Certainty of a Future Life in Mars
Page 4
CHAPTER IV.
Again for weeks I watched the station. My assistants relieved me, andamongst them was now included Miss Dodan. It was only a few days afterthe Dodans found me at the register, absorbed in receiving my father'smessage, that Miss Dodan called. She ran toward me at the open door ofthe station, her face fixed in an anxious expression of half-alarmedexpectation.
"Did you really, Mr. Dodd, hear anything? Is it true that something camefrom your father. Oh, tell me, can it be possible?"
I took her clasped hands in my own, looked into her face and told hereverything. She was the first visitor to the station since the day ofthe marvellous experience. My assistants had promised secrecy, which Ireinforced effectively by doubling their salaries. I felt I ought not tohave revealed this thing to Miss Dodan, and when in the first impulse ofconfidence everything so unwittingly passed my lips, I took her arm inmine and walked out upon the broad plateau toward the opposite endwhere our smaller experimenting station had been built.
"Miss Dodan," I said, "I am going to ask a great favor of you."
"Yes," she answered, half musingly, for the tremendous fact I hadrelated had half robbed her of her consciousness of passing things.
"I want you solemnly for the present to promise me not to reveal thestrange thing I have told you. It would hardly be believed. No, I amsure it would be laughed at, and I would become in the eyes of everyonea foolish, impossible dreamer. This would give me a deep sorrow. Myfather's name would be dragged into the mire of this common ridicule.You revered my father."
I bent more closely over her, I felt her breath upon my cheeks, her eyesseemed fixed in mine, and then I did what I had never done before, Ikissed the lips of a woman and it was also the lips of the woman Iloved. There was no resistance, no withdrawal; a tremor--was itpleasure?--seemed to disturb her for a moment and again I kissed her.This time with a quiet effort toward release she separated herself fromme, and while I still held her hands, our walk stopped and we faced eachother, just where looking westward the spires, and flocking houses ofChrist Church came fully in view.
"Miss Dodan," I began, fearful to use her first name through areluctance that was itself the expression of the deep love I bore her,"Miss Dodan, I may for some time yet be engaged in this now imperativework. I cannot, you know, now leave it. It is the most marvellous thingthe world has ever known. It means so much to me, indeed to us all.These messages are erratic--fitful. I have now waited for weeks for arenewal of these strange communications and there is nothing. But in themidst of this, a distracting love for you seems to unnerve and tormentme. I beg you to wait until those days may come when I can show you allthe devotion I yearn now to give you, but must not, for every momentthat voice may reach me from beyond the grave, and I would be recreantto the most sacred obligations, and deep responsibilities that seem nowto shape themselves before me, to our common humanity, if I forfeited aninstant of inattention. I beg you to remember all this and wait, wait,until the depthless power of my love for you can be made clear."
I would have sunk upon my knees in the abasement and passion of mydesire for her, had she not suddenly drawn me to her, flung her armsabout my neck and placed her head where--well, I am no connoisseur inlove scenes--but that day Agnes Dodan, without a syllable of sound gaveher heart to me.
We passed back in silence, and when she left me the flutteringhandkerchief that had so often waved back its salutation on the windingdistant road was now in my hands, and its signals sent by me came to herfrom the plateau. It was the simple pledge of our mutual love, a pledgethat even now as I prepare these last pages of a manuscript that is atestament to the world, soothes my pain and renews the happiness of thatday, forever and forever lost.
The next message came a few days after my interview with Miss Dodan. Itwas a rainy day in November--the spring time of that Southern land. Theregister was heard by one of my assistants, Jack Jobson, a man who hadunremittingly taken my place when I was absent, and who seemed more thananyone else dazed and wonder stricken over the experience we had. Hecame running to me, a wild terror in his face, exclaiming, "It's goingagain, sir. Hurry! It's running slow." I sprang upstairs, and before Ihad reached it heard the telltale clicks. It was not altogether asheltered position, and as I reached the table I felt the bleak andchilly air penetrating the crevices of the window, a raw ocean breezethat in a few instants crept through my bones. But I was againunconscious of everything; that marvellous ticking obliterated allthought of earth, its affairs, accidents, dangers, loves, hopes,despairs, all forgotten, swallowed up in the immeasurable revelation Iwas about to receive.
The second message began at about 4 o'clock in the afternoon of November25, 1893, two months exactly after the first. Its very opening sentencesI failed to get. It lasted late into the morning of the next day. Thestrain of taking it was somehow singularly intense upon me. I was takenfrom the table the next morning unconscious. I had fainted at the close.It began, as I received it, a few opening sentences having been lost:
"...was sent to you I was in the City of Light, and now I am in the Cityof Scandor.
"The morning of that wonderful night in which I became a flesh and bloodMartian, strong and young and beautiful, dawned fair. My friend came forme, and we went together to the great 'Commons' of the Patenta, a superbhall where all the professors, investigators, and students in the greatAcademy sit at many tables. This huge dining room is at the center ofthe group of buildings which make up the Patenta. Corridors lead into itfrom the four sections of the Patenta, and as we entered, from thedifferent sides there were many men and some women taking the ivorychairs at the side's of the long tables of marble, on which rose inbeautiful confusion of color crowded vases of fruits.
"Surrounding the room are niches instead of windows, and in each nicheone noble symbolic figure in white or colored marble.
"Light fell in a torrent of glory through the faintly opalescent glasscompartments of the ceiling, from which, at the intersection of thebroad and long rafters of blue metal, hung chandeliers formed inbranching arms with cup-like extremities, and holding spheres of theomnipresent _phosphori_.
"I stood a moment with my companion at the entrance of the great diningroom, and watched the groups and individual arrivals, as they assortedthemselves into companies or engaged in some short interchange ofgreetings. It was a very beautiful scene. The faces of all werewonderfully clear and strong, and in the commingling of forms, the bold,intellectual features of some, the more rare, delicate outlines of otherfaces, the flowing of the graceful tunics and robes, the pleasant,musical confusion of voices, with the quick, glancing movements ofattendants, the heaped up chalices and baskets, vases and broadspreading plates of fruit, the many carelessly arranged and profusebunches of radiant flowers in tall receptacles of glass or alabaster, inall this, with the strong, simple architectural features of the Hall,the eye and mind and senses seemed equally stimulated and satisfied.
