An Inhabitant of the Planet Mars

by Henri de Parville

  “In the same way, the animal feels itself reborn in spring. There is an increase in life. It also passes through an analogous phase every day. When the Sun disappears below the horizon, when light is lacking, it experiences an insatiable need for sleep. It manifests a curious reaction; the force that animates it seems to diminish, and, in fact, to diminish to the advantage of the force that reconstructs its tissues. One might think that, the external forces having partly disappeared, it no longer needs to effect external work; all the vital activity is concentrated inside the body that it repairs and grows. When the light returns, an inverse phenomenon is manifest, and it is, by contrast, the faculty of acting externally that prevails.

  “All these facts find a very simple explanation, on which I do not want to dwell, in the considerations established in this session and the preceding one.

  “You might like to note, gentlemen, that, in the final analysis, plants and animals are nothing but machines, receptors of force incessantly working upon matter. Now, here is a machine capable of a given force, a sum of quantity of movement, which is devoted, thanks to the astonishing phenomenon of reproduction, to generation: making a similar machine from component parts, creating a new sum of quantity of motion.

  “Can two be made out of one? Can unity be created out of nothing? Be under no illusion, gentlemen, the act of generation is not production; it is not creation; it is a simple transformation of force, of that eternally transmissible force which has always existed, the immortal proof of the initial creation and of the Creator.

  “A germ is only an aggregation of organic molecules combined by external forces. Now, external forces exist in indefinite quantity, as do organic molecules; an organism is only a machine that brings molecules together under the action of external forces; the germ does not borrow or take any of the vital force; it would necessarily be impoverished if external molecules could not replace those destined for the reproduction of the species. But we know that, until a given moment, molecules can enter into the organism and augment it.

  “It is unnecessary to be astonished, therefore, in seeing a given sum of organic molecules produce a series of analogous sums; it only provides on each occasion, on its own account, an insignificant fraction of itself—and it only provides it, moreover, when its can extract a few superfluous units from itself without danger.

  “Since reproduction depends on molecules that can be drawn from the reproductive creature and external forces, it is evident that it will take place primarily when those forces increase their intensity. This explains the need for love that animates animals in spring and awakens plants! In response to the greater excitation of the solar rays, plants and animals form new molecular agglomerations, which translate in visual terms into a bud or a fecund germ. The bud and the germ become new centers of action in their turn, destined to transmit the force that they already have and extract more from their surroundings.

  “Such are, gentlemen, in their principles, the extremely simple and general laws that preside over evolution and the generation of species, and which govern the life of creatures. There only remains one last point one which to reassure several of my honorable colleagues; it is a matter of demonstrating that this admirable mechanism is not the expression of blind chance, that it does not lead to the notion of materialism, and that, on the contrary, it testifies in every respect to the omnipotence and the absolute necessity of a Creator.”

  (Cheers and applause from several benches.)

  LETTER XII

  An unexpected volte-face. Where Mr. Ziegler becomes a spiritualist. Matter and the soul. Can thought activate material reactions? Mental and corporeal activity. On the existence of the soul. What a poor machine the body is! The influence of matter. The perfectibility of the individual and the perfectibility of impressions. Poor instruments, poor work. The theory of magnetism. How a soul can telegraph to another soul. Somnambulistic sleep. Magnetic influences. Mr. Haughton and M. Pasteur. Mr. Ziegler’s conclusion.

  Mr. Newbold: “Gentlemen, several of our colleagues have received letters of recall; the debates are going on longer than we thought. It is, however, necessary to conclude. Mr. Ziegler has asked for the floor; after him, Mr. Owerght is scheduled. I shall be obliged to leave Paxton House myself in a few days; I therefore pray the Mr. Ziegler will be very brief, and I can only conserve his turn on that express condition.”

  Mr. Ziegler: “Thank you, Mr. President. A quarter of an hour will suffice for me to finish what I have to say.”

  From the journalists bench: “His quarter of an hour is bound to last several hours.”

  Mr. Ziegler: “I have been accused of favoring the most complete materialism by means of my theory. I claim a few more minutes of attention in order to exonerate myself.

  “What have I done, gentlemen? I have shown that matter organizes itself under the influence of motion transmitted by matter; I have provided the explanation of these transformations. I have said subsequently that beings improve themselves as the materials of each planet become increasingly complex and varied. One might assume, indeed, that I would like to go further, arguing that intelligence becomes increasingly superior with the variety of material elements, and that, in consequence, intelligence depends exclusively on matter. It is important to draw a clear distinction.

  “Yes, gentlemen, for me, intelligence depends on matter, but it is not matter that makes intelligence. It is necessary to distinguish the vital principle, the force that animates your body, from intelligence, from the soul. The vital principle belongs to the material world; intelligence is regulated by the material world, but does not belong to it. The vital principle is born and dies; the soul does not die.

  “The vital principle arises entirely from matter: mass and quantity of motion, that is its formula. Without mass and without motion, there is no vital principle. Intelligence, by contrast, the faculty of thought, comes from the soul, from an element implicitly unknown, essentially divine.

  “Why? Why does thought not arise spontaneously, exactly like the material reactions that produce the vital force? Gentlemen, it is very easy to prove the existence of a spiritual principle completely separate from the material world, and to provide clear evidence of its special nature.

  “Has it not been demonstrated that life will increase its energy up to a certain limit, diminishing thereafter? This is a matter of the material reactions which produce the vital force. Now, if thought were also governed by the same evolutions, it would follow necessarily that intelligence would increase in the same proportion, subsequently to decrease in the same proportion.

  “That is absolutely untrue. Although material decadence often does react upon—and, indeed, as we have shown, must react upon—the faculties of intelligence, intelligence very often remains tenacious and intact until the last moments of life. Thus, the production of thought, although linked to material reactions, cannot have the same origin as the vital force.

  “Mental activity most often coincides with vital activity, but it is perfectly understandable that the soul profits from having a good deal of force to expend, and makes use of the power at its disposal. The soul, independent of the body, evidently directs the machine and makes use of it.56

  “How—for I am obliged to go very quickly—is the intelligence dependent on the body? In absolutely the same fashion that a workman is dependent on an instrument. The soul can only communicate with the material world with the aid of a body; if the body is incomplete and badly-constructed, its material reactions insufficient, its vital principle insufficient, intelligence is limited—and you will understand that, gentlemen, with the greatest ease.

  “The soul is connected via the body to the material world by means of organs of relation: the eye, the ear, the hands, etc. Now, the more complex and varied these organs become, the more the intelligence will be impressed, the more sensation will multiply. Modify an organ, simplify its structure, and intelligence or instinct will be fatally depleted.

  “How does an impression
reach you? The impression is material in origin. It is a wave, a motion that strikes the ear, the eye the hand, the body. The stimulus is propagated by nerves to the brain. The impression is transmitted.

  “The more different molecules there are, and the more different motions, as has been said, the more various sensations become in consequence. In order that all these motions should take effect, however, it is absolutely necessary that the organs which receive them should be susceptible to stimulation; it is necessary that their molecules should be as complex as those which send the motion, according to the principles previously stated.

  “It ought, then, to be evident that the sensitivity of perception depends on the structure of the organ. Do not, therefore, be any longer astonished in seeing that not all individuals are equally impressed by the same phenomenon—nor, above all, that different animals on the evolutionary scale may see or not see what we, ourselves, can perceive in every detail. Inferior animals can only be impressed by the elementary motions derived from the least complex molecules, corresponding to the ones that form their bodies.

  “The sensitivity of an animal, the intelligence or instinct, does not depend on the mass and the vital principle, but on the fineness, the variety and the multiplicity of the molecules that constitute its organs. The more numerous and varied they are, the greater aptitude they will have to collect the motions arriving from every direction, and the clearer and more numerous the impressions themselves will be.

  “Why do all bodies appear to us with their own colors? Simply because their molecules are diverse and the motions of those molecules are different. The more motions there are, the more sensations there are. Why is one individual not impressed in the same fashion as another by the same color? Because the molecules of its organs are not aggregated identically to those of its neighbor—and the same for sound, for touch, for all the impressions that there are.

  “Animals, we may be sure, do not see as we do, do not judge size or color as we do. Even within the human species, there are no two people whose impressions are identical. No two people ever see precisely at the same moment, hear at precisely the same instant. The difference in time gives an idea of the difference in the constitution of their senses.

  “Thus it never happens that two astronomers, however experienced they are, observe the passage of a heavenly body at the same moment; one sees it a little sooner or later than the other. The error can be as much as a second. For each individual, a different time is required for the transmission of molecular motion to be effected. Your soul instructs your arm to raise itself; it takes a fraction of a second for the mechanism to obey; for your neighbor, it will be a different fraction of a second. In a word, the speed of transmission varies incessantly from person to person.

  “Have you noticed that it is sufficient to look at someone for their eyes, after a few seconds, to meet yours? The effect is instinctive. It is the soul of the person you are looking at that obeys yours, always through the intermediary of a material agent, in this case light.

  “You project upon a person’s eye the motion57 that reaches you from the Sun; that motion stimulates the retina, and then the brain of that person. This motion is different from the one that the other receives directly from the Sun; your retina has modified it in passing. The person therefore senses a distinct impression, wishes to know the source, and looks in the direction from which the particular motion comes.

  “If the person’s constitution is such that she58 can enter into harmonic vibration with you, she will look at you more and more. The two of you will bring yourselves closer and closer to unison, and then great sympathy, your nerves vibrating synchronously. The molecules of the two bodies become animated with identical motions and the organs, which are only an assemblage thereof, live the same life. The popular expression their two hearts beat as one will be entirely verified; it is thus that love can be born from a glance.

