CHAPTER
XXXV.
A CERTAIN POINT WITHIN A SPHERE."- MEN ARE AS PARASITES ON THE ROOF OF
EARTH.
I realized again, as I had so many times before, that it was useless for me to
rebel. " The self-imposed mystery of a sacrificed life lies before
me," I murmured, " and there is no chance to retrace my footsteps. The
'Beyond' of the course that I have voluntarily selected, and sworn to follow, is
hidden; I must nerve myself to pursue it to the bitter end, and so help me God,
and keep me steadfast."
" Well said," he replied; " and since you have so wisely
determined, I am free to inform you that these new obligations, like those you
have heretofore taken, contain nothing which can conflict with your duty to God,
your country, your neighbor, or yourself. In considering the phenomena presented
by the suspension of the act of breathing, it should occur to you that where
little labor is to be performed, little consumption of energy is required. Where
there is such a trifling destruction of the vital force ( not mind force ) as at
present is the case with us, it requires but slight respiration to retain the
normal condition of the body. On earth's surface the act of respiration alone
consumes by far the larger proportion of vital energy, and the muscular exertion
involved thereby necessitates a proportionate amount of breathing in order that
breath itself may continue. This act of respiration is the result of one of the
conditions of surface earth life, and consumes most of the vital force. If men
would think of this, they would understand how paradoxical it is for them to
breathe in order to live, when the very act of respiration wears away their
bodies and shortens their lives more than all else they have to do, and without
adding to their mental or physical constitution in the least. Men are conversant
with physical death as a constant result of suspended respiration, and with
respiration as an accompaniment of life, which ever constant and connected
conditions lead them to accept that the act of breathing is a necessity of
mortal life. In reality, man occupies an unfortunate position among other
undeveloped creatures of external earth; he is an animal, and is
constitutionally framed like the other animals about him. He is exposed to the
warring elements, to the vicious attacks of savage beasts and insidious
parasites, and to the inroads of disease. He is a prey to the elementary
vicissitudes of the undesirable exposure in which he exists upon the outer
surface of our globe, where all is war, even among the forces of nature about
him. These conditions render his lot an unhappy one indeed, and in ignorance he
overlooks the torments of the weary, rasping, endless slavery of respiration in
the personal struggle he has to undergo in order to retain a brief existence as
an organized being. Have you never thought of the connected tribulations that
the wear and tear of respiration alone inflict upon the human family? The
heaving of the chest, the circulation of the blood, the throbbing of the heart,
continue from mortal birth until death. The heart of man forces about two and
one-half ounces of blood with each pulsation. At seventy beats per minute this
amounts to six hundred and fifty - six pounds per hour, or nearly eight tons per
day. The lungs respire over one thousand times an hour, and move over three
thousand gallons of air a day. Multiply these amounts by three hundred and
sixty-five, and then by seventy, and you have partly computed the enormous
life-work of the lungs and heart of an adult. Over two hundred thousand tons of
blood, and seventy-five million gallons of air have been moved by the vital
force. The energy thus consumed is dissipated. No return is made for the
expenditure of this life force. During the natural life of man, more energy is
consequently wasted in material transformation resulting from the motion of
heart and lungs, than would be necessary to sustain the purely vital forces
alone for a thousand years. Besides, the act of respiration which man is
compelled to perform in his exposed position, necessitates the consumption of
large amounts of food, in order to preserve the animal heat, and replace the
waste of a material body that in turn is worn out by these very movements. Add
this waste of energy to the foregoing, and then you will surely perceive that
the possible life of man is also curtailed to another and greater degree in the
support of the digestive part of his organism. His spirit is a slave to his
body; his lungs and heart, on which he imagines life depends, are unceasing
antagonists of life. That his act of breathing is now a necessity upon the
surface of the earth, where the force of gravity presses so heavily, and where
the elements have men at their command, and show him no mercy, I will not deny;
but it is exasperating to contemplate such a waste of energy, and corresponding
loss of human life."
" You must admit, however, that it is necessary?" I queried.
" No; only to an extent. The natural life of man should, and yet will be,
doubled, trebled, multiplied a dozen, yes a thousand fold."
I stepped in front of him; we stood facing each other.
" Tell me," I cried, " how men can so improve their condition as
to lengthen their days to the limit you name, and let me return to surface earth
a carrier of the glad tidings."
He shook his head.
I dropped on my knees before him.
" I implore you in behalf of that unfortunate humanity, of which I am a
member, give me this boon. I promise to return to you and do your bidding.
Whatever may be my subsequent fate, I promise to acquiesce therein
willingly."
He raised me to my feet.
" Be of good cheer," he said, " and in the proper time you may
return to the surface of this rind of earth, a carrier of great and good news to
men."
" Shall I teach them of what you have shown me ?" I asked.
" Yes; in part you will be a forerunner, but before you obtain the
information that is necessary to the comfort of mankind you will have to visit
surface earth again, and return again, perhaps repeatedly. You must prove
yourself as men are seldom proven. The journey you have commenced is far from
its conclusion, and you may not be equal to its subsequent trials; prepare
yourself, therefore, for a series of events that may unnerve you. If you had
full confidence and faith in your guide, you would have less cause to fear the
result, but your suspicious human nature can not overcome the shrinking
sensation that is natural to those who have been educated as you have been amid
the changing vicissitudes of the earth's surface, and you can not but be
incredulous by reason of that education."
Then I stopped as I observed before me a peculiar fungus- peculiar because [ it
was ]unlike all others I had seen. The convex part of its bowl was below, and
the great head, as an inverted toadstool, stood upright on a short, stem-like
pedestal. The gills within were of a deep green color, and curved out from the
center in the form of a spiral. This form, however, was not the distinguishing
feature, for I had before observed specimens that were spiral in structure. The
extraordinary peculiarity was that the gills were covered with fruit. This fruit
was likewise green in color, each spore, or berry, being from two to three
inches in diameter, and honeycombed on the surface, corrugated most beautifully.
I stopped, leaned over the edge of the great bowl, and plucked a specimen of the
fruit. It seemed to be covered with a hard, transparent shell, and to be nearly
full of a clear, green liquid. I handled and examined it in curiosity, at which
my guide seemed not to be surprised. Regarding me attentively, he said:
" What is it that impels a mortal towards this fruit?"
" It is curious," I said; "
nothing more."
" As for that," said he, " it is not curious at all; the seed of
the lobelia of upper earth is more curious, because, while it is as exquisitely
corrugated, it is also microscopically small. In the second place you err when
you say it is simply curious, ' nothing more,' for no mortal ever yet passed
that bowl without doing exactly as you have done. The vein of curiosity, were it
that alone that impels you, could not but have an exception."
Then he cracked the shell of the fruit by striking it on the stony floor, and
carefully opened the shell, handing me one of the halves filled with a green
fluid. As he did so he spoke the
single word, " Drink," and I did as directed. He stood upright before
me, and as I looked him in the face he seemingly, without a reason, struck off
into a dissertation, apparently as distinct from our line of thought as a
disconnected subject could be, as follows: