Life in a Thousand Worlds Part 5

He informed me that he had often seen the moving of the spots, and thought they were some cloud formations peculiar to our world. But I insisted on the steams.h.i.+p explanation and proceeded to describe an ocean liner, for these Jupiterites are not familiar with oceans of cold water on which float numerous craft.

I was then a royal guest, and pa.s.sed a most felicitous night with these four celebrities. We talked of the more powerful telescope that the government of Jupiter was manufacturing, and of the still greater views it promised to reveal.

Then I informed them of our system of science. They were astonished at the great civilization extant on Zo-ide, or our Earth.

I told them that a subtile power lay dormant in the atoms and molecules of matter, which could be released and utilized, and that we in our world called it "electricity."

During the night I learned that the convolutions on the chin and forehead of a Jupiterite served the purpose of a new sense. By the aid of these convolutions any person of Jupiter can tell in daylight or darkness the nature of any surrounding substance, whether it be hard or soft, combustible or non-combustible, good for food or not. I confess that I was unable to grasp the idea intelligently. So the people on the Moon had the same difficulty in understanding the use of my nose.

Before morning dawned I informed my appreciative quartette that I would see them no more, that I had paused at Jupiter station long enough, and that I must be off on my vast excursion trip.

They earnestly entreated me to remain so that the college students and representative persons could get a glimpse of me; but I refused all their entreaties. When they found that I had power to leave them instantly, they besought me to remain for a few last words.

"Shall we not see you again?" affectingly asked the astronomer.

I told them that I expected to spend eternity in the kingdom of our G.o.d who made all the stars and worlds, and holds each in its respective place. "If you are pure in heart to Him," I continued, "there can be no doubt but that we shall see one another again in that happy celestial center where our eyes will be our telescopes, where our pure hearts will a.s.sent to the Fatherhood of G.o.d, and where our souls will be quickened at the universal fountain of Love."

CHAPTER V.

Beautiful Saturn.

A delightfully busy world next met my gaze. Saturn, supreme in love, with its mysterious rings and its eight moons, now held my attention and won my admiration.

This world is almost as large as Jupiter, and its soil is more fertile.

The inhabitants resemble us in physical appearance, except that they are twice our size.

Like Jupiter, it is enveloped in thick semi-liquid clouds which are never at rest. This changing atmosphere causes continual friction of particles, and this serves to produce sufficient heat to counteract the frigid blasts that would otherwise freeze out the whole planet. These atmospheric conditions attracted my attention to a great degree. I estimated as best I could, and ascertained that Saturn receives as much heat from this peculiar atmosphere as our Earth receives from the Sun.

As I found it on Jupiter, so I found it here. The human eye is so constructed that it seems to have more than an X-ray power, for it can look through this atmosphere as readily as we can peer through ours.

The air of Saturn, being so thick, contains much natural nourishment, and the inhabitants are sustained largely by breathing. This reminded me of the manner in which our fish flourish in the waters of our globe.

Marvelous indeed are the possibilities of life. I now had before me new problems to solve, for natural laws have but a limited expression in our own world. Here science puts on new garments, but they are all cut in harmony with universal laws.

Woman is the ruling genius of this planet. Being untrammeled for a few thousand years, she has attained a higher glory than her s.e.x has reached in any world of our Solar System.

As you scan the honor rolls of Saturn, reading the list of the eminent leaders in science, art and philosophy, you will readily observe that woman has forged to the front. She also sits upon the princ.i.p.al thrones of temporal power.

Woman's beauty on Saturn is surpa.s.sing. It reaches a higher degree of perfection than any of the myriad types of beauty on this enchanting world. When I first opened my eyes on these scenes, I imagined that I had reached Heaven, but, to my chagrin, I soon found the black marks of sin that stain the whole planet.

The ill.u.s.trious inventors of Saturn, living and dead, make a long list, which is headed by the name of Veorda, a woman of marvelous intellect.

She looked into the mysteries of nature with a shrewd, wizard eye, but, unfortunately, lost her life early in a bold experiment with explosives.

However, before she reached her much-lamented end, she had won enough honor to outs.h.i.+ne all inventors in the whole history of Saturn.

She was the sole inventor of all explosives, and she had learned how to operate them without making any noise or smoke. This proved a valuable aid to factories and quarries, and particularly in the handling of fire arms, of which Saturn has a very strange collection.

Before Veorda was born the flying machine had been invented and used.

But aerial travel was soon abandoned owing to some terrible accidents that had occurred. During the earlier part of her career Veorda labored a.s.siduously until she overcame a few difficulties and thereby perfected the flying machine.

[Ill.u.s.tration: An Air s.h.i.+p on Saturn.]