"Amongst the glorious throng my companion pointed out to me many ofthose great men and women whom I seemed to know by their writings andportraits when on the earth. At one table sat Mary Somerville,Leverrier, Adams, La Place, Gauss and Helmholz; at another Dalton,Schonbeim, Davy, Tyndall, Berthollet, Berzelius, Priestly, Lavoisier,and Liebig; here were groups of physicists--Faraday, Volta, Galvani,Ampere, Fahrenheit, Henry, Draper, Biot, Chladini, Black, Melloni,Senarmont, Regnault, Daniells, Fresnel, Fizeau, Mariotte, Deville,Troost, Gay-Lussac, Foucault, Wheatstone, and many, many more. At asmall table immediately beneath a dome of glass, through whose softlyopaline texture an aureole of light seemed to embrace them, satFranklin, Galileo and Newton. It would be impossible to describe to youmy amazement at the astonishing picture.
"It almost seemed as if the air vibrated with the excitement of itsimpact and use, as these giant minds conversed together. Endowed againwith youth, scintillating, brilliant, the flush of a semi-immortalityimpressed upon their faces, which again bespoke the eminence of theirintellects, in picturesque and effective, almost pictorial grou
pings,this wondrous gathering filled me with new rapture. My comrade led me toother branching halls similarly occupied. Chemists were hereconspicuous--Chevreuil, Talbot, Wedgewood, Daguerre, Cooke, Fresenius,Schmidt, Avogadro, Liebig, Davy, Berthollet, and many, many more.
"It formed an equally striking scene. I turned to my companion and askedhim how it was that the mathematicians, chemists, physicists,astronomers, were so crowded together. He said, 'The Patenta covers,with all its buildings, a space about one mile square, and here inlaboratories and in the great observatories these men have flockedbecause of a sympathy in their tastes and talents. Although astronomy isthe great profession, and, as I will show you, the marvels of theUniverse are being more and more fully known, yet the study of theelements and the laws of matter is popular and also followedunremittingly. It is true that we know these people are from your earth;they have reported all that to the Registeries, to whom I will soonconduct you; they yet retain strong memories of the earth, though it isconfined more largely to knowledge than to experience. In some, theMartian life and habit has almost obliterated their earthly notions anddesigns. It is singular that of the scientific workers of the earth theastronomers, physicists, and chemists alone reach Mars. The biologists,zoologists, botanists, geographers, and geologists rarely are booked atthe Registeries as coming from the Earth. Their lives may be prolongedelsewhere, they seldom reach us.
"'There are some exceptions. The plants of Mars are numerous, its rocksand animal life curious, and they are well understood. A few doctorsfrom the earth are here, but medicine and surgery are not so muchneeded, yet in the study of life our philosophers have made greatstrides. Your thinkers and poets, artists, composers, dramatists,musicians, come here, but of all the wonderful students of Nature theearth has produced, as far as I know or have heard, Lamarck and Agassiz,Owen, and Cuvier alone have been reincarnated on our globe. And thewarriors and generals of the earth are unknown here.'
"We had reached a table unnoticed, unheard. There was a constant rush ofwords about us. The melodic charm of the Martian tongue, like the softvocalization of Italian pleased me. If the Martians are without booksor papers, they possess all the resources of conversation. Animation,pleasure, salutation, cheerfulness and joy was everywhere, the perfumeof flowers filled the air, the shafts of sunlight broken into the mostenticing iridescence filled the great noble rooms with lovely colors,and the clear white tables, beautifully spread with fruit, seemed tochasten appetite into something ethereal and rare.
"As we stood an instant at our places the people arose, and from somedistant and concealed place, so situated I afterwards learned, as togain access to all the dining halls, there came a swell and burst ofjubilant music. It was so fresh and free and bewitching in its glee andringing cadences, so consonant and accordant with the glad andillustrious feeling of the place and time, that my heart seemed to leapwithin me; and then it softened, and changing into notes of melodicgravity, ended in a splendid outcry of soaring, piercing notes--thesalute to the morning. Long after the voices had finished, the rollingnotes of an organ continued the loud outburst.
"As we sat down, the conversation was again resumed and I noted then thesingular clearness and suavity of this Martian language. I must hastenmy narrative. I have so much to tell you. We ate the great cereal ofMars--the Rint--a delicious food, in which, as it seemed to me, thesubstance of a sort of rice was mingled with a creamy exudation in allof which was enclosed the flavor of the orange and the peach. This, witha fruit, a kind of milk, and many wines, forms the nourishment of theMartians. The fruits are most various, and every hidden or patent fancyof the gourmet seems elicited or satisfied in them. I cannot nowdescribe them even if I recalled them. One commended itself to my tastestrongly, a sort of nodular banana, holding a fragrant nucleus, like alarge strawberry immersed in a savory juice, and coated with a rindstripped from it by the hand. It is of most stimulating qualities. It iscalled Ana.
"Few implements are in use; the Rint is taken in short spoons and thefruit is usually manipulated with the fingers. The milk and wine aredrunk from the most ingeniously devised and ornamented glasses, napkinsof the Tofa weed are used, a pale green cloth, and large bowls ofacidified water in which floats a morsel of soap are served at the endof meals. Great variety prevails, and individual fancy, taste, desire,or invention sway as with you on earth.
"The breakfast over, the companies arose and moved out in clusters andtrains to the avocations of the day. Many of these workers in thePatenta have houses throughout the city, while others living singlycongregate in the numerous apartments, and enjoy these commons. Theextraordinary assemblage I saw here is repeated in the other greatcommunal halls where the artists, philosophers and inventors congregate.But the Halls are of quite different construction in each quarter of theCity.
"Accompanying or associated with these Halls are the Courts ofAnnouncement and Recreation. Here lectures, conferences, entertainments,are given, and the people of the City flock in droves not infrequentlyaccompanied by numbers of the new Spirits who here are often enabled togain their final solidification; '_Gell_' as the Martians say.
"My companion led me out of the Hall. Men and women were moving slowlyin various directions and as we made our way over the campus and betweenthe many noble buildings I saw many of the lambent spirits half emergentinto fleshly shapes accompanied by the watchers, who are in greatnumbers in the City, carrying over their arms the white and blue dresseswith which to clothe them as the spirits fall into solid forms.
"Amongst these buildings I easily noted the marvellous observatorieswhere objectives twenty feet in diameter are used with which theastronomers actually discern the life of our earth. The reports theymake from week to week of their inspection of the Solar system, and ofthe commotions, changes, births and demolition of Stars, are thesensations of Mars. These Reports are read aloud in the Halls ofAnnouncement and Recreation. But astounding beyond belief, theyphotograph the surfaces of these distant bodies, and report in movingpictures the disturbances of the cosmic universe. No wonder that thewhole Mind, as it were, of Mars is concentrated on the fabulous resultsof their cosmic studies.
"We descended from Patenta Hill in an avenue that led between the whitecolumned houses with their spheres of Phosphori and their umbrageoussquares around them. It was a season of flowers, though I understoodthat by the use of fertilizing injections the number of flowers in ashrub and even in an herb can be here greatly multiplied. The windows ofthe houses were open and their sills crowded with blossoms. The use ofthe red blossoming vine was strangely extravagant. In many cases it hadthrown its branches over an entire house, clambering over the roof andencircling the phosphoric cage, so that the white house was dissected byits twigs and tendrils, while the red honeysuckle flowers depended inclusters from the walls, the roof gutters, and the light house globesabove them.
"The Court of the Registeries was a long low structure made of theprevalent white stone with a roof of what seemed to be red copper. Itwas built upon one of the canals which here enter the city and formedone side of a long pier or dock to which and from which interestinglittle boats were constantly approaching and as constantly departing.
"A hum of business and everyday work surrounded the place, and it seemedrefreshing to note the stir and bustle of affairs. Streams of peoplewere entering the Court as we arrived. They were inhabitants andwatchers bringing the new incarnations to the Registeries to have theirorigin recorded if they could recall it. Indeed many spirits failutterly to remember their former condition, and happen, as we might say,upon Mars, unexplained and inexplicable. They even are without speechand learn the Martian language as a child learns to talk.
"We pushed in with the jostling crowd, and even as I entered I couldhear the murmurous chant of the Chorus Halls, borne hither-ward on themorning wind. It now seemed a long time, although but one day apparentlyhad elapsed since I sat, a trail of luminous ether, undergoing thestrange process of materialization.
"How incredible it all was, how incomprehensi
ble. I pinched myself untilI could have cried out with pain, and at that very instant a voicesaluted me, calling me by name and a rushing figure encountered me. Istood transfixed. Before me was Chapman, the mechanic, workman, andphotographer for Mr. Rutherford, in New York in the seventies, a manwhom I knew well, from whom I had learned much, and whose skill helpedso largely in the production of Rutherford's negatives of the Moon. Myrepulsion was over in an instant. I clasped him heartily. It seemed sogood, so human, to embrace something in this strange world. An equalresistance met my own. We were indeed substance.
"'Mr. Dodd,' exclaimed my old acquaintance, 'are you here? This iswonderful. Have you just become one of us? What luck! what a greatprovidence for me! I am in the observatory. Must sail to-morrow toScandor to report a sudden confusion in Perseus. They call it here_Pike_. You shall go with me. I have a long leave of absence I will showyou many marvels. And you can tell me everything about Tony. He was ababy when I knew you.' Turning to my smiling companion, he spoke inMartian, of which to give you some semblance I cipher these words: 'Arumeta voluca volu li tonti tan dondore mal per vuele vonta bidi ami.'
"I returned Chapman's hearty salutation. I yet retained the human speechof earth and I was struck with the miraculous incident that in theplanet Mars, in a populous city, I was addressing a friend in theEnglish tongue.
"But the joy of it was inexpressible. Oh, the sweetness of oldacquaintanceship in strange, and as here, impossible surroundings! Igazed on him with unspeakable curiosity. I talked to him just to hear myown voice and his in response, to realize if words were still words withthe old meaning, if the intangible mutation I had undergone was areality, if I was indeed alive, if my lungs and throat, theconfiguration of my mouth, the vocalic impact of the air, was a fact, asound, a meaning, or whether it all was some phantasmagoria, beautifuland fair indeed, to be dispelled with a shock of annihilation.
"No! we were breathing, sensate things, were human kin and kind. Thesudden vertigo sent me throbbing, like a stricken animal, against thehigh pillars of the room we had entered, and a reflex tide of emotionswept over me in a storm that shook me with convulsive sobs.
"My companion handed me a black wafer. I took it, it dissolved, afierce acridity seemed formed in my mouth, and in an instant I feltstrong and bold.
"The Registeries were offices in the alcove-like openings in the sidesof this very long building. In the same building were the Courts, whichare few, and here the rooms for the reception and storage of suppliesfor the City. The Hall of Registeries is prolonged into a series of hugebuildings extending along the walls of the Canal.
"I was led by my unknown friend and Chapman to one of these recesses onwhich I recognized a globe of our earth with its continents in relief.Here upon simple tables were spread great bound books made up of thickcreamy leaves of white paper. These were the Registers. The originalhome, planet, world, or star, from which each emigrant spirit haddeparted was, as far as possible, determined, and appropriatelyrecorded. The details of their lives were inquired into, the conditionand history of the sphere they had left examined, and thus by therevision and comparison of these narratives the history of the variousworlds was in a fair way known, almost as accurately as their presentinhabitants knew them.
"The alcoves of the Registeries were really ample rooms. Cases holdingvoluminous records were ranged upon their walls; maps, charts, evenpaintings and drawings, as made by the arriving spirits hung upon thewalls, and in broad albums were gathered the portraits, in small size,of the incarnated persons. The Registeries were young men who, from longintercourse with the affairs and occupants of each of the differentextra-Martian bodies, whence spirits came, had become familiar withtheir languages and circumstances and avocations.
"The keeping, indexing, compiling, illustration, of these extraordinaryrecords is a difficult and inexhaustible task.
"The results are often reproduced to the Martians in lectures,bulletins, or in sections of the great newspaper Dia.
"The young men approached us as we entered the room, and after salutingmy guide and also Chapman with the Martian cry, Tintotita, led me to achair, and giving me one of the black wafers, whose acidity had a shorttime before so vigorously renewed my consciousness, began their inquiry.
"The photograph of each visitor is taken, and a process quite like ourcollodion or wet process is used. The portraits are more permanent thanwith the perishable dry plates. It is a curious thing to learn that for100 years these records and pictures have been taken, and that thereare on Mars hosts of unidentified spirits, who entered its wondrousprecincts before that time.
"The duration of life in Mars is very various. There seems here anundiscovered law, and a group of observers in Mars are to-day trying topenetrate this mystery. It is asserted that there is evidence thatEgyptians of the ante-Christian epoch are to-day living in Mars, buttheir identification is now almost impossible. On the other hand, it isa fact ascertained and recorded that in one hundred years many Martiansdie, while others scarcely survive the ordinary limit of our human lifeon earth. This gives a great interest to Martian society. Here for ageshave possibly flown disembodied spirits from our earth; in theirreincarnation they have assumed the features and faculties of youth;they have also, under changed conditions of life, and moderatedfunctions and activity in living, been physically, perhaps mentally,modified. Their own memory of their past on Earth, however vivid, andthen in exceptional beings, has slowly disappeared or left only vaguecloud-like waverings and congeries of reminiscences.
"So that great human souls that have entered Mars in the early centuriesof our earth's historic periods may be living here almost unrecognized.They have drifted into occupations suitable to their genius in some ofthe many great cities, and no vestige of their past remains. The systemof the Registeries is scarcely a century old, and while now from themarvellous industry and persistence of the investigators, the great onesof the neighboring worlds, and even the most obscure are in somecognizable way identified, yet from the long ages before that there isalmost no authentic registration.
"This is more to be regretted as the law of life on the planet mightthen be better formulated. Essentially it seems necessary for existencehere to be in unison with the conditions; contentment means longevity.Of course, the remarkable men and women I saw at the Patenta were allwell known. They had made themselves known, and not only were theirearthly names and lives put down on the pages of the Registers, but alltheir knowledge had been as inquisitively and scrupulously impressed.Nor is this all. From many worlds and earths there is flowing constantlyto this planet new, strange, wonderful beings. Here is a cosmos ofraces, tastes, nationalities, destinies, civilizations, and instincts,from whose amalgamated and fused vortices of tendency this marvellouslife has been formed.
"However completely the mere memory of detail vanishes, the traits ofnature remain, and these mingling beings present a kaleidoscope ofcontrasted or blending talents. But union of beings comes in here as inour States to combine all together and create this unique expression ofsocial beauty, tenderness, scientific power, progress and spiritualexaltation. Marriage is here as with us, and love holds its deathlesssway among the white and noble Martians as on earth, while the affectionof friendship seems to weave every atom of society to every other atomin a social texture over which only moves the refining powers of thoughtand aspiration.
"Mars does indeed seem a sort of Paradise, for it is quite certain thatthe best, the truest, the deeper and emphatic souls come here; and whilea sort of sin or social incompatibility is found here, and there arecrimes, and while death and sickness and accidents occur here, as I havetold you, yet these things have a moral or mental, rather than physicalexpression. At least, in a great measure, and they are rare. No!accidents of matter pertain to Mars; its materiality is complete. As Isend this to you I feel my warmth, the heat of my body, the expirationof my breath, the movements of my eyes, the beating of my heart, all,all, these bodily phenomena seem unchanged--their physiology is changed,their corporate
reality seems the same, their corporeal consequencesare different. But I cannot explain clearly this to you. Do I know itclearly myself?
"I was questioned by the Registeries, both of whom had come from theearth, though in them, as in all the less highly endowed, memory wasfading. Because of this, Registeries quickly succeed each other, sincethe later arrivals from the other worlds are better adapted to elicitthe information needed from the new spirits. And this applies to otherworlds, to Mercury and Venus, etc., whose Registeries are, so far aspossible, appointed from previous occupants of those spheres.
"The larger, far larger percentage of spirits come from the threeplanets, Mercury, Venus and the Earth; but there are singularinexplicable arrivals from distant stars, and of these the records arein many instances of extraordinary wonderfulness. I must not pause torecount this. I know it very imperfectly.
"My examiners had little to do. My memory seemed of great power, and Itold them the story of our experiments, discoveries and our compact tocommunicate with each other. This portion of my story was listened towith admiration. Chapman, my guide, and the two Registeries leaped totheir feet, exclaimed with delight and embraced each other in ecstacy.'At last! At last!' cried out all of them, while hastily callingofficers of the building to them they rapidly explained my singularannouncement. It seemed to run like fire through the throngs. A greatcrowd was soon pressing in upon us on every side, while the Martianejaculation '_Hi mitla_' rang in all directions. I was astounded. Whatwas this strange excitement, and why had my simple tale awakened thisfierce commotion?
"My guide noting my dismay and alarm, laughingly explained the reason ofthe confusion. 'For years and years,' he said, 'it has been hoped by theMartians to send some message to the Earth. We understand wirelesstelegraphy, we can bridge almost infinite distances with the monstrouswaves of magnetic disturbances, it is possible for us to generate. Wehave bombarded the earth with magnetic waves, but no response, no singleindication has been returned to us that our messages were received. Ourknowledge of the earth language is complete, even our knowledge of thetelegraphic codes is partially so. But we have hopelessly repeated, areeven now repeating these efforts.
