Exactly in the same way in which an in it conducive to the interest of these beautiful and poetical ideas to defer this cor- finitely quick passage from a fixed star to retion until the end. We leave the further execution of the details, as we before remarked, to the poet. We hope, however, soon to lay before the public, in continuation of these pages, a development of the new and penetrating ideas which have crowded upon us in such abundance, as the result of the foregoing considerations. PART II. Ir has been shown, in the First Part, how the reflection of earthly events is borne further and further upon the wings of a ray of light into the universe, so that the transactions which took place here thousands of years ago are to-day visible in a distant fixed star; for every thing that has form and color, however weak the light and however small its proportions, must be considered to be visible. Our theory has been allowed up to this point; viz., that an observer endowed with infinite powers of vision, who in an immeasurably short time has passed from a fixed star of the twelfth magnitude to the vicinity of the earth, must have seen completely, in this short space of time, the reflection of every thing which has passed during four thousand years upon the surface of the hemisphere directed towards him. From these positions we deduced consequences which have the effect of rendering the ideas of Space, Time, and Eternity generally and easily intelligible. The present little work is intended still further to illustrate these ideas in the same way, and to deliver to the public, in a comprehensible form, those truths and ideas which have hitherto been the exclusive property of professed philosophers; a service with which the reader should be so much the more pleased, since the author of these lines is very far from being willing to reckon himself among the number of these philosophers. As the former treatise has already made our readers well acquainted with the plan of the argument, and the mode of demonstration which we employ, so much ceremony and so many details will not be necessary in the following considerations as were found to be so in the former part; a friendly amount of attention alone will enable us to go through together the folwig points, which are thus briefly enun ciated. Let us come to the question. the earth crowds together the images of all earthly events into a single moment, so, by reversing the process, the succession of these pictures may, in the following way, be indefinitely deferred. Let us suppose that the light, and with it the reflection of some earthly occurrence, arrives at a fixed star of the second magnitude in about twenty years. Let us also suppose, that the observer mounts to this star in the space of twenty years and one day, starting at the moment when, for example, the blossom of a flower was beginning to unfold itself: he will there find the image of this flower in that stage of development in which it was one day after the commencement of its blooming. If he was endowed with infinite powers of sight and observation, and had been able to follow the development of the blossom throughout his entire journey, he would have had time and opportunity of studying for twenty years the changes which occurred to the flower upon earth in a single day. The successive changes in its form are, as it were, fixed before his eyes. As it is scarcely possible to catch with the eye a butterfly which flits past us, so as to detect the coloring of its wings; and, on the contrary, if we could follow and observe it in its flight, we might count out and separate even the minute grains of colored dust upon its wings; so would the observer, who had the power of following the reflection of a transitory event upon the wings of the light, be enabled to distinguish the most sudden changes with the greatest accuracy and leisure. In this way we have, to a certain extent, a Microscope for time; for as the magnifying-glass apparently enlarges a thousand times the space which a minute object occupies, and thus renders it possible to separate the small contiguous portions of which it consists, which appear to the naked eye as collected into a single point, so he who is able to follow the reflected images of the stages of a rapid development with the speed of a ray of light, will be enabled to discover an endless number of separate transactions, of the existence of which we had no previous notion. A flash of lightning, for example, appears as a momentary light, which blinds us for a time, without permitting us any power of distinguishing the causes which produce it. But if we could follow the image of such a flash, only up to the sun, i. e., for eight minutes, we should be able to unfold se present at every point of space, the whole be attained on such suppositions as are course of the history of the world appears themselves impossible according to the foreto Him immediately and at once. going definition. That which occurred on earth eight minutes before is glancing brightly and evidently in His sight in the sun. Upon the star of the twelfth magnitude, occurrences which have passed away for four thousand years are seen by Him; and in the intermediate points of space are the pictures of the events which have happened in every moment since. Thus we have here the extension of Time, which corresponds with that of Space, brought so near to our sensible perception, that time and space cannot be considered as at all different from one another. For those things which are consecutive one to the other in point of time lie next to one another in space. The effect does not follow after the cause, but it exists visibly in space near it; and a picture has spread itself out before us, embracing space and time together, and representing both so entirely and at once that we are no longer able to separate or distinguish the extension of space from that of time. The omniscience of God, with regard to the past, is become intelligible and easy to us, as a sensible and material all-surveying view. Before His eyes, endued with immeasurable powers