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Horizons, v. 1, issue 3, April 1940
Page 8
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only plants were seen. Then another flood, and before that a race of humans, giants in size, and partly civilised. And so, it seemed, it had been for untold ages;an unending procession of evolutions; life beginning in warm, humid conditions, human races growing up and vanishing, becoming civilised, being wiped out by floods and ice ages; after which a few survivors began it all over again. Now, if a man should do one thing for a million years, over and over again all that he did could be told in very few words; and as Rem and Elsie did only this one thing during their journey --watching what had happened to the earth in the past-- it can be told in very few words, although the journey lasted a very long time. As they did not see the sun rising and setting, and as time is really not an entity, and cannot be felt, or seen or heard, but goes without our ken when we sleep--or become greatly interested in what we are doing. For that reason, it is little wonder that they had been in space for a year of earth time, as registered by the ship's clock, almost before they knew it. But there it was, September fifteenth in the year Twenty ninetyfive. They had started that same day of the year Twenty ninety four. Yet, as Elsie said, it seem like about two weeks; there seemed no way to account for the swift passing of this first year, except that they might have slept for a long period, now and then, without knowing of it. And so the took stock of their stores, at this time, and saw that they still had food, and a plentiful supply of ice to be melted into water when the need came. Elsie had put away her silk dress, and her velvet coat, and wore one of Rem;s soft shirts anda pair of trousers. And so the kept going out, the ship following the spiral track that the earth had made thousands of years ago. The only time they left the track was when Rem sighted a dark world with his telescope, at no great distance. They were getting short of ice, and they detoured to the strange world for a new supply. They found ice in plenty on the derelict world, and little else. So they renewed their supply and went back to the earth's track. As they travelled, Rem explained his theories of space, which he had come so far to prove. According to the teachings which he had received from his friend Chalmers, the ether of space was an elongated cylinder, suns and darks worlds travelled in the spirals from one end of space to the other; each spiral was a part of a larger spiral which turned back when the sides of the cylinder had been reached, to form a curve of the larger spiral. thus, no world ever went back over the same track again till it had travelled from one end of the cylinder to the other. And there was no oder in the galaxy, said Rem, no beginning and no ending for the galaxy as a while. But each world must needs have its individual beginning and ending. When a number of dark worlds met and crashed together, they flamed out to make a sun. They attracted other dark worlds and follow them about, and the bask in the warmth of their rays till they had become as dark and cold as the planets that followed. But there were no nearly as many suns in the galaxy as men supposed, he averred. When Elsie would ask how that could be, he would affirm that space had a mirrorlike quality, as he had proved to be true; and one sun surrounded by a thousand mirrors would appear as a thousand suns--and that was why the universe appeared so vast. there was no way to estimate the exact number of suns, for many were becoming dark, and others flaming into light. But it might easily be true that their number did not exceed five thousand. They went on, till itseemed that the space ship was standing still, and Rem thought they much have reached the bounds of the etheric space. On the globe they saw the earth has it had been a million years ago; tropical plants and trees growing all over it, and a few prehistoric animals roaming about in the carefree indolence. But no trace of any human beings. The cloudy canopy gave the whole earth its uniform temperature; and Rem thought the earth's axis may have been perpendicular to the plane of the orbit, and the sun giving out more heat and light
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only plants were seen. Then another flood, and before that a race of humans, giants in size, and partly civilised. And so, it seemed, it had been for untold ages;an unending procession of evolutions; life beginning in warm, humid conditions, human races growing up and vanishing, becoming civilised, being wiped out by floods and ice ages; after which a few survivors began it all over again. Now, if a man should do one thing for a million years, over and over again all that he did could be told in very few words; and as Rem and Elsie did only this one thing during their journey --watching what had happened to the earth in the past-- it can be told in very few words, although the journey lasted a very long time. As they did not see the sun rising and setting, and as time is really not an entity, and cannot be felt, or seen or heard, but goes without our ken when we sleep--or become greatly interested in what we are doing. For that reason, it is little wonder that they had been in space for a year of earth time, as registered by the ship's clock, almost before they knew it. But there it was, September fifteenth in the year Twenty ninetyfive. They had started that same day of the year Twenty ninety four. Yet, as Elsie said, it seem like about two weeks; there seemed no way to account for the swift passing of this first year, except that they might have slept for a long period, now and then, without knowing of it. And so the took stock of their stores, at this time, and saw that they still had food, and a plentiful supply of ice to be melted into water when the need came. Elsie had put away her silk dress, and her velvet coat, and wore one of Rem;s soft shirts anda pair of trousers. And so the kept going out, the ship following the spiral track that the earth had made thousands of years ago. The only time they left the track was when Rem sighted a dark world with his telescope, at no great distance. They were getting short of ice, and they detoured to the strange world for a new supply. They found ice in plenty on the derelict world, and little else. So they renewed their supply and went back to the earth's track. As they travelled, Rem explained his theories of space, which he had come so far to prove. According to the teachings which he had received from his friend Chalmers, the ether of space was an elongated cylinder, suns and darks worlds travelled in the spirals from one end of space to the other; each spiral was a part of a larger spiral which turned back when the sides of the cylinder had been reached, to form a curve of the larger spiral. thus, no world ever went back over the same track again till it had travelled from one end of the cylinder to the other. And there was no oder in the galaxy, said Rem, no beginning and no ending for the galaxy as a while. But each world must needs have its individual beginning and ending. When a number of dark worlds met and crashed together, they flamed out to make a sun. They attracted other dark worlds and follow them about, and the bask in the warmth of their rays till they had become as dark and cold as the planets that followed. But there were no nearly as many suns in the galaxy as men supposed, he averred. When Elsie would ask how that could be, he would affirm that space had a mirrorlike quality, as he had proved to be true; and one sun surrounded by a thousand mirrors would appear as a thousand suns--and that was why the universe appeared so vast. there was no way to estimate the exact number of suns, for many were becoming dark, and others flaming into light. But it might easily be true that their number did not exceed five thousand. They went on, till itseemed that the space ship was standing still, and Rem thought they much have reached the bounds of the etheric space. On the globe they saw the earth has it had been a million years ago; tropical plants and trees growing all over it, and a few prehistoric animals roaming about in the carefree indolence. But no trace of any human beings. The cloudy canopy gave the whole earth its uniform temperature; and Rem thought the earth's axis may have been perpendicular to the plane of the orbit, and the sun giving out more heat and light
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