"It was doubtless for this reason that nature mercifully deals but seldom in transparent solids, allowing the eye only to penetrate matter in its liquid or gaseous forms. But you must not for a moment suppose that there is anything more miraculous in a vision which is constructed in such a way that it can reverse the process, one form being as easily developed as the other. Moreover, what we call solid, is only the term for describing matter which in its present condition resists the pressure of other material bodies to a certain extent. For as we know, heat, electricity, sound, etc., can pass even through steel.
"Now, if you will come this way, I will show you an instrument which was perfected by me some years ago, but which I no longer require to use; it may possibly explain my meaning more fully.
"Here," said Sydney, pointing to a small instrument which looked like a very delicate binocular telescope, "is an invention of lenses which neutralizes the effect of the greater part of the services of the eye on the brain. It is very imperfect, but it will do as an example. I will focus it at twenty yards from here, and turn it in this direction. Now what can you see?"
I looked through, and saw a servant in the dining-room removing some of the things off the table.
"That is a wonderful invention," I said. "Why have you never made it known?"
"Can you ask?" he replied. "Just fancy what misery such power would cause in our present condition; what temptation it would be to evil; what an aid it might give to cruelty. But I do not fancy it will ever be required, for as soon as a man is fit to use the power, he will not require the aid of any instrument. The powers of vision are slowly changing from generation to generation, in the direction here indicated. It is the same with regard to hearing. Ask any man who is acquainted with the roar of London, if it strikes with the sense of confusing sound. No, he is capable quite unconsciously of listening to a whisper, or some soft strain of music, and being quite oblivious to the uproar going on around. If we for one moment were able to hear, as people fancy they do, all sounds in proportion to their magnitude, we should that instant be struck deaf by the thunder of universal movement, the tumult of unceasing vibration. But we hear only just as much as our natures are fitted to make use of. With the aid of the sixth sense, we hear just as much or just as little as we will."
He led me to another instrument. "Put your ear to that," he said. "It is not a telephone, but it answers the purpose far better. Now concentrate your thought on some distant sound you would like to hear."
I thought of my own hall clock, which has a peculiar, solemn, old-fashioned tick. I could hear it distinctly, and even now there came the familiar rattling sound, then slowly it chimed a quarter past eleven.
"Try again," my companion said.
I thought of my cottage by the sea, and wished to hear the waves on the beach as I hear them from my bedroom window. I listened, but could distinguish nothing.