  “If, on the contrary, the molecular constitution is such that the motions can never coincide and enter into unison, it is discomfort that the gaze will produce: natural antipathy.

  “The connection produced by the luminous movement can be extended and considerably augmented by the molecular motions of other organs of relation; a hand placed on a hand is sufficient to further hasten the harmonic vibrations of bodies, and, in consequence, the similitude of impressions and thoughts.

  “People are astonished by magnetic phenomena; they cannot imagine how one person can influence another from a distance. People have preferred to consider magnetism as a kind of trickery, scientists laughing at it; it is, however, gentlemen, a definite branch of an exact science.

  “When two people are in unison—which is to say that their equally-stimulated nerve-threads are vibrating in unison—as external motions govern sensations, it is sufficient for the stronger to think of something for the weaker to have the same thought by repercussion; it is a veritable telegraphy.

  “Nevertheless, as external objects also transmit the motions of their molecules, if the person who is receiving is not isolated from these foreign impressions, she will confuse the sensations emanating from these different sources, exactly like a telegraph receiving a large number of dispatches at the same time. Even so, she will conserve a vague and indecisive notion.

  “Magnetizers get around this difficulty. When the connection is made and the subject’s thoughts are already somewhat obedient to yours, you order her to sleep. You isolate her thus from foreign influences, and your thoughts become hers. Your two souls communicate, and your soul, instructing hers, makes her body move as if it belonged to you.59

  “I said just now that you order her to sleep. What is the sleep that you can produce in this way? Gentlemen, it has been repeated endlessly that sleep is the image of death. Psychologists have opposed that expression vigorously; the idea is false. Nevertheless, the soul is never more independent than during sleep, and, in consequence, never finds itself closer to the state it will recover in death. It is enclosed in the body, but no longer in command of it, no longer making use of it. Sleep is, therefore, the time during which the soul is no longer in communication via the body, save in an accessory manner, with the external world.

  “The body has to repair, on a daily basis, the loss of vital force that it expends in its external labor; the vital principle diminishes; the soul can no longer make the machine obey. It is a sailor whose ship is adrift, for lack of a rudder.

  “The body rests, the soul remains awake but is no longer linked with its surroundings; it no longer sees; it meditates on its memories; it combines; it anticipates; no longer tormented by external impressions, it acquires an incomparable power and activity of judgment.

  “During this time, all the vital force is employed in reconstructing the body, repairing the day’s wear and tear. In certain individuals, somnambulists, the soul conserves enough authority over the body to make it function, but usually without putting it into direct connection with the external world.

  “What does the magnetizer do now, gentlemen? When the organization of his subject permits, he commands her to sleep, exactly as he would if the body of the somnambulist were his own. The soul obeys; the subject sleeps, and the magnetizer has only to telegraph his will.

  “The less massive a body is, the more rapidly the magnetic effects will be produced, since there is less mass to control. It is for this reason that weak and small people are more impressionable than others. There will always be more rapidity and finesse in the conception of a nervous organization than any other, precisely because of the predominance of the vital force over the matter.

  “Materialists, who confuse the vital principle with the soul, have certainly not considered these facts, which falsify their opinion. They are astonished by the fact that, although we do not have an exact notion of the Divinity, our ideas revolve eternally in the same circle. How? Can our sensations arrive from anywhere else than matter, that which we can see or touch? Our soul only sees and is only capable of judging according to t
he notions acquired by our organs. Our sensations never get away from that; we cannot, therefore, go any further by the method of positivism. If the soul did not exist, we would not have that very faculty of expressing ideas other than those given to us by sensations directly produced by the material world.

  “Besides, the idea of God and the soul emerges incessantly, and gathers force as our external impressions weaken, ending up dominating all our thoughts. This is necessarily the case, in fact, because, the more vital energy is lost, the more the soul withdraws into itself, belonging more to itself and less to the body.

  “I could offer more arguments, but Mr. Newbold is becoming impatient, seeing time moving on, and I only wanted to say a few more words in order to make it clear that everything I have said applies to the vital principle and not to the soul, which is eternally independent of matter.

  “Finally, gentlemen, remember that, although motion and matter make and transform organisms, matter and motion require a creator. The hand of God, gentlemen, is manifest throughout the universe.”

  (Applause.)

  Mr. Newbold: “Mr. Haughton has the floor.”

  Mr. Haughton: “Just a word to Mr. Ziegler. I do not insist on anything with regard to the entirely novel conclusions he has just expressed, but only that, since matter can organize itself—according to him—he prove it experimentally.”

  Mr. Newbold: “Mr. Haughton, we shall once again be drawn….”

  Mr. Ziegler. “No, Mr. President, a minute’s grace, not to convince Mr. Haughton but so as not to leave his objection without a response. I say that, by putting appropriate matter in the presence of appropriate mater, I can still produce organisms today. If I do it and demonstrate it, my honorable colleague will affirm that the organisms came from pre-existing germs. He will remind me of Monsieur Pasteur’s experiments in France.