Spook. “Is yesterday still here or not? Is to-morrow here yet?”
Moïse. “We think that to-morrow is not here yet. We don’t quite understand.”
Spook. “It is difficult. Is last year here now?”
Moïse. “No, it is not. We are in 1918 now.”
Spook. “Is next year here now?”
Moïse. “No, we think it is not here.”
Spook. “Quite so. You think the past is one thing, and the future is another, and the present a third. Is it not so?”
Moïse. “I will say there are three things altogether.”
Spook. “I will try and show that you are wrong—that both the future and the past exist together now. But it is hard to explain because all human languages are deficient in the words I require. For instance, the phrase ‘in tune’ does not express exactly what I mean by it, nor does the French phrase ‘en rapport,’ nor the Greek ‘συμπά θεια’; nor any phrase in any human language. Well, you know sound can be trapped, for you have a clumsy method of doing it. Do you understand?“
Moïse. “The phonograph method?”