Madame, you are silent. Does the quiet of this solitary spot oppress you?
Medium—Friends, I feel absolutely dazed. I had thought to find everything on Ento altogether unlike anything on Earth, yet here is water and there are tufts of star-shaped white and pink flowers very like some I have seen on Earth. Then see those pretty purple flowers, so closely resembling violets, and on that elevation and up the mountain's side are shrubs, trees and vegetation so very similar to growth on our own Planet that you will pardon me for saying that not only am I surprised, but in a sense am disappointed. No, George, I did not imagine that I should find either people or trees growing upside down, but I did imagine that surely there must exist more striking dissimilarities between the life expressions of this Planet and our own. Such speculations relating to it as I have become aware of have led me to expect something very different from what thus far I have observed on Ento.
Von Humboldt—Madame, with your and our Counsellor and guide's permission, I shall say that since I have been not of Earth, I have journeyed far and have looked closely into nature as expressed on many habitable Planets, and I have learned that everywhere Infinite, Intelligent Energy is manifested in strikingly similar ways. You have been told that the homogeneity of matter is universal. That the qualities of metals of all Planets are exactly the same and that the constituents of water never anywhere vary, neither do the crystallized forms of either ever vary. So it should not surprise you to find here water quite as palatable as the sparkling beverage of our Earth-world.
Of course their relative positions to, and their distances from central Suns, occasion differences in the bodies of Planets, particularly as to their density; then, too, in accordance with conditions, atmospheres vary as to being rarefied or dense, humid or dry and so on, but life germs of fauna and flora ever are the same, and given like or similar Planetary conditions their expressions will present more or less close resemblances. Yes, environments occasion differences, but environments are the results of Planetary conditions. But that is too comprehensive a question for present consideration. At another time we may recur to it.
The physical and atmospheric conditions of Ento and Earth being so much alike, naturally their Fauna and Flora must present mutual likenesses. As for chemical affinities and their unvarying expressions, they are universal.
As has been said to you the universe is indeed a unit. Everywhere Infinite, Intelligent Energy seeks to express itself not only in harmony and beauty, but along the same lines, and ever toward a state of perfection, beyond the highest conception of Spirit or mortal, for who can conceive an idea of that which is known by many names, but whom you name God? From my own observation and through association with spirits of advanced spheres whose mission, like my own, is Planetary research, I can say with assurance that among the life expressions of all sufficiently evolved Planets there is what may be termed a universal homogeneity, for while there are dissimilarities there are equally close resemblances which may be expressed as unity in variety.
As to man on Ento, Earth and other Planets, we find our brethren so like ourselves that, logically, we all must claim the same origin. Yes, madame, I do assure you that in limitless space there are myriads of worlds, varying as to bulk, density, and atmospheric conditions, but in other respects so like Ento and Earth as to present fauna and flora very similar to those of either Planet. They are peopled by humans like ourselves, in various stages of evolvement, and all, like the peoples of Ento and Earth, are engaged in the endeavor to solve the problem of eternal progress. Between those on the lowest and those on the loftiest heights of progress on different Planets, the intermediate stages represent man in all degrees of evolvement. On some Planets I have visited, man,—the human animal, slowly, through ages,—has pursued his certain way, toward the period in which he is destined to become a Spiritualized being, and now the hairy, unshapely limbed creature who scarcely walks erect, with face full enough of the mystery of existence to startle one, approaches nearly the line of demarcation between the human animal and the Spirit man.
On other Planets, compared with man on either Ento, or Earth, the spiritualized human is as a god.
If what I have said may suffice as replies to your questions and remarks, or may in some measure reconcile you to the close resemblances between features of Ento and Earth, I shall account myself more than fortunate.
De L'Ester—Thanks, Von Humboldt, for your timely remarks, which we hope may lessen madame's regret at finding Ento so like our own beloved Planet, and its human denizens so like ourselves,—with but one head, two arms, and as many legs. Madame, I but jest that I may bring a smile to your perplexed face. Since I have accomplished that I feel that I may hope for pardon.