of sight, the picture of past thousands of years is, at the present moment, actually extended in space. Hence, when we imagine the purely human sense of sight, rendered more extended and acute, we are able actually to comprehend one of the attributes of the Deity. But, according to the reverse, the excellence of this human sense becomes clear to us, if we have by this time understood that it only requires an increased optical and mechanical intensity of it to communicate, at least by approximation, a divine power, viz., omniscience with regard to the past, to beings endowed with such exalted powers of vision. Having drawn this clear and intelligible inference from the previous considerations, let us take a step further in advance. But since from this point the ideas of Possibility and Impossibility must be frequently referred to, it is necessary that we and our readers mutually understand each other on this subject. We call that possible which does not contradict the laws of thought; we call that impossible which contradicts these laws. Hence, every ultimate accomplishment of a human discovery is possible. But it is impossible to reach the limit which can only For example, it is possible to pass through any given definite space in any fixed and definite period of time. For as with a steam-carriage we can travel a geographical mile in ten minutes, and with the electric telegraph can ring a bell at a distance of ten miles in a second, so the supposition that we may be enabled to move from one place to another with a speed far surpassing the rapidity of light, rests upon possibility. We repeat that practically and experimentally such a result will never be arrived at, and require simply that the following be allowed. If we show that something which hitherto existed only in a dream, or in the imagination of the enthusiastic, can appear attainable and real; but has only such impediments as arise from inability to render perfect certain known mechanical powers, and to move from one place to another with sufficient rapidity; I say that, when we have shown this, the question is transferred from the jurisdiction of dreams and enthusiasm to the jurisdiction of that species of possibility which does not contradict the laws of thought. For example: the question whether there is such a bird as the phoenix, belongs to the dominion of dreams and folly. But, I say, if, supposing it were possible for us to prove that this bird actually were living in the centre of the earth, or below the depths of the ocean; and if this evidence were perfectly accurate, lucid, and irrefutable, then indeed it would still be impossible for us to see this bird with our bodily eyes; but now that the impediments which oppose the realization of the sight are clearly and intelligibly demonstrated, we may proceed to our purpose of contriving mechanical means to overcome them in the present instance. Thus, a question hitherto only referable to the region of ideas, dreams, and enthusiasm, being brought to such a point that the impediments against its resolution are simply mechanical and relative to space, is placed quite in another and much nearer district; viz., under the dominion of what we above designated as possible. We must not here forget, that this possibility is not to be mistaken for experimental practicability, and not to be looked upon in reference to its execution being attained at any time; but it simply bears upon the question, inasmuch as ideas which are, as it were, overcome and won out of the region of empty thought into this district of possibility, are now brought nearer to our imme diate perception (be it well observed, perception, and not practicability), and are thus raised out of mere cloudy and feverish fancies into intelligible ideas. and smaller, yet in immeasurable distance they still have colour and form; and as everything possessing colour and form is visible, so must these pictures also be said to be visible, however impossible it may be for the human eye to perceive it with the hitherto discovered optical apparatus. It is, besides, for the same reasons, the greatest rashness to wish to determine beforehand the limits beyond which the perfection of our optical instruments may never step. Who could have guessed at the wonderful results which have been discovered by means of Herschel's telescope and Ehrenberg's microscope? We do not, however, require its practicability, nor even any indication that it is to be hoped for, since we have before explained to the reader the idea which we intend to convey under the word possible; and we wish only to move in the regions of possibility of this kind. I now continue in the supposition that I have hitherto made myself perfectly understood by the reader; that the idea of possibility which I have laid down has as little to do with dreams as it has, on the other side, with the question of practicability. With this idea we may maintain that it is possible, i.e., not in contradiction to the laws of thought, that a man may travel to a star in a given time; and that he may effect this, provided with so powerful a telescope as to be able to overcome every given distance, and every light and shadow in the object to be examined. With this supposition, and with the aid of a knowledge of the position and distance of every given fixed star (to be attained by the study of astronomy), it will be possible to recall sensibly to our very eyes an actual and true representation of every moment of history that has passed. If, for instance, we wish to see Luther before the council at Worms, we must trans-erful than those of man. port ourselves in a second to a fixed star, from which the light requires about three hundred years (or so much more or less) in order to reach the earth. Thence the earth will appear in the same state, and with the same persons moving upon it, as it actually was at the time of the Reformation. To the view of an observer from another fixed star, our Saviour appears now upon earth performing his miracles and ascending into heaven; and thus every moment which has passed during the lapse