"'You, my friend, are the first man from Earth who tells us thatwireless telegraphy is understood upon Earth, that receivers have beeninvented; but above all it amazes and transports us to know that youhave perfected means, before leaving the Earth, to have such messages asyou may deliver from Mars properly received. There is, though,' heexclaimed, as he turned to the eager, shining faces about me, 'still agrave doubt whether our good friend can assure us of the ability of the_Earthlings_ to send us back any communication. They may be unable toforce through this enormous distance waves of sufficient magnitude toreach us.'
"There was a loud murmur of disappointment, mingled with exclamations ofdissent and reproach. Once more I was plied with questions, and then, myson, there came to me, singularly clouded in forgetfulness until thatinstant, the memory of that fruitless message which we received about ayear before my death on Earth.
"I arose, and amid a hush of expectation excited by this motion,accompanied as it were with a gesture inviting silence, spoke aloud inEnglish:
"'My friends, I recall a night in August, 1890, in the Earth'schronology, when my son and myself, then hoping against hope that thecarefully adjusted receiver we had, would ever be called upon to heralda message from another world, were suddenly surprised to see and hearthe register of our instrument move and sound. It was indeed animatedby some extra terrestrial power. Could that power have come from yourMars; were we the first to receive one of your messages that you have solong been raining on the Earth?'
"I looked around in enthusiasm, and with a conscious sense ofcompanionship, pride and affection. I do not think I was altogetherunderstood, except by a few, but the contagion of my own pleasure seizedthe multitude, and a great melodious shout arose, while cries of '_Himitla_' echoed in the Hall, and then, carried away with an emotionalimpulse, these excited Martians broke into a song, a swinging chant,that brought to the doors of the room new accessions of spectators whoseinstantaneous sympathy was expressed by the added volume of sound theycontributed, until beneath the vibrant power of the great chorus thebuilding seemed itself to tremble.
"And then a curious and astounding thing happened. My old acquaintance,Chapman, leaped up in the dense clusters, and springing on a tableshouted, 'To the Patenta.' The words seemed understood by almost all. Iwas seized by powerful arms, swung upon the shoulders of two splendid,vigorous youths. While by one impulse the throng surged through thedoors in a sort of triumphal progress, I found myself moving in themidst of the excited populace up a broad avenue to the central hill ofthe city again, which was crowned by the many towers, halls, domes andaggregated arms and facades of the wonderful Patenta, the great communalhome of Experiment and Observation.
"The clamor of our approach brought to the scene the dwellers in thehouses and the wanderers in the streets. And amongst the great densityof forms and faces I saw the phosphorescent figures of many formingspirits swept on in this friendly anarchy of delight and anticipation.
"My son, as I send these words out into the ether-filled realms of spaceacross the millions of miles that intervene between that speck of lighton which even now I know you lament my departure, and this new home ofmine, which to you also is but a speck of light, I feel in a desperationof doubt that you will never hear them.
"How thrilled and awe-struck I became as I gazed around me, and lookingover the surging mob beheld their multitudinous lineaments, the faces ofthe races of our earth, its many nations, the faces of men or women whohad lived in Venus, in Mercury, in the fixed stars, perhaps, as we callthose globes from whose lambent surface light reached the earth afterthe expiration of a century of years. What a beautiful exhilaration offeeling it imparted, these flushed and shining faces, the liquid eyes ofthe south now charged with the fires of transporting expectation, thesteady gaze of blue-eyed northerners firm and rapt and steadfast; thepower of huge, colossal frames of muscle, the sinuous activity of spareand slender forms all attired in that consummate garb of blue and white,their caps of metal reflecting the light in cerulean lustres.
"On, upward, we moved, impelled by an impulse quite indefinable butsufficient to condense about us by its contagion the Martian populace,quick, responsive, inquisitive, intelligent and excitable as children.We were approaching the Patenta by an ever widening avenue, our rustlingapproach announced by a chant of vociferous and yet melodious notes.
"The avenue of Approach is known as the _Imprintum_. On either side roselines of marble columns, their lofty capitals crowned with statues,their bases clustering with marble groups, while breaking now and thenthe white monotony, spiral and intertwining pillars of colored glasssprang into the air, like titanic tropical vines holding in extendedfingers the balls of phosphori.
"The pavement we trod was made of blocks of the phosphori, and at nightthis magnificent, indescribable and transcendent street becomes a pathof flame, showering upon the files of silent marble statues above it thesplendor of this spectral effulgence.
"As we came near the buildings of the Patenta our outcry and thesonorous pulsations of the singing brought to its windows and doorwaysthe many workers in the laboratories, lecture halls, and offices. Wewere regarded with wonder. But there seems present amongst these peoplea telepathic power, not perhaps what we call that in the Earth, but anintuitive construction of meaning upon the passing of a word or a hint.Forerunners furthermore had given some account of the strange new spiritfrom the Earth, who had prearranged with people on the Earth itself, toreturn to them, if possible, messages of his experiences after a humandeath. It had been the dream of the Martians, the sensation of theirdaily lives, the hope of returning to their former dwelling places, sometoken, word, salutation, indeed to somehow begin that almost apocryphalconception of binding the Universe into a conversational unit.
"No marvel that they were now excited, transported; no wonder that I,t
he accidental being, who falling in their world, as it were, fromoutside, should be the agency to lead to the eventual conquest of thesegreat designs.
"On we swept like a tide that advances upon a coast, encompasses eachsalient rock, island and projection, and evading it by embracing it,rises still further into the bays and harbors, and brings the full tideat last to its most remote limits. So columns and stairways, halls, andwings, and arms, of buildings successively were surged round, and thevast complex pushed its way to the great Hall of Attention.
"This enormous structure was built somewhat to one side of the greatObservatories. It was rectangular, elevated and attained to by stairs onevery side. It resembles a huge Grecian temple, but the interiortreatment was quite contrasted. Externally it was made of the whitephosphorescent marble with colonnades of columns of the blue metalsupporting its projecting roofs. I was carried as by a cataract ofwaters up its stairways. Already its bronze gates were swung wide open,and through them the Martian army passed with impetuous stride. Learnedmen, the leaders and great physicists, many of those I had seen in themorning had reached the Hall. These were constantly augmented by newarrivals from the more distant Schools of Philosophy, Design and Art,while streaming in at every door came the joyous multitude, and thegreat vault of the Hall of Attention resounded with the rolling chorus.
"It was a moving, an impossible spectacle. The balconies swept upwardto a wall of polished granite. They were supported by columns of mosaicmarble; the floor of roughened glass was concealed with benches of agray stone, whose backs were carved in a tracery of branches, over whichwere thrown pale yellow rugs or shawls; the broad ceiling was dividedinto deep, rectangular recesses _plafonded_ with opalescent glass, andthese recesses were made by the intersection of huge girders of the bluemetal, while provisions were made throughout for electric lighting bytall glass cylinders, which glow like pillars of lambent flame, andstood upright, affixed to the walls at regular intervals, or concealedin cavities along the ceiling, or grouped like the fasces of the Romanlictors, at the railings of the balconies.
"A wide platform occupied the center of this vast auditorium, and uponthis I was carried as by a wave of the sea. Here I touched the floor;the accompanying crowds dispersed through the hall, which became filled,and as it filled some unnoticed signal ushered the glow of the electricether in the cylinders, until a glory of radiance mingled with thesunlight and illuminated the audience, whose songs had died away, andwho sat in attitudes of attention, their faces upturned, their bluecaps shining resplendently, like a surface of tempered steel.
"I stood alone with my former guide, and Chapman. I felt moved by somesingular enthusiasm; the exaltation of the moment possessed me, andunannounced, as yet unquestioned, I rose to my full height upon a narrowrostrum in the platform, and turning from side to side spoke with anelation that seemed to propel my ringing words over the great assemblywith the power and shock of a trumpet:
"'Men and women,' I cried, 'I have reached your wonderful world fromthat habitation of mortal men known to many of you as the Earth, wheredeath ceaselessly destroys generation after generation, and only theincessant processes of birth as quickly renew the falling ranks of life.To us on earth, the disappearance of those we love and cherish, thesundering of ties which a lifetime of love and companionship hasestablished, the sharp vanishing away into nothingness and silence ofthe faces and spirits of the great and glorious, the good, the helpful,the true and noble, has made death an awful, hideous, to some a hopelessmystery.
"'We stand on earth speechless before the unseen power which snatchesfrom our caresses all that we most cherish, all that makes our lifethere worth living. There is no solution of the mystery, no voice, noreturn, no message, only a blankness of doubt, misgiving and desperateyearning in those who must continue. There is indeed with those on Eartha partial confidence by reason of religious faith, but strong as thatseems to be, the endless succession of centuries, each crowding theviewless habitations of the dead with the still more and deeper streamsof disembodied souls, unaccompanied by any response, any utterance orreturn, limit or telltale apparition, has somehow filled all minds witha creeping wonder if even the assurances of Revelation can be believed.
"'Dying on the Earth may have continued in historic, and what is calledprehistoric time, for over 50000 years, and yet from those unnumberedmillions not a cry or a whisper, note, or vision, is heard or seen tobetray their destiny, if destiny beyond the grave there is.
"'But back of Religion, back of experience, back of rational doubt orinfidelity, the heart keeps up its importunate cry of hope. We dare notcrush out within us the sweet thought of reunion. Upon that earth I losta wife, who summed up to me everything of value, virtue, and beautyhuman life can claim. The passionate desire to regain her, the defiantmutiny of my heart against any thought of her annihilation, made meturn to the shining hosts of heaven for reassurance. In them somewhere Ibelieved the vanished soul of my companion had flown. This wonderfulworld was known to me, and what the wise men of the Earth said of itspossible population. It was then that with my son I devised, followingcertain suggestions, a system of wireless telegraphy. We have both, myson and myself, felt certain that some disturbance was recorded by ourinstrument from some planet beyond the earth. From that moment my sonand myself felt convinced that we might be permitted to bring about arelease of the inhabitants of the Earth from the narrow limits of itsown surface, and launch out upon the spaces of the universe the messagesthat would return to us with some news of other worlds, or bringassurance that the Death of the world was but the swinging door to somenew existence.
"'Men of Mars, that Death which tore from me my wife set his seal atlast on me, but before the summons was executed, I had made arrangementsin every possible detail to communicate with my son. We agreed upon acypher, and I have so imprinted each measure of our compact upon mymemory that all of it is as clear to my mind as it was before I left theEarth. Give me possession of your great instruments, let me bridge themillions of miles to our earth, and in an instant stir the populationsof the Earth into fierce attention, so that from now on through all thecoming years you Martians shall speak with the people of the earth andagain from Mars, as from some relay station, messages shall pass outwardto the stars, and thus from planet to planet the reinforced utterancemay pierce the universe of worlds.'
"I finished; a great shout arose from the immense multitude; with oneimpulse the light blue metal caps were swung from their heads and tossedupward, while the cheers passing out into the streets were caught up,and in refluent waves of sound rolled back upon me like the murmur of adistant storm at sea.
"I do not think I was quite understood, but the chief feature of myspeech was realized, and the Martians, quick to respond to anysuggestion, and inflammable of nature, had become enthusiastic over theprospects of this new revelation.
"I stood an instant uncertain what I should do, or what new developmentwould follow my evident popularity. Suddenly a strong, ringing voicespoke from the gallery immediately in front of me. It said--I could notquite separate the speaker in the moving throng: 'Come to the _Manana_.'
"Chapman and my friend whispered together 'Volta,' and then turning tome told me to follow them. I followed. Already the hall had becomepartially emptied, and we pushed onward amongst radiant men and women,who received me with smiles and gestures of approval. Once outside theHall of Attention, we hurried through some narrow corridors, up windingstairways, until at length we emerged upon a lofty platform carrying arailing about it, and so elevated above all the surrounding buildings ofthe Patenta that my glance seemed to sweep the circuit of the City, andswept outward over a rolling and low country through which ran widemirror-like ribbons of water, the great canals of Mars, while afar offmelting into the crystalline hazes of the horizon rose dark masses ofmountains.
"I stood an instant stupified and overcome. The deep voice of asalutation came to my ears, and turning I saw the face of Volta. Besideme was a large induction coil, and above it two huge plat
es of copperabout ten feet apart. The next instant a flash passed between theelectrodes, and I was caught and turned aside with my companions. Thelight of the spark was intense, and the spark itself of greatdimensions.
"Volta then spoke: 'My friend, your arrival on the surface of our planetis a sensation. We are all delighted. You have solved our difficulties.With this transmitter you can yourself send to the earth the message youwish. And this receiver will catch the waves of the smallestamplitudes.'
"He pointed to a singular train of tubes, each filled apparently with ashining line of straw shaped metallic bodies. This was raised by somesilk cord passing to a pulley and arm, perhaps a hundred feet above us.
"Volta spoke with difficulty; he seemed preoccupied, and after I wasshown the transmitter, and its mechanism was explained, he took my handwarmly, pressed it between his own, and then speaking in the Martiantongue to Chapman, left us.
"I then sent you, my son, my first message. What pleasure! The greatsparks flashed magnificently. Chapman and my friend were in ecstacies. Iworked steadily until the night. And when all was over I waited untilthe stars came out, until again the City of Light shone like some huge,myriad faceted stone, and then there came, while Chapman and my friendstood mute beside me, your faint response.
"I scarcely caught the lisping ticks, but they came, and it seemedindeed as if the power of the Creator had passed into the hands of men.
"With a joy too deep for the futile hopelessness of words to express,we both descended from the high station and through the great halls. Ifound my way to the charming, peaceful room above the glowing city andfell asleep with prayers upon my lips for all the dead and dying uponthe Earth.
"The next day as I awoke I found my friend and Chapman waiting for me. Ifelt wonderfully refreshed, and the exultant mood of the Martianspossessed me. I sang with an interior tumult of excitement. I drewbefore my mind the beauty of your mother reincorporated in this gay,lovely world of Mars, so full of power and light and youthful impulse.Again I sang, and it was the very air your mother so often played to me,'Der Gr?ne Lauterband,' of Schubert. A few passers by, below my window,caught the refrain, my voice rose higher and higher, and theirdisappearing figures seemed to carry the merry, hopping notes far away.How fair and glorious it all was!
"And I was to visit Scandor, to visit the beautiful Martian country, themines, the huge fossil ivory deposits, to sail on those canals, whoseresplendent lines we had detected from the earth.
"My door was shaken, and almost as if yet living on the earth, I criedout 'Come in.' Chapman and my friend entered with laughter andcongratulation. Chapman spoke first: 'Dodd, you are summoned to theCouncil of the Patenta. All are anxious to see you. At present it ishoped you will not push further the matter of the telegraphy with theEarth. The disturbances in Pike increase daily--flashing stars seem toemerge from nothing, meteoric showers, like a rain of sparks rush acrossthe fields of the telescopes, gaseous disengagements from what seem likeshining nuclei, shoot upward for thousands of miles from their surfaces;all is chaos, and these disturbances have been noticed in other regionsof the heavens. Again spirits have ceased arriving at the Hill of thePhosphori, the Chorus Halls are almost empty, and the singers have noemployment. Such a dearth of spirits has not been known before formonths. It is not uncommon for long intervals to occur when only a fewspirits arrive, but now there are none.
"'The Registeries report that many lately reincarnated spirits speak thelanguages of Venus and Mercury, and tell of the terrific physicalconvulsions in both planets, that wars are raging in Mercury, and asingular plague devastating Venus. The country people have sent in wordby the canals that rockets in clusters covering hundreds of square milesare arising from Scandor. The cause is unknown, cannot even besurmised, and last night Herschell and Gauss, at the big telescopes,detected a comet charging towards us with an incredible velocity. TheCouncil believe I should at once start for Scandor to bring the month'sreport, and these new excitements, to the paper Dia, while they urgethat you should recount to the governors at Scandor your story, and themarvellous fact of the answer sent back from the Earth to you by yourson. We will go, after an audience with the Council, together, andbecause of some need of more stone from the quarries, we will stop onour way out and leave orders at Mit and Sinsi, where the quarries are.The trip is full of beauty and wonder, and Scandor, I am told, is Heavenitself.'
"He paused. I thought there was a shade of disappointment in my friend'sface, as Chapman drew me to one side, and I stepped quickly back to him,and said: 'Will you not go with us, too? You first cared for me andbrought me food and raiment.' His eyes were again bright with peace.'No, my new friend, I cannot go now. I am waiting, waiting here at theCity of Light, watching the spirits, if perchance my son from your earthis amongst them. Surely he will come some day, and then my happinesswill be all God can make it.'
"We hurried away to the Chamber of the Council. Once more through thedevious paths of the great groups of buildings which make up thePatenta, between the flowering trees and the tulip flowered vines wemade our way, with feet so buoyant and so strong that we seemed almostto fly.
"The Chamber of the Council of the Patenta was a beautiful room. It wasone of the few great chambers in the City of Light, dressed in color andtapestries. A deep carpet of scarlet Talta wool covered the floor, andthere hung at irregular intervals from a silver cornice deep greencurtains. The furniture was very wonderful. A dark wood, like teak,opulently fitted with silver, formed the great table that occupied thecenter of the room, as also the heavy chairs on which were placedcushions of a golden yellow silk. There were no windows in the room. Thelight entered from above through two simple round apertures covered withwhite glass. Book cases stood about the room filled with large folios,which, as I observed from a few spread upon the table, were not printedbooks, but filled with writing in a round, clear hand, legible at somedistance.
