view it was a body that appeared and then broke up. He places +duration at twenty minutes to half an hour. + +In the _Report of the British Association_, 1860-82, the phenomenon was +reported from Syria and Malta, as two very large bodies "nearly joined." + +_Rept. Brit. Assoc._, 1860-77: + +That, at Cherbourg, France, Jan. 12, 1836, was seen a luminous body, +seemingly two-thirds the size of the moon. It seemed to rotate on an +axis. Central to it there seemed to be a dark cavity. + +For other accounts, all indefinite, but distortable into data of +wheel-like objects in the sky, see _Nature_, 22-617; London _Times_, +Oct. 15, 1859; _Nature_, 21-225; _Monthly Weather Review_, 1883-264. + +_L'Astronomie_, 1894-157: + +That, upon the morning of Dec. 20, 1893, an appearance in the sky was +seen by many persons in Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. A +luminous body passed overhead, from west to east, until at about 15 +degrees in the eastern horizon, it appeared to stand still for fifteen +or twenty minutes. According to some descriptions it was the size of a +table. To some observers it looked like an enormous wheel. The light was +a brilliant white. Acceptably it was not an optical illusion--the noise +of its passage through the air was heard. Having been stationary, or +having seemed to stand still fifteen or twenty minutes, it disappeared, +or exploded. No sound of explosion was heard. + +Vast wheel-like constructions. They're especially adapted to roll +through a gelatinous medium from planet to planet. Sometimes, because of +miscalculations, or because of stresses of various kinds, they enter +this earth's atmosphere. They're likely to explode. They have to +submerge in the sea. They stay in the sea awhile, revolving with +relative leisureliness, until relieved, and then emerge, sometimes close +to vessels. Seamen tell of what they see: their reports are interred in +scientific morgues. I should say that the general route of these +constructions is along latitudes not far from the latitudes of the +Persian Gulf. + +_Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society_, 28-29: + +That, upon April 4, 1901, about 8:30, in the Persian Gulf, Captain +Hoseason, of the steamship _Kilwa_, according to a paper read before the +Society by Captain Hoseason, was sailing in a sea in which there was no +phosphorescence--"there being no phosphorescence in the water." + +I suppose I'll have to repeat that: + +"... there being no phosphorescence in the water." + +Vast shafts of light--though the captain uses the word +"ripples"--suddenly appeared. Shaft followed shaft, upon the surface of +the sea. But it was only a faint light, and, in about fifteen minutes, +died out: having appeared suddenly, having died out gradually. The +shafts revolved at a velocity of about 60 miles an hour. + +Phosphorescent jellyfish correlate with the Old Dominant: in one of the +most heroic compositions of disregards in our experience, it was agreed, +in the discussion of Capt. Hoseason's paper, that the phenomenon was +probably pulsations of long strings of jellyfish. + +_Nature_, 21-410: + +Reprint of a letter from R.E. Harris, Commander of the A.H.N. Co.'s +steamship _Shahjehan_, to the Calcutta _Englishman_, Jan. 21, 1880: + +That upon the 5th of June, 1880, off the coast of Malabar, at 10 P.M., +water calm, sky cloudless, he had seen something that was so foreign to +anything that he had ever seen before, that he had stopped his ship. He +saw what he describes as waves of brilliant light, with spaces between. +Upon the water were floating patches of a substance that was not +identified. Thinking in terms of the conventional explanation of all +phosphorescence at sea, the captain at first suspected this substance. +However, he gives his opinion that it did no illuminating but was, with +the rest of the sea, illuminated by tremendous shafts of light. Whether +it was a thick and oily discharge from the engine of a submerged +construction or not, I think that I shall have to accept this substance +as a concomitant, because of another note. "As wave succeeded wave, one +of the most grand and brilliant, yet solemn, spectacles that one could +think of, was here witnessed." + +_Jour. Roy. Met. Soc._, 32-280: + +Extract from a letter from Mr. Douglas Carnegie, Blackheath, England. +Date some time in 1906-- + +"This last voyage we witnessed a weird and most extraordinary electric +display." In the Gulf of Oman, he saw a bank of apparently quiescent +phosphorescence: but, when within twenty yards of it, "shafts of +brilliant light came sweeping across the ship's bows at a prodigious +speed, which might be put down as anything between 60 and 200 miles an +hour." "These light bars were about 20 feet apart and most regular." As +to phosphorescence--"I collected a bucketful of water, and examined it +under the microscope, but could not detect anything abnormal." That the +shafts of light came up from something beneath the surface--"They first +struck us on our broadside, and I noticed that an intervening ship had +no effect on the light beams: they started away from the lee side of the +ship, just as if they had traveled right through it." + +The Gulf of Oman is at the entrance to the Persian Gulf. + +_Jour. Roy. Met. Soc._, 33-294: + +Extract from a letter by Mr. S.C. Patterson, second officer of the P. +and O. steamship _Delta_: a spectacle which the _Journal_ continues to +call phosphorescent: + +Malacca Strait, 2 A.M., March 14, 1907: + +"... shafts which seemed to move round a center--like the spokes of a +wheel--and appeared to be about 300 yards long. The phenomenon lasted +about half an hour, during which time the ship had traveled six or seven +miles. It stopped suddenly." + +_L'Astronomie_, 1891-312: + +A correspondent writes that, in October, 1891, in the China Sea, he had +seen shafts or lances of light that had had the appearance of rays of a +searchlight, and that had moved like such rays. + +_Nature_, 20-291: + +Report to the Admiralty by Capt. Evans, the Hydrographer of the British +Navy: + +That Commander J.E. Pringle, of H.M.S. _Vulture_, had reported that, at +Lat. 26 deg. 26' N., and Long. 53 deg. 11' E.--in the Persian Gulf--May 15, +1879, he had noticed luminous waves or pulsations in the water, moving +at great speed. This time we have a definite datum upon origin somewhere +below the surface. It is said that these waves of light passed under the +_Vulture_. "On looking toward the east, the appearance was that of a +revolving wheel with a center on that bearing, and whose spokes were +illuminated, and, looking toward the west, a similar wheel appeared to +be revolving, but in the opposite direction." Or finally as to +submergence--"These waves of light extended from the surface well under +the water." It is Commander Pringle's opinion that the shafts +constituted one wheel, and that doubling was an illusion. He judges the +shafts to have been about 25 feet broad, and the spaces about 100. +Velocity about 84 miles an hour. Duration about 35 minutes. Time 9:40 +P.M. Before and after this display the ship had passed through patches +of floating substance described as "oily-looking fish spawn." + +Upon page 428 of this number of _Nature_, E.L. Moss says that, in April, +1875, when upon H.M.S. _Bulldog_, a few miles north of Vera Cruz, he had +seen a series of swift lines of light. He had dipped up some of the +water, finding in it animalcule, which would, however, not account for +phenomena of geometric formation and high velocity. If he means Vera +Cruz, Mexico, this is the only instance we have out of oriental waters. + +_Scientific American_, 106-51: + +That, in the _Nautical Meteorological Annual_, published by the Danish +Meteorological Institute, appears a report upon a "singular phenomenon" +that was seen by Capt. Gabe, of the Danish East Asiatic Co.'s steamship +_Bintang_. At 3 A.M., June 10, 1909, while sailing through the Straits +of Malacca, Captain Gabe saw a vast revolving wheel of light, flat upon +the water--"long arms issuing from a center around which the whole +system appeared to rotate." So vast was the appearance that only half of +it could be seen at a time, the center lying near the horizon. This +display lasted about fifteen minutes. Heretofore we have not been clear +upon the important point that forward motions of these wheels do not +synchronize with a vessel's motions, and freaks of disregard, or, +rather, commonplaces of disregard, might attempt to assimilate with +lights of a vessel. This time we are told that the vast wheel moved +forward, decreasing in brilliancy, and also in speed of rotation, +disappearing when the center was right ahead of the vessel--or my own +interpretation would be that the source of light was submerging deeper +and deeper and slowing down because meeting more and more resistance. + +The Danish Meteorological Institute reports another instance: + +That, when Capt. Breyer, of the Dutch steamer _Valentijn_, was in the +South China Sea, midnight, Aug. 12, 1910, he saw a rotation of flashes. +"It looked like a horizontal wheel, turning rapidly." This time it is +said that the appearance was above water. "The phenomenon was observed +by the captain, the first and second mates, and the first engineer, and +upon all of them it made a somewhat uncomfortable impression." + +In general, if our expression be not immediately acceptable, we +recommend to rival interpreters that they consider the localization--with +one exception--of this phenomenon, to the Indian Ocean and adjacent waters, +or Persian Gulf