Uranie. English

by Camille Flammarion

  III.

  "TO BE, OR NOT TO BE?"

  It was this very phase of his intellectual life which had drawn the twofriends so intimately together. Happy at being alive, in the flower ofher spring-time, expanding to the light of life,--a harp thrilling withall the harmonies of Nature,--the beautiful Northern girl stillsometimes dreamed of the fays and elves of her native clime, of theangels and mysteries of the Christian religion which had soothed herchildhood. The credulity of her early days had not obscured herunderstanding; she thought freely, and sought sincerely for the truth;while regretting perhaps that she no longer believed in the paradise ofthe preachers, she felt nevertheless a strong desire to live forever.Death seemed to her a cruel injustice. She never thought of her motherlying on her death-bed in the ripe beauty of her thirtieth year,--takenaway to the green and fragrant cemetery, filled with the songs of birds,while the roses were in full bloom; crossed off the book of life whileall Nature still sang, still bloomed and shone,--she never thought ofher mother's pale face, as I said, without a sudden shudder creeping allover her from head to foot. No, her mother was not dead! She would notdie at thirty, or at any time! And he? He die! That sublime mind to beblotted out by a stoppage of the heart or breath? No, it was notpossible! Men are mistaken! We shall know some day!

  Then, too, sometimes she thought of these mysteries under a form rathermore aesthetic and sentimental than scientific; but she thought ofthem. All her questionings, her doubts, the secret object of herconversations, perhaps her rapidly developed attachment for herfriend,--the cause of it all was the insatiable thirst for knowledgewhich consumed her soul. She hoped in him because she had already foundin his writings a solution to the highest problems. He had taught her toknow the universe; and she found this knowledge more beautiful, morevivid, more poetic, grander, than the old errors and illusions. Fromthe time when he told her that life had no object other than the searchfor truth, she had felt sure that he would find it; and her mind clungto and bound itself to his even more strongly than her heart.

  They had lived a common intellectual life in this way for about threemonths, almost every day spending several hours reading original essays,written in different languages, on science and philosophy,--the theoryof atoms, molecular physics, organic chemistry, thermo-dynamics, and thedifferent sciences whose object is the knowledge of existence,--or indiscoursing upon the real or apparent contradictions of hypotheses;sometimes finding statements and coincidences most remarkable for theirscientific axioms, in the books of purely literary writers, andoccasionally astonished at the foresight of some great authors. Thesereadings, investigations, and comparisons had especially interested themby the discrimination which their minds were led to make, as they becamemore and more enlightened, between nine tenths of the writers whoseworks are absolutely worthless, and half of the last tenth, whosewritings have but a superficial value. Having thus cleared the field ofliterature, they took great delight and satisfaction in the restrictedsociety of superior minds. Perhaps mixed with it was a little feeling ofpride.

  One day Spero arrived earlier than usual. "Eureka!" he cried. Butcorrecting himself quickly, added, "Perhaps."

  Leaning against the chimney-piece, where a bright fire crackled, whilehis companion looked at him with her large eyes full of curiosity, hebegan to speak with a sort of unconscious solemnity, as though he werediscussing something with his own mind in the solitude of the woods.

  * * * * *

  "What we see is only apparent. Reality is quite different.

  "The sun apparently turns about us, rising every morning, setting atnight; the earth where we are seems to be motionless: but the contraryis the truth. We live on a whirling projectile, thrown into space with aspeed seventy-five times as great as that which carries a cannon-ball.

  "Our ears are pleased by a harmonious concert. Sound does not exist; itis merely an impression of the senses produced by vibrations of acertain size and rapidity on the air, which in themselves are silent.There would be no sound without the acoustic nerve and the brain. Inreality there is nothing but motion.

  "The rainbow spreads its radiant circle; the rose and corn-flower,dripping with rain, glitter in the sun; the green meadow, the goldenfurrow, diversify the plain with their bright colors. There are nocolors; there is no light,--there is nothing but the ether waves, whichcause a vibration of the optic nerve. Appearances are deceitful. The sunwarms and fertilizes; fire burns. There is no heat, only sensation;heat, like light, is but one form of motion,--invisible but supreme,sovereign motion!

  * * * * *

  "Take a strong iron beam, like one of those used so generally inbuilding nowadays. It is set up in space, ten metres high, between twowalls which support its ends. It is 'solid.' In the middle of it isplaced a weight of one, two, or ten thousand kilograms; but it does noteven show this enormous weight,--a level would hardly find a depressionin it. And yet this beam is composed of particles which do not toucheach other, which are in perpetual vibration, which separate under theinfluence of heat, and are drawn together by cold. Tell me, if youplease, in what the solidity of this bar of iron consists. Its materialatoms? Assuredly not, since they do not touch. That solidity lies inmolecular attraction,--that is to say, in an immaterial force.

  "Speaking absolutely, solidity does not exist. Take up a heavy ironcannon-ball: this ball is composed of invisible molecules which do nottouch each other. The continuity which the surface seems to have, andthe apparent solidity of the ball are, then, pure illusions. To the mindwhich would analyze it, its inner structure is an eddying swarm oflittle gnats, like those darting about in the air on a summer day. Thensuppose we heat this apparently solid ball: it will melt; heat it more,it will evaporate,--but without changing its nature for all that; gas orliquid, it will still be iron.

  "We are in a house. All these walls, these floors, these carpets, thisfurniture, the marble mantelpiece, are also composed of particles whichdo not touch each other; and all these particles which constitute theseobjects are in constant motion, circulating around each other.

  "Our body is in the same condition. It is formed by a perpetualcirculation of molecules; it is a flame which is ceaselessly consumedand renewed; it is a stream on whose banks one sits down, expecting tosee the same water again, but the perpetual course of things alwaysbrings fresh water. Each globule of our blood is a world (and we havefive millions per cubic millimetre). Constantly, without let orhindrance, in our arteries and veins, in our flesh, in our brain, allcirculates,--all moves, all hurries along in a vital whirl as rapid,proportionately, as that of the heavenly bodies. Molecule by molecule,our brain, our skull, our eyes, our nerves, our entire flesh ceaselesslyrenews itself, and so rapidly that in a few months our entire body isreconstituted.

  * * * * *

  "From estimates founded on molecular attraction it has been calculatedthat in a tiny drop of water taken up on the point of a pin, a dropinvisible to the naked eye, measuring one thousandth of a cubicmillimetre, there are more than two hundred and twenty-five millionmolecules.

  "In the head of a pin there are not less than eight sextillions ofatoms, or eight thousand millions of millions of millions; and theseatoms are separated from each other by distances greater than theirdimensions, these dimensions being invisible even to the most powerfulmicroscope. If one felt inclined to count the number of these atomscontained in the head of a pin, by detaching in thought a thousandmillion of them per second, it would be necessary to continue theoperation for two hundred and fifty-three thousand years, in order tofinish the enumeration.

  "In a drop of water, in the head of a pin, there are incomparably moreatoms than there are stars in all the sky known to astronomers, armedwith their strongest telescopes.

  * * * * *

  "What upholds the earth, the sun, and all the stars of the universe inthe eternal void? What upholds that heavy iron beam thrown between twowalls, and
upon which several stories are to be built? What keeps allbodies in shape? Force.

  "The world, beings, and things, all that we see, is formed of invisibleand imponderable atoms. The universe is a dynamism. God is the universalsoul; _in eo vivimus, movemur, et sumus_.

  "As the soul is force moving the body, the Infinite Being is forcemoving the universe. The purely mechanical theory is incomplete to ananalyst who goes to the bottom of things. It is true that the human_will_ is weak, in comparison to cosmic forces; yet by sending a trainfrom Paris to Marseilles, a ship from Marseilles to Suez, I freelydisplace an infinitesimal portion of the earth's matter, and modify themoon's course. Blind men of the nineteenth century, come back to theswan of Mantua: _Mens agitat molem_.

  "If I dissect matter, I find the invisible atom at the base ofeverything. Matter disappears, fades away into smoke. If my eyes hadpower enough to see the truth, they would see, through walls and bodiescomposed of separate molecules, atomic swarms. The eyes of the flesh donot see what is. The mind's eye must see. Do not rely on the evidence ofyour senses alone; there are as many stars over our heads in the daytimeas there are during the night.

  "In Nature there is neither astronomy nor chemistry nor philosophy normechanics; those are subjective methods of observation. There is but asingle unit. The infinitely great is identical with the infinitelysmall. Space is infinite without being great. Time is eternal withoutbeing long. Stars and atoms are one.