of centuries down to the present time may be actually recalled so as to be present. Thus, that record which spreads itself out further and further in the universe, by the vibration of the light, really and actually exists and is visible, but to eyes more pow The pictures of all secret deeds, which have ever been transacted, remain indissolubly and indelibly for ever, reaching from one sun beyond another. Not only upon the floor of the chamber is the blood-spot of murder indelibly fixed, but the deed glances further and further into the spacious heaven. At this moment is seen, in one of the stars, the image of the cradle from which Caspar Hauser was taken to be inclosed in a living tomb for so many years; in another star glances the flash of the shot which killed Charles XII. But what need is there to refer to individual instances? It would be easy to carry it out to the smallest details; but we leave this to the fancy of the reader, and only request that he will not scorn these images as childish, until he has gone through with us the very serious and important inferences which we will now proceed to make. Thus the universe incloses the pictures of the past, like an indestructible and incorruptible record containing the purest and clearest truth. And as sound propagates itself in the air, wave after wave; and the stroke of the bell, or the roar of the cannon, is heard only by those who stand nearest in the same moment when the clapper strikes the bell or the powder explodes; but each more distant spectator remarks a Let us imagine an observer, with infinite still greater interval between the light and powers of vision, in a star of the twelfth the sound, until the human ear is no longer magnitude. He would see the earth at this able to perceive the sound on account of moment as it existed at the time of Abrathe distance; or, to take a still clearer ex-ham. Let us, moreover, imagine him ample, as thunder and lightning are in real- moved forwards in the direction of our ity simultaneous, but in the storm the dis-earth, with such speed that in a short time tant thunder follows at the interval of some minutes after the flash; so, in like manner, according to our ideas, the pictures of every occurrence propagate themselves into the distant ether, upon the wings of the ray of light; and, although they become weaker (say in an hour) he comes to within the distance of a hundred millions of miles, being then as near to us as the sun is, whence the earth is seen as it was eight minutes before; let us imagine all this, quite apart from any claims of possibility or reality, and then we have indubitably the following result, that before the eye of this observer the entire history of the world, from the time of Abraham to the present day, passes by in the space of an hour. For, when the motion commenced, he viewed the earth as it was four thousand years ago; at the halfway, i. e., after half an hour, as it was two thousand years ago; after three quarters of an hour, as it was one thousand years ago; and after an hour, as it now is. attribute to a higher or the highest spirit the power of distinguishing and comprehending with accuracy every individual wave in this astonishing stream. Hence, the notion, that the Deity makes use of no measurement of time, is become clear and intelligible to us. When it is written, "Before God a thousand years are as one day," it is a mere empty word, unless the idea is rendered perceptible to our senses. But when, as we have done, by sensible and actual suppositions, we are enabled to show that it is possible for a being simply endowed with a higher degree of human power to live through the history of four thousand years in a second, we think we have materially contributed to render intelligible the philosophical statement, that time is nothing existing for itself, but only the form and repository, without which we cannot imagine its contents, viz., the series of consecutive events. We want no further proof, and it is evident, beyond the possibility of contradiction, that if an observer were able to comprehend with his eye the whirling procession of these consecutive images, he would have lived through the entire history of the world, with all the events and transactions which have happened in the hemisphere of the globe turned towards him, in a single hour. If we divide the hour into four thousand parts, so that about a second corresponds to each, he has seen the events of a whole year in a single second. They have If time was something real and actually passed before him with all the particulars, existing, and necessary to the occurrence of all the motions and positions of the persons events, it would be impossible for that to occupied, with the entire changing scenery, take place in a shorter time which occurs and he has lived through them all, every in a longer time. But here we see the enthing entire and unshortened, but only in tire contents of four thousand years concenthe quickest succession, and one hour trated into one second, and not mutilated was for him crowded with quite as many or isolated, but every event completely surevents as the space of four thousand years rounded with all its individual particulars. upon earth. If we give the observer power and collateral circumstances. The duration also to halt at pleasure in his path, as he is of time is, therefore, unnecessary for the flying through the ether, he will be able to occurrence of events. Beginning and end represent to himself as rapidly as he pleases may coalesce, and still inclose every thing that moment in the world's history which intermediate. he wishes to observe at leisure; provided he remains at a distance when this moment of history appears to have just arrived; allowing for the time which the light consumes in travelling to the position of the observer. Here again we leave to the fancy of the poet the prosecution of further details, and come to the conclusions which we intend to make. As we imagined an observer from a star of the twelfth magnitude capable of approaching the earth in an hour, we will now once more