on one side and China Sea on the other side. Though we're +Intermediatists, the call of attempted Positivism, in the aspect of +Completeness, is irresistible. We have expressed that from few aspects +would wheels of fire in the air look like wheels of fire, but, if we can +get it, we must have observation upon vast luminous wheels, not +interpretable as optical illusions, but enormous, substantial things +that have smashed down material resistances, and have been seen to +plunge into the ocean: + +_Athenaeum_, 1848-833: + +That at the meeting of the British Association, 1848, Sir W.S. Harris +said that he had recorded an account sent to him of a vessel toward +which had whirled "two wheels of fire, which the men described as +rolling millstones of fire." "When they came near, an awful crash took +place: the topmasts were shivered to pieces." It is said that there was +a strong sulphurous odor. + + + + +22 + + +_Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society_, 1-157: + +Extract from the log of the bark _Lady of the Lake_, by Capt. F.W. +Banner: + +Communicated by R.H. Scott, F.R.S.: + +That, upon the 22nd of March, 1870, at Lat. 5 deg. 47' N., Long. 27 deg. 52' W., +the sailors of the _Lady of the Lake_ saw a remarkable object, or +"cloud," in the sky. They reported to the captain. + +According to Capt. Banner, it was a cloud of circular form, with an +included semi-circle divided into four parts, the central dividing shaft +beginning at the center of the circle and extending far outward, and +then curving backward. + +Geometricity and complexity and stability of form: and the small +likelihood of a cloud maintaining such diversity of features, to say +nothing of appearance of organic form. + +The thing traveled from a point at about 20 degrees above the horizon to +a point about 80 degrees above. Then it settled down to the northeast, +having appeared from the south, southeast. + +Light gray in color, or it was cloud-color. + +"It was much lower than the other clouds." + +And this datum stands out: + +That, whatever it may have been, it traveled against the wind. + +"It came up obliquely against the wind, and finally settled down right +in the wind's eye." + +For half an hour this form was visible. When it did finally disappear +that was not because it disintegrated like a cloud, but because it was +lost to sight in the evening darkness. + +Capt. Banner draws the following diagram: + +[Illustration] + + + + +23 + + +Text-books tell us that the Dhurmsalla meteorites were picked up "soon," +or "within half an hour." Given a little time the conventionalists may +argue that these stones were hot when they fell, but that their great +interior coldness had overcome the molten state of their surfaces. + +According to the Deputy Commissioner of Dhurmsalla, these stones had +been picked up "immediately" by passing coolies. + +These stones were so cold that they benumbed the fingers. But they had +fallen with a great light. It is described as "a flame of fire about +two feet in depth and nine feet in length." Acceptably this light was +not the light of molten matter. + +In this chapter we are very intermediatistic--and unsatisfactory. To the +intermediatist there is but one answer to all questions: + +Sometimes and sometimes not. + +Another form of this intermediatist "solution" of all problems is: + +Yes and no. + +Everything that is, also isn't. + +A positivist attempts to formulate: so does the intermediatist, but with +less rigorousness: he accepts but also denies: he may seem to accept in +one respect and deny in some other respect, but no real line can be +drawn between any two aspects of anything. The intermediatist accepts +that which seems to correlate with something that he has accepted as a +dominant. The positivist correlates with a belief. + +In the Dhurmsalla meteorites we have support for our expression that +things entering this earth's atmosphere sometimes shine with a light +that is not the light of incandescence--or so we account, or offer an +expression upon, "thunderstones," or carved stones that have fallen +luminously to this earth, in streaks that have looked like strokes of +lightning--but we accept, also, that some things that have entered this +earth's atmosphere, disintegrate with the intensity of flame and molten +matter--but some things, we accept, enter this earth's atmosphere and +collapse non-luminously, quite like deep-sea fishes brought to the +surface of the ocean. Whatever agreement we have is an indication that +somewhere aloft there is a medium denser than this earth's atmosphere. I +suppose our stronghold is in that such is not popular belief-- + +Or the rhythm of all phenomena: + +Air dense at sea level upon this earth--less and less dense as one +ascends--then denser and denser. A good many bothersome questions +arise-- + +Our attitude: + +Here are the data: + +Luminous rains sometimes fall (_Nature_, March 9, 1882; _Nature_, +25-437). This is light that is not the light of incandescence, but no +one can say that these occasional, or rare, rains come from this +earth's externality. We simply note cold light of falling bodies. For +luminous rain, snow, and dust, see Hartwig, _Aerial World_, p. 319. As +to luminous clouds, we have more nearly definite observations and +opinions: they mark transition between the Old Dominant and the New +Dominant. We have already noted the transition in Prof. Schwedoffs +theory of external origin of some hailstones--and the implications that, +to a former generation, seemed so preposterous--"droll" was the +word--that there are in inter-planetary regions volumes of +water--whether they have fishes and frogs in them or not. Now our +acceptance is that clouds sometimes come from external regions, having +had origin from super-geographical lakes and oceans that we shall not +attempt to chart, just at present--only suggesting to enterprising +aviators--and we note that we put it all up to them, and show no +inclination to go Columbusing on our own account--that they take bathing +suits, or, rather, deep-sea diving-suits along. So then that some clouds +come from inter-planetary oceans--of the Super-Sargasso Sea--if we still +accept the Super-Sargasso Sea--and shine, upon entering this earth's +atmosphere. In _Himmel und Erde_, February, 1889--a phenomenon of +transition of thirty years ago--Herr O. Jesse, in his observations upon +luminous night-clouds, notes the great height of them, and drolly or +sensibly suggests that some of them may have come from regions external +to this earth. I suppose he means only from other planets. But it's a +very droll and sensible idea either way. + +In general I am accounting for a great deal of this earth's isolation: +that it is relatively isolated by circumstances that are similar to the +circumstances that make for relative isolation of the bottom of the +ocean--except that there is a clumsiness of analogy now. To call +ourselves deep-sea fishes has been convenient, but, in a +quasi-existence, there is no convenience that will not sooner or later +turn awkward--so, if there be denser regions aloft, these regions should +now be regarded as analogues of far-submerged oceanic regions, and +things coming to this earth would be like things rising to an attenuated +medium--and exploding--sometimes incandescently, sometimes with cold +light--sometimes non-luminously, like deep-sea fishes brought to the +surface--altogether conditions of inhospitality. I have a suspicion +that, in their own depths, deep-sea fishes are not luminous. If they +are, Darwinism is mere jesuitism, in attempting to correlate them. Such +advertising would so attract attention that all advantages would be more +than offset. Darwinism is largely a doctrine of concealment: here we +have brazen proclamation--if accepted. Fishes in the Mammoth Cave need +no light to see by. We might have an expression that deep-sea fishes +turn luminous upon entering a less dense medium--but models in the +American Museum of Natural History: specialized organs of luminosity +upon these models. Of course we do remember that awfully convincing +"dodo," and some of our sophistications we trace to him--at any rate +disruption is regarded as a phenomenon of coming from a dense to a less +dense medium. + +An account by M. Acharius, in the _Transactions of the Swedish Academy +of Sciences_, 1808-215, translated for the _North American Review_, +3-319: + +That M. Acharius, having heard of "an extraordinary and probably +hitherto unseen phenomenon," reported from near the town of Skeninge, +Sweden, investigated: + +That, upon the 16th of May, 1808, at about 4 P.M., the sun suddenly +turned dull brick-red. At the same time there appeared, upon the western +horizon, a great number of round bodies, dark brown, and seemingly the +size of a hat crown. They passed overhead and disappeared in the eastern +horizon. Tremendous procession. It lasted two hours. Occasionally one +fell to the ground. When the place of a fall was examined, there was +found a film, which soon dried and vanished. Often, when approaching the +sun, these bodies seemed to link together, or were then seen to be +linked together, in groups not exceeding eight, and, under the sun, they +were seen to have tails three or four fathoms long. Away from the sun +the tails were invisible. Whatever their substance may have been, it is +described as gelatinous--"soapy and jellied." + +I place this datum here for several reasons. It would have been a good +climax to our expression upon hordes of small bodies that, in our +acceptance, were not