  * * * * *

  "The unity of the universe is constituted of invisible, imponderable,immaterial force, which moves atoms. If a single atom should cease to bemoved by force, the universe would stop. The earth turns round the sun,the sun gravitates around a sidereal arch, which is itself capable ofmotion; the millions, the thousand millions of suns which people theuniverse move much more rapidly than gunpowder projectiles; these starswhich seem to us to be motionless are suns thrown into the eternal voidat the speed of ten, twenty, thirty millions of kilometres a day, allrushing towards an unknown goal,--suns, planets, earths, satellites,wandering comets ...; the fixed point, the centre of gravity sought afterby analysts, flies as fast as it is pursued, and really exists nowhere.The atoms of which bodies are composed, move relatively as fast as starsin the sky. Motion regulates all things, forms all things.

  "_The atom itself is not an inert mass, it is a centre of force._

  "That which essentially constitutes and organizes the human being, isnot his material substance; it is not the protoplasm, nor the cell, northose marvellous and fertile combinations of carbon with hydrogen,oxygen, and nitrogen,--it is animate, invisible, immaterial _Force_. Itis that which groups, directs, and keeps together the innumerableparticles which compose the exquisite harmony of the living body.

  "Matter and energy have never been seen separated from each other; theexistence of one implies the existence of the other; they are perhapssubstantially identical.

  "If the body should suddenly decay after death, as it slowlydisintegrates and perpetually renews itself during life, it would matterlittle. The soul remains. _The organizing cerebral atom is the centre ofthis force._ It also is indestructible.

  "What we see is deceitful. _The real is the invisible._"

  * * * * *

  He began to pace up and down the floor. The young girl had listened tohim as one listens to an apostle, a loved apostle; and although he hadreally spoken but for her, he had not apparently realized herpresence,--she had been so silent and motionless. She went to him andtook one of his hands in hers. "Oh!" she cried, "if you have not yetconquered Truth, she cannot elude you."

  Then, growing excited herself, and alluding to an often-expressedreservation of his, "You think," she added, "that it is impossible forterrestrial man to attain to the truth because we have but five senses,and that a multitude of natural manifestations are unknown to our mindsbecause we have no means of reaching them. Just as sight would be deniedus if we were deprived of the optic nerve, hearing if we had no acousticnerve, etc.; just as the vibrations, the exhibitions of force which passbetween the strings of our organic instrument, without causing those wehave to quiver, are unknown to us. I concede that, and agree with youthat the inhabitants of certain worlds maybe incomparably more advancedthan we; but it seems to me that although earthly, you have found itout."

  "My darling," he answered, sitting down beside her on the wide librarylounge, "it is very certain that some of the strings in our terrestrialharp are missing: probably a citizen of the Sirius system would laugh atour pretentions. The smallest piece of magnetized iron is stronger infinding the magnetic pole than either Newton or Leibnitz, and theswallow knows the variations of latitude better than did ChristopherColumbus or Magellan. What did I say just now? That appearances aredeceitful, and that our minds must see invisible force through matter.That is perfectly sure. Matter is not what it seems to be, and no maninformed about the progress of the positive sciences could now pretendto be a materialist."

  "Then," she said, "the cerebral atom, the principle of human organism,would be immortal, like all other atoms, if one should admit thefundamental assertions of chemistry. But it would differ from theothers, possessing a higher rank, the soul being attached to it. Andwould it preserve the consciousness of its existence? Would the soul becomparable to an electric substance? Once I saw the lightning go througha drawing-room and extinguish the lights; when they were re-lighted, wefound that the gilding had all been taken off the clock, and that thechased silver candlestick was gilded in several places. That is a subtleforce!"

  "Do not draw comparisons; they would be too far from the truth. Thereis no doubt that the soul exists, as force does. We can admit that itand the cerebral atom are one; that it thus survives the dissolution ofthe body we can imagine."

  "But what becomes of it? Where does it go?"

