Bristol news. [volume] (Bristol, Va. & Tenn.) 1867-189?, 1870-07-08
geienti6e.

|
able To behold It as / did the other,
since light employs the same time Ii
IT'S passage from that planet TO Capell
| that IL does in coming from the Earth
and my view OF Mars exhibited TO m
phenomena that had occurred but Z
| years before, and not 900 years, tn
time that had elapsed since was
| dweller there.
My fourth life anterior to that upoi
the Earth, was passed upon an i'm
mense annular planet belonging to tn
constellation of the Swan, and situate,
in the Milky Way. This singula
world Is inhabited only by trees.
KoNIs. -Uas it no Intelligent crea
tures-none that think and speak?
PHos.-My friend, in that vast worlt
of planets there are vegetable races fa
more advanced than any YOU know
upon earth; there are plants which
live like yourself; plants which feel
think reason and speak. / myself, q.
L have said, belonging to one of thes,
races, and was an intelligent plant-f
living spirit having the outward form
of living tree-fifteer hundred year.
ago.
KoNIs.-But how is it possible that
n plant can reason without n brain
and speak without n tongue?
PIIos.-EXplain to me by what pro.
cess your material brain gives birth tc
intellectual ideas, and by what process
your soul translates silent thoughts
into audible words?
KONIs.-I find that | can not give
any explanation of this ordinary fact
PHoS-No one is justified in pro.
nouncing an unknown fact impossible
when he knows not the laws of his
own being. Because upon your earth
the brain is the material organ of in
telligcnce, do you suppose, therefore,
that there are cerebra, cerebela, and
spinal marrows i'm all the worlds that
people space? The law of progression
governs the vital system of each OF
these worlds. The vital systems differ
according to the special nature and
the forces peculiar to each world. When
it has reached sufficient degree OF
elevation to be fitted to enter the moral
system of the universe, spirit, more Oh
less developed, enters it. Do not sup
pose that upon every globe the Creator
has created human race.
Do you know why you have a breast
a stomach, two legs and two arms, a
head furnished with the senses oil
smell, hearing and sight? 1t is in con-
sequence of the same law which regu-
lated the structure of the quadrupeds
whose appearance on earth preceded
that of man. The man is made more
beautiful than the horse, the horse
than the bear, the bear than the tor
toise. A similar law ruled the vegeta-
BILE kingdom. Coarse, heavy plants,
destitute of fruit or flowers, com
menced the series, and with the lapse
of time the forms became more elegant
andmore pure. Leavesappearcd, wrap
ping the depths of the forests in my5-
ferrous shadow. Flowers appeared, to
make the earth garden of beauty,
and to shed their perfumes upon the
inodorous air.
There was an epoch when only q
few islands emerged from the heated
waters into the tepid atmosphere sur.
charged with vapor, and almost the
only forms which distinguished them
selves from the inorganic kingdom
Were long filaments swaying in lazy
suspension in the waves. Alge, fuel
such We're the primitive vegetable
types. Upon the rocks might be seen
spOnges and shoots of coral, or medusa
floating about like hemispheres of jel.
ly. But life did not remain fixed tC
these forms. There appeared creatures
not less primitive than these, not less
simple. but which announced the'ar
rival of new order of existence. The5C
were annelids, worms, fish reduced Il
the form OF tubes, creatures without
eyes, without ears, without blood
without nerves, without will--creaturei
like vegetable organisms, but endowed
with the faculty OF locomotion. Their
appeared the rudiments OF visual or
gans, rudiments of special locomotive
organs, indications OF higher anC
freer life. Fish and amphlbia cam'
into being. The animal kingdom
succeeded the vegetable.
But what il it had been in the crea
tive plan that terrestrial life should no
DO developed in two directions, bu
only in one, and that there should b.
a vegetable kingdom only? Then thu
process OF development, operating II
| that rs IL has operated in the anlina
kingdom, would not have stopped q
| the production Of flowers, so simila
to animals in their organic acts, or o
sensitive plants, endowed with gen
uine nervous system. As there ar
| now plants that feel and act, Their
would then have been plants tina
could think and communicate thonght
Such was tho order of existence IN IN
annular world in the Galaxy, III whlci
| dwelt 1900 years ago.
KONlS.-I can form no Imagination
OF this strange condition of things, o
of the life of these paradoXical beings
Pros. Their mode of life Is indee'
something very different from you
own. They build no cities, take n
JOURNEYS, and establish no forms q
Government. Prudent, patient an
endowed with great consistency of char
acter. they have neither the moblllt
nor the fragility of men upoa earth
Their average life is from five to 81
| hundred years "A life calm, uniform
| with no violent disturbances. BuJ q
not suppose that these beings have,
merely Vegetative existence; on IN
contrary they have well-deined pei
sonnl lives. They are divided, ne
Inv differences of birth or fortune, q
uDon earth, butinto families accordin
to the species. They have social hi
tory, unwritten of course, ana ever
one knows the history OF his own rae
There L. the same distinction OF sex
upon earth; and their marriages al
always pure, disinterested, and aiio'
tionate. They possess the faculties
sight, hearing, and speech.
| KONIs.-But how is IL possible til'
they can see without eyes ana he'
without ears?
PIos.-Renect, my friend, that ligi
and sound are but two modes OF m
ton. TO take cognisance OF either, Il
that Is required is ar apparatus col
structed for the purpose, were IL but
simple nerve. For terrestrial being
the eye and the ear are the organs a
/ lotted and specialized to this function
for other organisations other Prov
ions are made. In nature there Il
not merely two or five, but thousan
of modes OF motion. Upon ltarth y'
, are constructed TO take cognisances
n few of these in which are comprls'
all your vital relations but en- oth
worlds there are other organs to appre'
. ate nature under other relations the
f are senses which take the place OF yo
; seeing and hearing, and there a
senses constructed to receive perez