seeds, nor birds, nor ice-crystals: but the +tendency would have been to jump to the homogeneous conclusion that all +our data in that expression related to this one kind of phenomena, +whereas we conceive of infinite heterogeneity of the external: of +crusaders and rabbles and emigrants and tourists and dragons and things +like gelatinous hat crowns. Or that all things, here, upon this earth, +that flock together, are not necessarily sheep, Presbyterians, +gangsters, or porpoises. The datum is important to us, here, as +indication of disruption in this earth's atmosphere--dangers in entering +this earth's atmosphere. + +I think, myself, that thousands of objects have been seen to fall from +aloft, and have exploded luminously, and have been called "ball +lightning." + +"As to what ball lightning is, we have not yet begun to make intelligent +guesses." (_Monthly Weather Review_, 34-17.) + +In general, it seems to me that when we encounter the opposition "ball +lightning" we should pay little attention, but confine ourselves to +guesses that are at least intelligent, that stand phantom-like in our +way. We note here that in some of our acceptances upon intelligence we +should more clearly have pointed out that they were upon the intelligent +as opposed to the instinctive. In the _Monthly Weather Review_, 33-409, +there is an account of "ball lightning" that struck a tree. It made a +dent such as a falling object would make. Some other time I shall +collect instances of "ball lightning," to express that they are +instances of objects that have fallen from the sky, luminously, +exploding terrifically. So bewildered is the old orthodoxy by these +phenomena that many scientists have either denied "ball lightning" or +have considered it very doubtful. I refer to Dr. Sestier's list of one +hundred and fifty instances, which he considered authentic. + +In accord with our disaccord is an instance related in the _Monthly +Weather Review_, March, 1887--something that fell luminously from the +sky, accompanied by something that was not so affected, or that was +dark: + +That, according to Capt. C.D. Sweet, of the Dutch bark, _J.P.A._, upon +March 19, 1887, N. 37 deg. 39', W. 57 deg. 00', he encountered a severe storm. +He saw two objects in the air above the ship. One was luminous, and +might be explained in several ways, but the other was dark. One or both +fell into the sea, with a roar and the casting up of billows. It is our +acceptance that these things had entered this earth's atmosphere, +having first crashed through a field of ice--"immediately afterward +lumps of ice fell." + +One of the most astonishing of the phenomena of "ball lightning" is a +phenomenon of many meteorites: violence of explosion out of all +proportion to size and velocity. We accept that the icy meteorites of +Dhurmsalla could have fallen with no great velocity, but the sound from +them was tremendous. The soft substance that fell at the Cape of Good +Hope was carbonaceous, but was unburned, or had fallen with velocity +insufficient to ignite it. The tremendous report that it made was heard +over an area more than seventy miles in diameter. + +That some hailstones have been formed in a dense medium, and violently +disintegrate in this earth's relatively thin atmosphere: + +_Nature_, 88-350: + +Large hailstones noted at the University of Missouri, Nov. 11, 1911: +they exploded with sounds like pistol shots. The writer says that he had +noticed a similar phenomenon, eighteen years before, at Lexington, +Kentucky. Hailstones that seemed to have been formed in a denser medium: +when melted under water they gave out bubbles larger than their central +air spaces. (_Monthly Weather Review_, 33-445.) + +Our acceptance is that many objects have fallen from the sky, but that +many of them have disintegrated violently. This acceptance will +co-ordinate with data still to come, but, also, we make it easy for +ourselves in our expressions upon super-constructions, if we're asked +why, from thinkable wrecks of them, girders, plates, or parts +recognizably of manufactured metal have not fallen from the sky. +However, as to composition, we have not this refuge, so it is our +expression that there have been reported instances of the fall of +manufactured metal from the sky. + +The meteorite of Rutherford, North Carolina, is of artificial material: +mass of pig iron. It is said to be fraudulent. (_Amer. Jour. Sci._, +2-34-298.) + +The object that was said to have fallen at Marblehead, Mass., in 1858, +is described in the _Amer. Jour. Sci._, 2-34-135, as "a furnace product, +formed in smelting copper ores, or iron ores containing copper." It is +said to be fraudulent. + +According to Ehrenberg, the substance reported by Capt. Callam to have +fallen upon his vessel, near Java, "offered complete resemblance to the +residue resulting from combustion of a steel wire in a flask of oxygen." +(Zurcher, _Meteors_, p. 239.) _Nature_, Nov. 21, 1878, publishes a +notice that, according to the _Yuma Sentinel_, a meteorite that +"resembles steel" had been found in the Mohave Desert. In _Nature_, Feb. +15, 1894, we read that one of the meteorites brought to the United +States by Peary, from Greenland, is of tempered steel. The opinion is +that meteoric iron had fallen in water or snow, quickly cooling and +hardening. This does not apply to composition. Nov. 5, 1898, _Nature_ +publishes a notice of a paper by Prof. Berwerth, of Vienna, upon "the +close connection between meteoric iron and steel-works' steel." + +At the meeting of Nov. 24, 1906, of the Essex Field Club, was exhibited +a piece of metal said to have fallen from the sky, Oct. 9, 1906, at +Braintree. According to the _Essex Naturalist_, Dr. Fletcher, of the +British Museum, had declared this metal to be smelted iron--"so that the +mystery of its reported 'fall' remained unexplained." + + + + +24 + + +We shall have an outcry of silences. If a single instance of anything be +disregarded by a System--our own attitude is that a single instance is a +powerless thing. Of course our own method of agreement of many instances +is not a real method. In Continuity, all things must have resemblances +with all other things. Anything has any quasi-identity you please. Some +time ago conscription was assimilated with either autocracy or democracy +with equal facility. Note the need for a dominant to correlate to. +Scarcely anybody said simply that we must have conscription: but that we +must have conscription, which correlates with democracy, which was taken +as a base, or something basically desirable. Of course between autocracy +and democracy nothing but false demarcation can be drawn. So I can +conceive of no subject upon which there should be such poverty as a +single instance, if anything one pleases can be whipped into line. +However, we shall try to be more nearly real than the Darwinites who +advance concealing coloration as Darwinism, and then drag in proclaiming +luminosity, too, as Darwinism. I think the Darwinites had better come in +with us as to the deep-sea fishes--and be sorry later, I suppose. It +will be amazing or negligible to read all the instances now to come of +things that have been seen in the sky, and to think that all have been +disregarded. My own opinion is that it is not possible, or very easy, to +disregard them, now that they have been brought together--but that, if +prior to about this time we had attempted such an assemblage, the Old +Dominant would have withered our typewriter--as it is the letter "e" has +gone back on us, and the "s" is temperamental. + +"Most extraordinary and singular phenomenon," North Wales, Aug. 26, +1894; a disk from which projected an orange-colored body that looked +like "an elongated flatfish," reported by Admiral Ommanney (_Nature_, +50-524); disk from which projected a hook-like form, India, about 1838; +diagram of it given; disk about size of the moon, but brighter than the +moon; visible about twenty minutes; by G. Pettit, in Prof. +Baden-Powell's Catalogue (_Rept. Brit. Assoc._, 1849); very brilliant +hook-like form, seen in the sky at Poland, Trumbull Co., Ohio, during +the stream of meteors, of 1833; visible more than an hour: large +luminous body, almost stationary "for a time"; shaped like a square +table; Niagara Falls, Nov. 13, 1833 (_Amer. Jour. Sci._, 1-25-391); +something described as a bright white cloud, at night, Nov. 3, 1886, at +Hamar, Norway; from it were emitted brilliant rays of light; drifted +across the sky; "retained throughout its original form" (_Nature_, Dec. +16, 1886-158); thing with an oval nucleus, and streamers with dark bands +and lines very suggestive of structure; New Zealand, May 4, 1888 +(_Nature_, 42-402); luminous object, size of full moon, visible an hour +and a half, Chili, Nov. 5, 1883 (_Comptes Rendus_, 103-682); bright +object near sun, Dec. 21, 1882 (_Knowledge_, 3-13); light that looked +like a great flame, far out at sea, off Ryook Phyoo, Dec. 2, 1845 +(_London Roy. Soc. Proc._, 5-627); something like a gigantic trumpet, +suspended, vertical, oscillating gently, visible five or six minutes, +length estimated at 425 feet, at Oaxaca, Mexico, July 6, 1874 (_Sci. +Am. Sup._, 6-2365); two luminous bodies, seemingly united, visible five +or six minutes, June 3, 1898 (_La Nature_, 1898-1-127); thing with a +tail, crossing moon, transit half a minute, Sept. 26, 1870 (London +_Times_, Sept. 30, 1870); object four or five times size of moon, moving +slowly across sky, Nov. 1, 1885, near Adrianople (_L'Astronomie_, +1886-309); large body, colored red, moving slowly, visible 