  "The greater number of souls never even suspect their own existence. Outof the fourteen hundred millions of human beings who people the earth,ninety-nine one hundredths do not think. Great heavens! what would theydo with immortality? As the molecule of iron floats in the blood,throbbing in Lamartine's or Hugo's temple, or is fixed for a time inCaesar's sword; as the molecule of hydrogen shines in the lobby of atheatre, or merges itself into the drop of water swallowed by a fish inthe dusky depths of the sea, so living atoms sleep which have neverthought. Thinking souls are the inheritance of the intellectual life.They preserve humanity's patrimony, and increase it for the future.Without this immortality of human souls which are conscious of theirexistence and live through the mind, all the history of the earth wouldend in nothing, and the whole creation, that of the most sublime worldsas well as that of our mean little planet, would be a deceptiveabsurdity, more miserable and pitiable than the cast of an earthworm.That has a right to be; but the universe would not have. Do you imaginethat the thousand millions of worlds attain the splendors of life andthought, to succeed each other without end in the sidereal universe,only to give birth to constantly deceived hopes, and grandeurs which areperpetually destroyed? It is useless for us to humble ourselves; wecannot admit that nothing is the supreme object of perpetual progress,proved by all the history of Nature. Now, souls are the seeds ofplanetary humanities."

  "Can they transport themselves from one world to another?"

  "Nothing is so difficult to understand as that of which one is ignorant,nothing more simple than what one knows. Who is surprised now to seethat the electric telegraph instantly sends human thought acrosscontinents and seas? Who is surprised to see lunar attraction raise thewaters of the ocean and produce tides? Who is surprised to see lighttransmit itself from one star to another at the rate of three hundredthousand kilometres per second? Besides, thinkers alone couldappreciate the grandeur of these marvels; the vulgar are surprised atnothing. If some new discovery to-morrow should enable us to makesignals to the inhabitants of Mars and receive replies from them, threequarters of mankind would think nothing of it the day after. Yes, theanimating forces ca
n transport themselves from one world to the other;not everywhere nor always, to be sure, and not all of them. There arelaws and conditions. My will, with the help of my muscles, can raise myarm or throw a stone; if I take a weight of twenty kilos, it will stillraise my arm; if I want to raise a weight of a thousand kilos, I can nolonger do it. Some minds are incapable of any activity; others haveacquired transcendent faculties. Mozart at six years of age surprisedall his hearers by the power of his musical genius, and at eightpublished his first two sonatas; while the greatest dramatic author whoever existed, Shakspeare, had written nothing worthy of his name untilafter he was thirty years old. It is not necessary to believe that thesoul should belong to some supernatural world. Everything is in Nature.It is hardly more than a hundred thousand years since terrestrialhumanity evolved itself from the animal chrysalis. For millions ofyears, during the long historic series of the primary, secondary, andtertiary periods, there was not a single eye on the earth to see thesegrand sights, a single human mind to contemplate them. Progress hasslowly raised the inferior souls of plants and animals; man is quiterecent on the planet. Nature is in ceaseless progress, the universe is aperpetual growth, ascent is the supreme law.

  "All worlds," he added, "are not actually inhabited. Some are at thedawn, others at twilight. For example, in our solar system, Mars, Venus,Saturn, and several of his satellites seem to be in full vitalactivity. Jupiter appears not to have passed its primary period; theMoon has perhaps no longer any inhabitants. Our own period is of no moreimportance in the general history of the universe than one anthill inthe infinite. Before the existence of the earth, there had been, fromall eternity, worlds peopled with humanities. When our planet shall haveceased to live, and the last human family shall have fallen asleep onthe brink of the last lagoon of the frozen ocean, numberless suns willstill shine in the infinite, there will still be mornings and evenings,spring-time and flowers, hopes and joys, other suns, other earths, otherhumanities,--boundless space, peopled with tombs and cradles. But life,thought, eternal progress, are the final object of creation.

  "The earth is a star's satellite. Now, as well as in the future, we arecitizens of the sky; whether we know it or not, we are really living inthe stars."

  Thus the two friends conversed about the deep subjects which engrossedtheir thoughts; when they were conquering a problem, even if it wereincomplete, they experienced a true happiness at having taken anotherstep in their search for the unknown, and could then talk more quietlyabout the ordinary things of life. They were two minds equally eager forknowledge, imagining in their youthful fervor that they could isolatethemselves from the world, look down upon human ideas, and in theircelestial flight reach the star of Truth, which shone above their headsin the depths of the infinite.