"But the most extraordinary feature of the room was a marvellouscolossal figure at one end of the room, in a recess richly hung withgreen tapestries. It was cast in silver upon which dull shades andfrosted and polished surfaces were appropriately combined, as theirposition required, in the portrayal of a Being of incredible benignityof expression, attired in flowing robes with an outstretched hand, hisface invested with a harmonious union of power and sweetness. Beneath itupon the enormous black pedestal the letters in silver wereconspicuous--Tarunta--the Deity. This amazing creation arrested theattention of my friend Chapman, and myself, and we stood halfspell-bound under the influence of its seraphic and potent beauty.
"The next moment we were conscious of the throng filling the room. Therewere many of the great physicists and chemists and astronomers andobservers whom I had seen at the breakfast in the Dining Hall theprevious morning with a few others who were the first men I had seen inMars wearing the expression of age. They almost seemed venerable. Iremembered then what I had learned on my arrival at the Patenta--thatage and death also supervene in Mars.
"I was observed at once, and friendly hands were extended to me from allsides. I was led to the head of the table. There I was invited toenlarge my story as given in the Hall of Attention, and I was told totell it in English. A scribe near me conveyed to pads of paper mynarrative.
"When I had finished an audible murmur of approval filled the room, andthe most aged of the older men arising, and speaking in Martian,translated to me by the scribe, said:
"'My friend, you have delighted us. The time is approaching when we can,I trust, receive such visitors from all the worlds, and gradually bringit to pass that the visible universe may be bound together through thepower and sympathy of language. The Council desires that at present yourefrain from sending your second message until you have visited Scandor,and seen something of this new world upon which you have so auspiciouslyalighted.
"'Heroma (Sir, Sire, etc., etc.), Chapman will accompany you. Thegovernment at Scandor should be apprized of certain strange celestialconditions, and we are in receipt of news that at Scand
or also unusualthings are happening. While all we know or have observed could betransmitted to Scandor, and all their own knowledge in turn sent to usby wireless telegraphy, for reasons which we are not at liberty toexplain at present, it has been thought best to send the approved diaryof the Patenta to the government, and also learn in return, by word ofmouth, what has transpired at our capital. It will afford you someopportunity to visit the Martian Mountains, and be more informed for thesecond message you are expected to transmit to the Earth when youreturn.'
"After a few salutations, in which interview I found myself face to facewith the reincarnated forms of some of the greatest scientific thinkerswho have lived upon our globe, I left the Council Chamber with my friendand Chapman, to prepare for our coming journey. It was then that Ientered more deeply the City of Light, and saw the unspeakable splendorof the Garden of the Fountains.
"The Garden of the Fountains lies over toward the great Halls ofPhilosophy, Design and Invention, whose domes and temple-pointed roofsof copper and blue metal I could easily discern. It covers over half asquare mile of space. It is supplied with water from an enormous lakeresting in the hollow of an extinct volcano, fifty miles to the east ofthe City of Light, at an elevation of 5,000 feet. A great conduit orwater main, as we would say, conveys the water to the garden. The Gardenis built actually upon piers of concrete and stone, connected by archesof brick, and through the subterranean chambers, thus formed, thedivision of the streams is made, and there controlled. The whole wasdesigned by the great Martian artist, Hinudi, whom some aver is thereincarnated Leonardo da Vinci of our Earth.
"The Garden is approached through a labyrinthine avenue made up ofPalms, which on that side of the City seem to be plentiful, and overthese palms in extraordinary profusion the vines of the red floweredhoneysuckle. You cannot see beyond the wall of green on either side inthis winding way, and only as you gaze upward does the eye escape theimprisonment of its surroundings, where above the waving summits of thepalms you see a lane of the bluest sky.
"As you draw near the debouchment (into the garden) of this oscillatingroad, the splash and roar of falling waters invades your retreat. Andthen suddenly as if a curtain had arisen or dropped to the earth youemerge upon a great marble terrace of steps, and before you is spread aforest of geysers distributed in entrancing vistas in a lake of tumblingand scintillating waters. The scene is amazing and transporting. Rushingjets of water are enclosed in hollow pillars of glass, whose lines areravishingly combined in the separate clusters of fountains.
"The heights of these fountains vary from 150 to 200 feet, and they arearranged in a peculiar disorder, which, however, conforms to anelaborate plan. The water rises in these colored tubes in green columns,then breaks into sheets and bubble-laden cataracts of spray above them,pouring far outward like blazing showers of little lamps in the fullsunlight. Many of the tubes are inclined, and the ejected shafts ofwater collide above them, producing explosive clouds of shatteredvesicles of moisture that float off or drop in miniature rains over thelake. This wildness of fountains extends over many a mile. All the jetsare not in tubes. Many uncovered fountains are interjected amongst theglass pillars.
"The pillars vary in form, and have much diversity of aperture, so thatthe water shoots from them in every posture and form. It makes abewildering picture. The exposure of water in the great lake or pondwhich holds these fountains is broken with waves, and the tempestuousscene with the constant excitement of the rising and flowing avalanchesof water creates feelings of abounding wonder. The marble steps extendaround the lake, and behind them on all sides rises the wall of thepalms, beaten into motion by the wind blowing ceaselessly. Theesplanade-like margin between the top step and the palm enclosureaccommodated great numbers, while the benches in retreating alcoves,were also filled.
"It was a varied, exhilarating scene. The moving throngs, the wonderfulconfusion of the spouting fountains in their chrysalids of glass againstthe sky line, the perpetually waving fronds of the palms!
"We hurried to the pier of the Registeries after Chapman had secured thesealed envelope, in which were placed the communications to thegovernment at Scandor. The canal which enters the City of Light at thispoint is divided into a number of branches whose confluent arms, about amile from the City, unite into two parallel canals whose course we werenow to follow to the City of Scandor. The small boat we entered was acurious vessel of white porcelain, broad and short, with raised keel,prow, and expanded stern.
"It was moved by some motor, electric in nature. A pilot took his placeat the bow, and, under a canopy of silk, in the light of a setting sun,followed by the music of the City, we passed away from the City, which,even as we left it, slowly, in the descending darkness of the night,began to kindle into light, and send upward into the velvet zenith itsphosphorescent glows."