15 minutes, +reported by Coggia, Marseilles, Aug. 1, 1871 (_Chem. News_, 24-193); +details of this observation, and similar observation by Guillemin, and +other instances by de Fonville (_Comptes Rendus_, 73-297, 755); thing +that was large and that was stationary twice in seven minutes, Oxford, +Nov. 19, 1847; listed by Lowe (_Rec. Sci._, 1-136); grayish object that +looked to be about three and a half feet long, rapidly approaching the +earth at Saarbruck, April 1, 1826; sound like thunder; object expanding +like a sheet (_Am. Jour. Sci._, 1-26-133; _Quar. Jour. Roy. Inst._, +24-488); report by an astronomer, N.S. Drayton, upon an object duration +of which seemed to him extraordinary; duration three-quarters of a +minute, Jersey City, July 6, 1882 (_Sci. Amer._, 47-53); object like a +comet, but with proper motion of 10 degrees an hour; visible one hour; +reported by Purine and Glancy from the Cordoba Observatory, Argentina, +March 14, 1916 (_Sci. Amer._, 115-493); something like a signal light, +reported by Glaisher, Oct. 4, 1844; bright as Jupiter, "sending out +quick flickering waves of light" (_Year Book of Facts_, 1845-278). + +I think that with the object known as Eddie's "comet" passes away the +last of our susceptibility to the common fallacy of personifying. It is +one of the most deep-rooted of positivist illusions--that people are +persons. We have been guilty too often of spleens and spites and +ridicules against astronomers, as if they were persons, or final +unities, individuals, completenesses, or selves--instead of +indeterminate parts. But, so long as we remain in quasi-existence, we +can cast out illusion only with some other illusion, though the other +illusion may approximate higher to reality. So we personify no more--but +we super-personify. We now take into full acceptance our expression that +Development is an Autocracy of Successive Dominants--which are not +final--but which approximate higher to individuality or self-ness, than +do the human tropisms that irresponsibly correlate to them. + +Eddie reported a celestial object, from the Observatory at Grahamstown, +South Africa. It was in 1890. The New Dominant was only heir presumptive +then, or heir apparent but not obvious. The thing that Eddie reported +might as well have been reported by a night watchman, who had looked up +through an unplaced sewer pipe. + +It did not correlate. + +The thing was not admitted to _Monthly Notices_. I think myself that if +the Editor had attempted to let it in--earthquake--or a mysterious fire +in his publishing house. + +The Dominants are jealous gods. + +In _Nature_, presumably a vassal of the new god, though of course also +plausibly rendering homage to the old, is reported a comet-like body, of +Oct. 27, 1890, observed at Grahamstown, by Eddie. It may have looked +comet-like, but it moved 100 degrees while visible, or one hundred +degrees in three-quarters of an hour. See _Nature_, 43-89, 90. + +In _Nature_, 44-519, Prof. Copeland describes a similar appearance that +he had seen, Sept. 10, 1891. Dreyer says (_Nature_, 44-541) that he had +seen this object at the Armagh Observatory. He likens it to the object +that was reported by Eddie. It was seen by Dr. Alexander Graham Bell, +Sept. 11, 1891, in Nova Scotia. + +But the Old Dominant was a jealous god. + +So there were different observations upon something that was seen in +November, 1883. These observations were Philistines in 1883. In the +_Amer. Met. Jour._, 1-110, a correspondent reports having seen an object +like a comet, with two tails, one up and one down, Nov. 10 or 12, 1883. +Very likely this phenomenon should be placed in our expression upon +torpedo-shaped bodies that have been seen in the sky--our data upon +dirigibles, or super-Zeppelins--but our attempted classifications are +far from rigorous--or are mere gropes. In the _Scientific American_, +50-40, a correspondent writes from Humacao, Porto Rico, that, Nov. 21, +1883, he and several other--persons--or persons, as it were--had seen a +majestic appearance, like a comet. Visible three successive nights: +disappeared then. The Editor says that he can offer no explanation. If +accepted, this thing must have been close to the earth. If it had been a +comet, it would have been seen widely, and the news would have been +telegraphed over the world, says the Editor. Upon page 97 of this volume +of the _Scientific American_, a correspondent writes that, at Sulphur +Springs, Ohio, he had seen "a wonder in the sky," at about the same +date. It was torpedo-shaped, or something with a nucleus, at each end of +which was a tail. Again the Editor says that he can offer no +explanation: that the object was not a comet. He associates it with the +atmospheric effects general in 1883. But it will be our expression that, +in England and Holland, a similar object was seen in November, 1882. + +In the _Scientific American_, 40-294, is published a letter from Henry +Harrison, of Jersey City, copied from the _New York Tribune_: that upon +the evening of April 13, 1879, Mr. Harrison was searching for Brorsen's +comet, when he saw an object that was moving so rapidly that it could +not have been a comet. He called a friend to look, and his observation +was confirmed. At two o'clock in the morning this object was still +visible. In the _Scientific American Supplement_, 7-2885, Mr. Harrison +disclaims sensationalism, which he seems to think unworthy, and gives +technical details: he says that the object was seen by Mr. J. Spencer +Devoe, of Manhattanville. + + + + +25 + + +"A formation having the shape of a dirigible." It was reported from +Huntington, West Virginia (_Sci. Amer._, 115-241). Luminous object that +was seen July 19, 1916, at about 11 P.M. Observed through "rather +powerful field glasses," it looked to be about two degrees long and half +a degree wide. It gradually dimmed, disappeared, reappeared, and then +faded out of sight. Another person--as we say: it would be too +inconvenient to hold to our intermediatist recognitions--another person +who observed this phenomenon suggested to the writer of the account +that the object was a dirigible, but the writer says that faint stars +could be seen behind it. This would seem really to oppose our notion of +a dirigible visitor to this earth--except for the inconclusiveness of +all things in a mode of seeming that is not final--or we suggest that +behind some parts of the object, thing, construction, faint stars were +seen. We find a slight discussion here. Prof. H.M. Russell thinks that +the phenomenon was a detached cloud of aurora borealis. Upon page 369 of +this volume of the _Scientific American_, another correlator suggests +that it was a light from a blast furnace--disregarding that, if there be +blast furnaces in or near Huntington, their reflections would be +commonplaces there. + +We now have several observations upon cylindrical-shaped bodies that +have appeared in this earth's atmosphere: cylindrical, but pointed at +both ends, or torpedo-shaped. Some of the accounts are not very +detailed, but out of the bits of description my own acceptance is that +super-geographical routes are traversed by torpedo-shaped +super-constructions that have occasionally visited, or that have +occasionally been driven into this earth's atmosphere. From data, the +acceptance is that upon entering this earth's atmosphere, these vessels +have been so racked that had they not sailed away, disintegration would +have occurred: that, before leaving this earth, they have, whether in +attempted communication or not, or in mere wantonness or not, dropped +objects, which did almost immediately violently disintegrate or explode. +Upon general principles we think that explosives have not been purposely +dropped, but that parts have been racked off, and have fallen, exploding +like the things called "ball lightning." Many have been objects of stone +or metal with inscriptions upon them, for all we know, at present. In +all instances, estimates of dimensions are valueless, but ratios of +dimensions are more acceptable. A thing said to have been six feet long +may have been six hundred feet long; but shape is not so subject to the +illusions of distance. + +_Nature_, 40-415: + +That, Aug. 5, 1889, during a violent storm, an object that looked to be +about 15 inches long and 5 inches wide, fell, rather slowly, at East +Twickenham, England. It exploded. No substance from it was found. + +_L'Annee Scientifique_, 1864-54: + +That, Oct. 10, 1864, M. Leverrier had sent to the Academy three letters +from witnesses of a long luminous body, tapering at both ends, that had +been seen in the sky. + +In _Thunder and Lightning_, p. 87, Flammarion says that on Aug. 20, +1880, during a rather violent storm, M.A. Trecul, of the French Academy, +saw a very brilliant yellowish-white body, apparently 35 to 40 +centimeters long, and about 25 centimeters wide. Torpedo-shaped. Or a +cylindrical body, "with slightly conical ends." It dropped something, +and disappeared in the clouds. Whatever it may have been that was +dropped, it fell vertically, like a heavy object, and left a luminous +train. The scene of this occurrence may have been far from the observer. +No sound was heard. For M. Trecul's account, see _Comptes Rendus_, +103-849. + +_Monthly Weather Review_, 1907-310: + +That, July 2, 1907, in the town of Burlington, Vermont, a terrific +explosion had been heard throughout the city. A ball of light, or a +luminous object, had been seen to fall from the sky--or from a +torpedo-shaped thing, or construction, in the sky. No one had seen this +thing that had exploded fall from a larger body that was in the sky--but +if we accept that at the same time there was a larger body in the sky-- + +My own acceptance is that a dirigible in the sky, or a construction that +showed every sign of disrupting, had barely time to drop--whatever it +did drop--and to speed away to safety above. + +The following story is told, in the _Review_, by Bishop John S. Michaud: + +"I was standing on the corner of Church and College Streets, just in +front of the Howard Bank, and facing east, engaged in conversation with +Ex-Governor Woodbury and Mr. A.A. Buell, when, without the slightest +indication, or warning, we were startled by what sounded like a most +unusual and terrific explosion, evidently very nearby. Raising my eyes, +and looking eastward along College Street, I observed a torpedo-shaped +body, some 300 feet away, stationary in appearance, and suspended in the +air, about 50 feet above the tops of the buildings. In size it was about +6 feet long by 8 inches in diameter, the shell, or covering, having a +dark appearance, with here and there tongues of fire issuing from spots +on the surface, resembling red-hot, unburnished copper. Although +stationary when first noticed, this object soon began to move, rather +slowly, and disappeared over Dolan Brothers' store, southward. As it +moved, the covering seemed rupturing in places, and through these the +intensely red flames issued." + +Bishop Michaud attempts to correlate it with meteorological +observations. + +Because of the nearby view this is perhaps the most remarkable of the +new correlates, but the correlate now coming is extraordinary because of +the great number of recorded observations upon it. My own acceptance is +that, upon Nov. 17, 1882, a vast dirigible crossed England, but by the +definiteness-indefiniteness of all things quasi-real, some observations +upon it can be correlated with anything one pleases. + +E.W. Maunder, invited by the Editors of the _Observatory_ to write some +reminiscences for the 500th number of their magazine, gives one that he +says stands out (_Observatory_, 39-214). It is upon something that he +terms "a strange celestial visitor." Maunder was at the Royal +Observatory, Greenwich, Nov. 17, 1882, at night. There was an aurora, +without features of special interest. In the midst of the aurora, a +great circular disk of greenish light appeared and moved smoothly across +the sky. But the circularity was evidently the effect of foreshortening. +The thing passed above the moon, and was, by other observers, described +as "cigar-shaped," "like a torpedo," "a spindle," "a shuttle." The idea +of foreshortening is not mine: Maunder says this. He says: "Had the +incident occurred a third of a century later, beyond doubt everyone +would have selected the same simile--it would have been 'just like a +Zeppelin.'" The duration was about two minutes. Color said to have been +the same as that of the auroral glow in the north. Nevertheless, Maunder +says that this thing had no relation to auroral phenomena. "It appeared +to be a definite body." Motion too fast for a cloud, but "nothing could +be more unlike the rush of a meteor." In the _Philosophical Magazine_, +5-15-318, J. Rand Capron, in a lengthy paper, alludes throughout to this +phenomenon as an "auroral beam," but he lists many observations upon +its "torpedo-shape," and one observation upon a "dark nucleus" in +it--host of most confusing observations--estimates of height between 40 +and 200 miles--observations in Holland and Belgium. We are told that +according to Capron's spectroscopic observations the phenomenon was +nothing but a beam of auroral light. In the _Observatory_, 6-192, is +Maunder's contemporaneous account. He gives apparent approximate length +and breadth at twenty-seven degrees and three degrees and a half. He +gives other observations seeming to indicate structure--"remarkable dark +marking down the center." + +In _Nature_, 27-84, Capron says that because of the moonlight he had +been able to do little with the spectroscope. + +Color white, but aurora rosy (_Nature_, 27-87). + +Bright stars seen through it, but not at the zenith, where it looked +opaque. This is the only assertion of transparency (_Nature_, 27-87). +Too slow for a meteor, but too fast for a cloud (_Nature_, 27-86). +"Surface had a mottled appearance" (_Nature_, 27-87). "Very definite in +form, like a torpedo" (_Nature_, 27-100). "Probably a meteoric object" +(Dr. Groneman, _Nature_, 27-296). Technical demonstration by Dr. +Groneman, that it was a cloud of meteoric matter (_Nature_, 28-105). See +_Nature_, 27-315, 338, 365, 388, 412, 434. + +"Very little doubt it was an electric phenomenon" (Proctor, _Knowledge_, +2-419). + +In the London _Times_, Nov. 20, 1882, the Editor says that he had +received a great number of letters upon this phenomenon. He publishes +two. One correspondent describes it as "well-defined and shaped like a +fish... extraordinary and alarming." The other correspondent writes of +it as "a most magnificent luminous mass, shaped somewhat like a +torpedo." + + + + +26 + + +_Notes and Queries_, 5-3-306: + +About 8 lights that were seen in Wales, over an area of about 8 miles, +all keeping their own ground, whether moving together perpendicularly, +horizontally, or over a zigzag course. They looked like electric +lights--disappearing, reappearing dimly, then shining as bright as ever. +"We have seen them three or four at a time afterward, on four or five +occasions." + +London _Times_, Oct. 5, 1877: + +"From time to time the west coast of Wales seems to have been the scene +of mysterious lights.... And now we have a statement from Towyn that +within the last few weeks lights of various colors have been seen moving +over the estuary of the Dysynni River, and out to sea. They are +generally in a northerly direction, but sometimes they hug the shore, +and move at high velocity for miles toward Aberdovey, and suddenly +disappear." + +_L'Annee Scientifique_, 1877-45: + +Lights that appeared in the sky, above Vence, France, March 23, 1877; +described as balls of fire of dazzling brightness; appeared from a cloud +about a degree in diameter; moved relatively slowly. They were visible +more than an hour, moving northward. It is said that eight or ten years +before similar lights or objects had been seen in the sky, at Vence. + +London _Times_, Sept. 19, 1848: + +That, at Inverness, Scotland, two large, bright lights that looked like +stars had been seen in the sky: sometimes stationary, but occasionally +moving at high velocity. + +_L'Annee Scientifique_, 1888-66: + +Observed near St. Petersburg, July 30, 1880, in the evening: a large +spherical light and two smaller ones, moving along a ravine: visible +three minutes; disappearing without noise. + +_Nature_, 35-173: + +That, at Yloilo, Sept. 30, 1886, was seen a luminous object the size of +the full moon. It "floated" slowly "northward," followed by smaller ones +close to it. + +"The False Lights of Durham." + +Every now and then in the English newspapers, in the middle of the +nineteenth century, there is something about lights that were seen +against the sky, but as if not far above land, oftenest upon the coast +of Durham. They were mistaken for beacons by sailors. Wreck after wreck +occurred. The fishermen were accused of displaying false lights and +profiting by wreckage. The fishermen answered that mostly only old +vessels, worthless except for insurance, were so wrecked. + +In 1866 (London _Times_, Jan. 9, 1866) popular excitement became +intense. There was an investigation. Before a commission, headed by +Admiral Collinson, testimony was taken. One witness described the light +that had deceived him as "considerably elevated above ground." No +conclusion was reached: the lights were called "the mysterious lights." +But whatever the "false lights of Durham" may have been, they were +unaffected by the investigation. In 1867, the Tyne Pilotage Board took +the matter up. Opinion of the Mayor of Tyne--"a mysterious affair." + +In the _Report of the British Association_, 1877-152, there is a +description of a group of "meteors" that traveled with "remarkable +slowness." They were in sight about three minutes. "Remarkable," it +seems, is scarcely strong enough: one reads of "remarkable" as applied +to a duration of three seconds. These "meteors" had another peculiarity; +they left no train. They are described as "seemingly huddled together +like a flock of wild geese, and moving with the same velocity and grace +of regularity." + +_Jour. Roy. Astro. Soc. of Canada_, November and December, 1913: + +That, according to many observations collected by Prof. Chant, of +Toronto, there appeared, upon the night of Feb. 9, 1913, a spectacle +that was seen in Canada, the United States, and at sea, and in Bermuda. +A luminous body was seen. To it there was a long tail. The body grew +rapidly larger. "Observers differ as to whether the body was single, or +was composed of three or four parts, with a tail to each part." The +group, or complex structure, moved with "a peculiar, majestic +deliberation." "It disappeared in the distance, and another group +emerged from its place of origin. Onward they moved, at the same +deliberate pace, in twos or threes or fours." They disappeared. A third +group, or a third structure, followed. + +Some observers compared the spectacle to a fleet of airships: others to +battleships attended by cruisers and destroyers. + +According to one writer: + +"There were probably 30 or 32 bodies, and the peculiar thing