Bristol news. [volume] (Bristol, Va. & Tenn.) 1867-189?, 1873-10-21
A SOULS JOURNEY.

Lumen's soul, when freed from his
body, scared to the fair white star
which is known on the ZOdiacal charts
as Capella, or the ShegOat. II know
not how | traversed the celestial
space" he saytO Inquirer, land by
what force | was borne towards a mag
niticent white sun, whose splendOr did
not, however, dazzle me, surrounded as
IL seemed to me in the distance by a
vast number of worlds. each envelo3ed
in one or more rings. BY this I'M
known force found myself carried to-
wards one of these rings, a witness of
unaccOuntable phenomena of light,
for the starry eEpanse seemed to be-
as it were, bridged by rainbows. u
The sight of his soul was incOmparablv
more kaen than that of the earthly or
ganism, so that; instead of merely see
ing the stars in the heavens, lie clearly
distinguished the worlds that revolve
around them, and moreover, when his
gaze was fixed on q particular world,
he could make OUT the details of its
surface, the continents and seas, the
clouds and rivers then concentrating
his thought on particular point
minute features, buildings, streets, gar
dens, paths and human beings. And
from this point the story grows rapid
ly to intense interest. Lumen first
witnesses, with great establishment,
the events of '93 in France; then
events Of earlier periods; then sees
himself as child on the earth; and
follows himself, or his double"
through the various stages Ofhis earth
~ life to his death, attends his own
funeral. After detailing all these
sights and experiences with great min
uteuesE, he explains how he solved the
problem:
You know that light does not in-
simultaneously compass the distance be-
tween two points, but gradually. You
must have noticed that when a stone
is thrown into a sheet of quiet water,
a series of uudulatiOns results around
the point where the stone falls. 1t is
thus with sound in the air passing
from point TO point. 1t Is SO with
light in space, which transmits itself
gradually by successive fluctuations.
: It goes To the earth from
the moon in one second and Quarter
from the sun in eight minutes. thirteen
seconds; from Jupiter in fifty-twu
minutes from Uranus in two hours,
aud from Neptune in three hours. We
therefore see celestial bodies, not Just
as they are at the instant of ObserVa-
ton, bur as they were at the departure
of the luminous ray that comes to us.
fla volcano, for intance, burst into
flames in the worlds have Just men
toned, we should not see the fiery dis
II Il In Of
ter the eructatiOn, If the volcano were
IN the moon, fifty-two minutes af.er, if
it were in Jupiter, two hours after il it
were in Neptune. Going beyond the
planetary system, we find the distau-
ces incomparably greater, and the re-
tardation of the light much longer
Thus it takes luminous ray from the
star nearest us. Aiphd of the Centaur,
three years aid eight months 20 reach
us the light of Sirius spends twenty
two years in bridging the gulf that
st parates us from the star. Capella be-
ing situated at the abOve-stated dis
tamce from the earth, it is easy to cal
culate, at the rate of seventy-seven
thousand leagues to the second, how
much time light requires to traverse
this space. The calculation made gives
seventy one years eight months and
twenty-four DAYS. The light proceed
ing from Capella to the earth reaches
the latter only at the end Of an unin-
terrupted journey of seventy one years
eight months and twenty-four days
In like manner light proceeding from
the earth to that star occupies the same
time it its passage"
So, following a ray of light to its
source. Lumen reviewed his life on
the earth. Next, his spirit, being able
to retreat or advance into space at will
coming in contact with other rays, and
travelling faster than the rays. he made
the astonishing review of our earth
backward, from the time'he left il to
the beginning of all things. And this
part of the story is extraordinary; ii is
graphically told, and so positively as
serted and defended that the attention
is held as firmly as by the marvellous
productions that we are now enjoying
from the teeming brain of that other
Frenchman Veyne, in the Twenty
Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. u
1.-The Tour of the World in Eight
Days. "SiX weeks in Balloon" and
the others.
GLINIPsES OF OTHER WORLDS.