suppose that he can fly through the space in a second; or, like the electromagnetic power, in an immeasurably short time. He would now live through the period of four thousand years, with all their events, completely, and as exactly in a moment of time as he did before in the space of an hour. The human mind, it is true, grows giddy at the thought of such a consecutive train of images and events; but we can easily Having thus laid our contemplations before the reader, we will express a hope that the images may appear as poetical and sublime to him as to us, and that an hitherto unknown clearness and insight has been given to his ideas of the omniscience, omnipresence, and eternity of God. In conclusion, we must acknowledge a slight deception practised on the reader, of which we have rendered ourselves guilty with a quiet conscience. For the images of human and earthly events are not carried forward into the universe upon the wings of the light in so complete a manner, and without any exception, as we have represented. For example, what takes place within the houses cannot be seen, because the roofs and walls impede the passage of rays, &c. Nevertheless, as we have frequently and expressly declared, we do not treat of a corporeal view, but of one indicated by possibility in the sense in which we have explained it; and we therefore consider it conducive to the interest of these beautiful and poetical ideas to defer this correction until the end. We leave the further execution of the details, as we before remarked, to the poet. We hope, however, soon to lay before the public, in continuation of these pages, a development of the new and penetrating ideas which have crowded upon us in such abundance, as the result of the foregoing considerations. PART II IT has been shown, in the First Part, how the reflection of earthly events is borne further and further upon the wings of a ray of light into the universe, so that the transactions which took place here thousands of years ago are to-day visible in a distant fixed star; for every thing that has form and color, however weak the light and however small its proportions, must be considered to be visible. Our theory has been allowed up to this point; viz., that an observer endowed with infinite powers of vision, who in an immeasurably short time has passed from a fixed star of the twelfth magnitude to the vicinity of the earth, must have seen completely, in this short space of time, the reflection of every thing which has passed during four thousand years upon the surface of the hemisphere directed towards him. From these positions we deduced consequences which have the effect of rendering the ideas of Space, Time, and Eternity generally and easily intelligible. The present little work is intended still further to illustrate these ideas in the same way, and to deliver to the public, in a comprehensible form, those truths and ideas which have hitherto been the exclusive property of professed philosophers; a service with which the reader should be so much the more pleased, since the author of these lines is very far from being willing to reckon himself among the number of these philosophers. As the former treatise has already made our readers well acquainted with the plan of the argument, and the mode of demonstration which we employ, so much ceremony and so many details will not be necessary in the following considerations as were found to be so in the former part; a friendly amount of attention alone will enable us to go through together the following points, which are thus briefly enunciated. Let us come to the question. Exactly in the same way in which an infinitely quick passage from a fixed star to the earth crowds together the images of all earthly events into a single moment, so, by reversing the process, the succession of these pictures may, in the following way, be indefinitely deferred. Let us suppose that the light, and with it the reflection of some earthly occurrence, arrives at a fixed star of the second magnitude in about twenty years. Let us also suppose, that the observer mounts to this star in the space of twenty years and one day, starting at the moment when, for example, the blossom of a flower was beginning to unfold itself: he will there find the image of this flower in that stage of development in which it was one day after the commencement of its blooming. If he was endowed with infinite powers of sight and observation, and had been able to follow the development of the blossom throughout his entire journey, he would have had time and opportunity of studying for twenty years the changes which occurred to the flower upon earth in a single day. The successive changes in its form are, as it were, fixed before his eyes. As it is scarcely possible to catch with the eye a butterfly which flits past us, so as to detect the coloring of its wings; and, on the contrary, if we could follow and observe it in its flight, we might count out and separate even the minute grains of colored dust upon its wings; so would the observer, who had the power of following the reflection of a transitory event upon the wings of the light, be enabled to distinguish the most sudden changes with the greatest accuracy and leisure. In this way we have, to a certain extent, a Microscope for time; for as the magnifying-glass apparently enlarges a thousand times the space which a minute object occupies, and thus renders it possible to separate the small contiguous portions of which it consists, which appear to the naked eye as collected into a single point, so he who is able to follow the reflected images of the stages of a rapid development with the speed of a ray of light, will be enabled to discover an endless number of separate transactions, of the existence of which we had no previous notion. A flash of lightning, for example, appears as a momentary light, which blinds us for a time, without permitting us any power of distinguishing the causes which produce it. But if we could follow the image of such a flash, only up to the sun, i. e., for eight minutes, we should be able to unfold se |