about them +was their moving in fours and threes and twos, abreast of one another; +and so perfect was the lining up that you would have thought it was an +aerial fleet maneuvering after rigid drilling." + +_Nature_, May 25, 1893: + +A letter from Capt. Charles J. Norcock, of H.M.S. _Caroline_: + +That, upon the 24th of February, 1893, at 10 P.M., between Shanghai and +Japan, the officer of the watch had reported "some unusual lights." + +They were between the ship and a mountain. The mountain was about 6,000 +feet high. The lights seemed to be globular. They moved sometimes +massed, but sometimes strung out in an irregular line. They bore +"northward," until lost to sight. Duration two hours. + +The next night the lights were seen again. + +They were, for a time, eclipsed by a small island. They bore north at +about the same speed and in about the same direction as speed and +direction of the _Caroline_. But they were lights that cast a +reflection: there was a glare upon the horizon under them. A telescope +brought out but few details: that they were reddish, and seemed to emit +a faint smoke. This time the duration was seven and a half hours. + +Then Capt. Norcock says that, in the same general locality, and at about +the same time, Capt. Castle, of H.M.S. _Leander_, had seen lights. He +had altered his course and had made toward them. The lights had fled +from him. At least, they had moved higher in the sky. + +_Monthly Weather Review_, March, 1904-115: + +Report from the observations of three members of his crew by Lieut. +Frank H. Schofield, U.S.N, of the U.S.S. _Supply_: + +Feb. 24, 1904. Three luminous objects, of different sizes, the largest +having an apparent area of about six suns. When first sighted, they were +not very high. They were below clouds of an estimated height of about +one mile. + +They fled, or they evaded, or they turned. + +They went up into the clouds below which they had, at first, been +sighted. + +Their unison of movement. + +But they were of different sizes, and of different susceptibilities to +all forces of this earth and of the air. + +_Monthly Weather Review_, August, 1898-358: + +Two letters from C.N. Crotsenburg, Crow Agency, Montana: + +That, in the summer of 1896, when this writer was a railroad postal +clerk--or one who was experienced in train-phenomena--while his train +was going "northward," from Trenton, Mo., he and another clerk saw, in +the darkness of a heavy rain, a light that appeared to be round, and of +a dull-rose color, and seemed to be about a foot in diameter. It seemed +to float within a hundred feet of the earth, but soon rose high, or +"midway between horizon and zenith." The wind was quite strong from the +east, but the light held a course almost due north. + +Its speed varied. Sometimes it seemed to outrun the train +"considerably." At other times it seemed to fall behind. The mail-clerks +watched until the town of Linville, Iowa, was reached. Behind the depot +of this town, the light disappeared, and was not seen again. All this +time there had been rain, but very little lightning, but Mr. Crotsenburg +offers the explanation that it was "ball lightning." + +The Editor of the _Review_ disagrees. He thinks that the light may have +been a reflection from the rain, or fog, or from leaves of trees, +glistening with rain, or the train's light--not lights. + +In the December number of the _Review_ is a letter from Edward M. +Boggs--that the light was a reflection, perhaps, from the glare--one +light, this time--from the locomotive's fire-box, upon wet telegraph +wires--an appearance that might not be striated by the wires, but +consolidated into one rotundity--that it had seemed to oscillate with +the undulations of the wires, and had seemed to change horizontal +distance with the varying angles of reflection, and had seemed to +advance or fall behind, when the train had rounded curves. + +All of which is typical of the best of quasi-reasoning. It includes and +assimilates diverse data: but it excludes that which will destroy it: + +That, acceptably, the telegraph wires were alongside the track beyond, +as well as leading to Linville. + +Mr. Crotsenburg thinks of "ball lightning," which, though a sore +bewilderment to most speculation, is usually supposed to be a correlate +with the old system of thought: but his awareness of "something else" is +expressed in other parts of his letters, when he says that he has +something to tell that is "so strange that I should never have mentioned +it, even to my friends, had it not been corroborated... so unreal that I +hesitated to speak of it, fearing that it was some freak of the +imagination." + + + + +27 + + +Vast and black. The thing that was poised, like a crow over the moon. + +Round and smooth. Cannon balls. Things that have fallen from the sky to +this earth. + +Our slippery brains. + +Things like cannon balls have fallen, in storms, upon this earth. Like +cannon balls are things that, in storms, have fallen to this earth. + +Showers of blood. + +Showers of blood. + +Showers of blood. + +Whatever it may have been, something like red-brick dust, or a red +substance in a dried state, fell at Piedmont, Italy, Oct. 27, 1814 +(_Electric Magazine_, 68-437). A red powder fell, in Switzerland, winter +of 1867 (_Pop. Sci. Rev._, 10-112)-- + +That something, far from this earth, had bled--super-dragon that had +rammed a comet-- + +Or that there are oceans of blood somewhere in the sky--substance that +dries, and falls in a powder--wafts for ages in powdered form--that +there is a vast area that will some day be known to aviators as the +Desert of Blood. We attempt little of super-topography, at present, but +Ocean of Blood, or Desert of Blood--or both--Italy is nearest to it--or +to them. + +I suspect that there were corpuscles in the substance that fell in +Switzerland, but all that could be published in 1867 was that in this +substance there was a high proportion of "variously shaped organic +matter." + +At Giessen, Germany, in 1821, according to the _Report of the British +Association_, 5-2, fell a rain of a peach-red color. In this rain were +flakes of a hyacinthine tint. It is said that this substance was +organic: we are told that it was pyrrhine. + +But distinctly enough, we are told of one red rain that it was of +corpuscular composition--red snow, rather. It fell, March 12, 1876, near +the Crystal Palace, London (_Year Book of Facts_, 1876-89; _Nature_, +13-414). As to the "red snow" of polar and mountainous regions, we have +no opposition, because that "snow" has never been seen to fall from the +sky: it is a growth of micro-organisms, or of a "protococcus," that +spreads over snow that is on the ground. This time nothing is said of +"sand from the Sahara." It is said of the red matter that fell in +London, March 12, 1876, that it was composed of corpuscles-- + +Of course: + +That they looked like "vegetable cells." + +A note: + +That nine days before had fallen the red substance--flesh--whatever it +may have been--of Bath County, Kentucky. + +I think that a super-egotist, vast, but not so vast as it had supposed, +had refused to move to one side for a comet. + +We summarize our general super-geographical expressions: + +Gelatinous regions, sulphurous regions, frigid and tropical regions: a +region that has been Source of Life relatively to this earth: regions +wherein there is density so great that things from them, entering this +earth's thin atmosphere, explode. + +We have had a datum of explosive hailstones. We now have support to the +acceptance that they had been formed in a medium far denser than air of +this earth at sea-level. In the _Popular Science News_, 22-38, is an +account of ice that had been formed, under great pressure, in the +laboratory of the University of Virginia. When released and brought into +contact with ordinary air, this ice exploded. + +And again the flesh-like substance that fell in Kentucky: its flake-like +formation. Here is a phenomenon that is familiar to us: it suggests +flattening, under pressure. But the extraordinary inference is--pressure +not equal on all sides. In the _Annual Record of Science_, 1873-350, it +is said that, in 1873, after a heavy thunderstorm in Louisiana, a +tremendous number of fish scales were found, for a distance of forty +miles, along the banks of the Mississippi River: bushels of them picked +up in single places: large scales that were said to be of the gar fish, +a fish that weighs from five to fifty pounds. It seems impossible to +accept this identification: one thinks of a substance that had been +pressed into flakes or scales. And round hailstones with wide thin +margins of ice irregularly around them--still, such hailstones seem to +me more like things that had been stationary: had been held in a field +of thin ice. In the _Illustrated London News_, 34-546, are drawings of +hailstones so margined, as if they had been held in a sheet of ice. + +Some day we shall have an expression which will be, to our advanced +primitiveness, a great joy: + +That devils have visited this earth: foreign devils: human-like beings, +with pointed beards: good singers; one shoe ill-fitting--but with +sulphurous exhalations, at any rate. I have been impressed with the +frequent occurrence of sulphurousness with things that come from the +sky. A fall of jagged pieces of ice, Orkney, July 24, 1818 (_Trans. Roy. +Soc. Edin._, 9-187). They had a strong sulphurous odor. And the coke--or +the substance that looked like coke--that fell at Mortree, France, April +24, 1887: with it fell a sulphurous substance. The enormous round things +that rose from the ocean, near the _Victoria_. Whether we still accept +that they were super-constructions that had come from a denser +atmosphere and, in danger of disruption, had plunged into the ocean for +relief, then rising and continuing on their way to Jupiter or Uranus--it +was reported that they spread a "stench of sulphur." At any rate, this +datum of proximity is against the conventional explanation that these +things did not rise from the ocean, but rose far away above the horizon, +with illusion of nearness. + +And the things that were seen in the sky July, 1898: I have another +note. In _Nature_, 58-224, a correspondent writes that, upon July 1, +1898, at Sedberg, he had seen in the sky--a red object--or, in his own +wording, something that looked like the red part of a rainbow, about 10 +degrees long. But the sky was dark at the time. The sun had set. A heavy +rain was falling. + +Throughout this book, the datum that we are most impressed with: + +Successive falls. + +Or that, if upon one small area, things fall from the sky, and then, +later, fall again upon the same small area, they are not products of a +whirlwind, which though sometimes axially stationary, discharges +tangentially-- + +So the frogs that fell at Wigan. I have looked that matter up again. +Later more frogs fell. + +As to our data of gelatinous substance said to have fallen to this earth +with meteorites, it is our expression that meteorites, tearing through +the shaky, protoplasmic seas of Genesistrine--against which we warn +aviators, or they may find themselves suffocating in a reservoir of +life, or stuck like currants in a blanc mange--that meteorites detach +gelatinous, or protoplasmic, lumps that fall with them. + +Now the element of positiveness in our composition yearns for the +appearance of completeness. Super-geographical lakes with fishes in +them. Meteorites that plunge through these lakes, on their way to this +earth. The positiveness in our make-up must have expression in at least +one record of a meteorite that has brought down a lot of fishes with +it-- + +_Nature_, 3-512: + +That, near the bank of a river, in Peru, Feb. 4, 1871, a meteorite +fell. "On the spot, it is reported, several dead fishes were found, of +different species." The attempt to correlate is--that the fishes "are +supposed to have been lifted out of the river and dashed against the +stones." + +Whether this be imaginable or not depends upon each one's own hypnoses. + +_Nature_, 4-169: + +That the fishes had fallen among the fragments of the meteorite. + +_Popular Science Review_, 4-126: + +That one day, Mr. Le Gould, an Australian scientist, was traveling in +Queensland. He saw a tree that had been broken off close to the ground. +Where the tree had been broken was a great bruise. Near by was an object +that "resembled a ten-inch shot." + +A good many pages back there was an instance of over-shadowing, I think. +The little carved stone that fell at Tarbes is my own choice as the most +impressive of our new correlates. It was coated with ice, remember. +Suppose we should sift and sift and discard half the data in this +book--suppose only that one datum should survive. To call attention to +the stone of Tarbes would, in my opinion, be doing well enough, for +whatever the spirit of this book is trying to do. Nevertheless, it seems +to me that a datum that preceded it was slightingly treated. + +The disk of quartz, said to have fallen from the sky, after a meteoric +explosion: + +Said to have fallen at the plantation Bleijendal, Dutch Guiana: sent to +the Museum of Leyden by M. van Sypesteyn, adjutant to the Governor of +Dutch Guiana (_Notes and Queries_, 2-8-92). + +And the fragments that fall from super-geographic ice fields: flat +pieces of ice with icicles on them. I think that we did not emphasize +enough that, if these structures were not icicles, but crystalline +protuberances, such crystalline formations indicate long suspension +quite as notably as would icicles. In the _Popular Science News_, 24-34, +it is said that in 1869, near Tiflis, fell large hailstones with long +protuberances. "The most remarkable point in connection with the +hailstones is the fact that, judging from our present knowledge, a very +long time must have been occupied in their formation." According to the +_Geological Magazine_, 7-27, this fall occurred May 27, 1869. The +writer in the _Geological Magazine_ says that of all theories that he +had ever heard of, not one could give him light as to this +occurrence--"these growing crystalline forms must have been suspended a +long time"-- + +Again and again this phenomenon: + +Fourteen days later, at about the same place, more of these hailstones +fell. + +Rivers of blood that vein albuminous seas, or an egg-like composition in +the incubation of which this earth is a local center of +development--that there are super-arteries of blood in Genesistrine: +that sunsets are consciousness of them: that they flush the skies with +northern lights sometimes: super-embryonic reservoirs from which +life-forms emanate-- + +Or that our whole solar system is a living thing: that showers of blood +upon this earth are its internal hemorrhages-- + +Or vast living things in the sky, as there are vast living things in the +oceans-- + +Or some one especial thing: an especial time: an especial place. A thing +the size of the Brooklyn Bridge. It's alive in outer space--something +the size of Central Park kills it-- + +It drips. + +We think of the ice fields above this earth: which do not, themselves, +fall to this earth, but from which water does fall-- + +_Popular Science News_, 35-104: + +That, according to Prof. Luigi Palazzo, head of the Italian +Meteorological Bureau, upon May 15, 1890, at Messignadi, Calabria, +something the color of fresh blood fell from the sky. + +This substance was examined in the public-health laboratories of Rome. + +It was found to be blood. + +"The most probable explanation of this terrifying phenomenon is that +migratory birds (quails or swallows) were caught and torn in a violent +wind." + +So the substance was identified as birds' blood-- + +What matters it what the microscopists of Rome said--or had to say--and +what matters it that we point out that there is no assertion that there +was a violent wind at the time--and that such a substance would be +almost infinitely dispersed in a violent wind--that no bird was said to +have fallen from the sky--or said to have been seen in the sky--that not +a feather of a bird is said to have been seen-- + +This one datum: + +The fall of blood from the sky-- + +But later, in the same place, blood again fell from the sky. + + + + +28 + + +_Notes and Queries_, 7-8-508: + +A correspondent who had been to Devonshire writes for information as to +a story that he had heard there: of an occurrence of about thirty-five +years before the date of writing: + +Of snow upon the ground--of all South Devonshire waking up one morning +to find such tracks in the snow as had never before been heard +of--"clawed footmarks" of "an unclassifiable form"--alternating at huge +but regular intervals with what seemed to be the impression of the point +of a stick--but the scattering of the prints--amazing expanse of +territory covered--obstacles, such as hedges, walls, houses, seemingly +surmounted-- + +Intense excitement--that the track had been followed by huntsmen and +hounds, until they had come to a forest--from which the hounds had +retreated, baying and terrified, so that no one had dared to enter the +forest. + +_Notes and Queries_, 7-9-18: + +Whole occurrence well-remembered by a correspondent: a badger had left +marks in the snow: this was determined, and the excitement had "dropped +to a dead calm in a single day." + +_Notes and Queries_, 7-9-70: + +That for years a correspondent had had a tracing of the prints, which +his mother had taken from those in the snow in her garden, in Exmouth: +that they were hoof-like marks--but had been made by a biped. + +_Notes and Queries_, 7-9-253: + +Well remembered by another correspondent, who writes of the excitement +and consternation of "some classes." He says that a kangaroo had escaped +from a menagerie--"the footprints being so peculiar and far apart gave +rise to a scare that the devil was loose." + +We have had a story, and now we shall tell it over from contemporaneous +sources. We have had the later accounts first very largely for an +impression of the correlating effect that time brings about, by +addition, disregard and distortion. For instance, the "dead calm in a +single day." If I had found that the excitement did die out rather soon, +I'd incline to accept that nothing extraordinary had occurred. + +I found that the excitement had continued for weeks. + +I recognize this as a well-adapted thing to say, to divert attention +from a discorrelate. + +All phenomena are "explained" in the terms of the Dominant of their era. +This is why we give up trying really to explain, and content ourselves +with expressing. Devils that might print marks in snow are correlates to +the third Dominant back from this era. So it was an adjustment by +nineteenth-century correlates, or human tropisms, to say that the marks +in the snow were clawed. Hoof-like marks are not only horsey but +devilish. It had to be said in the nineteenth century that those prints +showed claw-marks. We shall see that this was stated by Prof. Owen, one +of the greatest biologists of his day--except that Darwin didn't think +so. But I shall give reference to two representations of