History of a World of Immortals without a God / Translated from an unpublished manuscript in the library of a continental university

by Unknown

The reader will easily understand the joy which the safe return of the three engineers occasioned in the camp, and the intense interest with which their story of the marvels visible beyond the cloud was listened to. Their report was hastily committed to writing, sent down by the tramways, and circulated through the world with all speed. Operations were instantly resumed at the gallery, which had still to be driven through the cloud stratum. It was resolved to continue it right up to the top of the mountain, for the report of the engineers rendered it quite plain that an extensive observatory must be established there, and that a corps of the ablest mathematicians and best trained physical observers must take up their permanent abode in it, in order to investigate the nature and meaning of the myriad smaller lights and the great fiery disk.

Meanwhile, daring the progress of the works, many of the artificers who were in the prime of life, repeated the ascent which had been so successfully accomplished by the three pioneers; with the guidance of the clue, this was now a comparatively easy undertaking. Before the lapse of three years the first Hesperian observatory had been actually built, and a body of twenty-five of the ablest scientific men entered upon the study of practical and theoretical astronomy in that elevated abode. As a protection against the violence of the unscreened solar rays, a cavern was excavated in which the observers could pass the daytime at their calculations, and, issuing forth at nightfall, they laboriously watched the stars.

The speed with which these men found out the clue to the explanation of the complicated phenomena before them, would be quite incredible to anyone who did not bear in mind the remarkable conditions under which they worked. This was no case of a gang of stolid country bumpkins contemplating for the first time the starry heavens. Every one of the observers was an expert geometer, was perfectly familiar with all kinds of algebraical calculation, and had been trained for centuries in every type of physical observation and experiment. Before the discovery of the heavenly world telescopes had been invented; but, being adapted for use on the surface of the planet only, they were all of small size. The vast field for observation now disclosed, created a demand for a much more powerful class of instruments, and the stimulus thus given to opticians soon showed its effect in most important improvements in the manufacture of glass. Before many years were over, high class astronomical instruments were attainable, including those by which angles can be measured to an extraordinary degree of minuteness.

Thus the great rapidity with which this able band of observers succeeded in reducing the chaos of the fields of heaven to an orderly cosmos may be explained. I need not attempt to recount the successive steps in their marvellous progress. A very few days after they began their systematic labour, one of them suggested the real rotation of the planet on her axis as the cause of the apparent diurnal movement of the celestial sphere. This conjecture was speedily verified by pendulum experiments at the pole. Then followed the discoveries of the distinction between stars and planets and satellites; the distances and magnitudes of the planets; the position of their own world among them, and the dependence of the whole solar system on the sun. In short, by the close of the ninth millenary period, the Hesperian astronomy was a long way in advance of anything even now known on earth.

In the ancient history of Hesperos this discovery of the external world forms by far the most important epoch, and, for several centuries, the study of astronomy seems to have absorbed a great part of the energies of the inhabitants. Two other places were found on the mountain chains of the north, where, by going through the same kind of works as those detailed above—some of them involving even greater difficulties in their execution—peaks which rose above the cloud were reached, and observatories built upon them. It thus became possible to compare observations taken at different parts of the surface, and astronomical discoveries proceeded with still greater rapidity.

CHAPTER IX.

Of the development of World-Weariness in Hesperos; and of the second attempt to cross the Equatorial Tornado—How the Forlorn Hope succeeded, and discovered a City of the Dead—How the terrible mystery of Evanescence was explained; and how the crew set out on their return.

But, notwithstanding the signal success which had attended their labours, there can be no doubt that during the next thousand years a general feeling of gloom and despondence gradually settled down over the Hesperian race. That the brilliant discoveries of the astronomers had failed to throw the faintest glimmer of light on the question of questions—Who was their Maker?—was a fact which could not be disguised. An answer to this was as far off as ever—further off, indeed. They had learned the enormous extent of the universe, and, as a consequence, that the Hesperians, so far from exhausting its contents, were no more than insignificant specks in its unfathomed deeps. In the vast profusion of worlds they felt themselves lost. If their Maker had charge of that vast universe, he might well have forgotten them altogether. Why, then, should they not depart from life? The door of exit was always open. A fall down the nearest precipice was always easy, and the instantaneous dissolution of the body was an unfailing remedy for every ill.

This feeling of discontent with life, or general world-weariness, reached a climax in the concluding years of this period; and its existence in the mind of a small band of practical engineers was certainly the main cause which led to the terrible discovery that placed an indelible line of distinction between the ancient and modern Hesperian histories.

Although the northern hemisphere only was accessible for exploration, it was by this time perfectly well known that the planet is a sphere. Hence they considered it not at all improbable that, to the calms of the north, a similar condition in the south might correspond; and that the chronic hurricane which had hitherto barred the passage to the southern ocean might prove to be confined to a zone not exceeding a few hundred miles in width. Should this be the case, it might perhaps be passed, and a southern continent discovered. This would greatly develop astronomical science; nothing less than a hemisphere of unseen stars might be brought into vision. Moreover, a transit of Mercury across the face of the sun would take place in a few years; and, in order to utilise this, a place of observation in the southern hemisphere was essential.