It was a day of international rejoicing when her perfected machine sailed over the governments of Saturn. The invention stood every test and at once air traffic was resumed and maintained. When this woman died the governments erected to her memory the finest and costliest monument that now stands on the whole world of Saturn. Of course, I went to see it. As I stood studying the poetry of the pillars, I looked overhead and saw one of the immense aerial s.h.i.+ps carrying a pleasure party to a distant point. I cannot describe my feelings as I lingered in the presence of the sleeping dust and saw the imperishable influence of her thoughts still working for her, in a carnal sense, "a more exceeding and eternal weight of glory."

Yet with all this homage paid to Veorda, I cannot believe that she is more ill.u.s.trious than the present living wizard of our world, the notable Edison.

Veorda lived and died a devoted wors.h.i.+pper of "The Great Influence," or G.o.d, and it is delightful to think that we shall a.s.sociate with such great minds in our eternal abode in that Broader Life where the pure of all spheres gather. Will I do wrong if I quote that sublime beat.i.tude, making it applicable to all worlds? "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see G.o.d."

The written language of Saturn resembles the Chinese character language, only it is much more smooth and more complete.

The Shakespeare of that planet is a woman called Ziek-dod who has been dead twelve hundred years. Her writings have been quoted and esteemed as masterpieces all through these ages. Her style is singular, resembling the proverbs of Solomon, with a little more ornament in the language.

As to the subject matter, her epigrammatic sentences are grouped and cla.s.sified with an accuracy that is both pleasing and popular. At intervals the reader is treated with a sprinkling of alliterative sentences.

Ziek-dod s.h.i.+nes as an eternal star among the great names of her world.

Like Veorda, she was pure-hearted and possessed fine moral and spiritual qualities. She pa.s.sed out into that Broader Life where language is sweeter and thoughts are more holy.

In music I noticed the most radical departures. The popular home instrument is larger than our organ and has nearly one hundred keys arranged somewhat like the keyboard of a typewriter.

These keys and their combinations are capable of rendering sounds to correspond with every syllable found in their words. A proper familiarity with these sounds is a part of every child's training on Saturn.

When one plays on this instrument every sound struck on the keys represents a certain vowel-consonant sound. Thus the listener hears the sounds more distinctly than we hear the words of a phonograph.

Under such conditions a musician is capable of interpreting his exact feelings when manipulating the keys. He talks to his listeners with organ sounds. The great poet musicians can breathe out their inspirations in rapturous melodies. On special occasions famous musicians are employed to render original selections. Addresses and lectures are also given in this manner with very pleasing results.

The Saturnites know nothing of the Telephone, Telegraph, or Phonograph.

But for carrying messages they have a signal system by which intelligence is flashed from one point to another with great rapidity.

Saturn has eight moons and is surrounded with the rings which have made it famous from the time the planet was first seen through the telescope.

These rings and moons are inhabited by a type of human beings altogether different from those that live on the planet, and are distinctly visible to the dwellers of Saturn by means of powerful telescopes.

The human beings on the rings are not able to watch their neighbors in s.p.a.ce, having no instruments to carry their vision beyond the boundaries of their own peculiar abodes.

The most picturesque sight of all the Solar System is seen as you stand on Saturn, and watch the rings and the eight moons chasing one another in the heavens above you.

The inhabitants of this beautiful world believe that the soul of each G.o.d-adorer at death pa.s.ses out into the spirit life on the rings where it will continue in a blissful existence until the final judgment.

The religious life of Saturn is officially controlled by men. There are many creeds, each with its own devoted followers. The leading church of this world was not organized until seven thousand years after religious life took a distinctive form. Then a man named Trique, who was a shrewd student of the times, after a careful study of the weaknesses found in existing religious bodies, and after ama.s.sing enormous wealth in business, founded a new church on a neat, practical business plan which may thus be briefly described in terms and figures of our own language.

Trique had a fortune of two hundred millions which, by investment, netted him twenty millions annually. These net earnings he used to establish his new denomination. He commenced operations simultaneously at the capitol of each of the four governments of Saturn, and at each place built two magnificent churches, costing one million dollars apiece. It took over three years of our time to build these eight churches. Before one year had expired he had started fifty other churches in the centers of Saturn's population. These churches averaged in cost three hundred thousand dollars each. Thus the plan continued, ever starting new structures until all Saturn was decorated with the churches of Trique, even village edifices costing from ten to twenty-five thousand dollars. So much for the mere outward part of the church which anybody might create if he had recourse to such enormous wealth.

Before Trique commenced any one of his buildings, he canva.s.sed the whole community for charter members of his church. These were composed of two cla.s.ses, spiritual and connected. This canva.s.sing was done by the finest scholars that Trique could employ. Each one was supposed to be the pastor of the community he canva.s.sed. The conditions of the charter members.h.i.+p were easy to meet. All that was required for connected members.h.i.+p was a good moral life and a lip confession of the faith.

On account of the superior advantages offered by the Trique church it grew steadily from the beginning. I will here append a few characteristics of the organization: