The combination and building up of these in the ordinary way would have taken weeks or months,but was performed instantaneously by His mighty power.""What natural laws are known to you,"asked Bearwarden,"that we do not understand,or concerning the existence of which we are ignorant?""Most of the laws in the invisible world,"said the spirit,"are the counterpart or extension of laws that appear on earth,though you as yet understand but a small part of those,many not having come to your notice.You,for instance,know that light,heat,and motion are analogous,and either of the last two can be converted into the other;but in practice you produce motion of the water molecules by the application of heat,and seldom reverse it.One of the first things we master here is the power to freeze or boil water,by checking the motion of the molecules in one case,and by increasing it,and their mutual repulsion,in the other.This is by virtue of a simple law,though in this case there is no natural manifestation of it on earth with which to compare it.While knowledge must be acquired here through study,as on earth,the new senses we receive with the awakening from death render the doing so easy,though with only the senses we had before it would have been next to impossible.
"At this moment snow is falling on the Callisto;but this you could not know by seeing,and scarcely any degree of evolution could develop your sight sufficiently,unassisted by death.With your instruments,however,you could already perceive it,notwithstanding the intervening rocks.
"Your research on earth is the best and most thorough in the history of the race;and could we but give you suggestions as to the direction in which to push it,the difference between yourselves and angels might be but little more than that between the number and intensity of the senses and the composition of the body.By the combination of natural laws you have rid yourselves of the impediment of material weight,and can roam through space like spirits,or as Columbus,by virtue of the confidence that came with the discovery of the mariner's compass,roamed upon and explored the sea.You have made a good beginning,and were not your lives so short,and their requirements so peremptory,you might visit the distant stars.
"I will show you the working of evolution.Life sleeps in minerals,dreams in plants,and wakes in you.The rock worn by frost and age crumbles to earth and soil.This enters the substance of the primordial plant,which,slowly rising;produces the animal germ.After that the way is clear,and man is evolved from protoplasm through the vertebrate and the ape.Here we have the epitome of the struggle for life in the ages past,and the analogue of the journey in the years to come.Does not the Almighty Himself make this clear where He says through his servant Isaiah,'Behold of these stones will I raise up children'?--and the name Adam means red earth.God,having brought man so far,will not let evolution cease,and the next stage of life must be the spiritual.""Can you tell us anything,"asked Ayrault,"concerning the bodies that those surviving the final judgment will receive?""Notwithstanding the unfolding of knowledge that has come to us here,"replied the spirit,"there are still some subjects concerning which we must look for information to the inspired writers in the Bible,and every gain or discovery goes to prove their veracity.We know that there are celestial bodies and bodies terrestrial,and that the spiritual bodies we shall receive in the resurrection will have power and will be incorruptible and immortal.We also know by analogy and reason that they will be unaffected by the cold and void of space,so that their possessors can range through the universe for non-nillions and decillions of miles,that they will have marvellous capacities for enjoying what they find,and that no undertaking or journey will be too difficult,though it be to the centre of the sun.Though many of us can already visit the remote regions of space as spirits,none can as yet see God;but we know that as the sight we are to receive with our new bodies sharpens,the pure in heart will see Him,though He is still as invisible to the eyes of the most developed here as the ether of space is to yours."CHAPTER VIII.
CASSANDRA AND COSMOLOGY.
The water-jug being empty,Ayrault took it up,and,crossing the ridge of a small hill,descended to a running-brook.He had filled it,and was straightening himself,when the stone on which he stood turned,and he might have fallen,had not the bishop,of whose presence he had been unaware,stretched out his hand and upheld him.
"I thought you might need a little help,"he said with a smile,"and so walked beside you,though you knew it not.Water is heavy,and you may not yet have become accustomed to its Saturnian weight.""Many thanks,my master,"replied Ayrault,retaining his hand.
"Were it not that I am engaged to the girl I love,and am sometimes haunted by the thought that in my absence she may be forgetting me,I should wish to spend the rest of my natural life here,unless I could persuade you to go with me to the earth.""By remaining here,"replied the spirit,with a sad look,"you would be losing the most priceless opportunities of doing good.
Neither will I go with you;but,as your distress is real,I will tell you of anything happening on earth that you wish to know.""Tell me,then,what the person now in my thoughts is doing.""She is standing in a window facing west,watering some forget-me-nots with a small silver sprinkler which has a ruby in the handle.""Can you see anything else?"
"Beneath the jewel is an inion that runs:
'By those who in warm July are born A single ruby should be worn;Then will they be exempt and free From love's doubts and anxiety.'""Marvellous!Had I any doubts as to your prescience and power,they would be dispelled now.One thing more let me ask,however:
Does she still love me?"
