"WE CAME TO A METAL BOAT."
"Am I destined to deal with these problems?"
"Only in part."
"Are still greater wonders before us?"
"If your courage is sufficient to carry you onward, you have yet to enter the portal of the expanse we approach."
"Lead on, my friend," I cried; "lead on to these undescribed scenes, the occult wonderland that"—
He interrupted me almost rudely, and in a serious manner said:
"Have you not learned that wonder is an exemplification of ignorance? The child wonders at a goblin story, the savage at a trinket, the man of science at an unexplained manifestation of a previously unperceived natural law; each wonders in ignorance, because of ignorance. Accept now that all you have seen from the day of your birth on the surface of the earth, to the present, and all that you will meet here are wonderful only because the finite mind of man is confused with fragments of evidence, that, from whatever direction we meet them, spring from an unreachable infinity. We will continue our journey."
Proceeding farther along the edge of the lake we came to a metallic boat. This my guide picked up as easily as though it were of paper, for be it remembered that gravitation had slackened its hold here. Placing it upon the water, he stepped into it, and as directed I seated myself near the stern, my face to the bow, my back to the shore. The guide, directly in front of me, gently and very slowly moved a small lever that rested on a projection before him, and I gazed intently upon him as we sat together in silence. At last I became impatient, and asked him if we would not soon begin our journey.
"We have been on our way since we have been seated," he answered.