[At this point the memoranda assume a very fragmentary form. This I have observed to be always the case when the doctor was actually engaged in travelling. When stationed for a time in some fixed locality he wrote out his observations pretty fully; but whenever he was moving about, mere hints are available for the guidance of the editor. His journey was evidently very long and arduous, and it certainly occupied several months. In its course many obstacles were plainly put in his way by the natives of the different territories which he had to traverse; and the annoyance thence arising greatly ruffled his temper, and seems to have increased to an almost incredible extent his abhorrence of the human race.
At last his indomitable energy and perseverance were successful. He reached the mysterious Thibetian region; and, having exhibited the old Parsee’s letter, he was permitted by the Brotherhood to pass to the residence of their chief. Koot Homi received the doctor in a very friendly manner, and even declined to inspect his letter of introduction, assuring him that the chief of the occult Brotherhood had no need to do so. Van Varken seems to have resided with the chief for about five months, and was evidently admitted to great intimacy with the whole of the Brotherhood.
One reason for this was clearly the very great interest taken by Homi in the ‘Voyages of Gulliver,’ a copy of which was presented to him by the doctor. In particular, the accounts of the philosophers in Lagado, and of the rational animals in the outward shape of horses, encountered on his fourth expedition, were listened to by the sage with eager attention. The chief does not seem to have even in the slightest degree doubted the veracity of Gulliver; but he certainly expressed the most intense contempt for the Lagado professors, laying much stress on the profundity of their stupidity in not having amended the deplorable condition of the Struldbrugs in Luggnagg, of whose existence the professors were, doubtless, aware. ‘Even when immortal life was given them to work upon, they were incompetent to ward off the effects of senile decay! Why, the merest tiro in our schools would be ashamed to allow the poor old Struldbrug to get into such a state,’ said he, with scornful indignation.
But, though he showed much sympathy with Dr. Van Varken’s longing to be transmuted out of the species he so much abhorred, Mr. Homi did not hold out any hopes of success in so laudable an endeavour. ‘No,’ said he, ‘many years of arduous preparation, to say nothing of rare natural gifts, are indispensable qualifications for such transformation; few even of the adepts are capable of it. But the power of instantaneous passage from one terrestrial point to another is far more easily arrived at.’
And it appears that, after a few months’ probation, the secret of this process was actually communicated to the doctor; but under such rigid obligations to silence that no traces of its nature are to be found committed to writing. All that can be ascertained about it is this—that an instantaneous disintegration, and equally rapid reintegration of the ultimate molecules of the bodies to be moved is effected; that the transit is accomplished through the medium of the undulations of the ethereal vehicle which pervades all space; and that the rate of transmission is identical with that of the transmission of light, namely, about 186,000 miles in a second. Once more the notes become continuous.]
I was greatly pleased at gaining this new and wonderful faculty of moving myself; but, after making a few successful essays, it seemed to me that, after all, I should not be much the better for its possession. Yahoos being everywhere spread over the face of the earth, wherever I moved I should still assuredly And them; and perhaps this was the reason why, as I was walking by myself one evening and chanced to see the planet Venus, or Hesperos, shining in the sky, the thought came into my mind that, inasmuch as the ether fills all the space between the planets, it might be just possible that the power of movement by disintegration of molecules, which, as yet, had only been essayed between places on the earth’s surface, might extend as far as the planets themselves.
The moon, being far the nearest of the heavenly bodies, would naturally seem to afford the most promising opportunity for trying the experiment; but, having learned in Thibet that she is quite destitute of air, I resolved to try some other region; for I thought it would be quite useless to arrive there, and straightway perish for want of breath. If I could only get as far as Hesperos my chances of life would be much better, inasmuch as I was assured, by the same philosophers, that there is good reason for believing that planet to be very abundantly supplied with air. Moreover, it fortunately happened that she was just then approaching the position called by astronomers her inferior conjunction, so her distance from the earth was not much over twenty-five millions of miles.
The main risk I should run in attempting to make this passage would evidently be the possibility, perhaps I should say the probability, of extinction of the vital force during the period of disintegration, which I estimated at a little more than two minutes. It was known to the Thibetian Brotherhood that the disintegrated particles moved with exactly the same speed as light; and as light requires about eight minutes to traverse the distance between the sun and the earth, two would nearly suffice to move it as far as Hesperos in her lower conjunction. Whether after such an interval of suspension the vital force would maintain sufficient energy to accomplish the reintegration on which continuance of bodily life depends, an actual experiment alone could show. But I cared but little for the risk. Life had long become hateful to me; a chance was now given to escape the society of the Yahoos, and all their abominations. I resolved to try my luck—at the worst I should only perish.
I made no communication of my intention to the chief, lest perchance he should raise some objection to my intended enterprise; and, on the very next night, at ten o’clock, I went out, taking with me, in various pockets of the eastern dress which, for convenience in Asiatic travel, I had adopted in Bombay, sundry small articles for the toilet, also my silver watch, and an ingenious instrument for measuring quantities of heat, which had been sent me as a gift just before I left home, by my good friend, Mr. Gabriel Fahrenheit, of Amsterdam, who had lately invented it. I sat down on a rock by the side of the mountain; Hesperos was distinctly visible, though only a thin crescent of her illuminated face was turned towards the earth. Carefully noting the time, which was exactly thirty-seven minutes past ten, and having also marked the temperature, which was fifty-seven degrees of my thermometer, as the instrument is called, I accomplished the disintegration, indicating Hesperos as the goal.