them that can +be seen in the New York Public Library. In neither representation is +there the faintest suggestion of a claw-mark. There never has been a +Prof. Owen who has explained: he has correlated. + +Another adaptation, in the later accounts, is that of leading this +discorrelate to the Old Dominant into the familiar scenery of a fairy +story, and discredit it by assimilation to the conventionally +fictitious--so the idea of the baying, terrified hounds, and forest like +enchanted forests, which no one dared to enter. Hunting parties were +organized, but the baying, terrified hounds do not appear in +contemporaneous accounts. + +The story of the kangaroo looks like adaptation to needs for an animal +that could spring far, because marks were found in the snow on roofs of +houses. But so astonishing is the extent of snow that was marked that +after a while another kangaroo was added. + +But the marks were in single lines. + +My own acceptance is that not less than a thousand one-legged kangaroos, +each shod with a very small horseshoe, could have marked that snow of +Devonshire. + +London _Times_, Feb 16, 1855: + +"Considerable sensation has been caused in the towns of Topsham, +Lymphstone, Exmouth, Teignmouth, and Dawlish, in Devonshire, in +consequence of the discovery of a vast number of foot tracks of a most +strange and mysterious description." + +The story is of an incredible multiplicity of marks discovered in the +morning of Feb. 8, 1855, in the snow, by the inhabitants of many towns +and regions between towns. This great area must of course be disregarded +by Prof. Owen and the other correlators. The tracks were in all kinds of +unaccountable places: in gardens enclosed by high walls, and up on the +tops of houses, as well as in the open fields. There was in Lymphstone +scarcely one unmarked garden. We've had heroic disregards but I think +that here disregard was titanic. And, because they occurred in single +lines, the marks are said to have been "more like those of a biped than +of a quadruped"--as if a biped would place one foot precisely ahead of +another--unless it hopped--but then we have to think of a thousand, or +of thousands. + +It is said that the marks were "generally 8 inches in advance of each +other." + +"The impression of the foot closely resembles that of a donkey's shoe, +and measured from an inch and a half, in some instances, to two and a +half inches across." + +Or the impressions were cones in incomplete, or crescentic basins. + +The diameters equaled diameters of very young colts' hoofs: too small to +be compared with marks of donkey's hoofs. + +"On Sunday last the Rev. Mr. Musgrave alluded to the subject in his +sermon and suggested the possibility of the footprints being those of a +kangaroo, but this could scarcely have been the case, as they were found +on both sides of the Este. At present it remains a mystery, and many +superstitious people in the above-named towns are actually afraid to go +outside their doors after night." + +The Este is a body of water two miles wide. + +London _Times_, March 6, 1855: + +"The interest in this matter has scarcely yet subsided, many inquiries +still being made into the origin of the footprints, which caused so much +consternation upon the morning of the 8th ult. In addition to the +circumstances mentioned in the _Times_ a little while ago, it may be +stated that at Dawlish a number of persons sallied out, armed with guns +and other weapons, for the purpose, if possible, of discovering and +destroying the animal which was supposed to have been so busy in +multiplying its footprints. As might have been expected, the party +returned as they went. Various speculations have been made as to the +cause of the footprints. Some have asserted that they are those of a +kangaroo, while others affirm that they are the impressions of claws of +large birds driven ashore by stress of weather. On more than one +occasion reports have been circulated that an animal from a menagerie +had been caught, but the matter at present is as much involved in +mystery as ever it was." + +In the _Illustrated London News_, the occurrence is given a great deal +of space. In the issue of Feb. 24, 1855, a sketch is given of the +prints. + +I call them cones in incomplete basins. + +Except that they're a little longish, they look like prints of hoofs of +horses--or, rather, of colts. + +But they're in a single line. + +It is said that the marks from which the sketch was made were 8 inches +apart, and that this spacing was regular and invariable "in every +parish." Also other towns besides those named in the _Times_ are +mentioned. The writer, who had spent a winter in Canada, and was +familiar with tracks in snow, says that he had never seen "a more +clearly defined track." Also he brings out the point that was so +persistently disregarded by Prof. Owen and the other correlators--that +"no known animal walks in a line of single footsteps, not even man." +With these wider inclusions, this writer concludes with us that the +marks were not footprints. It may be that his following observation hits +upon the crux of the whole occurrence: + +That whatever it may have been that had made the marks, it had removed, +rather than pressed, the snow. + +According to his observations the snow looked "as if branded with a hot +iron." + +_Illustrated London News_, March 3, 1855-214: + +Prof. Owen, to whom a friend had sent drawings of the prints, writes +that there were claw-marks. He says that the "track" was made by "a" +badger. + +Six other witnesses sent letters to this number of the _News_. One +mentioned, but not published, is a notion of a strayed swan. Always this +homogeneous-seeing--"a" badger--"a" swan--"a" track. I should have +listed the other towns as well as those mentioned in the _Times_. + +A letter from Mr. Musgrave is published. He, too, sends a sketch of the +prints. It, too, shows a single line. There are four prints, of which +the third is a little out of line. + +There is no sign of a claw-mark. + +The prints look like prints of longish hoofs of a very young colt, but +they are not so definitely outlined as in the sketch of February 24th, +as if drawn after disturbance by wind, or after thawing had set in. +Measurements at places a mile and a half apart, gave the same +inter-spacing--"exactly eight inches and a half apart." + +We now have a little study in the psychology and genesis of an attempted +correlation. Mr. Musgrave says: "I found a very apt opportunity to +mention the name 'kangaroo' in allusion to the report then current." He +says that he had no faith in the kangaroo-story himself, but was glad +"that a kangaroo was in the wind," because it opposed "a dangerous, +degrading, and false impression that it was the devil." + +"Mine was a word in season and did good." + +Whether it's Jesuitical or not, and no matter what it is or isn't, that +is our own acceptance: that, though we've often been carried away from +this attitude controversially, that is our acceptance as to every +correlate of the past that has been considered in this book--relatively +to the Dominant of its era. + +Another correspondent writes that, though the prints in all cases +resembled hoof marks, there were indistinct traces of claws--that "an" +otter had made the marks. After that many other witnesses wrote to the +_News_. The correspondence was so great that, in the issue of March +10th, only a selection could be given. There's "a" jumping-rat solution +and "a" hopping-toad inspiration, and then someone came out strong with +an idea of "a" hare that had galloped with pairs of feet held close +together, so as to make impressions in a single line. + +London _Times_, March 14, 1840: + +"Among the high mountains of that elevated district where Glenorchy, +Glenlyon and Glenochay are contiguous, there have been met with several +times, during this and also the former winter, upon the snow, the tracks +of an animal seemingly unknown at present in Scotland. The print, in +every respect, is an exact resemblance to that of a foal of considerable +size, with this small difference, perhaps, that the sole seems a little +longer, or not so round; but as no one has had the good fortune as yet +to have obtained a glimpse of this creature, nothing more can be said of +its shape or dimensions; only it has been remarked, from the depth to +which the feet sank in the snow, that it must be a beast of considerable +size. It has been observed also that its walk is not like that of the +generality of quadrupeds, but that it is more like the bounding or +leaping of a horse when scared or pursued. It is not in one locality +that its tracks have been met with, but through a range of at least +twelve miles." + +In the _Illustrated London News_, March 17, 1855, a correspondent from +Heidelberg writes, "upon the authority of a Polish Doctor of Medicine," +that on the Piashowa-gora (Sand Hill) a small elevation on the border of +Galicia, but in Russian Poland, such marks are to be seen in the snow +every year, and sometimes in the sand of this hill, and "are attributed +by the inhabitants to supernatural influences." + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Book of the Damned, by Charles Fort + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BOOK OF THE DAMNED *** + +***** This file should be named 22472.txt or 22472.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/2/4/7/22472/ + +Produced by Julie Barkley, Graeme Mackreth and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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